Reach home before 5 pm; harvest sugarcane crop, say officials amid ‘Op Leopard’

NT Correspondent

Mysuru: The ongoing operation to nab dead or alive a leopard which has already claimed two lives in T.Narasipur taluk of Mysuru District has thrown normal life out of gear in the last one week in some villages.

The revenue authorities, through the public address system in several villages of Narasipur taluk, have asked people to get back to their homes before 5 pm and not to venture out thereafter in view of the operation being launched by the Forest Department to kill or nab the marauding leopard.

An autorickshaw fitted with a public address system is visiting the villages where the leopard has been sighted in the last one month, alerting people to return home before 5 pm, and not to sleep in fields to protect the standing crops, due to the movement of the leopard at night. In villages, where the leopard has already killed people, the bushes have been cleared to prevent the big cat from taking shelter there during the daytime.

On Tuesday, Deputy Commissioner Dr K.V.Rajendra asked farmers of several villages in T.Narasipur taluk to harvest the standing sugarcane crop in view of the intensifying of the operation to nab or kill the leopard. It is suspected that the leopard might be hiding in a sugarcane field. The crop is grown on hundreds of acres in the taluk.

The Forest Department has written to the DC requesting him to issue orders asking the farmers to harvest the crop immediately as there are chances of the leopard hiding in the field. The DC has also directed the owners of sugar mills to harvest the sugarcane grown by farmers of T.Narasipur taluk on priority to aid the Forest Department to further intensify ‘Operation Leopard’.

Sugarcane is grown in 40 villages. It may be mentioned here Manjunath, a law student from M.L.Hundi village of Sosare Hibli and Meghana, a 20 year old girl, from S.Kebbehundi village were killed by the leopard on October 31 and December 1 respectively.

Close on the heels of this incident, the Chief Wildlife Warden has issued ‘shoot at sight’ orders for the leopard and has formed 12 teams for the purpose. The two incidents have made the government hike the solatium to Rs 15 lakh per death in an attack by leopards