The carcass of Small Indian Civet was discovered near Assam Secretariat in Dispur, on Friday.

A local journalist first spotted the dead civet.

Identified as Nibir Akash Baruah, the journalist took to his Facebook and wrote, "It was around half past 12 when I along with my friend Lakhinandan Boruah were returning from our late night wandering of Guwahati when we saw this animal lying exactly adjacent to Assam secretariat, we recognised it and immediately stopped and went near but the animal was already dead."

"There was least we could do except giving it a proper burial hence we started looking for any possible equipment our luck favoured and found an iron rod in a nearby construction site. But as we returned, to utter dismay we found that the animal was already picked by someone," he added.

It may be mentioned here that Small Indian Civet is a protected species under the Indian Wildlife Protection Act, 1972.