Wildlife officials in Uttar Pradesh Monday arrested two youths for killing a full-grown leopard in the state's Katarnia Ghat forest reserve.

The arrested youth - Shatroghan and Vinod - have confessed they killed the leopard Friday-Saturday night in the reserve in Bahraich district, along the Indo-Nepal border, about 170 km from here.

'We had laid a trap to catch a jackal, but by accident a leopard got caught in it. We did not know what to do with it so we hit its head with iron rods, as a result of which it died. We abandoned the carcass in the bushes around,' the culprits were said to have told a wildlife team led by district forest officer R.K.Singh.

State's Chief Conservator (Wildlife) B.K.Patnaik told IANS: 'Our manhunt for the poachers began no sooner than we discovered the leopard's body in a private agricultural farm, barely two km from the forest. There were blunt injuries on the animal's head and some of its teeth and two claws were also broken.'

He said after sustained inquiries and questioning, they zeroed in on these two youths, who eventually admitted having carried out the killing.

According to Patnaik, the leopard was about two years old, about 160 cm in length and 70 cm in height.

Katarnia Ghat forest reserve has an estimated tiger population of 42 tigers and 34 leopards, as per the last census carried out three years ago.

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