At last, the Forest department has chalked out a plant o bring respite for village residents from fear of leopard attack.
The residents of Hosur Cross near Suddahalli and Muddenhalli were a worried lot as their cattle heads were killed by leopards. Besides, the Forest department officials have warned them against going into forest areas and also banned grazing the cattle and sheep in these areas. The staff have intensified vigil, allaying the fear of village residents to some extent. They have identified strategic locations to track the movement of these animals in the forest area that is spread on 35,000 acres between Avulabetta in Gudibande taluk to Nadi Hills in Chikkaballapur. According to the Forest department officials, leopards, tigers and wild boards are more in the dense forest areas of Bagepalli and Gudibande taluks. “When they do not find prey in the forests, they stray into villages and attack cattles and sheep,” they said.
Forest officer S Sureshbabu said the wild animals will not return for 10-15 days, once they have hunted an animal in the village. Now, the incidents of wild animal attack have come down and arrangements are made to trap leopards which stray into villages, Sureshbabu said. Netas’ apathy
The residents, however, are angry that none of the elected representatives or officials have bothered to visit the families which lost their livestock to leopard attack. “Several poor farmers in the villages have lost their cattle worth Rs 30,000 to Rs 50,000 to the leopards over the past few days, but none have bothered to visit the villages to redress our grievances,” he said.