Kurnool: Leopard kills four sheep in Adoni mandal

Kurnool: Residents of Ballekal village in Adoni mandal are scared over the movement of a leopard.

The big cat ventured into a human habitat and killed four sheep. According to the shepherd Tayappa, resident of Ballekal village, the leopard entered his house courtyard and killed four sheep. He said that he was awake till 1 am on Tuesday. At around 2 am he heard some sort of sound. After waking up, he tried to drive out the leopard by threatening it with a stick.

When the leopard tried to attack him, Tayappa ran into his house and shut the doors. The leopard killed four of his sheep and vanished into the hillocks, Tayappa said. He said that these kinds of incidents have taken place on several occasions.

Every time the incidents have been taken to the notice of the forest department officials but no initiatives were taken to prevent the entry of leopards into the village, Tayappa alleged. The villagers are under the grip of fear, he said. He urged the forest department officials to trap the leopard and leave it in deep forest so that it could not venture into human habitats.

The Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI) mandal president Srikrishna on learning about the incident reached the victim's house and enquired about the incident. He said that the villagers had told him they spotted the leopard on the hillocks.

They are scared to go to fields and attend their daily work. He said that Tayappa had lost sheep worth Rs 1 lakh due to the leopard attack. He demanded that the government compensate for the loss and save the poor shepherd from taking extreme steps. The sheep is the only source of income to Tayappa, the DYFI leader said.