Mohan Kuthar

Daijiworld Media Network – Bantwal (EP)

Bantwal, Nov 8: The leopard which was captured in the CCTV footage at Kallarakodi in Narinagana here a week ago has made its appearance again. While forest officers were unable to clear their doubts whether it was a leopard or a cat, a pick-up vehicle driver has seen a leopard crossing the road and entering in the shrubs on Taudugoli – Bola inner road two kilometres away from Kollarakodi on Monday night increasing the panic among local residents.

The CCTV footage of a shop near the main gate of Yenepoya Ayurveda Hospital searched to nab the thieves of iron from the house under construction at Kallarakodi, a week ago, showed a leopard crossing the road at midnight. But the forest officials in their statement had said that it might be a cat and looks like a leopard only when the video is zoomed and the possibility of it being a leopard is very less. As a video of a cat crossing the road had gone viral those days, the forest officials did not go for the operation assuming that it must be a cat.

Now, a pick-up driver Shafik Mohammad of Taudugoli park, Boladapadavu, who saw a young leopard crossing the very road about two kilometres away from Boladapadavu, said that he felt scared to shoot the video or click the photo as the windows of his vehicle were open. “I went a little further, closed the window and returned to click the photograph, but by then, the leopard had gone inside the nearby shrubs,” he said.

Several people have been discussing about a leopard wandering at Boladapadavu near Taudugoli, Bermude, Garodi and Bornodi vicinities. Now, the news of the animal being spotted near the junction, has caused panic. As water is filled in the crusher nearby, it is suspected that the leopard must be coming to drink water. It is said that the leopard which fills its stomach by hunting a dog once, does not go for hunting immediately and arrives in search of meat only after about a week. However, there is no news of a pet dog being hunted here by the leopard.

A team of youngsters have shouldered the responsibility of warning about safety. The young proprietor of a shop had seen a leopard fighting with dogs lately while he was returning home and had seen footprints like those of a leopard.