The carcass of a rare black panther was found lying along NH 4, near Khindwadi village in Satara district, on Friday morning. According to forest officials, the two-year-old, sub-adult black panther was one of the three known in the region near the Sahyadri Tiger Reserve. The carcass was found by villagers along the road leading to Karad, said M N Mohite, assistant conservator of forests (territorial), Satara. “The villagers alerted us in the morning. The postmortem report revealed that the animal had suffered fractures in the pectoral girdle and injuries to the spine. It had also suffered massive internal bleeding. The animal must have been run over by a vehicle,“ Mohite said.
The area is located at the base of Ajinkyatara fort, which is on a hill that has some forest cover. The local people going for morning walk to the fort had spotted a panther a couple of times in the last 15 days.
Black panthers are not different species, but a melanistic variety of the normal spotted leopard. The reason for their unusual skin colour is linked to genetics and is not fully understood.
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