Tumakuru: A leopard, which strayed into Hamumanthapura, a residential area here, on Sunday was successfully sedated by the officials after an eight-hour-long chase.
At about 9 am, a homemaker first saw the leopard, a sub-adult make aged about 3 years in a passage of a house near Bayalu Anjaneyaswami Temple. As the news spread, a large crowd gathered well before the forest officials arrived. On one hand, the police struggled to get the crowd under control and on the other hand the scared animal started running helter skelter and hid in a nearby field.
After several failed attempts to catch the animal using a net, a Rapid Response Force arrived from Hassan and tranquilised the animal after two shots in a bamboo grove.
Spotting of leopards is not a new here. Two leopards were run over by speeding vehicles a couple of weeks ago near Seebi Temple on NH-75 and about five-years-ago, a leopard had strayed into the Siddhartha Engineering College campus.
The leopard caught on Sunday will be released into the Bannerghatta National Park, said Deputy Conservator of Forests Dr Amaranat.
