Leopard enters hotel room in Nainital

Nainital, Jul 31: Imagine being locked inside a hotel room with a leopard for company. A couple from Meerut vacationing in the sylvan surroundings of Nainital was chilled to the bones when they found a leopard pacing about their room early in the morning.

The big cat smashed the window pane to get into the room as Sumit Rathore and his wife Shivani cowered behind the bed to escape its notice. As the animal leisurely walked into the washroom, Sumit plucked some courage and bolted the door from outside and locked in the big cat and raised an alarm, Ranger Pramod Tiwari said.

A forest department team arrived with a cage and tranquiliser gun to trap the leopard but it jumped out of the washroom ventilator and vanished in the nearby forest, he said. Apparently, the one-and-half-year-old leopard had sought refuge in the hotel room after being chased by wild dogs, the ranger said.

The hotel where the incident took place is located in Tallital area. Earlier this month, a black Himalayan bear was spotted roaming the streets of Nainital in the wee hours. It broke the window pane of a hotel room where some tourists were staying leaving them aghast. After an alarm was raised, it walked down the lanes, descended into the lake and swam across it, before disappearing into the Ayarpatta jungle.

PTI