Bengaluru: Days after the leopard operation near Kudlu gate, forest officials have spent the past 24 hours on the trail of another big cat which was sighted by civilians next to a house in Chikka Togur off NICE Road in south east Bengaluru.
The department has been on tenterhooks ever since the November 1 operation in which a leopard aged about 12 years was put down after it injured three persons. Senior officials said the staffers have been put on high alert to ensure that life and livelihood of people are not affected. Residents have been alerted and requested not to panic. Any commotion will affect the rescue operation, he added.
On Saturday evening, forest officials received a complaint that a big cat has been sighted next to a house near Lakshmi Devi Temple in Chikka Togur. "A leopard was reported on Saturday evening and necessary action has been initiated to rescue the animal. Our personnel have not had a visual confirmation yet. However, A trap has been set up and we are continuously monitoring the situation," said Bengaluru Urban Deputy Conservator of Forests N Ravindrakumar.
During the November 1 operation near Kudlu Gate, some of the department staff had suspected the possibility of the presence of a second leopard. There were also reports of second sets of pug marks, smaller than the marks of the deceased big cat.
A senior official said there were speculations over a second, younger leopard, being present on the scene but the issue could not be pursued. "We combed the entire area and couldn't find the second big cat," an official added.
The official said it was possible that a younger and more agile leopard might have come towards Chikka Togur, located about 4 km away of aerial distance from Kudlu Gate. "Any analysis is possible only after we get confirmation of the animal's presence. Till then, we will treat this as an emergency situation where the animal needs to be rescued," he added.
Chikka Togur has seen drastic development over the last 15 years. A cursory analysis of the land use change from Google maps shows that hundreds of acres of agriculture and farm lands have been turned into layouts between May 2011 and April 2023.
"The entire area was a green patch where human activity was limited to the day and paved for coexistence. The apartments and layouts built in the area, especially the CCTV cameras, have made the presence of the animal a spectacle, which is in turn used to create panic," the official noted.