The rescuers of an abandoned leopard cub, barely a month old, are struggling to keep the young one alive in the absence of its mother, said sources. Since its rescue two days back, the forest department attempted to reunite the cub with the mother leopard but did not succeed. Now the officers have decided to take briefly stop the operation keeping in mind the cub's deteriorating health.

A group of people on a morning walk at the Yeoor range of Sanjay Gandhi National Park (SGNP) spotted the cub on Wednesday and alerted the forest department. After which the officials kept the cub, which is less than 20 days old, in a basket and put it at the spot where it was found, hoping the mother would return to claim its child, said a forest department officer.