Maneater of Devprayag / Chandmari.

[timmy]

Prashantji: I am sure many people are relieved to see that man eater gone. I'm also sure that what you have done took an exceptional amount of courage. Please be sure to take time to recuperate.

[airgun_novice]

Dear Prashant,
Surely your timely action has brought a cheer into many lives this Deepawali. Loss of a daughter must weigh big on the family, but the realization that she can now rest in peace must grant them more comfort than the government compensation.
regs, A.

[TwoRivers]

Congratulatios, Prashant!

[mundaire]

Congratulations Prashant and +1 to what Vikram said!

Sent from my ST27i using Tapatalk

[prashantsingh]

Congratulations in making life safer for inhabitants of Devprayag

Thanks everyone.
Actually this one was shot just outside Dehradun and not in Devprayag. I chose to put it up here because the initial part was somewhat similar. We put up dog traps in three places. Unlike Devprayag where we saw one leopard (not the maneater) .This place had at least 5. The best part was that inspite of the fact that we saw some of them we did not pull the trigger till we were sure we had our rifles pointing pn the right one. I will go into the details later.
Before I start. I will just give you a background.
I had come back from a hunt in England. Shooter took good care of me and in the two days we hunted I shot three deer and a rabbit. Got my first Red Stag in the first hour of my stalk with a 30-06 . A Roe deer from a high seat in the Evening with a .308 and a hare witha .22. Another Roe deer the next evening from a jeep. All the kills were single shots through the heart/lung.
No birds due to the English weather.....Third day it had to rain.

The moment I landed I got a call from Singh who wanted me to join the hunt. I also had my backlog of patients to cover up. So from 9:30 a.m. to 8p.m. with a Lunch break in the afternoon. I had my clinic to look after.
and from 8:30 p.m. (aftera quick dinner) till 5 a.m. I was on the maneater hunt.
The day we shot the fellow. I just came back. Had a hot bath and crashed to bed. Woke up after 14 hours.

Here is something interesting.
While in London . Shooter had gifted me a shark tooth ."It is a good luck charm I picked up from Australia". he told me. By the 6th day. I was totally fagged out. I would have died of lack of sleep . I thought.
That day I said a special prayer. Wore my old shirt I had used for my hunt in Africa and wore the shark tooth Shooter had gifted me.
All of it worked. And we got the maneater the same evening.
A record time for Singh who had never shot a maneater in less than 21 days.

[Baljit]

Prashant , i hope you had a great time with shooter in London.Back to maneater, I cant wait for rest of the story with the pictures.


Baljit

[Katana]

I think a detailed report on this affair is warranted, what say? Ideally, factors affecting the leopard lifting humans so close to major habitation. I'm sure there is a reason for all this.

[prashantsingh]

I think a detailed report on this affair is warranted, what say? .

Sure Sir.
But I will put up the story only after a month. Only after all human attacks have stopped. To confirm that the animal we shot was the real culprit.

Yesterday a male leopard was spotted close to where we killed the maneater. There was panic in the area and a team of forest officials rushed to the spot.
They saw a beautiful big male sitting on a tree. He had been there for more than half an hour. Finally he gave out a few calls,got up and walked away. The calls of a leopard are very different from that of a tiger and I shall discuss them at a later stage.( The roar, before the charge is also different. Ask me as I remember it well...... Have heard it from close quarters.)
The locals were told that this male had no interest in them. He had come back to look for his newly wedded wife. (The one we had shot).

A very important part of wildlife conservation is to inform and educate the locals living around forests. In most cases they understand. After all they have been living and sharing their habitat with these creatures for generations. We just can't shoot down all the leopards we see. There should be a strong indication before the trigger is pulled.
If that is done. I have hope.
Hope for the future.
Hope for all wildlife and for all big cats in this country.

[dev]

Very well done sir. Great job without any bravado or sensationalism. Really looking forward to your account.

[ckkalyan]

Well said prashantsingh-Ji!

Asking for the story straightaway would be somewhat akin to an extraction - of Wisdom Tooth (No 1) - Ouch!

Humor aside prashantsingh, I appreciate exactly what you wanted to convey and I empathise with you, the villagers and the leopard(s)!

Great work, very admirable, takes a lot of Cojones!

[Vikram]

I think a detailed report on this affair is warranted, what say? .

Sure Sir.
But I will put up the story only after a month. Only after all human attacks have stopped. To confirm that the animal we shot was the real culprit.

