Two cubs, adult female leopard found dead in a farm in suspicious manner

One of the leopards found dead

Three leopards including two cubs were found dead in a farm in a suspicious manner in a village yesterday. A Forest Officer suspected they had preyed on a dog, which had been poisoned. On Monday around 10 am, the three leopards were found dead in Devali village in Bhor taluka, around 70 kilometres from Pune. Leopards don't inhabit the area, and after villagers noticed them, they alerted the forest officials.

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B P Jadhav, sub-divisional forest officer said, "A four-year-old female leopard along with its two one-year-old male cubs were found dead. It seems that they had preyed on a stray dog and might have died after eating it. The dog may have been poisoned, as in the same location we also spotted around 30 dead crows. All the animal and bird carcasses were collected and post mortems were conducted on them at a Pune-based Forensic Laboratory." The post mortem report is awaited.

"The viscera has been preserved and prima facie it seems that the death of the leopards was due to eating a dog. We are investigating as to whether someone purposely killed a dog and caused the deaths of the wild animals including the birds," he added.

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No of crows also found dead nearby