At least five leopard cubs were found dead on Wednesday in a sugarcane farm near Junnar Tehsil in Pune district.
The leopard cubs got killed accidentally after getting burnt along with farm trash in Awsari village of Maharashtra.
Meanwhile, the sugarcane labourers claimed that they were not aware of the presence of the cubs in the farm along with the trash.
"We had come here to cut the harvest and the owner told us to burn the trash on the field. We didn't know the cubs were there. A woman spotted them later and told us about it," a worker said.
Earlier in March, two leopard cubs were rescued from the sugarcane fields in the same region when farmers of Vadgaon Anand village stumbled upon a lone leopard cub while harvesting their crops.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)