The maneater that stood it's ground

[prashantsingh]

I was forced to climb (rather run) up the hill on two occasions. Rifle in hand . By 5 pm all of us were exhausted. Haven eaten nothing since morning. We were in a pretty bad state. The locals on the other hand would take turns going home , having their meals , resting and coming back to join the hunt.
At least ten such unorganised drives were conducted and the maneater appeared on 4 occasions.
Glimpses for a few seconds and would vanish into the thick undergrowth which was anything from 4 feet to 8 feet high.
We would come to know the direction from where the maneater came out by the loud shouts of the locals. "Bagh Bagh" which would soon fade. By the time any one of us would get there. The leopard was long gone.


"Had it not been for it's tail. A leopard can hide behind a leaf". Is an old saying.
This was perfect leopard habitat.
There was no way we could ever kill the animal this way,.
To make matters worse people started to burst crackers to drive the animal. At least fifty odd dewali bombs were burst.
The first time one went off. I though one of my members had shot the animal........Only to be told that it was a cracker.

The mob had distroyed all pug marks and any evidence.
I was surprised to see one left in the evening and quickly poured a plaster model with the help of Plaster of Paris. This model would go on to give us vital information the following day.

[zaheer.bakshi]

Pug Marks of the Maneater

[prashantsingh]

Draw an imaginary box around the pugmark.
If the box is square shaped. Its that of a male.
If it is rectangle shaped. It is that of a female.
We got the right front pug mark of the maneater. The pug mark gives information on the sex and size of the animal.
We were now sure the animal was a female and was around six and a half feet in size. Not a very big animal . A good trophy would be anything more than 7 feet in length.
It was surprising to see that an animal this size had the strength to kill and drag a 10 year old boy more than 400 meters . Carry him up hill and eat him there. What power. What amazing strength.

[timmy]

Gentlemen, what a tale is being told here! It is no wonder, Prashantji, that you would have difficulty sleeping, especially given the "helpful" assistance of the locals. It is often amazing how people will be so obstinate about acting in their own worst interests. You have had to deal with this clever beast in the presence of irrational people, and then face more of them from the newspapers afterwards.

That's a burden!

So it sounds like she was a young leopard who had turned to interacting with the world of man rather early in life, or am I wrong?

It would take more courage than I have, to wade into the woods, knowing that hungry and desperate eyes were watching every move I made.

[prashantsingh]

Every time I go for a maneater hunt. I learn something new about this majestic animal.
The leopard turned out to be about 6 yrs of age. which is not really young. But before we actually shot it. There was a school of thought that said this might be a young female.
One thing common was that throughout our week long search we saw no natural food base for the leopard. Only saw a few hare here and there. 5 red jungle fowl when the locals put fire to the Lantana on the first day and two teetar. I was surprised at how this big cat has adapted to the change in environment.

[prashantsingh]

Talking about the news papers Timmy. There was one paper which said that the leopard came out 5 times in the drive , ha aka . Yet the Shikaris could not shoot it.
The village ladies , headed by the gram pradhan ,did not allow the boys body to be taken for postmortem till 3 pm. They demanded certain facilities from the administration. The SDM and SP had to negotiate long before taking the body. It is sad how some people use such events to politicize their own agendas.
As a result of this delay work on the machaan ......hide.....started at around 6 pm. Ideally we should have been on the machaan 2 hours earlier.
We all felt that after all this commotion the maneater must have left place and the machaan was more to satisfy the locals that anything else. But we were in for a big surprise.

[timmy]

Prashantji, your perseverance in the face of all of this tomfoolery is commendable. And then, to have no thanks from the news people who are polishing their own agendas with their own ignorant remarks is also an unfortunate substitute for thanks.

It could almost make one think that maybe the folks need to be left to their own stupidity, but those innocent little ones aren't making politics or agendas -- and of course, they are the ones who pay. The cat surely knows they are totally defenseless.

You've done a good work, and the knowledge that you have probably saved other little ones is, in itself, a lot of thanks. That, and the admiration of all of us here!

[ckkalyan]

What a nightmare for a shikari prashantsingh!With the hundreds of villagers and press corps assembled at the kill site, it is a wonder that the leopard came back at all. It goes to show how desperate / deprived the animal was and also how accustomed it probably was to the presence of humans.

Nice tale in the telling...keep it coming.

[prashantsingh]

With all his years of experience Singh felt the leopard was gone. One of the guards tied the bait and as luck would have it the SDO came with some tea and biscuits. Our first meal of the day.
Singh and pundit ji were supposed to sit on the machaan.
The delay caused by the tea break would cost us dear in the near future,
The bait was absolutely quiet , Then we heard a single .......Maaain .........and then silence. I left half the tea, picked up my shot gun and asked Pundit ji to show the light. We walked through thick Lantana bush to reach the spot where the bait was tied.
The goat was gone. Unfortunately the guards had not secured it properly and the leopard had managed to break the rope with which it was tied.
We looked around but their was no sign of the bait or the maneater.
I rushed back to the team. We jumped into the jeep and moved in the machaan direction with our searchlight. We searched an searched but found nothing.

[prashantsingh]

We left at 2am and would come back again to search for the goat early morning.
The news of the missing goat had spread far and wide and we were greeted by a mob of a hundred odd ladies the next morning shouting.....Shikari dal hai hai. Chudian pehen log. Bandook Hame De do.......
shame on the hunters. wear some bangles and hand over your weapons to the ladies. we will gun down the maneater. ....
There were few men amongst the ladies and I recognized the gram pradhan, the root cause of all this nonsense.

