Cuttack/Baripada: After Niali, Bhanjanagar and Jagatsinghpur, Athagarh of Cuttack and Betanati of Mayurbhanj district are now in the grip of panic due to the alleged mysterious animal that has killed at least eight sheep and left six others injured on Tuesday night.
The unidentified animal strayed into Panchaggan village under Tigiria block near Athagarh and dragged six lambs out of a shed. Villagers found four of them dead and two others injured in the morning. The killing took place in similar style to the in Niali attacks on sheep.
“We suspect that a fox like animal attacked the sheep. Liver and hearts of the dead sheep are in right place. The wild animals are straying into human habitation due to acute shortage of food in forest,” said Goura Gopal Singh, Athagarh range officer.
“We woke up in the night after hearing bleat of the sheep and found some of them were found missing from the shed. We traced the carcasses lying scattered in lands in the morning and informed the forest officials,” said Sisir Behera, a villager.
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Local residents found pug marks on the mud in farm lands. Forest officials visited the spot after receiving a call from the villagers and examined pug marks of the animal after seizing the sheep carcasses.
A similar incident also occurred at Betanati area of Mayurbhanj district after wild animals killed four sheep at Aguada village. Locals found the mutilated carcasses of the sheep outside the village today. They said two other sheep were injured while two more went missing.