Shimla: From succumbing to become a prey, Jai Singh, a resident of Baggi village of Sundernagar region in Mandi district, turned predator felling a leopard with his bare hands in a fight that lasted just fifteen minutes.
Singh, who teaches history to plus two students in a government school at Kullu, was out fetching water one morning when the leopard attacked. Caught unaware by the ferocity of the attack, it time for Jai Singh to register that it had to be a fight to the finish.
Survival instincts helped him to take advantage of the leopards open mouth and Singh thrust his hand into it and used force to suffocate the animal. The leopard tried to claw its way out and inflicted injures on the arms and legs but could not manage to free himself of the hand suffocating him.
“After the animal lost some strength I banged his head against a hard surface till it became unconscious,†narrates Singh as he recovers in a government hospital.
Sundernagar forest range officer Rajeev Sharma said that a post-mortem of the animal revealed that the leopard was about two years old and measured 5 and half feet from head to tail. The wild life department would compensate Jai Singh for the injuries sustained because of the feline attack, he said.
Meanwhile media persons and locals making a beeline to the hospital where he is recovering to take a sound bite of the man who killed a leopard with his bare hands.
As Editor, Ravinder Makhaik leads a team of media professionals at Hill Post.
Spanning a career of over two decades in mass communication, as a Documentary Filmmaker, TV journalist, Print Media journalist and with Online & Social Media, he brings with him a vast experience. He lives in Shimla.
