Leopard trapped in a cage at Granby near Vandiperiyar
A leopard was trapped in a cage set up by the Forest department at Granby, near Vandiperiyar in Idukki. According to the officials, the five-year-old
A leopard was trapped in a cage set up by the Forest department at Granby, near Vandiperiyar in Idukki. According to the officials, the five-year-old male leopard was caught in the cage on Monday morning. The Forest department had set up three cages across various plantation villages in Vandiperiyar to trap a tiger that had been straying into the plantation sector for the past two months. However, residents recently reported spotting a leopard in the area as well.
Kottayam Divisional Forest Officer (DFO) Praful Agrawal said that upon noticing the leopard’s presence in Granby, the Forest department formed a committee to capture it. “The leopard will be released deep inside the deep forests of the Periyar Tiger Reserve (PTR),” Mr. Agrawal said. Capturing the tiger The official further noted that the Forest department is continuing its efforts to capture the stray tiger. “Our primary focus was to capture the tiger, but now that the leopard has been trapped, it will be released back into the forest.
Monitoring and other efforts to capture the tiger are still ongoing,” the official added. The five-year-old male tiger was originally captured in Munnar and released into the deep forests of Gavi within the PTR on April 2. According to officials, the big cat has been camping in the tea plantations of Vandiperiyar since the last week of April. The tiger initially stayed in the Thankamala area of Vandiperiyar last April before briefly retreating into the forest.
It returned to the Granby area on May 14 and has since roamed through Sathram, Vallakkadavu, Arnakkal, and Granby. According to officials, the abandoned tea plantations in the Vandiperiyar region are overgrown with wild bushes, providing ideal cover for wild animals. The presence of cattle in the area is also drawing predators like tigers and leopards to the plantation sector.
The BriefWire