May 10, 2010: The serene calm of the cool summer evening was suddenly shattered by the loud shouts of shepherdess in the Sargakhet village today.There was a leopard on the prowl, and it had attacked one of her goats grazing nearby. As the shepherdess was joined by those cutting grass for fodder along the mountain side, we heard rustling of leaves in the woods just 100ft away from our new guest house, and in a flash, a leopard came in sight. It was a simply breathtaking view. We were awestruck by its wild beauty as the leopard causally walked away from the commotion, along the rocky hill to the left of our place only to disappear on the other side of the hill.
“Aaj toh gazzab ho gaya,” said my man-Friday Bahadur, who was excited having seen a leopard for the first time in his life. It was an adult leopard, nearly 10 ft in length, 3 feet high.
The wild cat had broken into a light jog as a result of all the commotion, however was not in a rushing hurry to oblige the villagers by dashing into the oblivion, away from its prey, the unlucky goat.
And this proved to be our good luck. We had the handsome creature in sight for nearly 5 minutes, a once in a lifetime opportunity because leopards are known to be very stealthy creatures.
Known as “Tendua” in Hindi, leopard – genus Panthera, is the smallest of the “big cats”, i.e. the lion, jaguar and tiger. It is found in sub-Saharan Africa and parts of India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Malaysia and China. Leopard can chase their prey at the speed of nearly 60 kilometres per hour and climb trees too.
Thanks to the protected jungles around Mukteshwar, we still get an occasional glimpse of leopards around or hear them growl or roar in the silent of the night.
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