Cuttack: The fear of a mysterious predator which gave farmers in Niali block of Cuttack district sleepless nights in 2017 has again returned to haunt the cultivators of Baghamara village under the block.
One of the sufferers is Biranchi Das. The villager said when he woke up Tuesday morning he found four of his sheep dead in the shed. “They were eaten in a similar manner which was reported in 2017,” he pointed out.
Other villagers said a few more sheep inside the same shed had injury marks on their necks.
This incident is second such incident in the area within a week as five sheep were found dead inside their shelter April 2.
These two incidents have left the villagers in panic. They have urged the administration to take early steps to save their livestock.
Last year, the mysterious animal had killed over 250 sheep in Niali region. Then a wolf-like animal was blamed for the killing of the sheep. The villagers had captured the animal July 25, 2017 when it had fallen into a pit. They captured the animal before handing it over to officials of the Forest department.
At that time, experts of Nandankanan Zoo and Simlipal National Park had failed to identify the species of the carnivore. The Odisha government had then roped in an expert team of Wild Life India. The team identified the animal as a species of wolf.
PNN