Leopard spotted in Manipal; fear

Team Udayavani, Feb 28, 2019, 6:19 AM IST

Manipal: A leopard has been seen in front of the house of retired headmaster B G Mohandas near KMC quarters in Vidya Ratna Nagar in Manipal. The CCTV cameras installed at the house have captured a video depicting a leopard attempting to enter the gate.

On February 26th around 7:50 pm in the evening, the dogs at the house of Mohandas started barking loudly. When Mohandas came out to find out the reason he saw the leopard. When he shouted, the leopard bolted off.

Attempt to catch the dogs

There is a possibility that the leopard was attempting to enter the gate with the aim to catch the dog within the compound. But, since there were two dogs and as Mohandas had shouted loudly, the scared cat made good its escape.

This has happened earlier too

On April 8th 2014, a leopard had entered the premises of KMC quarters here and caused much terror. After a long operation, the leopard was finally caught on April 9th. Now, again a leopard has been witnessed in the same area and has become reason for fear.

Dog, cow attacked

There is information that in the span of a month, a leopard had attacked a dog and a cow. Because of the presence of the leopard the people are terrified.

No anesthesiologist in the district

There is no anesthesiologist in the forest department within Udupi district limits for the capture of wild animals during its incursion into human habitats by using anesthetics. The experts need to be brought from Pilikula or Shimoga. Because of this it is not possible to start a quick operation and hence the public and the staff have to suffer. In the state itself, there are very few anesthesiologists. The government must take notice and appoint anesthesiologist for every district. Recently, a leopard which was caught in a trap during a forest department operation at Pernanki, died due to lack of anesthetics.

“There is an environment of fear because of the presence of the leopard. There is information regarding the presence of a leopard since a month. Forest department must take action,” said B G Mohandas, Manipal

“There is information that a leopard has been seen in Manipal and three traps have been set a various locations. The staff also has been notified and action is being taken,” informed Clifford Lobo, RFO, Udupi