Efforts continue to trap straying leopard in Bengaluru city

Bengaluru

In a similar incident forest officials tranquilised and trapped another leopard which had intruded into an international school in the same area, injuring six persons including forest and police personnel on Sunday.

Forest Department officials set up a second cage with a bait in it in the area where the woman saw the big cat. The other school was placed near near Vibgyor School where the first leopard was trapped.

The Block Education Officer of the area S M Ramesh said about 132 schools including 79 private schools in the area had been ordered closed for the day today, while police and forest officials have cautioned people in the vicinity not to venture out of their home during the night. The schools comes under four clusters of Marathahalli, Varthur, Immadihalli and Doddakannelli, on the outskirts of the city.

Lalithamma, a contract labourer, said that she saw the leopard behind Divyashree Tech Park when she was returning home from work on Tuesday night. The bug cat was seen killing a stray dog and holding it in its mouth.

The area is very close to the IT hub of Whitefield and close to the sprawling facilities of multinational IT giants Wipro and Accenture besides large apartment complexes.

Range Forest Officer Veeranna said that after locals confirmed sighting a leopard at Nallurahalli, forest officials have been stationed in the area. They conducted round the clock scanning of the area but so far it was not spotted.

Two cages have been kept. Search operation will continue, he said.

Forest officials said it was too early to confirm whether one or two leopards were roaming the area. Officials said they saw fresh pug marks which confirmed the leopard's presence.