Dewas, Madhya Pradesh:

A shocking video of villagers from Madhya Pradesh’s Iklera abusing and harassing a leopard has emerged online. The video shows the unwell leopard surrounded by over a dozen men and one man, in red pants, pushes the others away and sits on the leopard’s back.

The leopard was seen roaming in the forest near Iklera in Madhya Pradesh’s Dewas district. Some villagers got scared at first, but when they saw that the leopard was lethargic and not aggressive, they understood that it was sick.

The villagers gathered around the leopard and started playing with it. They petted it, and took selfies with it, with one person trying to ride it.

A villager informed the forest department. While the people waited, some decided to kill the time by playing with the animal. A rescue team from Ujjain reached Iklera and took the leopard to a safe place.

Videos of the bizarre incident have gone viral on social media. “We are already encroaching on their space under the guise of development, and now we are also troubling their privacy. We should be ashamed of ourselves as humans,” commented one person.

Forest Officer Santosh Shukla said that the team has taken the two-year-old leopard to Van Vihar in Bhopal for treatment. A veterinary doctor also conducted a medical examination of the animal, he said.

“The condition of the leopard was critical. Despite this people were troubling him. We removed the villagers from there. After this, the veterinary doctor was called from Mhow in Indore,” Mr Shukla said.

Forest guard Jitendra Chauhan said the leopard was wandering in the forest in a dizzy condition and could not even walk properly. He said that the leopard is being treated at Van Vihar and is expected to make a full recovery.