Decomposed carcass of leopard found near Malegaon worries locals

The decomposed carcass of a leopard found in the foothills of Galne fort near Malegaon has raised many questions, about the goings on in the forest and the security in the area.

Range forest officer VD Kamble said some locals informed the forest office about the dead animal. "We reached there with our team and found the decayed carcass. Prima facie, it appears that the leopard must have been dead for the past 10-15 days. We have sent the carcass for post-mortem and some samples for verification to ascertain the cause of death," he added.

The leopard was found in a bad condition with its nails missing. Activists suspect that it was killed. "Locals informed us that a dead cattle animal was also found near the carcass. It is suspected that someone spread poison over the half-eaten prey killed by the leopard and left it in the jungle. When the leopard returned to eat the rest, it got poisoned. This has to be checked though... forest officials have sent samples for verification," said Nikhil Pawar, an activist in Malegaon.

What has irked Pawar and another activist Deva Patil in Malegaon is the fact that forest officials were unaware of the death in their own jungle for so long. "The foothills area is a forest reserve and developed for tourism purpose with even a rest house nearby. Ideally, the area should be manned by forest guards. And if they were on duty, how did they miss the dead animal?" asked Pawar.

Patil said that in the last three months this is the second such case, and that forest officials needed to be more vigilant.