Maneater of Devprayag / Chandmari.

[jaspreet254]

great job on the narration
totally hooked
bravo

[prashantsingh]

Got back today.
Before talking about the hunt I would like to dedicate a few lines to Man's best friend ....the Dog and a few to the most cunning amongst all big cats....the Leopard .
The more I learn about this cat. The more fascinated I am towards it.

First we will talk about the dogs we were using as bait.
Singh had set up a couple of traps in places where (he felt) the maneater would visit (better to catch them than shoot them).
On 3rd of August. The maneater visited one of these traps.
A small little white dog who was a mix of a mongrel and a pomeranian wad been placed in that trap.
This dog was a perfect bait because he barked all through the night.
In the early hours of the morning the villagers heard his painful howls instead. No one had the guts to check out the trap .
Singh had spent the night searching for the leopard. He had just gone to bed. They did not want to disturb him.
At dawn break a group of villagers armed with laathis went up to the trap. To their surprise they saw the maneater there.
Not inside the trap , but out side.
He was chewing on something.
After seeing the group of villagers he jumped down into the thick undergrowth and vanished.
When the people reached the cage they saw the dog bleeding.
His left foreleg neatly cut off .
They immediately took out the dog and took him to the local doctor( unqualified quack) for treatment.
I visited the dog on saturday.
He had scars on his forehead and back and his front leg had been cut off and eaten.

The maneater had earlier been trapped in this cage.
With great effort he had come out of it.
He knew that if he entered the cage he would be caught again.
This time he circled the cage. Came to the other side where the dog was locked. Removed the lantana bush which was kept to hide it.
Put his paw inside the bars.
Injured the dog and tried to pull him out.
Got hold of the front (left) paw.
Bit it off and ate it.
This fellow was really intelligent.
Singh was now sure he would not take to the trap.
He was hungry and dangerous.
The only option left (NOW) , was to shoot him.
The earlier the better.

[SYED833]

In all this episode,i find using dogs as bait the most cruel..Menaka,if shown this will have a epileptic seizure..
Though,what needs to be done,needs to be done,to protect human life..

syed..

[prashantsingh]

True Syed
But these areas are really remote. I wonder which Neta would walk that distance on this hill track for a hand full of votes?

Singh, a forester and two forest guards met me where the kuttcha road ended and the pagdandee began.
As mentioned earlier . The maneater had struck again.
Killing a goat this time (4th Aug). A day after he had chewed the dog's leg.
Singh had put up live bait in three places , but the animal had not touched it.
He had instead been bold enough to jump over a boundary wall and pick up a goat from a house. The farmer (who was witness to the event) could do nothing but shout from within the safety of his house.

I had not expected Singh to be waiting for me. He should have been on a machaan instead. Where the kill was.
I asked him about it and he told me that the villagers had disturbed the kill.
"How could they do such a Stupid thing?" I asked."We would have shot that fellow tonight and gone back home in the morning".
He had nothing to say.

We picked up our stuff and started the walk.
I had bought a new pair of shoes for the walk. The last time, my feet hurt on the rocky pagdandee.I had promised myself that on my next trip abroad, I would pick up a nice pair of hunting boots.

Half an hour into the trek and I came upon an old man. He was walking very slowly. The first thing I noticed was that he had NO shoes.
"Baba . Aapne joota kyun nahi pehna?" (Why are you not wearing shoes?) I asked him.
He informed me that he used to wear slippers earlier, but they would break often on this rough hill track. He did not have the money to pay the cobbler and get them repaired again and again.
I was touched.

Every thing fell into place.
I knew now why the villagers had carried away the dead goat.
In this poverty stricken part of India. Where people couldn't afford a pair of shoes.
A fresh leopard kill was not seen as a bait for the hunter.
But as the next meal for a hungry family.

We were left with few options now.
The maneater had had his fill.
We would now have to walk and search all night where the odds were against us.

[Baljit]

very nice Prashant keep it up , we all like to know what's going on next.

Many thank's for your and Mr. Singhs efforts.

