A leopard, which attacked three people in a neighbouring Tirupur district, is on the prowl again, pouncing on two persons on the premises of a knitwear manufacturing unit in the district.
A group of Forest department officials, with an anti-poaching squad, had started search operations immediately after receipt of information that a leopard had attacked two farmers in a maize field in Pappankulam on January 24. In the process, an anti-poaching squad member was also attacked.
Despite placing three cages and 15 cameras, the Forest department personnel failed in their mission to either trap or tranquilise the animal as it shifted the hideout.
However, it returned this morning and entered the manufacturing unit premises at Ammapalayam and attacked a gardener-cum-watchman and Prem Kumar, a member of the anti-poaching squad that had rushed to the area after being informed by a car passenger on sighting the carnivore crossing the road at Perumanallur.
The injured persons were admitted to the hospital. With search operations on, the district administration and police alerted the public and asked them not to venture out, considering their safety.
Forest department personnel found pug marks in a farm in Pongupalayam and confirmed the presence of a leopard in and around the area, following which 20 sensor cameras were fitted to monitor its movement, department sources said.
They also found the half-eaten body of a pet dog near a well that was attacked by the leopard. With the leopard is moving in and around the unit and a banana cultivation farm, the Forest officials are putting efforts to trap the animal by tranquilising it.
With PTI inputs.
