Two Leopards Die After Being Electrocuted by Transformers Near Gir Wildlife Sanctuary

Ahmedabad: Two leopards died after being electrocuted in two separate incidents in the last two days near Gujarat's Gir Wildlife Sanctuary.

According to forest department officials, in both cases, the leopards got trapped by the electric transformers as they were chasing their prey.

On Friday morning, a 4-year-old female leopard was found dead with its corpse stuck to the electric transformer at a farm in Junagadh district’s Talala village.

The incident reportedly took place in Talala Forest Range of the Western Division of the Wildlife Sanctuary.

“Primary report suggests that leopard died of electrocution. All the nails were found from the animal’s body. We sent wild cat’s carcass for post mortem for further probe,’’ a forest official said.

Earlier on June 6, an 8-year-old female leopard was found dead with its carcass also stuck to an electric transformer in a farm in Vangdhra village in the Eastern Division’s Tulsishyam forest Range.

Forest officials said that the leopard died due to electrocution. “It seems that the leopard may have been trapped by the electric transformer while chasing his prey and died after being electrocuted,’’ an official said.

Such incidents of leopards dying of electrocution are a regular occurrence at Gir Wildlife Sanctuary and safety measures regarding electric transformers are not taken to avert these accidental deaths.

The last abode of the Asiatic lion in the world, the Sanctuary has 1395 leopards as per the 2016 census data.