The decayed carcasses of two leopards were found at the Bhilodia village ravines of Dabhoi taluka, Vadodara district on Sunday.

One is a two-month-old cub, while the other is a two-and-a-half-year-old female leopard, said forest officials, who were informed about the deaths on Saturday evening.

On Sunday, officials reached the spot near Orsang and Hiren ravines and conducted a postmortem at the location itself.

Range Forest Officer (RFO), Social forestry Poonam Solanki said: “It was difficult to carry the remains of the two leopards to the veterinary clinic. Therefore, we took a veterinary doctor from Dabhoi to the location.”

Leopards are frequently found at the ravine, which is a meeting point of the Orsang and Hiren rivers in Vadodara district. Forest officials said that a cowherd (bharwad) was grazing cattle in his field when he spotted the carrion.

Sources said there have been instances in the village where leopards have attacked cattle, but it could not be confirmed whether the two leopards were poisoned or not.

“On the face of it, this does not seem to be a case of man-animal conflict. The ravine is far from human habitation and leopards generally take shelter under the banana trees here. The body of the cub was found nearly 400 metres from the body of the adult leopard near the ravine on Saturday,” Solanki added.

Dr Ashwin Patel from the Dabhoi Veterinary clinic said: “The remains of the leopards were in a bad state and there was nothing much left for examination. But we have sent the intestinal loops for further examination at the Forensic Science Laboratory. The body of the adult leopard is as old as three days and that of the cub is as old as five days. Only after testing the intestinal loops can we comment if the leopards were poisoned or not.”