Chennai, June 16 (BPNS)
The forest department officials of Tamil Nadu have warned people to stay indoors at Talavadi in Erode as a leopard that had killed a cow on Tuesday at the village is on the prowl.
Officials of the Tamil Nadu forest department told media persons that they have installed drones to track the movement of the leopard. A domestic cow was found killed on Tuesday at Talavadi village near Hosur in Erode.
The partly eaten carcass of the cow was found in the early morning of Wednesday and forest department was alerted. The department officials directed the villagers not to remove the carcass and wait for the animal that had killed it to return for the prey.
A senior officer of the forest department told BPNS that the villagers did as directed and on Thursday morning found that a part of the remaining carcass was eaten and pug marks of the leopard were found on the premises.
With this, the department installed camera and trap near the place where the carcass was found, and drones were pressed into service for surveillance. Forest department officials told IANS that a defunct quarry in the area was full of shrubs and thickly vegetated and the department and local police have directed the owner of the quarry to clear the vegetation to find whether the leopard has taken shelter inside the defunct quarry.
Forest department and local police have warned the people of Talavadi not to venture out of their residences at night until the leopard is nabbed and sent back deep into the forest.
