Fear of leopard grips villagers

Bhupalpally: The residents of Kothacheruvu and Yamanpally villages under Maha Mutharam mandal in Jayashankar Bhupalpally district are in the grip of fear after they found the pugmarks of a leopard in the vicinity of their villages on Thursday morning.

According to reports, the Gram Panchayat (GP) officials informed the forest officials about the leopard movement and urged them to take necessary action.

They also alerted the residents through the public address system to stay cautious and not to venture into forest areas. According to the Jayashankar Bhupalpally district forest officer (DFO) B Lavanya, the forest officials inspected the forest area based on the information they received. The forest officials suspected that the pugmarks were not fresh, she added. However, the authorities deployed five teams to trace out the movement of the leopard.