The Andhra Pradesh forest officials have captured another leopard near the Narasimhaswamy Temple in Tirupati. The animal was caught on the Alipiri walkway route during the early hours of Thursday, September 7. Since August, the forest department has caught four leopards, bringing the total to five. All of the captured leopards have been shifted to Tirupathi's Sri Venkateswara Zoological Park.

Following the leopard attack on a six-year-old Lakshita in Tirumala, the forest department began the exercise to catch the wild animals. This was the fourth leopard to be caught following Lakshita’s death on August 11. Lakshitha was attacked while she was walking to Tirumala along the Alipiri footpath. Her body was recovered behind the Narasimha Swamy temple the following day. 

After this incident, the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam beefed up the security and imposed restrictions on the devotees. The forest department initiated ‘Operation Chirutha’ and set up cages to catch the wild cats.  

Earlier on June 25, a leopard was captured by the forest department just three days after a three-year-old boy was attacked by the wild animal. The boy was rescued by the pilgrims and security personnel who chased the leopard.

The forest department has set up 300 trap cameras to monitor the movement and cages to capture wild beasts.  According to officials, movement of five leopards on the Alipiri-Tirumala walkway was discovered, and all five were successfully captured. The forest department is planning to set up more CCTV cameras to continue to identify any eluding leopards.

Meanwhile, as part of its security measures, the TTD is also providing sticks to the devotees who trek to Tirumala.