Dramatic jungle chase ends in village well — leopard dies, boar survives

Chikhatiya village Sarpanch Kiran Chaudhary told The Indian Express that after this incident the village has decided to raise the height of the wall of the well to prevent such incidents. (File)

Navsari district saw an unusual wild chase, when a  leopard hunting a wild boar, chased it right into the well and died even as the boar survived.

The incident took place late on Friday night in the Vansda forest range where the leopard spotted the wild boar in the deep jungle and began to chase it. The two reached the Chikhatiya village’s outskirts where the boar,  jumped into a 20-feet well.

“The incident came into light on Saturday early morning, when a villager passing by heard some noise coming out from the well. He spotted a wild boar struggling to save his life. The villager informed the village Sarpanch Kiran Chaudhary, who reached the spot. The villagers then informed forest office. “Our teams used expert techniques and lifted the wild boar from the well”, said Amit Tandel, Vansda Range Forest officer .

Later the forest officers spotted the body of the leopard and fished it out.

Tandel said, “We sent body of the leopard to veterinary hospital in Vansda where doctors carried out postmortem, on Saturday. The doctors had reported that the cause of death is due to drowning…The leopard was 4-year- old male and boar was around two-and-half years old.  We have cremated the body of leopard in deep jungle areas on Saturday.”

The last census pegged the leopard population in Gujarat at 2274 of which 52 were spotted in Navsari district.

Chikhatiya village Sarpanch Kiran Chaudhary told The Indian Express that after this incident the village has decided to raise the height of the wall of the well to prevent such incidents. “The well was age old and … is around 20 feet deep and around 13 feet in diameter… As our village has few other wells. There is no cover but we have a 3-feet-high compound wall. This is for the first time we have come across the incident to leopard and boar both fell into the well”, said Chaudhary.

Kamal Saiyed is a senior Correspondent for The Indian Express, providing extensive, on-the-ground co... Read More