COIMBATORE: The carcass of a three-year-old male leopard and a female gaur was found near Periya Karumbalam in Coonoor in the Nilgiris district on Monday.
According to forest sources, the female gaur reportedly impaled the male leopard by pushing its horns into the big cat's stomach, which led to the leopard's death.
It is suspected that the incident could have happened when of the gaurs in the herd attacked the leopard.
"During the postmortem examination, we have found that the leopard stomach had gaur meat. We suspect that one of the gaurs in the herd could have attacked the leopard when the big cat was consuming a female gaur which gave birth a month ago," said K.Saravanakumar Assistant Conservator of forest Nilgiris Forest Division.
An autopsy was carried out by the Animal Husbandry department veterinarian Rajan of Thalakuntha and Kannan of Ketti. While the leopard was burnt as per the NTCA guideline in the presence of WWF an NGO and village administrative office (VAO) and the gaur was buried nearby.