A two-and-a-half-year-old female leopard, was found dead on the Bathalapalli Main Road, atop a hillock near Pernambut town in Vellore, on the Tamil Nadu-Andhra Pradesh border, late on Tuesday, November 14, 2023.
Around 9 p.m that day, Forest Department officials at the check-post at the foothills of the hillock, received an alert about the leopard. Immediately, a five-member forest team led by P. Satish Kumar, forest range officer (Pernambut), rushed to the spot, around five km from the check-post, and recovered the carcass of the animal.
Forest Department officials said that the leopard might have been killed by a speeding vehicle on this stretch. Officials moved the carcass of the animal from the narrow carriageway to a nearby area to ascertain for injuries, and found the hip of the animal broken. They did not find any blood or other marks on the animal, and ruled out the possibility of poaching. They said that the animal might have emerged from the Kaundinya Wildlife Sanctuary in Chittoor (A.P) into reserve forests along the border.
