- Holiday declared for Kendriya Vidyalaya students since Sept. 1
- Forest Department places three cages to trap elusive felines
Mysore/Mysuru: Frequent sightings of over three leopards near the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) campus at Metagalli, Bank Note Printing Press, the premises of staff quarters and near the Kendriya Vidyalaya have caused panic among residents.
CCTVs installed in the areas have captured the visuals of a mother leopard with three juveniles roaming in the night.
Residents told Star of Mysore this morning that they are scared even to venture out of their homes and this morning, the head of a dog was found near the staff quarters.
“Leopards have been on the prowl in the vicinity and we have alerted residents and students through WhatsApp and are on guard. Over the last few days, the population of dogs has drastically reduced,” a resident said.
The management of Kendriya Vidyalaya has declared holiday for children. “The safety of children is of paramount importance for us and we have declared holiday since last Thursday. The RBI has issued a directive to us to shut the school to ensure the safety of children,” said a source from the Kendriya Vidyalaya this morning.
Visuals of the CCTV footage of the leopards are being circulated widely among the residents of the area and the Forest Department has placed three cages in its efforts to trap the felines. But their efforts have not met with any success till now.
Deputy Conservator of Forests (Territorial) K. Kamala Karikalan told Star of Mysore this morning that they had got information about the sighting of a leopard last week.
“Initial reports said that there was only one leopard but now there are more felines. We have placed three cages and our team is on the field,” she said.
The Department has deputed ACF Lakshmikanth to handle the situation and he is accompanied by RFOs and a veterinarian.
“Leopards are known to travel two to three kilometres a day and Mysuru outskirts have a considerable leopard population. Leopards like dog meat and usually do not attack human beings. They are nocturnal hunters and they do not hunt during the day. We have spoken to the residents and officers from the RBI and have assured them that there is no need for panic. Also, there is no need to declare holidays for schools,” she added.
The Forest Department team is continuously conducting combing operation and eight employees are involved in it. “Leopards do not come to the area where there is human scent. Still, we have taken precautions and the team is in constant vigil. We have asked the residents not to venture out of homes after dark and stay indoors. If it necessitates tranquillisation of felines, we are well-equipped and ready to do so,” Kamala Karikalan said.
Not surprised at all.
If you remove the forest habit of these Leopards to make way for plots and housing, as this city expands very rapidly-now its population is quadrupled to what it was in 1950s, and Mysore perimeters have vastly expanded 4/5 times from what it was in 1950s.
Some one like me who lived in this city in 1950s and 1960s, get horrified when visiting this city-now a place for all kinds of ailments related to pollution. More and more new layouts means more cars to commute and more pollution,. The cycle is self-sustaining.
People like that fool Barmy Shenoy and his insane Grahachara crowd, who often howl about ecosystem destruction, Chamundi Hill destruction, together with the SOM owners, are the very villains who in the late 1970s and 1980s invaded in massive numbers to settle in this city, which necessitated r; from there it has been a slippery slope removing forests , where these wild animals like Leopards made their homes.
The very simple fact is, these Leopards find themselves without their forest habitat home ,as more of the forest is removed to find space for housing.
It has the same case with elephants which strayed into the city .
Mysore, unlike Bangalore, was unique. It was a city created in the midst of rich natural settings of which the vast expanse of forest was the main focus.
That situation changed.
Industries of all kinds destroyed the habitat of of elephants and leopards. Masses of people arived to settle, forest gave way to lay outs. Stll they are coming in large numbers., most of them to do cheap IT techie coding work.
For example, many warned the Infosys Murthy not to construct his IT training centre for IT techies who he used to carry out cheap coding work-he called l it software development-nothing of the kind, and made himself very rich. The CM at that time donated very fertile land to him, for free. Some IT techies claimed Murthy paid the market price for it-a total bull shit.
Developments like the above extended the city limits and the forest mentioned above, disappeared.
Info sys Murthy who caused the destruction, does not live in this city; his daughter in England with a husband who was paid millions of Dollars as dowry; he was badly defeated in his PM election there recently as he was found out to be a dishonest and untrustworthy Indian too-although he was born in England!! Very arrogant person!, like his father in law, who as a student was mild mannered as he was not rich then.