Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Trapped in cement slab, leopard rescued after 20 days

Rajkot: In a bizarre incident in a village in Kodinar taluka of Junagadh district, a leopard was cemented inside a concrete slab for last 20 days. It was discovered on Tuesday when it managed to break a brick. A major operation was carried out to rescue it.


According to sources, the incident was reported from Kadodara village where labourers built a wall around a leopard which had hidden in a hollow chamber on the third storey of an under-construction house. They did not know that the animal was inside.

Range forest officer (Jamwala Forest Range-Gir) LD Parmar told TOI, “The leopard was found from the house being constructed by Natu Vala, chairman of a sugar factory here. The village is about 8 km

away from Kodinar town. The supporting slab under the roof of the house was inadvertently cemented from all sides during the finishing of the bungalow 20 days ago.”

“It is a wonder that the animal was alive even after 20 days. In the morning, when a labourer was splashing water on the site, the leopard broke a brick and started growling,” he said. “We waited for night fall to rescue the big cat as it would be resting then. We built a contraption to place a cage at the height of the third floor and thus the leopard was rescued and rushed for medical checkup,’’ Parmar said.