[prashantsingh]

We searched the area but there was no clue of the goat.
It was decided that Shahid and pandit ji would sit on the machaan in the evening. A new bait was purchased and tied with these two sitting up for the maneater. The others would scan the area with a searchlight in my jeep.
We went to pick them from the machaan at 9 30 pm.
Shahid told us that the maneater had come.
He heard the animal eat for almost half an hour just behind the machaan . The undergrowth was so thick that nothing could be seen. But he could hear the bones cracking and the animal chewing on its meal.
Finally all sounds stopped and the maneater left as quietly as it came.
Next morning we walked to the spot. barely 25 yards behind and east of the machaan in thick undergrowth. The carcass had been hidden carefully and dry leaves sprinkled over it to camouflage the kill. We also found leopard scat closeby. I collected it in a sealed plastic packet. The carcass was removed to force the maneater to make another kill
Zaheer may I request you to kindly put up a snap of the goat

[essdee1972]

It could almost make one think that maybe the folks need to be left to their own stupidity, but those innocent little ones aren't making politics or agendas -- and of course, they are the ones who pay. The cat surely knows they are totally defenseless.

Second that!

Seriously, incredible stupidity on the part of the villagers. And of course, since the post mortem was delayed to get some "facilities", one can safely conclude that these "demonstrations" were not because of some emotion, but calculated means for political gains.

Shikari dal hai hai

Shouldn't that read as "gaon walon hai hai"?

I left half the tea, picked up my shot gun and asked Pundit ji to show the light. We walked through thick Lantana bush to reach the spot where the bait was tied.

The two of you, Prashantji, go through a lantana bush in darkness, with a maneating leopard around. And write about it as if you went on a ramble in your own garden! Hats off, sir!

[zaheer.bakshi]

THE GOAT WHICH LOST ITS GROUND


MANEATER LEAPORD SCAT FOUND NEAR THE GOAT KILLED BY HIM

[prashantsingh]

Leopards need a dog size meal a week.
The maneater had eaten the boy on 16th night.
Had killed and eaten the goat on 17 th and 18th night.
It's stomach was full and no one could predict when it would strike again.
On 19th night Shahid and Singh sat on the machaan.
The rest of the team searched on the road.
There was no movement at all.
Looked like the leopard had left the area.
20th evening I and Shahid sat on the machaan. Shahid was resting his back against the tree while I was in front. The machaan just had enough space to seat two. I had my legs dangling down. A mistake I shall never commit again. At around 7 30 pm. The maneater came. It was a dark and cold night. The beast stopped at the spot where it had hidden and devoured the boy. Then moved down to just behind the machaan . To the spot where it had kept the goat. Finding the goat missing it walked past the machaan , through thick undergrowth on to the other side and sat. The bait started to bleat frantically . it could probably sense death and passed stools and urine at the same time.
My heart was thumping with fear and I could actually feel my legs shake. I knew any movement at this stage could be catastrophic.
I took in some deep breaths and tried to relax.
Felt a little better.
After another 10 minutes I was ready with my rifle. Waiting for the maneater to come out in the open. Close to the bait so that I could take a shot . But this never happened. We have no idea when the animal left.

[prashantsingh]

Searching the maneater in the cold winter nights and lack of sleep took it's tool on the team mates.
Corbett 99 who had stood by us during the hunting of the maneater of Chandmari fell sick and caught a bad cold.
Fortunately he was replaced by Safarigent.
Safarigent arrived on 20th evening and joined the search from the same day.

My experience on the machaan made me make some changes in the design.
We reinforced the sides and put up a green cloth on two sides leaving two sides open.
The maneater was habitually coming down the ridge into the valley.
The cloth would act as a blind and make us less visible when she approached.
The beast had come very close to the machaan . Yet had been cautious not to come out of the undergrowth.
Leopards can see 6 times better in the dark than human. It was obvious she was watching us when approaching the bait.

21st Shahid and I sat on the modified machaan again but the maneater did not come.
Singh had located another favourable spot up hill and the rest of the team waited there with a second bait tied.
We sat till 9 30 pm and then decided to search with the spotlight.
Neither of the teams got to hear any movement.

At around 10 p.m. we got a call from the DFO that some newspaper reporter had called him and told him of a lady being attacked and killed by the maneater. The village was Jamunwala. A distance of three kms by road but probably less than 1 km as the crow flies.
All of us jumped into the Jeep and drove directly to Jamunwala.
When we got there everyone was indoor. Singh immediately knew this was just a rumour.
"Had anyone been killed the whole village would be out on the streets."
We went to the Pradhan's house and woke him up. Asked him to speak to the DFO.
Fortunately . All was well.

By 11 30pm dense fog had enveloped the valley. Our flash light could barely penetrate 20 meters. There was no point waisting time here.
We all left for home and for the first time in so many days got some extra sleep.

22nd . The rain Gods came in. It rained from morning to evening.
"Unlike Tigers, Leopards don't like water. I doubt the animal will move much today." said Singh.
The weather opened up by evening and we were back on the road searching for the maneater. Looked around till 2 and then returned home.

Safarigent and Singh would stay back at the Forest Rest House and if the weather opened up in the morning . Would come and look for pug marks in the area.