Maneater of Devprayag / Chandmari.

[Pradyumna]

One of the opinions/theories for the RBT in Sunderbans becoming habitual maneaters or adding human flesh in their diet is due to their confusion/inability to protect their hunting territory. During high tides all the scent marks demarcating the territory are washed away resulting an irritation for any moving creature to be potential danger.
Pradyumna

[dr.jayakumar]

i always felt that wild boars and deers in excess should be shifted to sunderbans.
i know the terrain won't be helpful for new comer.but sure will help reduce this conflict.

[Pradyumna]

There are plenty of wild baors, chitals & other natural preys available in Sunderbans to take care of the tigers. They are not becoming maneaters due to any dearth of preys , rather they have just added human in their diet permanently. All other natural reasons for a tiger to become maneater like gun wounds, old age, accidents with percupines or nursing cubs are just not applicable to the tigers of Sunderbans. They are a class apart.
Pradyumna

[timmy]

winnie:

So tigers killing and eating humans was something very normal.It was not an aberration.

With the introduction of modern firearms hunting of tigers became easier and over time,tigers on the sub continent learnt to fear humans loosing this fear only when driven to hunt humans for food when they could not hunt anything else.Tigers were never hunted in the Sunderbans and so have no such fear of humans.

Yes, this was pretty much the point I was trying to make, but I guess I didn't word it very well. Polar bears live where there's hardly any people, and don't get much chance to develop a "normal" fear of humans. Especially in the New World, when the first Europeans introduced firearms, animals often weren't afraid of humans due to their not being conditioned to the range at which guns could kill them. My suspicion would be that, unless these tigers had some reason to be fearful of man, their natural state would be to hunt and eat humans, just as they would any other prey.

Tigers in the Sunderbans have probably got used to eating human flesh from eating corpses washed up on the delta of people killed in typhoons and floods in Bangladesh and West Bengal.

Yes, good point -- if they had no opportunity to get used to the nutritional value of humans through the inhabitants of their range, this would give them a constant introductory supply.

[prashantsingh]

Timmy,
Talking about Polar Bears.
On 5-8-2011, a starving Polar Bear attacked and killed a school boy from Eton College, who was part of the British Schools Exploring Society.The bear was finally shot by the group leader. A young man barely in his mid twenties .

The tragedy made big news all over England , where my elder sister lives. She almost freaked out when she called up home and was told that I was out on this maneater hunt.

[timmy]

Prashant, I don't wonder! Even reading your account was somewhat hair-raising. Going out into dense bush of any sort, in terrain for which humans are unsuited, and especially at night puts the advantage squarely on the animal's side.

It's my understanding that a polar bear will track a human for miles.

[Risala]

Folks how about Brown Bears,check this out
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... -cubs.html

An intresting discussion goin on this topic at http://forums.nitroexpress.com/showflat ... Post189289

[joydeepm]

Pradyumna

point well made about tigers in the sunderbans eating washed up corpses . It may have happened . Almost the same happened in the hills of Uttarakhand many years ago - people died of an epidemic and corpses would be thrown down into the khud as burning would be more expensive possibly ? Spme accounts do exist of leopards and tigers acquiring a taste for human flesh by eating those bodies .

Disagree with you a little on the deer population in the sunderbans . Last time I went there - hardly saw any . Cheetal also cannot possibly survive in large numbers in a terrain which gets almost submerged every day like clockwork .

regards

[Pradyumna]

Joydeepm
I agree with you brother. As reasoned by Corbett the Man Eating Leopard Of Rudraprayag surfaced after an epidemic in the hills of Kumaon just after the First World War. Probably the leopard got a steady supply of human bodies due to the epidemic & got a change in the menu . After the epidemic when supply was gone, it continued to go after human kill . Once it hunted a human , definitely he felt how easy it is to get a human . And the most publised man eating leopard presented itself .
Pradyumna

[prashantsingh]

I tried putting up this snap in the Poster of the month section but (somehow) could not figure out how to do it.
So I finally decided to put it up here.
Thanks to IFG for the award and a special thanks to Eljefe and Abhijeet for the gift.
To be very frank I had never seen anything like this before.
All I knew about guns was that they had an inbuilt safety system.
Never really knew that you had an additional safety system(trigger lock) as well. I wonder how many of us (in India) actually use it.
It fit perfectly on my .22 Remington Rifle.
Every day is a learning experience.
Thanks once again:cheers:

[xl_target]

Prashant, I don't wonder! Even reading your account was somewhat hair-raising. Going out into dense bush of any sort, in terrain for which humans are unsuited, and especially at night puts the advantage squarely on the animal's side.

It's my understanding that a polar bear will track a human for miles.

A little OT (well, maybe quite a bit); this spring I met a guy at our range who had retired after serving for years in Alaska. He left Minnesota as a nineteen year old and joined a crew in Alaska laying cable. I very specifically asked about his encounters with Polar Bears and he related one incident to me. He said they were out on a trackless ice field and he was just a rookie, learning the trade. Their vehicle usually trailed the crew about fifty to a hundred yards. He'd had a number of incidents where his rookie leg had been pulled so when he looked up from his job and saw no one near him, he assumed that they were razzing him again. They were all headed for the vehicle, yelling "Bear" for all they were worth.
He looked all around and saw absolutely nothing. He said that since everything is shades of white or off white, it is hard for your eyes to focus on any particular distance. Then he caught a movement out of the corner of his eye and finally saw a Polar Bear in full sprint towards him. He said he just barely made the truck in time. He too said that a Polar bear will eat practically anything.

[prashantsingh]

and xl_target. I saw a documentry sometime back where they showed a Polar Bear putting his paw infront of his (black) nose so as to hide himself in the snow/ ice while stalking it's prey.
Smart animal.

[Katana]

Prashant,

Whatever happened to the man eater? Did you guys manage to bag it or the monsoons put a stop to it? Whats the situation in the affected area currently? Pauri Garhwal?

[prashantsingh]

Prashant,

Whatever happened to the man eater?

After we left another hunter was invited to hunt the maneater.
This is normal practice.
The Forest Dept. issues the hunting permit to one / more than one individuals / registered hunters to increase the chances of gunning down the maneater.
The reason they do so is that , in todays times (with our busy lives and paucity of time) you can not expect one hunter to spend all his time on a maneater hunt.

Here I must also mention, that out of 17 Hunting Permits (this being the 17th) issued to Singh and his team , he have been able to hunt only 9 maneaters.I success rate of more than 50% which I think is very good when considering the challenges.

This gentleman (who came in after us) hunts alone and his modus operandi is to hunt from a machaan on a live bait.
He spent a fortnight in the area , with no success and subsequently returned.

There have been NO fresh attacks/kills and the leopard has not been sighted either.
The Forester (who took those shots at the maneater) and two forest guards are stationed in the village and will continue to stay there till the animal is shot.
I am told his rifle has still not been sighted in. If, for nothing else. His presence may help in scaring away the beast for the time being.
I was speaking with Singh the other day. He expects the attacks to resume when the winter sets in. That's when snow will force the herbivores down hill. With less game to hunt , the maneater will take to humans again.

[Katana]

Pranshant,

I think its time you start to compile and proof read your manuscript. I can suggest a name too........From Rudraprayag to Devprayag: Maneaters of the Garhwal Himalayas. Pun on Jim Corbetts work!

EBD is just down Astley Hall, I'm sure they will publish it! (Or atleast used to be, I think they have moved)

Jokes apart, think of it. You have enough people who would help you out with inputs.