Mutilated leopard carcass found in Chhota Udepur

Vadodara: A day after a male leopard was rescued in Chhota Udepur, a female leopard’s carcass was found on Tuesday morning. The leopard’s head, limbs and tail were chopped off and missing.
While the carcass was sighted by residents of Zab village of Pavi Jetpur taluka on Tuesday, forest department officials believe that the animal must have died around three to four days back. A farmer identified as Ramsinh Rathwa was attacked in the same village on Sunday night.

Forest department is investigating the cause of death and also searching for the missing body parts. “There are two possibilities that the animal could have been poisoned and the body parts chopped off or it could have been that the leopard would have died a natural death and the body parts were chopped off,” said a police official.

Locals told forest officials that they did not have any idea about the leopard until it was spotted by some villagers on Tuesday morning. “The post-mortem report will take couple of days to arrive. Only after the report arrives we can know the exact cause of death, however our priority is to search for the missing body parts,” said Nilesh Pandya, deputy conservator of forest of Chhota Udepur.

Officials have also sent the leopard’s viscera samples to forensic laboratory.