A leopard that wandered into a school complex and a residence near Tirupattur was caught after hours of struggle. There is a private girls’ high school named Mary Immaculate near Tirupattur Collectorate. Yesterday (June 14) school was going on as usual. The leopard suddenly entered the school premises around 4 pm and attacked Gopal (52), an employee who was painting in the school. In this, he sustained an injury on the left side of his head. He was immediately taken to the hospital.
After getting the information, the school gate was closed and the students were sent home safely. By then the leopard had crossed the perimeter wall adjacent to the school and entered the nearby residential area.
The car there was hidden in the shed. At that time, 5 people who were there were shocked to see the leopard and sneaked into the car there. Seeing them inside the car, the leopard also hid under another car near them.
After receiving information about this, the District Collector, Police SP Albert John, District Forest Officer Mahendran and the Forest Department rushed. They planned to rescue the people trapped in the car and capture the leopard. After almost 5 hours, the authorities safely rescued Arogyaswamy, Dinakaran, Imran, Asghar Khan and Venkatesan who were trapped in the car. All five were sent to Tirupattur Government Hospital for first aid treatment.
The work of catching the leopard continued. The forest department called a cage from Hosur to capture the leopard that had encircled the car shed. Continued attempts were made to cage the anesthetic syringe. According to it, the leopard was caught after 11 hours after the forest department administered anesthesia. A team comprising Zonal Forest Conservator and Veterinarian captured the leopard by administering anesthesia.
Foresters from the Tamil Nadu Forest Department successfully translocated a leopard in the early hours of the morning today. The leopard had entered Tirupathur town causing panic.Three teams from the Department with Vets and experts tranquilised the leopard and safely released him in… pic.twitter.com/0rJI4V4pbD
— Supriya Sahu IAS (@supriyasahuias) June 15, 2024
