Severed head of fishing cat found in Bengal

    Howrah (WB), Feb 15 (PTI) The severed head of an
endangered fishing cat was found near a canal in West Bengal's
Howrah district, forest officials said on Saturday.
    The incident comes after two fishing cats, the state
animal, were killed over tiger scare in separate incidents in
neighbouring Hooghly district in January.
    Upon receiving information that a fishing cat has been
killed in Nakol village in Shyampur block, forest officials
launched a search on Friday for the corpse but found only the
animal's severed head near the canal that links to the
Rupnarayan river, Uluberia forest range officer Utpal Sarkar
said.
    During preliminary probe, it was found that the
fishing cat was electrocuted to death after coming in contact
with live wires that were put up around a pond in the village
to prevent stealing of fishes, Sarkar said.
    The severed head has been sent for post-mortem and a
search is on for the owner of the pond, he added.
    Several residents of Narendrapur village in
Jagatballavpur police station area in the district were
sentenced to five years imprisonment in 2015 for killing and
eating a fishing cat. PTI CORR
ACD ACD

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)