Pregnant leopard found dead in Kora

WARDHA: Just three days after a leopard was killed in an accident in Talegaon, another was found dead. This time in Kora village in Samudrapur Tehsil. The beast was pregnant.

"We sent the carcass of the pregnant leopard for post-mortem, but the report did not indicate poisoning or any kind of attack," said an official from the forest range of Samudrapur.

The big cat was cremated on Monday at 5 pm though the Maharashtra government's resolution states that the carcass must be preserved. "There is no facility to preserve the carcass. We were helpless hence we performed the last rites,' said assistant conservator of forest, D P Dahat, who took the discussion in consultation with DFO P D Chavan.

"Pregnant leopards are vulnerable. This was a case of a natural death and not hunting. There were no bullet marks on the body," said Dahat.

Meanwhile, Chavan clarified saying that the preservation rule is applicable only in the case of dead tigers, who are cremated in the presence of senior officers. "I instructed my colleagues to cremate the dead leopard," added Chavan.

Read more: Pregnant leopard found dead in Kora - The Times of India http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/c...#ixzz1Aic1FLr0

Sad situation. We continue to lose our precious big cats one after the other. It is time, a postmortem protocol is developed for all mega fauna on similar lines as the protocol developed by NTCA (National Tiger Conservation Authority) for tigers.

Sabyasachi