CANACONA: On the intervening night of Wednesday and Thursday an adult male leopard fell into a well, at Magdall in Galgibagh.
As the well is little away from the nearest house no one knew about it till Thursday afternoon when a member of the family heard growls of the distressed big cat only to notice the Leopard trapped in the over ten meters deep well.
Word of Leopard falling in the well spread like wildfire and hundreds of shutterbugs from near and far came to take a glimpse and take pictures of the terrified and distressed Leopard.
Soon a team of local police arrived on the scene and instructed the gathered locals to stay away from the well, a short while later Alex Carpenter and Goutham Bhagat of ‘TRIBE’ a voluntary animal rescue organization reached the site. The Leopard was later rescued from the well by lowering a metal cage by the staff of wild life and forest department lead by RFO Prakash Naik, RFO Vikram Naik Gaonkar, DRO Anant Velip assisted by Pritam Tari, Santosh Natekar, Vaman Palyekar, Gulshan Naik, Sajjan Naik and other staff.
When asked for the reason behind the increase in the straying of leopards into the villages of Canacona taluka, RFO Prakash Naik said that the increase in activity of farmers in the cashew plantations on the hills was the reason behind leopards entering the areas inhabited by human beings.
The leopard is being kept in an enclosure at Hathipaul rehabilitation centre and will be later transferred to Bondla Zoo.
This is the second time in less than a month a leopard fell into a well at Galgibagh.
