Palakkad: Terror has gripped residents of Ummini Pappadi at Dhoni in the district after a couple of leopard cubs were found in an abandoned house on Sunday. Some local people had noticed an adult leopard walking out of the dilapidated house overgrown with thick greenery around noon that day and on inspecting the building had discovered the week-old cubs.
Forest Department officials soon arrived and shifted the cubs to the range office at Olavakkode. Surveillance cameras were installed around the premises and a small cage was set up inside the house to trap the mother leopard.
On Monday, the mother leopard visited the house thrice in search of its cubs. When the Forest officials later kept the cubs in the house, the adult leopard took one of them away. Officials said that they would keep the other cub in the cage as the leopard is likely to return to the place again.
Even though the mother leopard had approached the small cage on Sunday night it did not enter, apparently due to lack of space inside. On Monday, Forest officials fixed another big cage outside the house to trap the adult leopard. They also placed cloth soiled with the excreta of the cubs to lure the mother leopard with the smell of its cub. The plan of the officials is to release the cubs along with their mother in the forest, for which the adult leopard has to be trapped.
The plot where the leopards were found was not cleared of weeds and greenery which have invaded the abandoned house for the last several years. The vegetation is so thick that nothing is visible beyond five metres. Moreover, even the trees are covered with vines and presence of the leopard there is hard to detect.
