Carcass of a young leopard with its nails, teeth and tail missing was recovered this morning from a dense forest in Odisha's Sundergarh district.
"Forest officials found a dead leopard in the jungle of Lakhanpur. Its age would be between 4-5 years. The nails, teeth and tip of the tail of the animal were missing," said Divisional Forest Officer (DFO), Jharsuguda, Arjun Kumar Behera.
As the nails, some teeth and the tip of the tail were missing, it can be said that it might be a case of poaching and someone killed it for those parts which have much demand in the market, the DFO said.
"We do not have leopard in this jungle so. In all likelihood, it must have strayed in and someone killed it on December 8...We found motorcycle tyre marks near the body," he said.
"There were injury marks on the leaopard's face especially near the mouth. I believe that was caused by the burst of crackers," Behera said.
Lakhanpur, where the carcass was found, is on the tri-junction of Sundergarh and Jharsuguda districts of Odisha and Raigarh district in Chhattisgarh.
