Coimbatore: A two-year-old female leopard was killed after it got trapped in a barbed wire fence at a farmland in Modamathi village, located within 500m of forest boundary.
According to forest department officials, the animal is suspected to have wandered out of a nearby grove early on Sunday and accidentally got entangled in the fence while attempting to cross it.
Veterinary assistant surgeons Vijayragavan, Meyyarasan and Karthikeyan conducted a postmortem examination, which revealed that the leopard suffocated after the barbed wire became tightly entangled around its neck, leg and abdomen.
Forest officials also conducted inquiries with local farm owners to ascertain whether there had been any recent incidents of leopard attacks in the area. “There were no incidents of leopard attacks in the past few days. It appears that the leopard may have entered the farmland for the first time and accidentally got caught in the fence,” an official said.