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Carcass of leopard unearthed

Staff Reporter

It was reportedly poisoned to death

BHUBANESWAR: Forest department officials unearthed carcass of an adult leopard from a village forest in Puri district ending a four-day-long row over the death of animal.

A team of wildlife officials found the body buried in Kalikabadi forest near Brahmagiri locality in the coastal district.

Earlier a vernacular newspaper reported that three leopards were killed inside the forest but the forest department officials in first place denied the report saying the body, which was sighted, was of a hyena.

Probe team

As photographs of the body was made public, wildlife wing of the Forest Department constituted a team that was entrusted with investigation into the animal's death. The leopard, a male, was between eight and ten years of age, said Lala A. K. Singh, a member of the team.

On Wednesday, Divisional Forest Officer S K Mishra said the leopard might have strayed into the village forest. "There is no forest in 30 km to 40 km radius of the spot. Generally, an adult leopard wanders away from its original habitat. There were instances that many leopards had entered human habitation in the past. We don't have any record showing presence of leopard population in that particular patch of forest," Mr. Mishra said. "We did not find any mark on body of the leopard and every part of the body was intact," he said. It was suspected that the leopard was poisoned to death but actual reason could be known only when the department received postmortem report, Mr. Mishra said.

Two foresters and one guard were suspended for not following up the case even after the detection of the body.

"We are now investigating that under what circumstances the body of leopard was buried and who were involved in the crime," Mr. Mishra said.

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