The maneater that stood it's ground

[ckkalyan]

Patience, patience gentlemen we all realize that prashanthsingh has just returned after a very hectic hunt and we must give him time to recover...

But in the meanwhile, just to whet our eager appetites, I am compelled to add a very short teaser that is common news in the media. However, this in no way, shape or form will even begin to tell us all the real story that we await from prashanthsingh

I hope you will agree with me here prashanthsingh. Just keeping the fire warm for your extraordinary tale!

Hunters killed leopard that had carried away a boy in Dehradun village

By: Express News Service | Dehradun | Posted: January 23, 2015 9:39 pm

Exactly a week after a leopard dragged away a 10-year-old boy from Dehradun’s Baiajwala village, a team of licensed hunters engaged by the Uttarakhand’s forest department shot dead it (leopard) late on Friday evening. Villagers of Bajawala & Phulsaini were living under fear ever since the recovery of partially eaten body of the boy Krishna Kumar from near their villages on last Friday (January 16).

“With the help of pug marks, we have confirmed that it was the same leopard that had dragged away the boy from near his slum at Bajawala village. It is about six years old and a female leopard. We will complete the formalities of post mortem tomorrow,” Sushant Patnaik, DFO (Dehradun), told the Indian Express at Forest Rest House at Jhajhara where leopard’s body was kept.

With the killing of the leopard, villagers of Phulsaini and Bajawala heaved a sigh of relief. “We are happy that hunters finally killed the leopard,” said Anil Joshi, a villager, who came to Jhajhara to see the leopard’s body.

Dr Prashant, one of the hunters engaged by the state’s forest department, said his team had got confirmed the leopard’s movement in the area today’s morning. “Since it rained, we had hoped about its movement. It was around 6.30 pm the leopard had come near the goat kept as goat for the leopard close to the Machan set up by us. The team members shot dead it,” Prashant said.

http://indianexpress.com/article/india/ ... n-village/

[prashantsingh]

Ah these reporters. I prefer to stay away from them.
Today a reporter called from a hindi news paper Before we shot the maneater he had made fun of us. Called us shaukeen shikaris. Doctors businessmen piolets trying their hand at hunting a maneater.
Now that the animal is dead . He has few words.
I asked him if he had heard of Corbett.
He said yes.
I told him. Even Corbett was a shaukeen shikari with a successful business in Nainital.

The media made fun of us and I will not discuss them now on.
A famous hunter guaranteed he would shoot the maneater within a week.
Which I feel was stupid of him.
The villagers wanted results.
and they wanted them fast.
The pressure was on us.
But like the maneater . we held our ground.....
and
finally succeeded.

How can one have a professional hunter when hunting is banned in the country.

[Hammerhead]

goat for the leopard

Ah these reporters. I prefer to stay away from them.
Today a reporter called from a hindi news paper

Ahem ..... Ahem ..... They could be helpful reporting from ground - Haji

[ckkalyan]

Now that the animal is dead . He has few words.
I asked him if he had heard of Corbett.
He said yes.
I told him. Even Corbett was a shaukeen shikari with a successful business in Nainital.
How can one have a professional hunter when hunting is banned in the country.

Good one prashantsingh - how can you hunt...?

And if you can hunt when the Govt requests you to, desperately (please save us - save our villages from maneaters) - then the Govt. must provide you with access to import better weapons and unlimited ammunition - duty free, to be imported a la renowned shooters clause! My two paise!

[ckkalyan]

goat for the leopard

Ahem ..... Ahem ..... They could be helpful reporting from ground - Haji

Right, Hammerhead - well said!

Suggestion try this out on your next bait / machan - tie up a goat and invite 'selected' media to take part in the exercise. Provide them a strategically, comfortable place right next to it prashantsingh so that they can get a 'goat's eye view' of the whole process and and produce an incredibly authentic report - now, you can't be fairer than that can you?!

I thought this one was perfect - the goat is safe!

[prashantsingh]

Everyone appears to be bothered more for the goat than for shikaris sitting on the machaan . You will be happy to know that we managed to save the goat and shot the maneater before it could kill it
To celebrate the success of our hunt. A senior forest officer suggested we kill the bait and cook it.
Shikaris are a superstitious lot.
I refused. Told the officer , this is our lucky bait. It has survived the jaws of death. It should be returned to the owner.
In the one week we sat on the machaan the maneater came thrice .

[zaheer.bakshi]

The Temple of Fulsani Village - Entering the territory of the Maneater

[Baljit]

Very well write up Prashant, waiting for more.

Guy's Prashant send me this pictures on "WhatsApp" and I like to shear with all of you.




Enjoy
Baljit

[bennedose]

Everyone appears to be bothered more for the goat than for shikaris sitting on the machaan . You will be happy to know that we managed to save the goat and shot the maneater before it could kill it
To celebrate the success of our hunt. A senior forest officer suggested we kill the bait and cook it.
Shikaris are a superstitious lot.
I refused. Told the officer , this is our lucky bait. It has survived the jaws of death. It should be returned to the owner.
In the one week we sat on the machaan the maneater came thrice .

Good job prashantsingh. Sad that such magnificent animals must sometimes be killed. Do you have access to night vision equipment? Do you use a scope on your rifle? My daughter was in Corbett a couple of weeks ago and it was freezing cold - so I guess you have to make a compromise between keeping warm and being flexible and mobile enough to keep a lookout and aim and shoot.

What is done with the carcass after the vet examination?

