The making of a "maneater". The Pithoragarh maneater

[ckkalyan]

prashantsingh wonderful, exciting narrative, it's keeping me on tenterhooks...keep it going!

Eagerly following your story. Hoping for a quick resolution and a safe hunt.

Bichubuti; When I went on an expedition with NIM (Uttarkashi), we were camped near the snow line and one guy had to do his business really bad. Not wanting to use water or snow as it was so cold, he picked a leaf of this plant growing there and wiped himself. Pretty soon there was a commotion; screams, yelling, etc. Everyone went running there and ...you guessed it... he had wiped himself with Bichubuti.

One of the expedition leaders, went to the plant and picked something from the base of the plant and squeezed the juice on the guys behind. Apparently this is the antidote and it is always present with the plant. Don't ask me to be more descriptive as I didn't go over there to get a close look once I found out what was going on.

Amazing - an itchy plant that comes complete with an antidote beautiful! Very entertaining story xl_target

[prashantsingh]

The sight and hearing of a leopard is said to be six times that of humans.
Smell is not as well developed.

[ckkalyan]

The sight and hearing of a leopard is said to be six times that of humans.
Smell is not as well developed.

Interesting information! Ah well, that takes care of the idea of a booze soaked bait then!

[brihacharan]

The sight and hearing of a leopard is said to be six times that of humans.
Smell is not as well developed.

Interesting information! Ah well, that takes care of the idea of a booze soaked bait then!

> It's amazing that a full grown leopard can carry a prey of its own weight up a tree!
> Here is a link that has a clip of a leopard carrying a Zebra up a tree....
Leopard climbing tree with zebra kill in Serengeti - YouTube
www.youtube.com/watch?v=bzr7czsMxOE
May 2, 2010 - Uploaded by Matthew Grosvenor - "I shot this footage of a Leopard dragging a zebra up a tree in Dec 2009 in the Serengeti"
Briha

[prashantsingh]

I have seen leopard kills hanging on trees in places where they have to share their habitat with tigers .
This summer I took a photograph of a langur killed by a leopard hanging on a tree in Sonanadi. A place famous for its tigers. Will post it here. Leopards are faster in speed than even tigers running upto 70 kms an hour and the only big cat in the subcontinent that can climb trees.
As can be seen in the video.
A machaan can keep you safe from a tiger but not necessarily from a leopard.

In the hills. The leopard is the apex predator. He has no fear and no one can steal his kill easily.

[ckkalyan]

In the hills. The leopard is the apex predator. He has no fear and no one can steal his kill easily.

Well said prashantsingh!!


I have you spotted - catch me if you can!

[zaheer.bakshi]

[prashantsingh]

Thanks Zaheer.
That's the hanuman langur I was talking about.
The leopard had eaten up the inside and left the skin to dry up on a tree.

Coming back to the hunt.
We returned with no clue about the Maneaters where about.
The only way we would know of his movement was when the next attack took place.
So we left and asked the Range Officer to inform of any news.
I specifically told him to inform me of an attack on a human. An animal kill would not help as it could very well be another leopard. An innocent leopard. Not the maneater.
I had decided to leave the following Sunday if nothing happened.
As luck would have it the attack took place on friday night.
Two men were returning from work. They had been both drinking.
Just before entering their village they parted ways.
Within minutes the maneater pounced on one of them .
As the man shouted for help. The other friend returned and created quite a ruckus. More villagers came in to help with their laathis and mashaals.
The maneater slipped away quietly into the darkness.
Heavy rain the same night washed away all evidence and we could not recreate the sequence of events.

I rushed back to Pithoragarh on Saturday morning with another friend. This time we did not have Zaheer and his camera. So hardly got any shots.

[brihacharan]

> Good Heavens!
> A virtual slip between the cup & the lip - The leopard giving you the slip
> Looks like this one is a 'committed man eater'...
> I'm sure with your persistence you will 'put an end' to his spree!
> Good Luck
Briha

[ckkalyan]

Within minutes the maneater pounced on one of them. As the man shouted for help. The other friend returned and created quite a ruckus

So, prashantsingh did the guy survive?

The Hanuman Langur, just about 'barely skin left' image, that really shook me up!

[prashantsingh]

Interestingly that was the only attack that took place.
Till then no goat was taken. No dog reported killed. No cattle attacked.
As mentioned in my other post . A leopard needs a dog size animal a week to feed on. Loss of prey base in the jungles forces these animals to come closer to human habitation.
This sooner or later leads to man animal conflict.
A female with cubs would need more food as she has more mouths to feed.
An important part that I took up in this hunt was to educate the locals about leopards.
I was surprised to see that most people had no issues with sharing their habitat with the big cats .
The interesting thing about India is that a lot of people believe in destiny. Most people believed that if one is destined to be killed by the maneater. It will surely happen. There is nothing on earth that can stop it.
This belief made my task of educating the villagers easier.
I always told them than since you guys have already polished the leopards food. You are directly responsible for the human killings. Bhookh to usko bhi lagta hai. Woh bhi to prani hai.....it was good to see their heads shaking in approval.
I put a lot of blame on the media for having created a hype. They have started to show the leopard is a blood thirsty killer.
This is not the case.

[prashantsingh]

Yes the man survived.

[ckkalyan]

Yes the man survived

prashantsingh Thank you for your reply!

The interesting thing about India is that a lot of people believe in destiny. Most people believed that if one is destined to be killed by the maneater. It will surely happen. There is nothing on earth that can stop it.

NASEEB??

[xl_target]

As luck would have it the attack took place on friday night.
Two men were returning from work. They had been both drinking.
Just before entering their village they parted ways.
Within minutes the maneater pounced on one of them .

Hmm, it seems wrong to make light of the situation but CK's tongue-in-cheek comment about soaking the bait with "Daru" seems to be close to the ideal solution.
Maybe a Flit sprayer filled with the local hootch will come in handy for baiting around the machan?

[Amarpreet]

Is it possible that this leopard is probably stalking its victims from either a local 'bar' or peddlar or maybe even a still in the forest and then attacking them at the first opportunity. This cats repeated attacks on inebriated humans seems to be more than a coincidence. It might have learnt to associate that humans on their way home from a particular 'place' were less wary and easier to attack.
Just a thought.

Amar

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