In Gujarat village, braveheart shoos away lioness that sat on his chest

RAJKOT: A lion's roar is enough for anyone to skip a heart beat. But imagine a lioness sitting on the chest of someone in deep sleep?
Desperate situations need extraordinary action and this is precisely what a youth of Abharampara village at Savarkundla taluka in Amreli district did when faced with the scariest nocturnal adventure of his life.
The chest-thumping act was by Vipul Khelaiya, who was attacked by a hungry lioness while he was sleeping in his hut. The wild cat jumped straight on to the youth’s chest startling him, but he didn’t lose his presence of mind. Even amid the initial panic, Khelaiya summoned all his strength — both mental and physical — and gave the lioness a mighty push that reversed the tale into a midnight glory for the youth.
This unexpected retaliation, however, left the lion shocked. It immediately let go of “her intended prey” and ran back into the forest cover.
“The lioness must have realized that I was not her natural prey and that she made a huge blunder by selecting me,” chuckled Khelaiya, while describing the strange nocturnal adventure to TOI.
“I was asleep in my hut when all of a sudden I was awoken by a growl, heavy weight on my chest and staring right into the eyes of death. Thankfully, I realized soon what was happening and instinctively kept a tight grip on my wits, gathered all my strength and with a Herculean force, pushed the lioness down from me,” recalled Khelaiya.
“After I pushed her away, the lioness did not attack me again but disappeared into the dark forest,” he added.
But Jabal village sarpanch, Bhupendra Khuman, expects more of such human-animal conflicts in the near future.
“Such conflicts will only rise as several prides of lions have left the sanctuary and made the revenue areas of Jabal and Abhrampara their abode. Lions are frequently spotted in these areas,” said Khuman, adding that while it’s cattle they come after, this was the first instance of “human molestation”.