Badaun (Uttar Pradesh), Jan 29 (IANS): Much to the shock of villagers, 63 sheep were found dead in Badaun's Malpur Tatera village.

All the 63 sheep had died over the Tuesday night under mysterious circumstances.

There were no injury marks on the dead sheep, which ruled out the possibilities of a wild animal attacking them.

A team of forest department personnel that reached the spot, also denied the presence of any wild animal as they did not find any pugmark.

The carcasses of the sheep have been sent for postmortem to ascertain the cause of death.

According to police, Ganga Sahai and Satish of Kashipur village had been grazing their sheep in the village for the past six months.

They had kept 125 sheep in a hut there.

Divisional forest officer, Badaun, Rajesh Kumar said: "Our team inspected the site and also searched the area. However, we did not find any pugmarks of a wild animal here. No injured sheep was found. We do not know the cause of the death and are awaiting the post-mortem report."

Officials said that it could be a case of poisoning. "The sheep may have eaten some poisonous berries or grass," said an official.