Leopard spotted near Mokalimitta at Tirumala

Tirumala: A leopard was found moving near the second ghat road in Mokalimitta area of Tirumala forests late on Monday night.

A group of labourers who were engaged on ghat maintenance, returning home late in the night spotted the leopard and informed the vigilance officials.

Sources said that the straying of wild animals is on the rise in Tirumala area for the last four-five days after the closure of the shrine for darshan since Friday afternoon.

Spotting of leopard by the locals was reported in Kalyana Vedika, near the forest on Papavinasam road, SV Rest House, Sri Padmavathi guest house and beyond also since three days while a wild boar was also seen by the locals. A herd of deer was seen freely walking on the ghat road near 7th mile.

After the suspension of darshan to pilgrims at Tirumala temple, private vehicles were totally stopped while RTC is operating skeleton services for the sake of employees.

With the suspension of darshan at Tirumala temple, the authorities are closing the shrine at 8.30 in the night daily after performance of Ekantha Seva leaving the holy hills in quietness.

The buzzing activities on the hills coming to minimum coupled with no vehicles movement both on the ghat road and on the hills probably inducing the wild animals roaming freely much away from their territories resulting in spotting of wild animal more often.

In normal days about 1500 vehicles move on the ghat road while RTC with its fleet of 450 ghat road buses operate 1000 trips daily to ferry the pilgrims, keeping the ghat road open except for two or three hours after midnight.

Meanwhile, the TTD decided to close down ghat road from 9 pm to 6 am until further orders and also minimise the staff on duty in the hills including at the temple in view of no pilgrim activities.

A seventy-year-old native of Tirumala observed that he had never witnessed Tirumala becoming so silent more so in the night which is to some extent scaring the residents.