At a time when leopard killings are on the rise in several parts of the country, a baby leopard was rescued by a tea garden worker in Dooars in West Bengal on December 19.

The cub, which was assumed to have lost its way into the tea garden, was later handed over to the Forest department to unite with its family.

The Dooars or Duars are the alluvial floodplains in eastern-northeastern India, which lie south of the outer foothills of the Himalayas and north of the Brahmaputra River basin.

This region is about 30 km wide and stretches over about 350 km from the Teesta River in West Bengal to the Dhansiri River in Assam.

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The region forms the gateway to Bhutan and it is part of the Terai-Duar savanna and grasslands ecoregion.

The news about the rescue of the leopard cub was shared by a Facebook user at the Sanctuary Nature Foundation Facebook group.

Even though several users have praised the tea garden workers for rescuing the cub, a few, on the other hand, has lashed out and said it was wrong on the part of them to move the cub from the place.

"The cub should have been left where it was. The mother would have returned," wrote one user.

"Essentially, this is not a rescue but a removal of a cub from its mother. How did they know it was lost?" he further questioned.

"A mother leopard leaves its cubs hidden when it hunts. In this case, in a tea garden. Pray to tell, how would the forest department "unite with its family?" he further asked.

"Do note that leopard cubs do not have families, only the mother to care for them. The father would eat them," the user who goes by the name Ryan Lobo further wrote.