Leopard found dead, man held for poisoning

Rourkela: A 61-year-old cattle owner was arrested by Tamra forest range officials under Bonai division in Sundargarh district on Friday evening for poisoning a sub-adult leopard in Kusumdih Khesra forest. The accused, Nuas Xess of Kusumdih village under Chandiposh police station, confessed to the crime during interrogation, forest officials said.

According to forest officials, Xess lost one of his three cattle on Nov 28 and later found its half-eaten carcass in the forest. Instead of reporting the incident, he smeared the carcass with insecticide to kill any animal that fed on it. He visited the spot daily until Dec 7, when the leopard consumed the poisoned carcass and died. An empty insecticide packet was seized from him. The leopard, a Schedule-I species under the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972, was found dead on Thursday, prompting the investigation and scene recreation.


Regional chief conservator of forest (RCCF), Rourkela circle, P Ramasamy and divisional forest officer, Bonai forest division, Lalit Kumar Patra visited the spot on Friday and enquired about the leopard’s death. Earlier, suspecting the leopard dying of poisoning forest officials sent leopard samples to the Centre for Wildlife, Bhubaneswar, for laboratory tests. After autopsy, the leopard carcass was buried.

This comes close on the heels of another incident in Angul district, where a six-year-old male leopard was rescued from a poacher’s snare in Karatapata-Dimiripal reserve forest earlier this week.

The animal, trapped in a snare meant for wild boars, was tranquilised and shifted to Kulasingha nursery near Kusumchankragarh reserve for treatment but succumbed to internal injuries. A post-mortem has been conducted, and authorities are probing the poaching network. These back-to-back cases have raised alarm over rising threats to wildlife in Odisha’s forests.

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