Two leopards allegedly poisoned, found dead near Bandipur
FollowTwo leopards, including one rare black variant, were found dead in the Omkar forest range of Nanjangud Taluk near Bandipur last night. They were found in the farm of Shivananjappa, a resident of Hanchipur village. The forest officers infer that they have been poisoned by locals, because a half-eaten corpse of a dog was found nearby.
“We found two sick leopards in the field. They had eaten a poisoned corpse of a dog. The male leopard was dead by the time we reached. The female died while we were taking it for treatment” said Poovaiah, a forest officer.
The officer said that some mischief mongers must have done this and the department will take necessary action against them after the investigation. The officers said that the leopards are around two years old.
The forest officers brought Rana, a trained dog to investigate. The dog swarmed across the village and brought an empty pesticide bottle from Kumar’s (a resident of the village) house. Anticipating the consequences, the villagers came in support of Kumar and raged against the forest officers
“You come immediately if any wild animal dies. But when they attack farmers and their livestock, you show sheer negligence,” the villagers are reported to have said.
The officers conceded that the villagers were not responsible for the deaths and have now arranged to send the corpses of the leopards for post-mortem to the forensic laboratory.
A few days ago leopards were seen near Kottanahalli village, and three days ago leopards had entered Hanchipur village and killed three sheep. After repeated requests from the villagers, the forest department had kept a cage to trap them. However, the leopards did not get trapped in the cage.
