Watch: Terrified leopard rescued from 50ft well in India
Staff from charity Wildlife SOS spent two hours hauling the big cat to safety.
Farmers in India received a fright on New Year’s Eve when they discovered a leopard had fallen 50ft into a nearby well.
Footage released by charity Wildlife SOS shows the panicked leopardess being hauled to safety during a two-hour rescue in the western Maharashtra region.
Suvidha Bhatnagar, communication and fundraising officer at the charity, said: “In an attempt to chase a chicken, the leopard seemed to have overlooked the well and slipped inside.
“The ring of the well was also of a relatively lower height, owing to which the leopard mistakenly fell victim to the uncovered well.”
“Clutching on to a water-pump and pipe inside the well, the leopard was barely managing to keep her head above the water,” Bhatnagar added.
“Almost grateful for a dry spot to move onto, the leopard jumped into the cage and was quickly lifted out of the well,” said Bhatnagar.
Leopards and humans are increasingly coming into conflict on the Indian subcontinent as the number of settlements increase and the amount of natural habitat shrinks.
Wildlife SOS monitored the seven-year-old leopardess from the well for eight hours before releasing it back into the wild.
“After conducting a through physical examination we concluded that it was healthy and fit for release,” said Dr Ajay Deshmukh, senior veterinarian at the Manikdoh Leopard Rescue Centre.
