Leopard enters Nainital hotel, leaves young couple shell-shocked

A couple on their honeymoon got the shock of their lives when a leopard broke into their hotel room in Nainital early Sunday.

Fortunately, the big cat did not attack the couple and instead, took refuge in the bathroom.

“I was woken up by the sound of a breaking window pane at about 4:45 am and I was petrified to see a leopard walk into the room. I quickly covered my wife and myself with the blanket and saw the leopard enter the bathroom. I rushed to close the bathroom door and called the hotel management,” said Sumit, a tourist from Meerut.

Amit Sah, the owner of the hotel called the police and the forest department who rushed to the hotel.

Another team of forest officials armed with tranquiliser guns and a cage arrived an hour later. But even before the forest officials could get a chance to tranquilise it, the leopard managed to escape.

“This was a young leopard which came to the hotel after being chased by dogs. We tried our best to capture it but failed,” said Tejasvini Arvind Patil, DFO of Nainital.

She said that the leopard was one year old and had rushed back to the jungle where she hoped it would be safe.

While Sumit complained that the windows did not have any grille to keep out wild animals, his wife Shivani, said that although she was terrified of the leopard, she was happy that they could see the animal from such close quarters.

Another guest Rajesh Sijwali who claimed he witnessed the leopard escaping, said he saw the wild cat running towards the mosque in Harinagar area. He said the leopard was being chased by many street dogs.

Earlier on July 10, a full grown up Himalayan black bear had entered another hotel before it was shooed away. The bear then swam through the Naini lake and disappeared into the jungles.