Lakhimpur, Jul 11 (IANS): The carcass of an adult tigress was found floating in a canal in Uttar Pradesh's Lakhimpur Kheri district.

On Wednesday, locals spotted the carcass in the canal in in Gola area and alerted forest officials who rushed to the spot and sent it for post-mortem.

Ravi Shukla, Sub-Divisional Officer of South Kheri forest division, said: "The age of the tigress is around four to five years. There are no injury marks and all its nails are intact. It does not seem to be poisoning as the tongue gets twisted in such a case. We are awaiting the post-mortem report to ascertain the cause of death."

The canal in which the tigress was found, passes through Pilibhit and Mailani areas of Lakhimpur Kheri.

This is the second case of a big cat death reported from the South Kheri forest division this year and the fifth in the Terai region of the state.

On March 28, an adult male tiger was trapped in a snare and killed in Maheshpur range.

Another adult leopard was beaten to death in Motipur range of Katarniaghat Wildlife Sanctuary on April 5 while a leopard was killed in a territorial fight in Palia range of Dudhwa Tiger Reserve on April 7.

The carcass of an adult male tiger was fished out on April 14.