Maneater of Devprayag / Chandmari.

[prashantsingh]

As I write this post a TV channel (India TV) is showing how a leopard who fell inside a well (in Bhopal today 31-7-11) was stoned to death by a mob of a hundred people.
It is videos like these which make my heart ache. If a leopard has to die. It is better that it dies a quick death at the hands of a hunter rather than a torturous and painful death.
Now let's have the other side of the story.
The village we went to was about 25 kms from Devprayag by road and then another 8kms by foot.
There had been no leopard attacks in the past. The leopard/leopards had moved in from some other area.
We did not have to look hard for the answers.
A newly constructed road on the hills across the Ganga had caused enough ecological damage.
Pressure on land. An influx of tourists on the Char Dham Yatra and the Hemkund Saheb Gurudwara had forced the Govt. to construct a new road on the other side.
In most probability these cats were living on the other side. But how did they manage to cross the mighty Ganga.
We found the answer soon enough.
A suspension bridge .
The animals must have used it in the cover of darkness.
Moving into a new habitat and with little wild game to feed on. Hunger had forced the leopard to turn to humans as a last resort.

[ckkalyan]

[prashantsingh]

A habitat which was probably something like this before the road construction had started.

[rraju2805]

awesome pic..

In oct , 2010 .i went to uttrakhand. I have some pic.
Can i post those .

With regards
raju

[prashantsingh]

Can i post those .

raju

Sure. Please do raju. I would love to see them.

Now the cage where the maneater was trapped .

[Baljit]

Yes indeed Interesting real life story Prashant, Good effort, i like all those picture as well

Thank's

Baljit

[baldabe]

Interesting subject Prashant,
There can be no one "correct" solution to the problem of animals vs humans or economic development vs nature preservation. everybody agrees "something " should be done, but what is the "something"?

The pictures are awesome and the story itself heart rending.

thanks,
Abid

[dev]

Thanks Prashant,

You have the knack for story telling. Great camp fire stuff .



Dev

[xl_target]

Awesome stuff, Prashant.
Eagerly waiting for more.

[Bespoke]

I have mentioned this before and I will do it again.I do ENVY you.
Keep up the good stuff.

[prashantsingh]

Whenever we see a photograph of a hunter with a maneating leopard (he has shot) our sympathy goes towards the beast. No one bothers to think about the efforts the hunter puts in to get the animal.
This leopard was "declared" a maneater on the 25th of July 2011. I shall try to keep the thread alive till the animal is finally shot.

I have hunted in Game Reserves abroad and the experience was very different. One would be served the best of meals. One would come back from a days hunt and jump into the hot water tub for a good bath. One could watch his favourite T.V. show and drink the finest scotch.

This hunt was very different.
I was told to be ready to give up all the worldly pleasures.
For the three days I was at the camp I was totally cut off from the rest of the world. I had no T.V. , no mobile phone facilities, no hot water , A/C s and no internet. Even a News Paper is a luxury. (Never got to read one till I was there).
July / August are the monsoon seasons here. The undergrowth is thick and it is very difficult to spot animals.The leopard is a lesser enemy when compared to the snakes (we saw one) and swarms of insects and mosquitos one has to deal with on a daily basis. When walking, you have the hill on one side and a deep valley on the other.{A word of caution : While pissing please face the hills rather than the valley because you are not sure when the earth below your feet will give way}. Most of the walking is done on a pagdandee track which is better fit for a mountain goat than for humans.....and when you have the rifle on your shoulder , it appears to be more of a burden than anything else.
But you are right Bespoke. It is the passion which keeps the hunter going. He takes all these pains for that final reward.....The Maneater.

I do ENVY you.
.

[brijendra]

i think animals will LOOSE the battle of survival

[prashantsingh]

The broken trap.
The first thing we did on reaching there was to inspect the trap.
The guards told us that there were tufts of hair stuck to the bars. The leopard had also lost a couple of nails while trying to flee . He had blood running down his mouth and some whiskers had been pulled out during the struggle.
Unfortunately whatever evidence was there had been distroyed by the time we got there. The tufts of hair,the nails and the whiskers had been taken away as souvenirs by the crowd after the animal had escaped. The most valuable pugmarks left behind on wet mud had been trampled upon and replaced by foot prints of all shapes and sizes.
We looked hard and could only find a few stands of hair and a verysmall portion of the leopards nail's.
This animal was now badly injured and even more dangerous.

[timmy]

Prashant, this is a hair-raising tale, indeed! I had not even thought of the challenges to the hunter in your territory, until you posted the pics -- I quickly got the idea! That sort of hunting would indeed be a challenge of the highest order, especially when facing something as crafty as a leopard.

I shall try to keep the thread alive till the animal is finally shot.

By all means, please do!

[prashantsingh]

The animal kept as bait to capture the leopard was a pet dog.
I was eager to know of what happened to the dog.
The dog was a medium size cocktail of all the bachelors his mother must have met. He had a brownish black coat and carried a dominant Tibetan Mastiff gene.
He had been kept in the cage for the night and the experience (of spending a night) with the leopard on the other side of the partition had turned him into a nervous wreck.
We met him a day after his "encounter" and were told that he had stopped eating, drinking and barking. He was hiding under his masters bed and refused to come out.
Surprisingly the leopard had not even touched the dog. He (the leopard) must have (himself) been so upset after getting caught in the trap that his bigger concern at that moment must have been to escape , rather than kill the dog. I found this very interesting. We were dealing with a very clever animal.......not just a blood thirsty killer.
I did not disturb the dog .....and left him in peace.

The snap of the village will give you an idea of the walk. The two small houses you see along the "pagdandee" are the houses of the two brothers. The thick lantana bush along the track is the place were the leopard had killed and devoured the girl.
This snap was taken after a kilometer through the trek from the kutcha road head where we had parked our jeep. I had almost stepped on a snake and fallen off the cliff when I finally decided to get rid of my camera. The slippery "pagdandee" on the well rain fed hills was as it is difficult to negotiate. On top of that balancing my camera on one shoulder and the rifle on the other was now becoming a pain. There after I only had the rifle.