Male leopard captured in STR

Erode: Forest officials captured a male leopard at Thalavadi in Sathyamangalam tiger reserve (STR) in the district on Thursday.
Field director of STR Devendrakumar Meena told reporters that the 4-year-old male leopard was hiding in a pit of a closed stone quarry at Hosur near Thalavadi. It had killed cattle and goats in the region.
“We have been monitoring the movement of the leopard using CCTV cameras,” he said. He said the leopard finally got trapped in the cage placed by the forest officials on Thursday.
However, the leopard managed to escape when the forest department personnel tried to shift it from one cage to the other.
“But we have managed to capture the leopard again by tranquilizing it. It was tranquilized after getting necessary permission from the officials,” he added. The forest personnel finally released the leopard at the Bhavanisagar forest range after checking the health condition of the animal.