Another leopard trapped on trekking route to Tirumala temple

Tirupati, Aug 17:  Another leopard was on Thursday trapped in a cage set up by the Andhra Pradesh forest department on the Alipiri trekking route to the Tirumala temple.

The leopard was caught near the Lakshmi Narasimha Swamy temple -- the same place where a big cat had mauled Lakshitha, a six-year-old minor girl, to death on August 11.

According to Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam (TTD) officials, the leopard caught on Thursday morning is a male aged about five years.

The animal has been shifted to Tirupati SV Zoo Park.

This is the second leopard to be caught in a week after another big cat was trapped in the cage on Monday.

The female leopard, aged about 4-5 years, was also shifted to the SV Zoo Park.

On the evening of August 11, Lakshitha was attacked by the leopard while she was walking to Tirumala along the Alipiri trekking route.

She was walking way ahead of her parents.

Her parents searched for her in vain and alerted the TTD officials.

Her body was found behind Narasimha Swamy temple the next morning.

This was the second incident on the same route in two months.

A three-year-old boy who was trekking to Tirumala along with his parents, was attacked and injured by a leopard on the night of June 22 near the 7th mile.

The animal had tried to drag the boy into the forest but it was chased by pilgrims and security personnel.

Three days later, the leopard was trapped in a cage by the forest department near the same spot.

After the August 11 incident, the temple body has beefed up security along with forest and police departments at all the vulnerable points along the footpath route to the temple.

The forest department along with trained personnel had kept five cages ready along with tranquilisers.

The incident had triggered panic among devotees trekking to the famous hill shrine.

The TTD had imposed certain restrictions on the movement of devotees to prevent any untoward incident.

The temple body had announced various safety measures in view of the presence of an estimated 5-10 leopards in the immediate vicinity of Tirumala-Tirupati forests.