Forest range officer of Panjgain in Bilaspur district Satpal lodged the complaint alleging that on May 2, forest guard of Panjgain had informed him that a male leopard was found dead.

This is not the first time when mutilated body of a leopard has been recovered in the state as in the first week of March this year leopard poaching was reported from DadaSiba Panchayat of Kangra district where a leopard had stepped into a trap and later its throat was found slit. Another incident was reported later in the third week of March when a leopard was found dead in Khajoor village of Mandi district with its head, legs and tail chopped off.

While presiding over the meeting of State Board for Wildlife in Shimla on April 10, chief minister Virbhadra Singh said the state government would soon set up State Wildlife Crime Control unit which would go a long way in checking crime against the wildlife. The unit would be jointly managed by police and forest department, he added.

For the protection of dwindling leopard population, an NGO, Nature Watch India has demanded for the launch of "Project Leopard" on the lines of "Project Tiger". Nature Watch India's national convener Rajeshwar Singh Negi said a detailed memorandum on the issue has already been submitted to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, chairman National Board for Wild Life, with copies endorsed to director general of IUCN Inger Anderson and Union minister for forests, environment and wildlife Anil Madhav Dave with the request to declare leopard as an endangered species in India.