Chennai, Jan 27 (IANS)

Tamil Nadu forest department officials on Thursday captured a male leopard after tranquilizing it with sedatives at Ammapalayam near Tirumuruganpoondi municipality in Tiruppur district.

Forest officials said that the leopard would be translocated to the Anamalai Tiger Reserve (ATR). The forest officials of Coimbatore had captured another leopard from a godown at B.K. Pudur area a few days before.

The officials of the Tamil Nadu forest department were camping at Pongupalayam near Perumnallur on Wednesday after the leopard was found in the city. On Thursday morning the leopard attacked two people including a garment factory worker and a forest watcher at a godown of a private garment company at Ammapalayam near Thirumuruganpoondi municipality.

The forest department officials rounded up the garment factory and the nearby shrubs and bushes. Veterinary surgeon with the Tamil Nadu Animal husbandry department Vijayaraghavan fired the dart at the leopard when it attacked the Anti Poaching Watcher. After the first dart was fired, the animal again moved forward and the veterinary surgeon fired the second dart tranquilizing the animal.

S. Ramasubramanian, field director ATR while speaking to IANS said,” The male leopard was about four years of age and it attacked three Anti-Poaching Watchers and a forest range officer. It might have come from the Bhavanisagar forest area in Erode district and it has traveled more than 35 km to reach the Thiumuruganpoondi area in Tiruppur district. The leopard has no external injuries and it will be released at Kadamparai reserve forest near Valparai in Coimbatore district.”