NE NEWS SERVICE
AHMEDABAD, FEB 1
A leopard was found dead on a road on the outskirts of Ahmedabad city on Monday morning, a forest department official said.
The feline’s injury marks suggest it was killed after being hit by a vehicle, the official said.
The carcass was spotted near Sanathal crossroad, connecting Sarkhej to Bavla town near the city’s ring road, Ahmedabad Deputy Conservator of Forest Sakkira Begum said.
“It is unusual for a leopard to be seen so close to Ahmedabad city. The forest department has deployed a team to analyse its pugmarks to find out from which direction it came there,” she said.
The carcass has been sent to a government facility for an autopsy, the official said.
“The injury marks suggest that the leopard was killed after getting hit by a vehicle,” she said.
In November 2018, a leopard entered the state Assembly premises in Gandhinagar and it was later captured by forest department personnel.
As per the 2016 census, there were 1,395 leopards in Gujarat.
In 2019, as many as 442 leopards were captured from different parts of the state after they entered human settlements, Gujarat Forest Minister Ganpat Vasava said in the state Assembly last year.
While 360 of them were released in the wild, 82 leopards remained in captivity for being “man-eaters”, he had informed the House.
To prevent incidents of man-animal conflict, the Gujarat government in 2019 sought the Centre’s permission to sterilise leopards.
