Leopard that fell into well rescued after seven-hour operation in Kerala’s Palakkad

Forest department rescues young leopard trapped in well in Kerala after seven-hour operation, later released in tiger reserve.

A young leopard that fell into an open well at Nelliyampathy in Palakkad district of Kerala on Wednesday (February 19, 2025) has been rescued by the Forest department staff by lowering a cage into the well. The rescue work took more than seven hours.

The one-and-a-half-year-old male leopard was presumed to have fallen into the well at the house of Jose at Pulayanpara, Nelliyampathy, on Wednesday morning. However, the big cat was noticed only in the evening when the householder came to pump water from the well.

Forest officials who reached the spot tried different methods to extricate the leopard from the well. At first, they used a net to rescue it, but in vain. Then they tried to lower a ladder into the well to help the animal catch on to it. When that failed, they lowered a tyre using a rope, to which the leopard clung on.

The forest staff abandoned the idea of rescuing it after tranquilisation as the animal began to show signs of exhaustion. Finally, after prolonged efforts, the leopard entered a cage lowered by the forest staff around midnight.

In the meantime, local residents staged a protest against shifting the animal to the Nelliyampathy forest. They said they were increasingly being confronted by wild animals such as elephants, tigers, leopards and wild boars. Nenmara MLA K. Babu later reached the spot and held discussions with the agitating residents.

The leopard trapped in the cage was then shifted to Parambikulam and released in the tiger reserve there in the early hours of Thursday (February 20).

Nenmara divisional forest officer (DFO) T. Praveen said the leopard was healthy.