Baljit

[prashantsingh]

This region has the 4 dhaams. Kedarnath, Badrinath, Gangotri and Yamunotri. It also has the beautiful Hemkund Saheb Gurudwara .
They call it the Devbhoomi....... The abode of the Gods.
The villages along the National Highway are prosperous because of the booming business along the main road and the influx of tourist. A little distance away from the main road and you can see how backward the area is.
Singh had brought his tent along but one of the farmer's insisted we stay with him.
His wife had freshly painted our room,The "paint" itself was a mix of mud , cow dung and a locally available colour (powder).She had also decorated the broken wooden roof.
The house consisted of 4 rooms.
Two on the ground floor and two on top.
The goats lived on the ground floor while the family of 6 (husband wife and 4 children) lived on the first floor.
It had no bathrooms/toilets.
One would go out into the open fields to answer natures call. Singh would carry his 12 bore along when he went for the job. I found it funny.
He then explained that many of the leopard attacks take place when people go out of their house to urinate/pass stools. Some experts believe that the leopard attacks these people (in sitting possition) in a case of mistaken identity. Once he has killed and eaten the human. HJis fear of man goes away and he turns again and again to the villages to feed.
Surprisingly there were also NO locks.
"Yahan Chori nahi hoti". (Are there no thefts here) . I asked the house owner.
He told me that the only thief here was the leopard. Also added they they were poor people. Why would a thief come to their house.
When we moved into this little house .The whole family emptied out one of the rooms for us and shifted into the other.
Everyday in the morning we were given a hot glass of goat milk.
The house had no electricity and running water. It also had a permanent strong goat smell .
We had carried our beddings which we used on the chaarpaies they had provided.
The house was surrounded by a small stone boundary wall. The wall was just about 3 feet high. Not high enough to prevent a leopard from jumping in.

Being poor does not , in any way , make them inferior to us in any way.
The day we were leaving, I offered the house owner a Rs 500/= note. He refused . He said that we were his guests and he would never take money from us. "Jaane anjaane me bhool chook maaf karna saheb". (He also added that if they had unintensionally hurt our feelings in any way we sould forgive them).
What character. I thought to myslef. This was indeed the Devbhoomi......the land of the Gods.

[Baljit]

Prashant i dont know how many guy's visit in that area but i was spend 10 day in there back in 1990 , we went to Hemkund Saheb Gurudwara so i know that area,

also you write..... I offered the house owner a Rs 500/= note. He refused . He said that we were his guests and he would never take money from us. "Jaane anjaane me bhool chook maaf karna saheb". (He also added that if they had unintensionally hurt our feelings in any way we sould forgive them).
What character. I thought to myslef. This was indeed the Devbhoomi......the land of the Gods.


This is why i all ways said we are Indian

Baljit

[prashantsingh]

Walking through the cloudy Pine forest we started our descent down the hills . As the visibility increased we could see the valley below. It looked so picturesque . Somewhere down there was the maneater. The animal that had terrorised the people.
Eye witness accounts had said that the beast had an injury on the right hind leg. His injuries (in the fore legs and mouth) sustained while breaking the cage appeared to have recovered .
By the time we got to the village it was night. The half moon gave the valley a beautiful bluish tinge. Visability was good .
Interestingly the girl , the white dog (in the cage) and the goat had all been attacked in the early hours of the morning.
Singh altered the plan.
We had an early dinner of rice and daal and went to rest. We would start our walk at about 2:30a.m. and go on till dawn. We would limit ourselves to the fields in and around the village.
The two major crops at this time of the year are corn and paddy. The paddy is somewhat different from the regular variety we get. It is round and light brown in colour and when cooked tastes like porridge .

Most people would expect a leopard or a tiger to be hiding in a thickly wooded forest .
The fact is that both these animals prefer cover at ground level rather than at tree level.
What I mean to say is that if we have a thick pine forest on one side and a thick lantana bush on the other. We may expect the leopard to be hiding in the Pine forest. The leopard himself would prefer the bush. In the bush he would hide perfectly. While in the pine forest (which has little undergrowth due to the pine needles covering the floor and preventing the growth of smaller plants) he would be easy to spot from a distance.
There is an old proverb . It says that had it not been for it's tail. A leopard could well hide (himself) behind a leaf. Obviously an over exaggeration, but it does speak of the leopards ability to hide in the bush.


When we finally started the walk it was pitch dark. The half moon that had lit the valley earlier had now shifted behind the mountains and the shadows were all over. We had our small pocket torches and a flash light to provide us with all the illumination.
It was a dark and silent night. The only sounds we could hear were those of our footsteps moving on the path through the fields and the continuous sounds the crickets and frogs from the fields.
We walked close to each other and the slightest of reflection would bring us closer.
We saw some ghoral but nothing else. The barking deer were also very quiet that night.
For the first time I felt vulnerable.
A leopard's sight and hearing are said to be ten times more than humans.
This was his land and we were mere trespassers. No doubt we were armed. But I was wondering how we would react if the beast decided to go after us.