[prashantsingh]

Hunting a maneater not far from Dehradun has it's own pressures.
Dehradun is the capital of a small Hill state carved out of the earstwhile state of Uttar Pradesh.
When one is hunting a maneater in a remote far out place it is any day better.
Here the media was present day and night. Watching.......
Every Breath we take,
Every Move we make,
Every Bond we break,
Every Step we take.
They were watching us.

There was political pressure. There was pressure from the villagers and pressure from the Dept.
People wanted results. and they wanted them fast.

I could never have handled the pressure by myself . So I called my old friend "Singh" (of maneater of Devprayag) to help us.
Singh left early morning the next day (17th Jan) and reached the spot by 4 pm. The fog in the plains delayed his arrival.

16th night was spent combing the area along with Police and Forest Officials to recover the boy's body. We searched till 2 am but could not find it. It was a cold , moonless and dark night and the thick lantana undergrowth made the search very difficult.

Zaheer , C99 and I could not get proper sleep that night . (Infact all the nights till the maneater was shot).
We reached home at 3 am and were up at 6.
Back to the spot by 7 30 am (17 Jan). The Cops and Forest guys had not yet come.
By 8 am the villagers started trickling in.
By 9 am . There were some 300 people including Policemen and Forest guards assisting us in the search.
At 9 30 am a villager stumbled over the boy's body . The body was carefully hidden in the bush. His soft parts had been eaten up including his liver , kidney and private organs.
I have the photograph of the half eaten body with me , but WILL NOT post it for ethical reasons.
Not far from the boy's carcass was the maneater.
The villager armed with a laathi shouted at the top of his voice and all the people closeby came to help him.
The maneater quitely slipped away into thicker undergrowth.
I request Zaheer to kindly post some snaps of the place.
The leopard had carried this boy more than 400 meters away . Up a hill into thick bush and eaten him the whole night. While more than 300 men searched the valley.
It must have seen all the commotion down below. But was not disturbed.
This was an Urban Leopard. A Leopard very different from the one you find the the jungles.
What an amazing animal.
What a beast to have adapted itself to such a change in Habitat.
The leopard is a survivor and I am sure that even if (god forbid) the tiger dissappears in the wild.
The leopard will live on.

[essdee1972]

Kudos to the team for hunting the maneater.

Prashantji, the pressures from all directions must have been enormous, not to mention the simple, terrifying fact of hunting a maneater in its own territory.

Nowadays we hear of "hunters" shooting any animal with spots whenever leopards kill humans, so it was a real pleasure to read that the IFG hunters took pains to identify the real maneater before shooting it.

And of course, let me reiterate what many people would have told you, Prashantji, Safarigent, Zaheer, Shahid. In today's age, the sheer love you show for the animals, including the maneaters you hunt, puts you at par with Carpet Sahib, Anderson, and those other ol' timers.

Proud to know you, gentlemen!

[zaheer.bakshi]

Thank you essdee1972 for your kind supportive words. Few pictures for you all to get an idea about ground zero.


THE PLACE WHERE THE LEAPORD ACTUALLY ATTACKED THE VICTIM AND DRAGGED HIM ALONG WHERE I TOOK THIS PICTURE.


THE PLACE WHERE THE LEAPORD CARRIED THE VICTIM AND HIDE THE BODY IN THICK UNDERGROWTH. SEE THE RIDGE



THE MOB WHO WAS DOING THE HAAKA AND TOOK THINGS IN THEIR OWN HANDS INITIALLY



THE MOB LIT UP FIRE TO DRAG THE MANEATER. CAN SEE SMOKE IN BELOW PICTURE

[Pran]

Congrats again Doc, Sudhir, Zaheer and Safarigent!

I'm sure the villagers would have been delighted to see the rogue animal put down. Your effort would have surely saved some unsuspecting animal from being killed by the angry villagers if they had taken things into their own hands and launched a witch hunt.

Looking forward to see more pics

Regards
Pran

PS:Was the Hindi tabloid A%$r U*&^la ?

[prashantsingh]

Thanks Zaheer for putting up the snaps.
The snaps were probably taken before things started getting out of hand.
More and more people startd to come in as news spread that the maneater was closeby. Some with laathis, some with swords , sickles with all possible edged weapons. They wanted to kill the animal immediately. Such was the outrage against the animal.
The few cops and forest guards were out numbered.
I tried to reason with the mob.
Told them that they should not disturb the animal.
We will tie a bait and sit on the machaan.
The animal will return and will be shot.

No matter how much we reasoned . No one listened.
One of the villagers had seen the maneater . They knew it was there. Hiding in the bush . They wanted it dead.
and they wanted it now.

We were ordered by the mob. To run here. To run there. To possition ourselves here. To possition ourselves there. To climb uphill. To go back downhill.
This started at around 10 30 am and continued till 5 pm . Till all the villagers were exhausted.
Around noon I called up Shahid and asked him to join the hunt.
A keen shooter. He responded immediately and was with us within an hour. His 12 bore in hand.
I was relieved to see him.

[prashantsingh]

This was the most unorganised Haaka (drive), I have ever seen.
Haaka is an art , where the men on foot drive the animal towards ....what appears to the animal ...... a safe place. Guns are placed at proper places and when the animal appears , The hunters get a fair chance to shoot at the animal.
An unorganised and unplanned Haka on the other side can not even drive a pheasant to the guns let alone a maneater.

We saw people trying to burn the lantan bush, circle the area and close in on the maneater.
This was a very dangerous situation where the animal would attack out of fear.
I was expecting at least a couple of casualties and it was by the grace of god , that nothing happened.