Leopard bites off forest staffer's 4 fingers

A leopard bit off four fingers of a Forest Department staffer’s right hand when he tried to close the window of a schoolroom the beast was trapped in.

The leopard had sneaked into the Town Mahila Samaja School located in the heart of Chikkamagaluru on Thursday and holed up in a Xerox room for almost five hours, panicking people. Before entering the school compound, the leopard had attacked a pedestrian.

The big cat is said to have made its way through Kadur club near the school. It jumped from a tree on the road and into the school premises at 12.38 pm. Children playing in the school ground raised an alarm, prompting the animal to dart towards the Xerox room located close to the school entrance.

The school staff quickly closed the door of the room from outside and alerted the forest department. When Ganesh, a Forest Department driver, tried to close the window, the leopard quickly clutched his hand in its jaws and bit off his four fingers.

Forest officials took nearly five hours to trap the leopard in a cage. The animal was later released into the Bhadra Wildlife Sanctuary.