Yesterday a male leopard was spotted close to where we killed the maneater. There was panic in the area and a team of forest officials rushed to the spot.
They saw a beautiful big male sitting on a tree. He had been there for more than half an hour. Finally he gave out a few calls,got up and walked away. The calls of a leopard are very different from that of a tiger and I shall discuss them at a later stage.( The roar, before the charge is also different. Ask me as I remember it well...... Have heard it from close quarters.)
The locals were told that this male had no interest in them. He had come back to look for his newly wedded wife. (The one we had shot).

A very important part of wildlife conservation is to inform and educate the locals living around forests. In most cases they understand. After all they have been living and sharing their habitat with these creatures for generations. We just can't shoot down all the leopards we see. There should be a strong indication before the trigger is pulled.
If that is done. I have hope.
Hope for the future.
Hope for all wildlife and for all big cats in this country.

Very well said,Prashant!

[brihacharan]

Prashant wrote:

A very important part of wildlife conservation is to inform and educate the locals living around forests. In most cases they understand. After all they have been living and sharing their habitat with these creatures for generations. We just can't shoot down all the leopards we see. There should be a strong indication before the trigger is pulled.
If that is done. I have hope.
Hope for the future.
Hope for all wildlife and for all big cats in this country.

Wonderful words
Briha

[prashantsingh]

A month now since we shot the maneater.
All attacks on humans have stopped ever since. Leopards are still being sighted in the area. But the maneater is gone.

Request the mods to change the name from Maneater of Devprayag
to
Maneater of Devprayag / Chandmari.

Fear breeds prejudice.
The fear of a maneating leopard breeds prejudice against all leopards. Maneaters or not. I have experienced it first hand. One incidence and the locals want
all the leopards (in the area) dead.
Even after the maneater was killed we kept getting calls from the locals telling us about leopards they had sighted. It was herculean task to make them understand that the mankiller had been terminated and they had nothing to fear from the other big cats now.........provided they took certain precautions.
An R.T.I. filed by the so called "animal lovers" and news reports about leopard sightings in the area had taken it's toll on my morale.
So I decide to take help from a very senior retd. I.F.S. officer to educate the locals.
Mr Vinod Rishi.
Mr Rishi is an I.I.T. Delhi graduate in Mechanical Engineering. His love for nature made him take forestry as a career. A career where he has excelled ever since. It is a privilage to know a gentleman of his calibre.
The place we were hunting is a beautiful Cantt. in the foothills of the Himalaya . Speckled with villages around a thickly forested area.
I was unable to take many snaps since this was a military area , but will put up the relevant ones as the story progresses.
The maneater was shot on 2nd Nov 2013.
On 4th night I got a call from an Infantry battalion that three leopards had killed a calf behind their barracks.
I asked them not to disturb the leopards and told them I was on my way.
Took my camera and jumped into my SUV. Drove as fast as I could and was dreaming of taking some lovely snaps of the family.
When I reached the place I was shocked.
I saw a 4 ton truck standing with soldiers armed with INSAS and two jeeps parked on either side. Their high beams focused on a dead brown calf who had just been killed. Except for the two canine holes in the neck the animal was untouched.
The mother had left the carcass and run away with her cubs to spend another night on an empty stomach.
She would have to hunt again the following night. Another life would be lost.

[Baljit]

Hello friends, this morning I received a phone call from Prashant and he told me that ,he email me few pictures because his computer had a some problem and he can’t post these pictures here.
I am more than happy to post these pictures behalf of him and I hope all of you guys going to enjoy these pictures.


















Enjoy.
Baljit

[prashantsingh]

Thanks Baljit for putting up the snaps.
A couple of days after the calf was killed a male leopard was seen close to where the maneater was shot. The forest guards reached the place in time and managed to pacify the villagers.
Finally Mr Rishi and I got together and had this talk with the locals.
While I spoke about how the maneater was shot . Mr Rishi spoke about leopards in general.
His talk was not just an eye opener for the villagers but also for me.
He spoke about how the leopard has adapted itself to urbanization.
How it has undergone a comple change in diet from wild animals like deer , monkeys , birds , reptiles and amphibians
and turned to domesticated animals like Dogs, pigs , sheep goat and cattle.
In fact 95% of the diet of an "urban leopard" is domestic animals.
Out of this a shocking 60% consists of Dogs.
Considering an adult leopard needing a dog size meal every week.
Man animal conflict is bound to crop up.