Caution boards displaying pictures of leopards will soon alert commuters on Nandi Infrastructure Corridor Enterprises Road.
Caution boards displaying pictures of leopards will soon alert commuters on Nandi Infrastructure Corridor Enterprises (NICE) Road. The initiative was taken up by the forest department and NICE Limited after two leopards were recently run over by moving vehicles on the stretch.
On January 31, a male leopard which had strayed into the NICE Road was run over by a speeding vehicle in the early hours of Monday near Purvankara apartments between Bannerghatta Road and Kanakapura Road.
Within a few days, a one-and-a-half-year-old tigeress was found dead on the same stretch about 8 pm on a Sunday evening.
The run-over deaths of the two wild cats within one month made the forest department shoot a letter to the NICE authorities requesting them to erect caution boards for motorists warning them of leopard movements.
“Apart from erecting caution boards on the roads, we have also requested NICE officials to fence the compound on both sides of the stretch to prevent the animal from jumping to the road. Of course, we can’t avoid the big leopards from jumping the compound by increasing the height of the wall. But we can surely avoid the cubs from entering the road,” said deputy conservator of forests (DCF) of the area, Vanashree Vipin Singh.
The DCF said that the autopsy report confirmed that the first leopard was killed after being hit by a speeding vehicle. Autopsy report on the leopard cub is still awaited.
Sudhakara Hegde, retired superintendent of police (SP) and security officer of NICE, said that the authorities will chain-link the compound with iron rods, which will be raised to a height from where the leopards cannot easily jump to the road.
“The stretch near Purvankara apartments will be fenced. We will place boards on either sides of the stretch to caution motorists on leopard movements. The boards will carry pictures of a leopard on the move. This decision was taken by the NICE managing director after discussing with forest officials,” said Hegde.
According to a wildlife volunteer, leopards prowl in the area due to easy availability of pigs and stray dogs.
“The big cats like pigs and stray dogs. They can smell them from a distance. As the villages near the NICE Road have a sizeable population of pigs and dogs, the leopard movement will be more in these areas,” he added.
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