Bijnor (Uttar Pradesh), Feb 12 (IANS): A three-year-old female leopard was found dead in Bijnor's Nangala Nattha village, taking the death toll of the big cats to eight in the area in the past 40 days.

According to forest officials here, the carcass of the big cat was found lying in a sugarcane field on Tuesday. Farmers spotted it and informed forest staff and the police.

The carcass, which has been sent to the Indian Veterinary Research Institute (IVRI) in Bareilly for a post-mortem, seemed to be three days old and had a few injury marks, said an official.

Dhampur forest ranger Arvind Srivastava said: "The leopard seems to have died a natural death, but we are sending the carcass to the IVRI where a post-mortem will ascertain the actual cause of the death."

Three days ago, the carcass of another female leopard was found in a sugarcane field at the Bharaira village in the district.

Earlier, three leopards were killed by villagers in Bijnor, Moradabad and Badaun while the fourth died of age-related issues in Bulandshahr.

Two were killed in road and rail accidents, respectively. The cause of death of the seventh is yet to be ascertained, but it is suspected that it succumbed to some ailment. While six leopard deaths took place last month, two have been found dead in quick succession in Bijnor this month.