Udhagamandalam: A decomposed carcass of a leopard was found in a private tea garden at Pudiyangi village in Kotagiri range of forests in the Nilgiris on Friday.
According to a forest officer, the villagers spotted the carcass while they were trying to find out the cause of stench in the area. “They immediately alerted us.”
Sasikumar, forest range officer, said the animal might have died a week ago. “It was a female leopard aged around eight years. The carcass was in a considerably decomposed state and as such we couldn’t identify the cause of death.”
He said all the parts of the animal, including teeth and nails, were intact. “Samples of the animal’s vital organs have been collected for lab tests. We could get to know about the cause of death only after the test results are out.”
The carcass was burned in the tea garden itself after postmortem. tnn