BENGALURU: A leopard that had strayed into the Indian Veterinary Research Institute campus in Hebbal was trapped by forest officials on Tuesday morning. Late in the evening, the big cat was released in the Cauvery Wildlife Sanctuary.
However, wildlife volunteers have alleged that the animal was howling in distress in the cage throughout the day due to high temperature and there was no vet or official in sight.
Another of their allegations is that the Bengaluru Urban district forest officials had neither provided any shade nor any care to the suffering big cat as per the Ministry of Environment and Forests guidelines for trapped or captured leopards.
In the last one-and-a-half months, the three-year-old male leopard was spotted moving around the wetlands in the Yelahanka forest range, and recently, till Vidyaranyapura. After the movement of the animal created panic among residents and a complaint was lodged, a trap was placed at the IVRI campus four days ago by Yelahanka range forest officials.
Volunteers, who visited the spot, found that no forest official of the rank of ACF was available while only a forest watcher and a guard were at the location.
Yogesh, a volunteer who kept a watch the entire day, said, “The trauma caused to the leopard was bad. It was not even moved to a shaded area with rising temperatures. Forest officials are supposed to follow Central guidelines when leopards are trapped or caught but here it was not done. It was only after 4 pm that they tried to do something, but the leopard suffered the whole day.”
A senior forest official said the Deputy Conservator of Forests has informed that water was sprinkled and a tarpaulin was used to cover the cage till it was released in the wild.
Wildlife conservationist G Veeresh said there was a need for proper rules for trapping or capturing leopards as forest officials were not following even the MoEF guidelines.