Tirumala: A day after a six-year-old girl was mauled to death by the leopard on a trekking path of Tirumala hills, the Alipiri walkway was declared as a high alert zone. The Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) board has taken this decision considering the safety of the devotees to the hill shrine.

The girl, identified as Lakshitha, was attacked by the big cat while she was trekking with her family to the hill shrine on Friday evening. The police recovered the partially eaten body of the victim from the bushes near Sri Narasimha Swamy temple this morning. The girl and her family hailed from Pothireddy palem village of Kovvuru mandal in Nellore. The officials from the forest department have begun a search operation for the leopard. However, it’s still not clear whether the girl was mauled by a big cat or bear.

After the tragic incident, the TTD board held an emergency meeting and decided to step up the security measures in and around the hill shrine. Intensifying vigil from Alipiri onwards, deploying guards on regular intervals of Alipiri walkway, permission for a group of 100 devotees and providing security marshalls to devotees are some of the decisions the TTD board has taken to ensure the safety of pilgrims.

The TTD Executive Officer (EO) AV Dharma Reddy announced a solatium of Rs 5 lakh each from the board and the Andhra Pradesh Forest Department to the girl’s family. Meanwhile, the TTD chairman Bhumana Karunakar Reddy asserted that the board will provide complete security to the devotees from the Alipiri walkway till the hill shrine temple.

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