A leopard was allegedly killed by two tribals in forest near Shebalpimpri village in Yavatmal district, forest officials said today.

A team of officials arrested the duo on Sunday who confessed that they had poisoned the wild cat last week because "it had killed their goats", they said.

Assistant Conservator of Forest, Pusad Division, Subhash Dhumare said the duo hid the leopard's skin on a tree top in their village and dumped its severed head in a nullah nearby there, which were recovered last night.

The tribals were identified as Shekorao Ingle (58) and his son Ganpat Shekorao, both hailing from Londari village.

"Accordingly, we sent a team of forest officials to the spot and after conducting the spot panchnama, the body of the leopard was sent for postmortem which has established that the leopard was killed by poisoning," Dhumare said.

The officer said that the leopard's skin is estimated to fetch Rs 15 lakh in international market.

"We are investigating if the accused have any ulterior motive for killing the wild cat and hiding its skin on the tree top," Dhumare said.

When contacted, Chief Conservator of Forest, Yavatmal, Vasant Gurme said that as per prima facie investigation the duo did not intend to kill the leopard for poaching but because it had killed their goats.