Coimbatore : After five hour long efforts, forest department officials rescued a leopard which was entangled in a barbed wire fence in a private mill compound in Sirumugai limits, some 45 kms from here today.

Hearing the sound of a leopard, some villagers who went to cut hay, noticed the animal struggling to come out from the fence at Channamalaikarad and informed forest department officials.

The officials, with a veterinary doctor rushed to the spot and tried to bring out the 4-year old leopard without any harm and managed to relieve
it after struggling for nearly five and half hours, department sources said.

Since the animal had sustained serious injuries in the abdomen due to Sharp edge of the fence, it was taken to the Mettupalayam veterinary hospital for treatment.

A veterinarian, Sukumar from here had gone to Mettupalayam to examine the leopard. If the injuries are grievous, the animal will be taken to some other big hospital, they said.