Surat: Carcass of a two-year-old male leopard was found in an open land near a temple in the outskirts of Joravasan village in Valsad district on Wednesday. It was frothing at the mouth and also oozing blood besides its six claws were found to be missing.Residents of Joravasan village alerted the forest officials who sent the carcass for post-mortem. The forest officials suspect that the leopard may have died two days ago. The post- mortem could not be carried out at Chikhli on Thursday and so the carcass was taken to Navsari, forest officials informed.Forest officials suspect that the leopard could have died of a snake bite since there was no visible injury on its body. "Froth and blood coming out of mouth is a sign of snake bite. The post-mortem will reveal the exact cause behind its death," said M R Gurjar, deputy conservator of forest, Valsad North. "Four claws from one leg and two from the other leg had been removed by unidentified persons. We are trying to trace the persons who had removed them from the leopard's body. It seems that someone living nearby had removed the claws after the leopard died," Gurjar said.

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