BHUBANESWAR: THE State Wildlife Wing has ordered a probe into death of a leopard whose severed carcass was found near a railway track close to Badarampia village under Hemagir forest range of Sundargarh district on Wednesday. A team led by Sundargarh DFO has started investigation to ascertain exact cause of the death, Principal Chief Conservator of Forest (PCCF) Wildlife HS Upadhyay said. The PCCF said railway officials have also been asked to provide details of all the trains that passed on the track in last 12 hours.
Post mortem of the big cat was carried out by officials as per National Tiger Conservation Authority(NTCA) protocol and the report is awaited. The leopard strayed into the area from Daghara reserve forest in Hemgiri near Odisha-Chhattisgarh border, sources said adding that chances of it being killed and thrown on the railway tracks can not be ruled out since it reportedly had attacked and injured five persons including two women of a nearby village on Tuesday evening.
The investigating team suspects it to be a case of train accident as no other injury mark was found on the body, an wildlife official said. The DFO couldn’t be reached for his comments. Meanwhile, killing of the leopard has raised concern about protection of the big cats in the State. Odisha has already lost at least five leopards during the lockdown due to poaching.