Youth injured as bike collides with leopard in TN's Gudalur

    Udhagamandalam (Tamil Nadu), Feb 27 (PTI) A youth was injured when his speeding bike hit a leopard in the woody Marappalam area in Gudalur in Tamil Nadu's Nigiris district on Thursday.
The leopard, which remained motionless for some time due to the impact of the collision, regained consciousness and darted into the forest, a forest official said.
    The injured youth was identified as Rajesh, a supervisor at a private tea estate. He was proceeding to Marappalam for work. Passers-by who noticed him lying on the road rushed him to a hospital in neighbouring Kerala.
    The leopard fainted due to the impact of the collision, the official said.
    In a video that went viral, the leopard could be seen lying still on the road and the two-wheeler involved in the mishap lay close by.

Motorists stopped their vehicles upon seeing the leopard lying on the road.
In the video shot from a car, much to the surprise of those in the vehicle, the big cat could be seen regaining consciousness and suddenly bolted into the forest.

    The forest department is investigating the matter.

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)