Kendrapara: The disturbing trend of killing sheep has come to haunt a village in the district.

Maimed carcass of around a dozen of exclusive breed of sheep, locally known as kuji mendha, was found in the district's Rajagada village on Friday. The killing of livestock by mysterious animals has the sheep owners in a state of panic.

A joint team of forest and veterinary personnel visited the affected village on Friday. Eight badly mutilated sheep carcass was recovered from a strongly fenced enclosure in the village. The animals that reportedly killed the sheep broke through the enclosure, said divisional forest officer, Rajnagar mangrove (wildlife) forest division, Bimal Prasanna Acharya. "We are trying to identify the killer animals. But it appears to be the handiwork of pack of wolves or jackals," he said.

Forest department employees will begin night vigil in the village to track the killer animal. Owners of sheep have been advised to keep their flock in protected enclosures to save them from possible animal attack, he added.

The kuji mendha breed of sheep is popular as fast breeders. This variety of sheep gives multiple births, as opposed to other breeds that give single birth at a time. The National Bureau of Animal Genetic Resources has recognised it as genetically rare status. We are concerned over the sheep killing, said chief district veterinary officer Chaitanya Sethi.

Those who lost the sheep would be compensated according to provisions, Sethi added.

The village is home to over 200 sheep. Nearly 26 families earn their livelihood from sheep rearing.

"I have lost three sheep. We are landless people. If this sheep killing goes on, we will be starve to death as we have no alternative source of income," said Daitary Jena.

This spectre of sheep killing was first witnessed during July-August this year in Niali block of Cuttack district.

To get to the root of the problem, researchers from Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun, had conducted an on-the-spot investigation and concluded that wolves were killing the flock.

Pugmarks and the nature of predation corroborated that killer animals were a pack of wolves.