MEERUT: A three-year-old leopard was killed on the Delhi-Meerut expressway on Thursday night after it was hit by an unidentified speeding vehicle while crossing the road. Meerut divisional forest officer (DFO) Rajesh Kumar said, “The incident took place at around 10pm, a few kilometres ahead of Kashi toll plaza near Bahadurpur underpass on the highway.”
He added that after officials were notified, a team rushed to the spot and took the leopard’s carcass into custody for a post-mortem. “The spot where the accident occurred was on an elevated road, and we’re investigating how the leopard reached there. The autopsy was conducted on Friday, and the cause of death was ascertained as ‘impact hit’,” Kumar said. A case has been registered under the Forest Act against unidentified individuals, and the leopard was cremated on Friday, the DFO added.
Such incidents are not uncommon. In Jan 2023, a leopard died after being hit by a speeding vehicle near Bhojpur on the Ghaziabad expressway. Notably, farmers in western Uttar Pradesh primarily grow sugarcane, and the fields serve as a natural habitat for leopards.
