The carcass of a Himalayan black bear was found in the Dalmore forest near Makrapara tea estate in Alipurduar district on Sunday evening.

Ujjwal Ghosh, the additional principal chief conservator of forests (north Bengal), said a post-mortem was conducted on the carcass that bore injury marks.

“We have received the post-mortem report which shows the bear died a natural death. Its body parts are intact. We suspect a wild boar killed the bear a couple of days ago,” said Ghosh.

In the past few weeks, a number of bears were sighted or rescued from different areas of Jalpaiguri and Alipurduar districts. The animal that inhabits upper reaches is nowadays found in lower areas, much to the concern of foresters.