Daijiworld Media Network – Kadaba (ANK)
Kadaba Feb 3: A dog and a leopard were found trapped inside the toilet of a house at Kaikamba in the taluk on Wednesday February 3.
The residence belongs to Jayalakshmi. It is gathered that the leopard chased the dog and entered the toilet. The house was unoccupied. As Jayalakshmi was stayling alone at the house, she was in her neighbour’s home.
The animals got trapped in the toilet late night on Tuesday February 2. Jayalakshmi who could hear the dog barking, had a look but failed to noticed the leopard. Next day early in the morning, she noticed the dog and the leopard.
The forest officials were informed who reached the spot to rescue the leopard.
Assistant conservator of forests, Austin Som, range forest officers Raghavendra, Manjunath and Tyagaraj, Bhuvanesh of wildlife conservation team, veterinarians Dr Ajit and Dr Venkatachalapathi, and Kadaba police sub-inspector Rukma Naik etc were present.
Austin Som, assistant conservator of forests at Subrahmanya, said that the spot where the animal was trapped was inconvenient for the operation and the leopard could escape as the roof sheet broke when attacked by the leopard twice. He said efforts would be made to trap it by placing cages.
Even though the dog spent around eight hours in the company of its predator, the leopard left it unharmed perhaps as it was worried at having been trapped. The team had secured the outside of the toilet with wooden pieces tied with rope which was surrounded with two layers of net. It was planned to go up the backhoe, rig a hole in the roof sheet and fire tranquiliser shots to immobilise the animal through the hole. But the leopard at the last minute, jumped to the roof twice, shattered the sheet open and ran away, duly freeing itself from a net that briefly blocked its path.
Locals alleged that the officials looked untrained and were unaware about tranquilizing the leopard.
Deputy Conservator of Forests (Mangaluru Division) V Karikalan told IANS that when the leopard chased the stray dog which went into the toilet, the owner of the house immediately locked the toilet door.
"This incident must have a occurred at around 3 a.m. but the Forest Department received a call only at 7 a.m. and immediately our staff rushed to the spot. The staff tried to capture the animal without tranquilising it as the house is adjacent to reserved forest area, but could not do it. When the tranquiliser team arrived and tried to remove the roof as part of the operation, the roof broke and the leopard succeeded in escaping," he said.
He added that the Forest Department had placed two cages in the event of the leopard coming back to the village. "Leopards are not like territorial animals like tigers or lions. They roam around freely and hunt freely. Therefore it is very rare to see a same leopard in the same place," he said.
He denied the claims that the Forest Department botched up its plan to capture the feline.
He added that it was a surprise that leopard had not eaten the dog, its favourite prey. "Leopards relish dog meat, it is quite surprising, perhaps it might have been too panicked when it got locked inside the toilet," he said.
With Inputs from IANS