Pilibhit (Uttar Pradesh), Jun 14 (IANS): A one-year-old leopard was found dead under mysterious circumstances in an agricultural field in Baiju Nagar village under the Gajraula police circle in Pilibhit district, officials said on Wednesday.

After getting the information from the villagers on Tuesday, the divisional forest officer (DFO) of forest and wildlife division, Sanjeev Kumar, rushed to inspect the spot, which was merely 15 meters away from the core forest area of Mala forest range in Pilibhit tiger reserve (PTR).

Forest department officials said the field had recently been cultivated and the soil was quite soft, however, no pug marks were found, indicating that the carcass was dumped there.

The wire fencing at the boundary of the forest was found to be broken.

The DFO said that the carcass bore no marks of injuries, and all his body parts including the canines and claws were intact.

The carcass has been sent to Bareilly-based Indian Veterinary Research Institute (IVRI) for autopsy.

"We will follow the standard operation procedure assigned by the National Tiger Conservation Authority in carrying out the autopsy. Since there were no injuries or indications of infighting, the leopard could possibly have died from poisoning," said Amitabh Agnihotri, vice president of 'wildlife biodiversity conservation society'.