" Friendship "

 A Story of Leopard and Cow which is stranger than a Fiction

     from Gujarat   

This story is a very rare case of predator - prey friendship. 

Once in Gujarat jungles there was a female leopard who gave birth to male leopard , the mother leopard wasn't able to survive for  much time , she died and the small leopard was left over alone in the jungles , he on his own crossed the jungle and came a near by village their , a farmer living their saw the small leopard and bought him home and kept him with his cow , the leopard thought the cow to be her mother and he went and slept in the open arms of the cow . The leopard got use to of sleeping into the arms of the cow , they got attached to each other to a very extreme extent . 

One day farmer choose to sell his cow to the other farmer as he was in a need of money , by the time the leopard grown old and big and was set free by the farmer back in the jungles. After some time of all this the second farmer to whom the cow was sold called the first farmer who sold the cow and said that there is a little strange thing happening in his village and asked him to visit his house , the next day when the first farmer reached their the second farmer told him that at night at several days their gather many dogs and they use to bark near the cattle , where the second farmer use to keep the cow ,at that night they left for the cattle to check that whats the actual thing behind this barking .

After the long stay from 6 pm to around 9 pm they noticed the usual barking of dogs then they visited the cattle quietly and what they saw was really heart whelming a leopard was sleeping in the open arms of cow and the cow was fearlessly licking the head of the leopard.

 

Immediately they alerted the wildlife department.One team comprising wildlife warden Mr Rohit Vyas, conservator of forest H S Singh and other enthusiasts including Manoj Thakkar and Kartik Upadhyay visited the village several times for verification and found that the leopard has been visiting the cow at regular intervals.
Mr Vyas says, "It was unbelievable, they approached each other at
very close proximity . The dogs would bark when the leopard came to meet the waiting cow every night between 9.30 PM to 10.30 PM".
The Forest Department which was trying to capture the beast, gave up its efforts after learning about the friendship. Moreover, the leopard did not harm other animals or human beings in the area. Its visit benefited villagers as other animals who damage the crops were scared away. That year the village’s crop yields went up by 30 percent.

 “Animals are such agreeable friends—they ask no question and pass no criticisms.”