COIMBATORE: A four-year-old male leopard that allegedly killed a four-year-old girl was trapped in a cage set near to the girl’s house at Pachamalai estate in Anamalai Tiger Reserve (ATR) in Valparai on Thursday morning.
The animal was trapped in one of the two camouflaged cages that were set up by the Valparai forest range staff near to the house of the deceased M Roshini Kumari at 5am on Thursday.
It may be recalled that the leopard had lifted the girl when the girl was standing with her mother, Monica Devi, and dragged her into the bushes and killed her at the south side of Pachamalai estate at 6.30pm on June 20 (Friday). The partially consumed body of the girl was recovered 700 meters from her house with the help of a sniffer dog, 'Bairava', after 17 hours of searching after she was killed by the big cat. The girl was a native of Jharkhand, and she, along with her parents, was shifted to Valparai a year ago, and they were residing in labourers quarters at the south side of Pachamalai estate.
A day after this incident, the team led by Valparai forest range officer Suresh Krishna placed a cage and after two days, another cage was set up.
According to a senior forest official of ATR “The animal is agitated since it was trapped, and we have lifted a DNA sample of the leopard using scat that was left by the animal inside the forest earlier, and we will compare the same DNA with the leopard that was trapped on Thursday. If the sample matches, we will confirm that this leopard had killed the girl.
The official said that the animal will be released in a suitable location inside the reserve forest in ATR. Incessant rain has allegedly hampered the works related to the relocation of the big cat.
