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Leopard strays into Hyderabad, takes refuge in farmhouse
Forest officials deployed drone and trap cameras to spot the leopard’s location.
Officials of the Telangana forest department are making efforts to capture a leopard which suddenly appeared on the main road on the outskirts of Hyderabad and then entered a nearby farmhouse after attacking a man standing on the roadside on Thursday morning.
Locals noticed the big cat at around 6 am lying alongside a road divider at Mylardevpalli near Katedan industrial area on the inner ring road that connects the Hyderabad-Bengaluru national highway.
According to a local resident, the leopard appeared frightened and was not moving, even as vehicles were passing by. “For about two hours, it was lying there. The police authorities arrived there to stop vehicular movement on either side. But as the crowds started swelling in the area and taking pictures on their mobiles, it got panicky and suddenly got up. It ran towards one side of the road and jumped into a farmhouse nearby,” he said.
While running away from the crowd, the leopard attacked a person, identified as Subhan, a truck driver from East Godavari district in Andhra Pradesh, who was standing on the roadside.
“He managed to escape with minor injuries and he was sent to hospital,” Mylardevpalli police inspector K Sathaiah Goud told Hindustan Times.
Forest officials from Nehru Zoological Park, which is close by, arrived there with a cage and were making efforts to tranquillise the animal. “There are a large number of trees in the compound of the farmhouse. The forest officials are trying to locate it,” the inspector said.
The forest officials deployed drone and trap cameras to spot the leopard’s location. They suspect that the animal might have suffered an injury. “It appears to be a two to three years old cub. We hope it will remain in the present location that is safe. We are trying to ensure that it does not come out to residential colonies,” Goud said.
The area is connected to forest area in Narsingi and the sprawling agriculture university campus besides the ICRISAT campus. Officials believe that the big cat strayed from the forest cover.
