What Do Indians Do When A Leopard Is Trapped In The Village Well?

Leopard sightings in India are pretty common. Owing to their stealth and speed, leopards often get away with their kill, even if it is in the heart of a settlement. But what happens when a leopard gets stuck? Do the village people take the opportunity to butcher the animal that is the cause of their sleepless nights?

A leopard is an omnipresent threat is some remote rural regions of India. These magnificent animals often wander into the villages in search for food, but end up causing a lot of panic and pandemonium as they try to escape the frightened village. Being used to the menace, villagers often scare away the beast, but not before the leopard has managed to maim or kill a domestic animal or livestock.

But recently, when a leopard was stuck in a dry well in rural Gujarat, a western state in India, the villagers did not seize the opportunity to eliminate the treat, but did what any humanitarian group of people would do. They risked life and limb to raise the poor animal from the well, reported NY Daily News. The dramatic effort of the villagers was captured on tape, and the footage is now doing rapid rounds around the internet.

The village of Panchmahal district in the Indian state of Gujarat often skirts drought, and the wells as normally parched. One day, the locals heard scampering noises in one such dried well and upon peeking down, discovered an adult leopard had got himself stuck there. It is still not clear exactly how the leopard ended in the well, but perhaps owing to the fact that leopards are expert tree-climbers, the agility might have helped the leopard escape injury.

Discovering the animal in distress, the locals decided it was inhumane to kill the wild beast, and decided to haul him to safety as sending a human down to retrieve the animal would be akin to suicide. The inexperienced rescuers first attempted to ensnare the animal, but the leopard retaliated furiously. Perhaps trained personnel would have shot the leopard with a tranquilizer gun, but one must not have been around the village.

Nonetheless, the villagers eventually managed to pull the leopard up by securing ropes to his tail, reported Metro. The dramatic rescue footage shows how a bunch of villagers, with determination, can successfully capture a leopard without causing it any injury.

[Image Credit |Kannadiga World]