Efforts underway to drive leopard, cubs, spotted in quarry, back into forest in Erode’s Talavadi

T.N. Forest Department takes action to drive leopard and cubs back to forest from Hosur quarry.

After a leopard with two cubs was sighted at a defunct quarry in Hosur in Talavadi, Erode district, the T.N. Forest Department initiated measures to drive the wild animals back to the forest on Wednesday, June 26, 2024.

On Monday (June 23) evening, people grazing cattle at the quarry spotted the wild animals and alerted the Talavadi Forest Range office of Hasanur Division in the Sathyamangalam Tiger Reserve (STR). 

Officials who inspected the quarry on Tuesday, June 24, found pug marks and confirmed the presence of a leopard. 

The quarry is located about 500 metres away from the forest boundary and half a kilometre from the Talavadi bus stand. The Department has cautioned people not to take their cattle grazing in the quarry and has also asked the public not to go near the quarry. 

Local residents wanted the animals to be captured with a cage. But officials ruled out placing a cage as the leopard was with cubs.

K. Sudhakar, Deputy Director of STR and District Forest Officer of Hasanur Division, told The Hindu that bushes and boulders in the quarry are used by the animals as a hideout and to hunt their prey. Efforts are on to drive the animals back into forest through sounds/noises. “If the animals are continually disturbed through sounds, they will go back into the forest,” Two camera traps have also been installed at the quarry.

It may be recalled that leopards have, in the past, used the same quarry as their hideout and hunted for dogs and cattle available in the area. In June 2022, a three-year-old male leopard that was involved in cattle kills, was trapped in a cage placed at the quarry and was subsequently released into the forest.