Carcasses of two leopards found in Madhya Pradesh's Balaghat district; electrocution suspected

BHOPAL: The carcasses of two leopards were found in a village in Madhya Pradesh's Balaghat district with electrocution suspected to be the cause behind their death, a senior forest officer said on Monday. "The carcasses of a male leopard and a female leopard were spotted at Harrabhat Khurmundi village by villagers who in turn informed forest officials on Sunday," Narendra Sanodia, Chief Conservator of Forests, told PTI.

It is suspected that these leopards died of electrocution after stepping on a live electric wire laid in the area, he said, adding the postmortem and lab test reports are awaited. Two persons are being questioned in connection with the incident, Sanodia said.

According to a forest department official, the carcasses were lying about six metres apart from each other at the spot.

As per the 'Status of Leopards in India 2018' report released by the Union government in December last year, the maximum number of leopards (3,421) were found in Madhya Pradesh, followed by 1,783 in Karnataka and 1,690 in Maharashtra.