Udhagamandalam: Two people were arrested on Saturday in connection with the death of a female leopard, which was trapped in a cable snare that was placed on a private land at Selas near Coonoor.
The leopard was found dead on Friday night. Sasikumar, forest range officer Coonoor, said, “We were alerted by the local residents. We had deployed a team there to keep the carcass safe. The animal was around five years old.”
Inquiry with the local people revealed that the snare was placed by Selvam, a resident of Kilijjada near Coonoor, and Murugan, from Kerala, to catch wild boars and rabbits.
The officer said it was Murugan who persuaded Selvam, to place the cable snare on his land. “They were arrested and remanded in judicial custody.”
Postmortem, meanwhile, revealed the animal’s canine teeth and nails were intact.