This is the dramatic moment a very angry leopard was hauled from the bottom of a village well in southern India on Friday.

The big cat is thought to have fallen into the water source as it tried to flee the village in Udupi District with a dog in its mouth.

Villagers were woken in the middle of the night by the sound of a dog barking from the bottom of the well.

When they got to the well, they found the dog and the leopard both stuck 15-20 feet below.

Realising the leopard must have dropped the dog as it fell into the water source, villagers lost no time in pulling the canine to safety with the help of a rope and a basket.

Forest Department staff arrived at around 9am local time to attempt the much more dangerous task of rescuing the leopard, which was by now distressed and angry.

They lowered a cage into the well with four ropes and eventually managed to goad the snarling cat inside.

The cage was then slowly raised from the well.

The entire rescue operation took around 90 minutes.

"It was a male leopard about five or six years old. It was very healthy,” said Sharath Shetty from the Forest Department.

The leopard will be relocated.

By Deepali Ravi Mishra
The leopard that was rescued by the staff & the Personnel of the Forest Department which had fallen into a well at Hunsemakki hamlet near Kundapur in Udupi district on Friday.

The leopard had come in search of prey at around 2 a.m. It caught a seven-month-old dog at the house of Lata Kulalti. After catching the dog, it was in the process of jumping over and escaping, when it fell into the 15-20 feet deep well.

It was a well with rings around it. After it fell into the well, it let go off the dog. It got frightened but it managed to go and sit on a slightly broad ring in the well. Since the dog was barking all the time from the well, members of the household woke up. They saw the dog in the well and the leopard on the ring nearby.

They informed the Kota Police and the Forest Department about it. Sharath Shetty, Range Forest Officer, Kundapur, told that the people from the house lowered a small basket and managed to get the dog out.

Meanwhile, the Forest Department staff visited the place and decided to rescue the leopard in the morning. Accordingly, the staff arrived at the hamlet with a small cage at around 9 a.m. At around 9.15 a.m., they lowered the cage which was tied with ropes from all four sides.

One staff member goaded the leopard to get into the cage with a long stick from above. After lot of efforts, the leopard got into the cage. The cage was then slowly lifted from the well. The entire operation to rescue the leopard took an hour-and-a-half. “It was a male leopard about five or six years old. It was very healthy,” Mr. Shetty said.