Amaravati: A leopard was spotted near Srivari Mettu, the foot trail of the Tirumala Temple, Tirupati on Saturday night, September 29, sparking fear among the devotees visiting the temple.
The wild animal was caught on CCTV footage chasing street dogs in the area.
On the sight of the leopard, the security guard on duty locked himself in a security control room for his safety and alerted the forest officials.
This is not the first time a leopard has been spotted near the temple, which is located in the backdrop of the Seshachalam Hills.
A leopard was caught near the temple trails in June 2023 after it attacked and killed a three-year-old boy who was walking to the temple with his family.
The Tirupati temple has been in recent headlines over an alleged prasadam row, where the temple’s iconic laddu was found to be made using animal fat, cooking up a huge political storm.
On September 19, Andhra chief minister and Telugu Desam Party (TDP) supremo Chandrababu Naidu alleged that the previous YSRCP government had allowed the use of substandard ingredients and animal fat to make the world-renowned Tirupati laddu.
While Yuvajana Sramika Rythu Congress Party (YSRCP) and its chief Jagan Mohan Reddy have strongly denied Naidu’s claims, a lab report claimed the presence of “lard” (relating to pig fat) and fish oil in the samples.
In the wake of the controversy which is growing deeper each day, CM Naidu announced that all temples in the state will be sanitised.
The controversy led to a verbal spat between actor-turned-politician Pawan Kalyan and renowned actor Prakash Raj with the latter accusing the Andhra deputy chief minister of escalating the matter to a national level.
While expressing strict action against those linked with the involvement of animal fat in the Tirupati laddus, versatile actor Prakash Raj said there were enough communal issues in the country.
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