Cheetah fear keeps farmers on tenterhooks

It is said that farmer Dharmalingam (53) spotted a wild cat on his way to his field in the wee hours of Wednesday and screamed in fear. As fellow farmers rushed to the spot, the animal allegedly fled to a nearby bushy area sensing the human movement. However, they could not locate the animal.

Later, they passed on the information to the District Forest Officer N Sathish who in turn sent a team led by forester Palanisamy. The team made an intensive search, but couldn’t trace the cheetah. “The four-member team will stay in the spot and would search for the animal for two more days. A CCTV camera would also be installed to trace the animal,” Sathish told DTNext. 

After inspecting the footprint of the animal shown by the farmers, he said they would carry out entire search process to alleviate farmers’ fear though the possibility cheetah’s intrusion into the village was very minimal.