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A wild leopard rescued from a village well in Gujarat

     Moticher (Surat): After a well-planned operation, officials of the forest department rescued a wild leopard on prowl from an open well at Moticher village in Surat district of Gujarat in the wee hours of Wednesday. It is believed that the spotted feline beauty had strayed into the village in search of water and accidentally fell into the well. While falling into the well, the leopard had hit a pipe of a motor pump. No sooner than the residents of Moticher villages learnt about this mishap, they informed the forest officials who rushed to the spot to rescue the animal. Since a crowd of onlookers had gathered at the spot, the forest rangers waited till midnight to start the rescue operation that was planned meticulously. "We opted midnight time for rescue operations when people are asleep hence there is no disturbance. We tied a rope to a cot, after that we lowered a ladder into the well, through which the leopard came out slowly and ran towards the fields," said D S Chaudhary, Deputy Conservator of Forests, Surat Range, Gujarat. So as to save the leopard from drowning, the officials had lowered a wooden cot into the well on which the wild cat managed to perch. As a precaution, the forest rangers had also loaded their service revolvers lest the rescue leopard attack them in panic. Fortunately, after a ladder was lowered into the well and placed near the cot, the leopard managed to come out and ran towards the fields.
-April 29, 2009

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