A wild leopard was rescued from a well in India by villagers and forest officials after it fell in and could not get back out.

Footage filmed on May 31 in the Satpura Tiger Reserve in Madhya Prades, India, shows the crowd of villagers tentatively lowering the hastily-assembled ladder into the deep well.

The beast was spotted in the well by a villager who heard grunts and splashing.

After informing the forest department, IFS field director L Krishna Moorthy swung into action.

The ladder was assembled from Bamboo sticks and was around six metres (20 feet) in length.

The rescue took about 20 minutes in total.

Mobile phone footage shows the moment the leopard slowly ascends the ladder before darting off into the forest.

Leopard sightings have become more common in the area as drought pushes the big cats into contact with humans.

By Deepali Ravi Mishra and Dinesh Dubey

By Deepali Ravi Mishra

A wild leopard was rescued from a well in India by villagers and forest officals after it fell in and could not get back out. The leopard which fell into a well near Satpura Tiger Reserve in Madhya pradesh in Northern part of India. The Leopard was rescued after a two-hour-long operation. by forest service personnel who lowered a makeshift ladder to enable the animal to climb out.
The Satpura National Park is rich in biodiversity and boasts of many animals including leopards, deer and bear. Satpura National Park is located in the Hoshangabad district of Madhya Pradesh in India. Its name is derived from the Satpura range. It covers an area of 524 kml.

The Incident happened on 31 may at 10.am

Leopards have been frequently straying into this area due to the prevailing drought conditions creating panic among the people. Unlike other incidents where the animals strayed into residential areas bordering the forest this had taken place inside the deep forest. A Villager who spotted the leopard on peeping into the 20-ft-deep well after hearing grunts. On seeing the animal moving around the well in the water, he informed the forest department.

The rescue team Lead by L Krishna Moorthy IFS Field Director Satpura Tiger Reserve Madhya Pradesh swung into action. The public were cleared from the area and a makeshift ladder of about 20ft in length cobbled together using bamboo sticks. Though it was lowered into the well, the leopard resisted and behaved aggressively. However, after Twenty Mintues, the big cat climbed out of the well .