Gujarat: Leopard found dead near Ahmedabad

A leopard was found dead on aroad on the outskirts of Ahmedabad city on Monday morning, aforest department official said.

The feline's injury marks suggest it was killed afterbeing 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's Deputy Conservator of Forest Sakkira Begum said.

''It is unusual for a leopard to be seen so close toAhmedabad city. The forest department has deployed a team toanalyse its pugmarks to find out from which direction it camethere,'' she said.

The carcass has been sent to a government facility foran autopsy, the official said.

''The injury marks suggest that the leopard was killedafter getting hit by a vehicle,'' she said.

In November 2018, a leopard entered the state Assemblypremises in Gandhinagar and it was later captured by forestdepartment personnel.

As per the 2016 census, there were 1,395 leopards inGujarat.

In 2019, as many as 442 leopards were captured fromdifferent parts of the state after they entered humansettlements, Gujarat Forest Minister Ganpat Vasava said in thestate Assembly last year.

While 360 of them were released in the wild, 82leopards remained in captivity for being ''man eaters'', he hadinformed the House.

To prevent incidents of man-animal conflict, theGujarat government in 2019 sought the Centre's permission tosterilise leopards.