A three-year old leopard died after accidentally falling into an open well while chasing a prey at Maksur village, bordering Tadoba Tiger reserve, some 150 km from Nagpur, in Chandrapur district on Tuesday.
According to reports reaching the forest headquarters here on Wednesday, a farmer of the village, Prakash Deorao Meshram first noticed the carcass of the leopard, floating in a farm well. He immediately informed the local forest officials. Senior forest officials, along with the veterinary doctor, Dr Shailesh Mahajan, immediately rushed to the spot and fished out the body from the well.
Talking to Hindustan Times, Arun Tikhe, the range forest officer (RFO) of Warora said though it was not clear how it fell inside the well, the forest department suspected that the beast fell into the farm well that had no parapet wall while chasing some prey.
RS Yadav, the conservator of forests (CF), Chanda (South) circle, said that the incident took place on Monday but it came to light only on Tuesday. The well is located in an agricultural land, owned by a farmer, Gangadhar Date.
"The post mortem was conducted on the spot. All claws of the animal found to be intact. The animal was aged between three and a half," he further informed.
{{/usCountry}}"The post mortem was conducted on the spot. All claws of the animal found to be intact. The animal was aged between three and a half," he further informed.
{{/usCountry}}Earlier, two leopards were found dead in Buldhana district in the region a couple of days ago while another leopard was found dead in Chandrapur district last week.