A five-year-old male leopard was found dead near a tea bush, inside the TANTEA factory near Cherampadi, about 75-km from here today.
Some workers noticed the leopard's carcass stuck between stems of tea plants and found that some sharp twigs had pierced its body, Forest department sources said.
Department officials along with a veterinarian rushed to the spot and after a post-mortem, burnt the body in the outer fringes of the estate, they said.
