Bengaluru: The Karnataka forest department has trapped three leopards, suspected to have carried away and devoured a sleeping boy and an old woman in the state’s Ramanagara district in the last week, an official said on Monday.

The three leopards comprising two male and one female were trapped in three cages

On May 9, a leopard entered a house in Kadiraiyanapalya village of Magadi taluk and carried away three-and-a-half-year-old Hemanth Kumar, sleeping with his parents and grandparents.

In the similar fashion, on Saturday morning, 67-year-old Gangamma, sleeping outside her home, was also carried away by a leopard, killed and eaten.

Following the double deaths, the forest department swung into action and undertook round the clock vigil in the terrorised villages to capture the killer cats.

The department officials also arranged for 13 cages with baits and placed them at different location to capture the big cats, said a forest official.

The efforts of the forest officials paid dividend when the culprits in question, the three leopards comprising two male and one female were trapped in three cages.

The captured male leopards are aged about two years each and the female is more than four years old,informed a senior forests official.

The forest department thought that the leopards were not old to turn man-eaters> The conclusion was drawn after examining the canines of the three captured leopards and thereafter it was decided to release them deep inside a different forest.