KATHMANDU: Kriti Paudel, chief of the biodiversity conservation centre under the National Trust for Nature Conservation at Chitwan National Park, was found dead at a hotel in Arunachal Pradesh in northeastern India.

Paudel was found hanging in the bathroom of hotel Blue Pine there on Saturday.

Paudel was in India on a training organised by an organisation Future Generation. Siddhartha Bajracharya, executive officer, NTNC said, "It has been reported that it was a suicide, but we have doubts as the death is mysterious."

According to Bajracharya, Paudel had talked over telephone on Friday evening. He was found dead the next morning. He was staying in the hotel with a South African.

Paudel, enrolled in a Master's programme was in Arunachal for the first phase of the academic degree and was to move to the United States later.

The dead body was brought to Kathmandu by an Air India flight. It was later taken to Pokhara for the last rites. Paudel, 42, is survived by his wife and two sons.