Leopard chooses Infosys campus for its

As Infosys Technologies chairman NR Narayana Murthy makes headlines over the inauguration of the World Kannada Meet in Belgaum, set to begin on March 11, here’s one cat that slipped in and attempted to get a little more tech savvy.

Around 4 am on Wednesday, techies were surprised by the news of a leopard in the campus.

The two-year-old male leopard was tranquilised and released into the Nagarhole Tiger Reserve at 9.30 am.

Assistant conservator of forests, Mysore, R Gopinath, said the leopard may have sneaked into the campus from Korgahalli Reserve Forest, adjacent to the BEML Factory, which is very near to the Infosys campus.

BEML compound has a plantation spread across 100 acres. The reserve forest area is located a mere half-a-kilometre away. The leopard could have wandered from its habitat, the reserve forest, in search of food.

Alert security personnel spotted the wild cat before dawn and informed the forest department. Forest officials arrived in the campus at 5 am and combed the area, to find the carnivore near an under construction building close to the boundary of the Infosys campus.

Veterinarians from Mysore zoo and officials from the forest department managed to tranquilise and capture it. Gopinath said that the forest department did not lose the opportunity to perform a quick medical examination, which showed that the cat was a healthy male. It had not suffered any injury.

This is the first time that a wild cat has strayed into the Infosys campus. Gopinath said that this uninvited visitor did not pose any threat, as he chose a time when the campus was quiet, and there were no people around.

Gopinath said that six months ago, a leopard was sighted in the neighbouring BEML campus. Since leopard movement was reported sporadically, cages had been laid to capture any carnivore that had strayed beyond the reserve forest.

“We suspect that the animal we released back into the wild was the one that was sighted six months ago,” Gopinath said. Leopards are known to stray into areas of human habitation in search of prey, mainly cattle or stray dogs.