Leopard trapped in barbed wire in Kollengode dies; will perform post-mortem to find cause of death

PALAKKAD: A leopard, which was trapped in a wired fence in a compound of a private individual in Kollengode, died shortly after it was tranquilised and moved to a cage by the Forest officials. The preliminary conclusion is that the leopard died due to internal bleeding. The actual cause of death will become clear only after post-mortem. The post-mortem will be performed tomorrow. Concerned authorities have hinted that the leopard did not die due to the lapse on the part of the Forest officials.

Although a tranquiliser shot was fired at the leopard at around noon, the shot did not completely hit the animal. As the animal was not completely tranquilised, it was growling at the forest department staff when it was moved to the cage. The leopard was then put under observation. However, it died a little later.

The leopard was found trapped in the barbed wire in the compound of Nenmeni Vazhappuzha native Unnikrishnan at around 7 am today. With this, people gathered in the region. Soon, the Forest officials arrived at the area and began the efforts to capture the leopard. Although they initially tried to rescue the leopard without tranquilising it, the animal turned violent. Following this, it was decided to tranquilise the leopard. The tranquiliser shot was fired after moving the people from the area.

After this, the Forest officials moved the leopard to the cage after observing it for around 10 minutes. As the leopard remained violent without getting completely tranquilised, it was again kept under observation. The animal died soon after. It is believed that the leopard might have died due to internal bleeding which was caused while it remained trapped in the barbed wire for a long time.