[mundaire]

Prashant, an absolutely fantastic read, in fact one of the most enjoyable threads I have read in a while! Like many others I too had initially mistaken this to be a discussion reg. one of Carpet Sahib's tales, then I was pointed to it by some of our common friends. Unfortunately the site crashed before I could read it up till now

Eagerly awaiting the next instalment

Abhijeet

[The Doc]

Every thing fell into place.
I knew now why the villagers had carried away the dead goat.
In this poverty stricken part of India. Where people couldn't afford a pair of shoes.
A fresh leopard kill was not seen as a bait for the hunter.
But as the next meal for a hungry family.

The day we were leaving, I offered the house owner a Rs 500/= note. He refused . He said that we were his guests and he would never take money from us. He also added that if they had unintensionally hurt our feelings in any way we should forgive them.I thought to myself, this was indeed the Devbhoomi......the land of the Gods.

Touching .

[prashantsingh]

"Shikar by chance."
Every time we returned from a long trek in the dark (minus the maneater) Singh would cheer us up and say this.
There were 4 of us. Singh , two forest guards and I who went for the walks.
The senior most official (with us) from the dept. was the forester. Probably equivalent to a sub inspector in the police force. We would leave the forester behind as he was not in the best of health and prefered the company of his drink (desi sharaab) rather than go on a long walk in the dark.
At dawn as we were returning from the night search through the rice fields . The silence of the valley was broken by a loud gunfire.....followed by another.
We knew the only other person with a weapon was the forester.
Had he shot the maneater? We wondered.
Our tired bodies were suddenly rejuvinated and we found ourselves almost running towards the house where the forester was put up.
We saw a group of villagers along with the forester. He had his .315 service (Dept) Rifle in hand.
On enquiring what had happened. The forester told us that he had fired two shots at the maneater.
He was fast asleep when someone came to wake him up . He took his rifle and saw the leopard coming down the hill straight towards his hut.The animal was almost 100 yards away when he took the first shot. The animal turned and ran up the hill. This is when he took the second shot. Both shots missed the mark.
This was the first time that the forester had shot at a leopard.In all his excitement he had taken an early shot. He should have allowed the maneater to come closer. His service rifle was not zeroed as is the case with most rifles in our sarkaari armoury .
He had done nothing more than scare the beast away.
We reported the matter to the DFO.
Singh was now depressed.All the effort had gone waste.All those long walks and all the time spent ...down the drain.
If only we had stayed back for the night. If only we had not gone for that night search . If only we had taken the shots instead of the forester. There was a big IF.
The next two nights we decided to put up a bait and wait.
The surrounding area was cleared of all bush....to enable us a clear shot at the maneater.
All efforts to no avail.
We would sit silently and very still waiting for the maneater.
It was humid and hot . We would be sweating it out on the machaan . The mosquito repellant we were using was washed away by the sweat and we would find bugs and mosquitos feasting on our warm bodies.Even if we had to scratch we would make the slightest and slowest movement.
It was tough.
Our goat was the perfect bait. It kept bleating on through the night. But the leopard would just not come.
On the last night I could almost hellucinate the leopard pouncing on the bait.
We had decided we would take the shot only after the leopard had killed the goat.
That would give us a little more time to place the shot and make the leopard more relaxed.
But the maneater was much smarter.
He never turned up.
Singh was now sure he had left the area. We were only wasting our time here.
Next morning we packed up and left.
The DFO told us that he would call us whenever the maneater struck again.
The hunt is not yet over.
BUT
In this long match where the stakes are nothing less than life and death.
The maneating leopard has beaten us hollow in the first round.

[Sakobav]

Prashant

What a riveting tale ..good luck and God bless be safe..my Uncle was posted in that area Joshimat folks from this area Garhwali nice simple people ..Looking forward to your post

Cheers

[dr.jayakumar]

no words!
i think you can make a film on man animal conflict,.sooo gud!

[Priyan]

Good narration man, It would be better if someone compiles them into a PDF and distributes it freely (I'll give server space if needed) BTW seeing the pictures of the house, I'd ask only one thing how's the toilet? lol BTW the rice fields looks weird to me. You sure they are rice if yes what type of rice is that? I work at rice field and the flowers look different than here.

[mundaire]

Good narration man, It would be better if someone compiles them into a PDF and distributes it freely (I'll give server space if needed) BTW seeing the pictures of the house, I'd ask only one thing how's the toilet? lol BTW the rice fields looks weird to me. You sure they are rice if yes what type of rice is that? I work at rice field and the flowers look different than here.

Not rice, looks like corn/ maize/ makka.

Cheers!
Abhijeet