Two leopard cubs killed in accidents in Andhra forest

Amaravati, Feb 28 Two leopard cubs have died in two separate accidents in Andhra Pradesh's Kurnool district in two days.

Both the accidents occurred in Nallamalla forests. While one cub was found dead on the railway track near Pacherla village late on Friday night, the second was killed in what appears to be a hit-and-run case on a road in Eagle Base Camp in Chelama forest range on Saturday night.

The second incident came to light on Sunday. A cub, aged about two years, was found dead near the bridge which connects Kurnool and Prakasam districts. Forest officials suspect unknown vehicle hit the cub resulting in its death.

Nandyal Divisional Forest Officer Vineet Kumar said the exact cause of cub's death will be known after investigation.

The number of leopard cubs killed in the state this month rose to three. A cub was killed on Kadapa-Chittoor highway earlier this month.

The forest department took a serious note of this and initiated steps to prevent recurrence of such incidents.

The forest officials have requested railway authorities to slow down the trains in the forest area. They will also be approaching the authorities concerned for erecting speed breakers on roads passing through the forests, especially at the turning.

The forest officials said while they were happy over the increase in population of leopards, such incidents were painful.

A leopard cub was killed in a suspected hit-and-run case on Kadapa-Chittoor highway near Rayachoti on February 9. According to forest officials, the cub, aged around two years, was likely to have been crossing the road to drink water as there is a pond on the opposite side of the road.

The forest officials said they will send a proposal to highway authorities to build an underpass as an alternative route for vehicles and to all free movement of wild life.