Twitter
Advertisement

Watch: Pregnant leopard rescued after falling in well, dies a few hours later

The incident again reiterates the danger of open wells in Maharashtra.

Latest News
article-main
Wildlife SOS
FacebookTwitterWhatsappLinkedin

In an extremely unfortunate incident, which also highlights the urgent need to get all the open wells in Maharashtra covered - a pregnant leopard who was rescued from a 40-feet deep well in Junnar district died that too, hours after being pulled out. The feline suffered internal bleeding most probably caused due to injuries while she was trying to keep herself afloat.

It was on May 24, Wednesday that the forest department alerted the Manikdoh Leopard Rescue Center (MLRC) in Junnar about a leopard fallen inside the well in Bhorwadi village of Otur area.

The three-member rescue team from MLRC on reaching the spot were informed that a local farmer had spotted the leopard struggling to keep herself afloat inside the well around 2pm when he went to switch on the motor for irrigation.

“With help of forest department as well as our members of the rescue team we formed a strategy and lowered a trap cage to extricate the scared animal from the well and after few attempts she got into the cage and was pulled out,” said Dr. Ajay Deshmukh, Senior Veterinarian at the MLRC run by NGO Wildlife SOS.

According to Deshmukh it was evident that the female leopard was in trauma and it was brought to the rescue centre and after an initial medical check-up she was kept in an undisturbed location to calm her down. However, by late evening she collapsed and passed away.

“While conducting the post mortem we found that her death was caused due to internal bleeding as she might have injured herself while trying to stay afloat. No one knowns how many hours she was in the well and she could have fallen late at night or early in the morning while attempting to catch a prey but due to the well having no wall she might have accidentally fallen in it,” said Deshmukh adding that she might have attempted several jumps and hours of paddling that could have caused her bleeding.

Infact Wildlife SOS which was involved in this rescue operation has also launched an online petition drawing the attention of the authorities to the issue of open and abandoned wells that pose a threat to human as well as that of hundreds of animals each year.

“It is estimated that the lives of over 1500 animals have been claimed by open wells in Maharashtra alone in the last decade. Several instances of leopards falling into wells have been reported over the last few years in Maharashtra and these cases have been increasing in the recent years and the main reason behind this appears to be the lack of proper covers and fencing around these wells,” shared Kartick Satyanarayan, Co-founder of Wildlife SOS. 

Find your daily dose of news & explainers in your WhatsApp. Stay updated, Stay informed-  Follow DNA on WhatsApp.
Advertisement

Live tv

Advertisement
Advertisement