Leopard that killed five-year-old girl in Chikkamagaluru, shot dead by Forest Department
Chikkamagaluru: A leopard believed to have killed a five-year-old girl and injured an 11-year-old boy in Tarikere was found dead on Saturday after sustaining a bullet wound during a Forest Department operation to capture it.
Forest officials said the animal was shot in self-defence when it suddenly charged at a staff member who was attempting to tranquilise it near Byrapura village. The leopard had been the focus of an intensive search after two attacks in the region earlier this week. The five-year-old victim, Saanvi, was killed while playing outside her home in Navilukallugudda village near Mundre. On Friday, an 11-year-old boy, Hruday from Byrapura, sustained serious injuries in a separate attack.
Residents of Shivapura, Nandi, Kenchapura, Kenchapura Gate and Byrapura had urged authorities to capture the animal, citing widespread fear. Following approval from senior officials, the Forest Department launched an operation on Friday night after receiving information that the leopard had been sighted near the Byrapura road.
On Saturday, a large team comprising veterinarians from Mangaluru, Bandipur, Bannerghatta, Shivamogga and Tyavarekoppa zoos, a leopard task force from Mysuru, an elephant squad from Chikkamagaluru and three elephants from Sakrebail in Shivamogga joined the operation. The group tracked the leopard to dense bushes near Byrapura.
Veterinarian Dr. Yashaswi and his assistant, accompanied by two armed forest staff, moved in to tranquilise the animal. Officials said the leopard suddenly leapt at one of the staff members, prompting him to fire in self-defence. The injured leopard escaped into the thicket.
The search continued, and the team later found the leopard dead with a bullet wound. The carcass was seized for legal formalities. Local residents expressed relief following confirmation of the animal’s death.
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Ambani, Adani pledge USD 210 bn for India's AI push
New Delhi (PTI): Conglomerates run by billionaires Mukesh Ambani and Gautam Adani committed USD 210 billion investment to creating infrastructure that will help India emerge as an AI development hub.
At the India AI Impact Summit, Ambani announced a Rs 10 lakh crore (about USD 110 billion) investment in artificial intelligence over the next seven years in gigawatt-scale AI-ready data centres in Jamnagar, leveraging up to 10 GW of green power surplus, and a nationwide edge-compute layer integrated with telecom and digital operator Jio's networks to deliver low-latency AI across India.
"Our resolve is clear: make intelligence as ubiquitous as connectivity," he said. "When compute becomes infrastructure, innovation will become inevitable."
Adani, on the other hand, unveiled a USD 100-billion investment to develop renewable-energy-powered, hyperscale AI-ready data centres by 2035 -- one of the world's largest integrated energy-compute commitments.
The initiative is expected to catalyse an additional USD 150 billion across server manufacturing, cloud platforms, and supporting industries, creating a projected USD 250 billion AI infrastructure ecosystem in India.
India must architect its own artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure rather than rely on imports, Adani Group executive director Jeet Adani said on Thursday, warning that AI will redefine national sovereignty.
Other major investments announced at the Summit included USD 50 billion commitment by Microsoft by the end of the decade to expand artificial intelligence access across the Global South. "India, not surprisingly, is one of the largest," its vice chair and president, Brad Smith, said.
The firm had unveiled USD 17.5 billion investment in AI investments in India last year.
Google CEO Sundar Pichai announced a new subsea cable initiative to boost AI connectivity between India, the US and other locations, alongside partnerships for cloud infrastructure platform support to over 20 million public servants across 800 districts.
Yotta Data Services, backed by a real estate group headed by Niranjan Hiranandani, announced over USD 2 billion spend on Nvidia's latest chips in an artificial intelligence computing hub it is setting up just outside the national capital.
While Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) signed up ChatGPT parent OpenAI as its first customer for its data centre unit under the global AI infrastructure initiative Stargate, infrastructure major Larsen & Toubro announced a proposed venture with Nvidia to build AI-ready data centre infrastructure, advanced computing platforms, and ecosystem enablement required to support large-scale AI workloads.
