The making of a "maneater". The Pithoragarh maneater

[zaheer.bakshi]

Arrival in Pithoragarh

[skeetshot]

Great narration, Prashant, well done and keep it up.

[prashantsingh]

Thanks Zaheer for the snaps.
We reached Didihat by mid day and met the range officer there. He took us to the forest rest house about 7 kms away. While the rest house in pithoragarh was nice and clean .This was a disaster. Dirty and filthy. Looked like it had not been visited by a senior officer for many years. We also had an option to stay at Ogla where the accommodation was better. But since Ogla was almost an hours drive from where we would be operating. We decided to stay put here.
Inspite of the poor boarding conditions and the equally bad food.

It is the passion of a maneater hunt that makes one forget and forgive everything else.

[brihacharan]

Hi prashant,
> You have got us hooked 'lock, stock & barrel' to this incredible narration of your quest to hunt the man-eating leopard
> I am sure before long you would have this monster 'hanging by his tail'!
> My good wishes for a successful hunt to put an end to the miseries of the local population of Pithorgargh!!!
Briha

[zaheer.bakshi]

INSPECTION BUNGALOW (REST HOUSE) AT SANDEV VILLAGE

[prashantsingh]

The Sandeo Forest Rest house.
There was a broken building just behind this one. It was built as a glass house but could not withstand the onslaught of the Himalayan winds and the monkeys for more than a year.

[prashantsingh]

The tourism dept has their guest houses.
The engineers have their inspection bungalows.
but the forest dept always has their Rest House.
Ever wondered why?
In the olden days a forest officer would spend 20 days a month inspecting his forests . Throughout the day he would be out in the jungles and would return in the evening to spend the night and rest. Hence the name rest house.

Expecting the maneater to be a big fellow I requested the range officer for a buffalo calf as bait. This leopard was killing adult men. The fauji who was mauled by the maneater swore it was a big fellow.He surely had to be more than 7 feet . I thought.

A goat as bait could be taken by a smaller leopard. But only the maneater would be big enough to bring down the calf.
We had come here to kill the maneater and only the maneater.

[zaheer.bakshi]

[prashantsingh]

That's Safarigent with the bait.
Behind him is the forest guard .
Safarigent named the Buffalo calf.... Rockstar.
Simply because our bait was least bit bothered about what was going on around him.
Unlike the perfect bait he was least vocal.
This created a problem for us.
The more vocal the bait. The more chances of the predator coming close to the machaan.
To sort out this problem we tied a bell around rockstars neck.
Now any movement he made. He would give out a ringing sound.
Every fly that sat on him, any shaking of the neck, any movement while grazing or standing.
The Bell would ring giving his location.
This made our chances brighter.

[dr.jayakumar]

DR thanks for the wonderful write up.its like reading jim corbetts adventure.can you share your weapons with us,if you don't mind.
best of luck.
regards
dr.jk

[zaheer.bakshi]

[brihacharan]

Suspense & anxiety is mounting with every post....
Your commitment to 'bag the beast' is highly commendable
Good Luck....
Waiting for more
Briha

[prashantsingh]

The walk to the village was a steep descent downhill. We were welcomed with tea by the villagers and for the first time I got a chance to interact with the locals.
The last victim had been killed here . A couple of days later the retd. Soldier had been mauled outside the same house where we are sitting.
Another man had been killed in the adjacent village a month earlier.
The man in the photograph with his son and daughter was the victims neighbour.
He was the man who changed my whole attitude towards the maneater.
He told us that till date all the 12 men killed were alcoholics.
All the killings had been done in night within the forests.
In all cases it was suspected that the victims had been dead drunk and had been sleeping on the mule tracks within the jungles which lead to their homes.
Even the soldier who was mauled. Was drinking all through the afternoon and shouting away. As darkness set in. He started pacing up and down his house shouting..... aa baagh himmat hai to mujhe maar. .......challenging the leopard to come and kill him , if it had the guts to do so.
As luck would have it . The leopard came and it was sheer luck that our man survived the attack.

This is not a maneater. I thought to myself.

It is we humans that are forcing these animals to turn maneaters. Our night search strengthened my belief as we hardly saw any game for the leopard to feed on.

That is the reason why I have named this story. Making of a maneater.
shall go into the details subsequently

[zaheer.bakshi]

[ckkalyan]

Very crisp narrative prashantsingh great photography zaheer.bakshi and nice to see images of Safarigent in action.

Suggestion - A leopard's sense of smell you will all agree, is very keen - it goes way beyond just sussing out a human...let's say beyond the 5th sense on to the 6th++?

Try dousing (on the skin of Rocky) the bait with the least expensive, most potent alcohol available, say something like 80 proof Vodka, see what happens...It is just a suggestion (I am no expert, it is only from my intuition, right now - going on observed phenomenon of combined sweat, evaporation, alcohol, excretion (from the skin)...etc)!


So, how come you you guys are looking so glum here??

Have fun brothers!