Fifth leopard captured on Tirumala temple walkway

Tirupati, Sep 7:  Forest personnel on Thursday captured another leopard on a pedestrian walkway from the Alipiri footpath route to the Tirumala temple.

The big cat was trapped in a cage early Thursday near Seven Miles.

With this the number of leopards caught in the last two months has gone up to five.

According to Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam (TTD) officials, the leopard was seen on CCTV camera near Narasimha Swamy Temple along the walkway and a cage was set up to capture it.

The forest officials later shifted the wild cat to SV Zoo Tirupati.

On August 11, a six-year-old girl Lakshitha (6) was attacked by a leopard while she was walking to Tirumala along the Alipiri footpath.

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

Following the incident, the TTD, which manages the affairs of the hill shrine, along with the forest department stepped up the vigil.

The temple body imposed certain curbs on the movement of devotees trekking to the temple in view of the presence of an estimated 5-10 leopards in the immediate vicinity of the Tirumala-Tirupati forests.

The forest department has set up cages to catch the wild cats and launched ‘Operation Chirutha’.

A female leopard, aged about 4-5 years,l was trapped in the cage on August 14. The big cat was also shifted to the SV Zoo Park.

Three days later, another leopard was caught. It was a male aged about five years.

A third leopard was captured on August 28 near Seven Miles.

On June 25, the forest department had trapped a leopard three days after a three-year-old boy was attacked.

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