NILGIRIS: Forest department officials have stepped up vigil after the video of a leopard allegedly roaming inside the tea fields at Adamanai near Edakkadau in Kundha Taluk in Nilgiris on Sunday morning. The video was shared by a resident and went viral on social media, following which, villagers convened a meeting and urged the forest department officials to take steps to prevent human-leopard conflict.
The villagers claimed that though there was no cattle killing so far except the attack against a dog, they fear attacks on residential areas. Manjai V Mohan, president of Badugadesa party, who convened the meeting, said, “The incident happened at 8.30 am and the tiger was roaming for a few hours till Sunday afternoon.
We request the department officials to chase away the animal since it will create panic among the people working in the tea fields and it may attack people.” Though the villagers claimed that the tiger was roaming in the tea fields since the leopard is not in such a big size, forest department officials have denied it.
Kundha Forest Range Officer B Srinivasan confirmed that it is a leopard and not a tiger as it was confirmed by pugmarks and the staff have been monitoring the animal to prevent negative human-leopard interactions.