Forest officials rescued a distressed leopard from a 30-feet-deep well in Karnataka, southern India.

Footage from April 9 shows locals and officials surrounding a well in Sowkur village as a leopard is spotted stranded at the bottom holding onto a pipe.

Officials lowered down a basket to capture the big cat and once the leopard had entered the contraption they pulled it back up to the surface.

The leopard was released into the wild later that evening.

Forest officials rescued a leopard from a 30-feet-deep well in southern India's Karnataka on April 9. The incident took place in Sowkur village, located in the Kundapura region of the Udupi district.

Visuals of the rescue feature the drenched leopard perched on a pipe to stay afloat inside the well. Upon noticing the big cat losing its grip, the officials lowered a basket into the structure, and once the leopard sprung into it, they placed a cage near it using ropes. Following this, the team pulled the big cat to safety.

The locals noticed a leopard falling into a well at 11 in the morning, following which they alerted the Kundapura forest department. The officials, under the leadership of Range Forest Officer Prabhakar Kulal, rushed to the spot and initiated the rescue operation. They pulled the leopard to safety inside a cage from the 30-feet-deep well and released it into the wild in the evening.