Bison falls through roof, couple escapes unhurt

The couple has been living in their metal sheet and tiled roof house at the village in the Adhigaratty Beat of Kundah Range in the forest. The roof of the house was below the height of the road. The estate worker Babu on Sunday was watching TV late on the night around 2 am as he didn’t get sleep. His wife was sleeping in the cot. Suddenly he heard a strange cracking sound on the metal roof. He woke his wife as he realised something has been going wrong. 

Before they could find out what was happening, the roof gave away and dust fell on them. The couple rushed out of the bed and were horrified to see the hoof of an animal making its way through the roof. Immediately, a gaur landed on the middle of the bed. Frightened, the couple opened the front door and ran out. Moments later, the animal that was also in a state of shock made its way out through the front door and disappeared into the tea estates nearby. 

Babu found some furniture in the house including their cot damaged but felt lucky to escape death or a grievous injury. Forest department officials said that Babu will be compensated for the damage to their roof and furniture.

Devarshola being a forest, Gaurs were not new to the locality. Villagers said that wild animals including gaurs have been straying into the village as they ran short of water in the forest. 

They told the forest department personnel that bears and leopards were recently spotted close to the village and sought intervention of the department officials, who had come to inquire about the incident, to prevent the animals from straying into human habitations.

Meanwhile in the district, a leopard and a wild cat that fell into an open tank were rescued by the forest personnel after 10-hours of struggle. 

The landlord of the private property at Cherambadi in Cheppanthodu, Pandalur taluk on Sunday morning spotted the leopard and another small animal believed to be its cub and alerted the forest officials. The well was about 30 feet deep and had water only for about five feet. After working out various possibilities, the forest officials used a net to trap the leopard late in the evening and tranquilized the animal and lifted it out of the well safely. The efforts to reach out to the wild cat was hampered by the sunset and somehow the personnel managed to pull it out alive.

The two animals were taken to Nagugani near Gudalur where they will be treated as they have been in the cold water for about half a day. The animals will be checked for illness and injuries and released in the forest.