PUNE: A ten-month-old female leopard cub that had fallen in a 40-feet deep well in Alegaon Paga village, Shirur, was rescued by Wildlife SOS and Forest Department on Saturday. The young cub was also reunited with her mother.
As per information given by the rescue team of Wildlife SOS on Saturday, a local farmer found the leopard cub trapped in a well near his sugarcane field in Alegaon Paga village. As the cub was in waist deep water and was in danger of drowning, the farmer immediately alerted the Shirur forest department.
Range Forest Officer Tushar Dhamdhere in turn called the Wildlife SOS team at the Manikdoh Leopard Rescue Center in Junnar for assistance. The Wildlife SOS team drove nearly 148 kilometres from Junnar to Shirur to reach the location. After analysing the situation, a ladder was lowered into the well for temporary support of the cub.
A trap cage was then used to extricate the cub. After the successful rescue, the local villagers informed that the mother leopard was also spotted in the vicinity of the cub, which helped in reuniting the cub with her mother.
Dr Ajay Deshmukh, Senior Veterinarian at the Manikdoh Leopard Rescue Centre, said, “The cub must have wandered into the field out of curiosity and had the misfortune of falling into the uncovered well. We receive rescue calls about animals trapped inside wells very often. The wells in most villages remain exposed due to lack of proper net covers. We are glad to see that people are becoming more sensitised towards wild species that share the surrounding habitats.”
Kartick Satyanarayan, CEO and Co-founder, Wildlife SOS, said, “The entire exercise had to be quickly executed with painstaking care. Such cases have been increasing in recent years and the main reason behind this appears to be the lack of proper covers and fencing around wells.” Speaking about the rescue, Tushar Dhamdhere, Range Forest Officer, Shirur, said, “We are glad the animal was unhurt and safely returned”.
