Techie injured while saving pet dog from leopard in Nilgiris

UDHAGAMANDALAM: A leopard attacked an IT professional who saved his pet dog from the wild animal that strayed into the campus of a private school at Kotagiri in the Nilgiris district on Tuesday night. The injured person has been identified as Bahadur, 25, who is working in an IT firm in Bengaluru. Bahadur is the elder son of Janak, a native of Nepal who has been working as a night watchman at the school for more than 15 years. Janak resides on the campus with his family. Bahadur visited his parents after availing the work from home option for a few days. As mobile network connectivity was poor inside the house on Tuesday night, Bahadur stepped out with his pet dog to attend an online office meeting. While he was returning home around 11.15pm, a leopard tried to attack the dog. Bahadur raised an alarm and tried to chase the animal away by throwing stones, allowing the dog to escape. However, the leopard attacked Bahadur, injuring him on his face and hands, before fleeing. Locals rushed him to the Kotagiri Government Hospital. After first aid, he was shifted to the Nilgiris Government Medical College Hospital, where he is undergoing treatment.District forest officer Gowtham said Bahadur's health condition was stable. He added that residents were repeatedly advised to avoid venturing out at night as the area is prone to leopard movement. “Monitoring has been intensified following the incident,” he added.