HYDERABAD: Just about 12 km from the aerospace SEZ in Adibatla, carcass of a cattle killed by a leopard was spotted by the forest department officials in Ramdaspally village on Friday night.
The leopard was on the prowl for the last two months in the region that is less than 10 km away from the Outer Ring Road.
Ibrahimpatnam Forest Range Officer, Vishnu Vardhan Rao said, “There is evidence which indicates that the kill was made by an adult leopard. The leopard has been prowling in the region for the last two months. Two months back at a location around 10km away from Ramdaspally, it had attacked a cattle but didn’t kill it. It seems that the leopard must have migrated here from the Rachakonda reserved forest. There is a contiguous stretch of forests and hillocks which provide a good habitat and prey base, in the form of wild boar, for the leopard.”
Rao further said the forest police was trying to track the leopard down but the vast, mostly barren poramboke land was becoming a challenge. “In such a terrain it becomes difficult to exactly determine which path the leopard is using, or where it might emerge from, in order to place camera traps or trap cages.”
Despite poor forest cover areas near the Outer Ring Road, like Yacharam, Kadthal, Ibrahimpatnam and Kandukur mandals with many industrial and residential projects upcoming, Rangareddy is home to a wide range of wild animals.
In all these mandals there have been multiple sightings of leopard and reports of attack on cattle. Carnivore census conducted in the district by the Forest department also revealed the presence of a striped hyena here, which is a threatened mammal. However, as per the Forest Survey of India, of the 7,493 sq km of the erstwhile Rangareddy district, only 760 sq km is forest area.