Decomposed carcasses of leopard, hyenas found in Sohna

The district forest department on Tuesday recovered decomposed carcasses of one adult leopard and two adult hyenas from the forest area near the Aravalli village of Saanp ki Nangli in Sohna tehsil

The district forest department on Tuesday recovered decomposed carcasses of one adult leopard and two adult hyenas from the forest area near the Aravalli village of Saanp ki Nangli in Sohna tehsil.

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Officials said that a post-mortem examination conducted during the afternoon was inconclusive at determining the cause of death, and that viscera samples from all three animals have been dispatched to the Indian Veterinary Research Institute (IVRI) in Bareilly, Uttar Pradesh, to be tested for poisoning.

However, it has been confirmed that the leopard is not the same animal which was spotted last week in south-west Delhi’s Ghumanhera neighbourhood. “They cannot be the same animal because the carcasses we found were extremely decomposed. The deaths occurred at least a week ago. In any case, it would have been extremely hard for a leopard to make its way from Najafgarh to Sohna in just a few days without being noticed,” said Rajesh Chahal, district wildlife inspector.

The carcasses were reported to the police by villagers from Saanp ki Nangli early on Tuesday, who then informed the wildlife department. Officials said they are not yet able to confidently attribute the deaths of the three animals. The hyenas were both males, and around 10 years old. They would have been approaching the end of their life, making them easy targets for leopards on the hunt. Officials said that the leopard, meanwhile, was a female of around two to three years old. According to the post-mortem examination, the animal was not pregnant.

“We have not really seen such a situation before. The carcasses were all found in the same spot, barely 200 or 300 metres apart from one another. They did not show any signs of grievous injury. If the animals were poisoned, either purposely or inadvertently, we will know only once the reports come later in the week. But this does not seem like the work of poachers at all. If that was the case, the bodies would not have been left in the forest like that,” said MS Malik, chief conservator of forests, south Haryana.

In another incident, the wildlife department on Tuesday was unable to find any presence of a leopard in villages lying upstream of the Najafgarh basin in south-west Delhi. A leopard had been spotted in the area multiple times late last week, with officials speculating on Sunday that it may have crossed over into Haryana, upstream of the Najafgarh drain, toward the Aravalli mountain ridge between Manesar and Tauru.

Officials also confirmed that they will no longer be actively surveying the area, starting Wednesday. “We sent out teams yesterday and today, but there were no pug marks, droppings or any signs of hunting in the area. Locals have not seen anything either,” said Chahal.