Leopard which had fallen into 60-ft deep well, rescued

A male leopard was rescued in Harakhpur village of Dahod district after it fell into a 60-feet deep well in an agricultural field, forest officials said today.
The young leopard was spotted by villagers on February 13 around 11 AM after which officials reached the spot and began the rescue operations, which lasted for 44 hours, said Assistant Conservator of Forests, Sunil Berwal.
"We found the leopard sitting on a sledge inside the well at about a depth of 25 feet. It fell into the well chasing a pig. As the well was about 60 feet deep, we realized there was no way we could risk tranquilising the animal as it could fall into the water and drown," he said.

So we lowered a cot and a ladder into the well for enabling him to climb on them. However, it continued to stick to the sledge for the whole day on February 13, the official added.
On February 14, the leopard was found to have fell into the water. So we used two cots and lowered them into the well. It climbed on to one of the cots, Berwal said.
After seeing the animal shiver due to fall into the cold water of the well, we allowed him to warm up by remaining on the cot on February 14 during sunshine.

Also, we were convinced that it was not injured as the leopard, aged around 3-4 years was seen playing on the cot, which was left suspended just above the water level.
Yesterday morning, we extended the length of the rope which was tied with the cot and started pulling it up slowly. As it came up, the animal jumped and disappeared into the nearby forests.
The rescue operation was conducted under the guidance of P A Vihol, Deputy conservator of Forest of Baria range.