Cage set to trap killer leopard in Arakadu

COIMBATORE: As the movement of a leopard believed to have attacked a four-year-old girl to death in an accidental encounter was confirmed through camera traps, The Nilgiris Forest Department on Friday took efforts to capture the prowling carnivore by placing a cage.

On August 10, Saritha, daughter of a migrant couple from Assam had gone to relieve, when the leopard emerged from a bush and pounced on her at a private tea estate in Arakadu near Mynala around noon.

The girl, found in an unconscious state, was rushed to Ooty GH, where doctors declared her to be brought dead. The nearby reserve forest is barely two kilometers from the spot, where the girl came under attack.

Since then four camera traps were fixed and monitored by a team on the directions of Nilgiris District Forest Officer (DFO) Bhosale Sachin Tukaram. As intrusion of the leopard was confirmed through camera traps, the Forest Department has taken steps by placing a cage to capture the carnivore.

In Coimbatore, search operations continued for the fourth consecutive day on Friday to locate and treat a sick elephant on the interstate border of Tamil Nadu and Kerala.

Meanwhile, a wild tusker was found dead in a slush pool in a farm owned by Marappan near forest area in TN Palayam forest range in Sathyamangalam Tiger Reserve (STR) on Thursday evening. Following a post-mortem on Friday, officials suspect the animal to have died of an infection.