Karnataka’s forest officials on Thursday captured a leopard that killed an 11-year-old boy at Horalahalli in Mysuru district’s T Narsipur taluk on January 21. The leopard will be shifted to the Bannerghatta Rescue Centre.
“The man-eating leopard that was terrorising the public in Mysuru has been successfully captured. Congratulations to the team of forest officials for successfully capturing the leopard. A government order to form a leopard task force will be issued,” Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai said.
Chief conservator of forests Malathi Priya confirmed it was the same leopard that killed the boy. “The forest department had installed camera traps where his body was found. It is a five-year-old male leopard,” she said.
Forest officials installed a cage in the vicinity of where the leopard was previously seen and told the villagers to stay away so that the chances of trapping the animal could increase. Over 40 cameras including an infra-red one and thermal drones were deployed for the operation.
The boy was killed in the second such leopard attack in 48 hours in the taluk. On January 20, 60-year-old Siddamma was attacked when she had gone out to fetch firewood. Earlier, a 22-year-old man, Manjunath, was killed at Ukkalagere near Mallikarjunaswamy Hill on October 31, 2022, and Meghana (22) at S Kebbehundi on December 2 that year.
In a meeting with officials of the forest department and the district administration on Monday, Bommai was informed that 158 people had been involved in the combing operation in the taluk since the boy’s killing.