The maneating leopardess of F.R.I (Truth behind the story)

[prashantsingh]

Thank You Zaheer for the photographs.

The lady on facebook states:
"The true story is the girl who got accidentally killed by the attack of leopard went into the dense jungle while talking on her mobile phone in the night time, she did not go to toilet as wrongly quoted by the daily newspaper. Would you not call it a suicide ?"

In my opinion Mrs Rajrani Sharma did not bother to even visit the spot before coming to this judgement.
What do we call these people. "Armchair conservationists"?

It pains my heart when people do this.
The truth is as follows
The 18 yr old girl (a beautiful young girl) was standing just behind her house (which is the servant's quarters) talking to her fiancee on mobile when the maneater struck. It was 7 30 pm in the evening.
The leopard then dragged the girl a good 50 yards through the field (where you see the two ladies clearing the crop for us to tie the bait).
There is a road after that which leads to the officers Bunglow (number 9) and then an equally large field on the other side. After that there is a wall and beyond the wall starts the forest.
A pet dog ran to rescue the girl and all the people living in the outhouse came out on hearing the commotion . The Leopard dropped the girl. Attacked the dog and finding itself outnumbered ran across the road, over the wall and into the jungle.

See for yourself how people try to twist the facts to prove their point.

[airgun_novice]

Dear Prashant

Solidly with you on this issue. Yes it was rather unfortunate that the Mama Leopard was pregnant but the critics miss the point that the victim, albeit a human was also in her prime of life. The same leopardess would have gone ahead and estinguished the light of life of many more humans and other animals alike ? Had she killed say a pregnant goat or a pregnant cow or a pregnant lady eventually would the same critics have done a volte face and gone on record saying that well, the maneater must be killed as it is now justified ? Ignore such attention-seekers. They are like the cicadas you hear when out at night to clear the menace and make the region a bit safer for humas and other animals alike. Good Job by you and the rest

regs
A.

[brihacharan]

Dear Prashant,
If your 'conscience is clear' - let not those who twist the tale 'matter to you'
In matters such as this - there are many 'fence sitters' at large - waiting to jump to where it suits them....
Carry on 'bro' regardless, set your mind at rest - you played the game by the rules & that's all that matters
Briha

[Safarigent]

The doc would rather let a leopard go than shoot if there is an iota of doubt that it isnt the maneater. A maneater is a maneater is a maneater. Pregnant or not, old or young, these dont matter. A maneater has to be put down. Everyone here and on that page agrees that its unfortunate and extremely saddening to see the increasing man-animal conflict every day. But once an animal has tasted human flesh, it isnt going back to its normal food source.
Someone has to do the dirty job. And he is one amongst the few who does.
I thank the team and the members on behalf of the parents of that unknown child who would have fallen victim to the maneaters depredations next had it not been put down.
Its just one of those things in life which the good doc will remember with a twinge of regret. No one likes taking life for the heck of it, and especially when the lives of unborn cubs are involved. But it had to be done unfortunately one way or another else we would have soon had the cubs learning how to hunt humans too.

Take a bow Dr. Prashant, you deserve all the plaudits and none of the brickbats!

[prashantsingh]

We missed you on this one Safarigent. This one was over much before we expected it.

27 hours to be precise. Record timing for Singh and our team.

[Hammerhead]

You done your job well sir. Just move on with life. I still get nervous seeing a over under shotgun, you know why ?

Tomorrow there might be a rapist waiting for execution, these people will brake the jail and burn him.

[prashantsingh]

"These BASTARDS should be killed".
says one of the comments on facebook.
I was going through all those comments yesterday night and saw our man : Vikram: trying to put his point in the most civilized manner.
Thank You Vikram for doing it.

[prashantsingh]

Interstingly this was not the first Leopard attack in F.R.I.
There had been a lot of leopard activity in the past 6 months and two recorded (minor) attacks previously.
The last one , I remember clearly was a young boy who worked part time as a Caddy on the FRIMA Golf Course.
The FRIMA (Forest Research Institute -Indian Military Academy : FRI-IMA ) golf course is a distance of hardly 500 m (crow flight) from the place where the Girl was killed.
Two of my patients Col Vijay and Col Arun. Both retd army officers and keen golfers had told me about it around the same time we were hunting the Fulsaini Maneater (the maneater that stood it's ground). Col Vijay an officer from my Grandfather's regt. (Rajput) and an old time Shikari predicted. "I am afraid .You have a maneater in the making Doc."
The young boy was cycling down the road when a leopard pounced upon him from nowhere. A car came just in time and the animal ran away, leaving the boy injured. These two gents got together and asked all Golfers to contribute and raise a small fund for the boy's treatment.
So any one claiming this attack was accidental is talking bull #hit.

14 March 2015 (9 pm)
I was at the Lucknow railway station on my way back when the call came. Singh had been asked to come and hunt the maneater and he wanted me to reach the spot right away. I told him I was on my way back and my train was running late by 6 hours.
"You will reach Moradabad early Morning. Give me a call when you cross Rampur. I will pick you up from the station and we drive straight."
said Singh
"Very well" I said.
Sure enough . When I got out of the station. I found Singh waiting for me.
I had not slept all night. Twisting and turning. Calling up Zaheer and coordinating a few important things for the shoot with him. I am quite sure none of us slept that night. Neither Singh nor Zaheer.

"Doctor saheb , Relax and Rest. I have been doing this for 18 years. Don't get Excited" . Singh told me. "You haven't slept all night. Sleep in the car."

But I couldn't get a seconds sleep.

Not because I had not slept the previous night.
Not because I was all excited.

But because Singh was driving at 120 kmph. (top speed for Indian roads)
Finally, sitting on the edge of my seat . I told him.
"NOW YOU RELAX. You may have done this for 18 years. The last thing I want is getting killed on the road . You are on your 12th maneater and are more excited than I am."

[ckkalyan]

"These BASTARDS should be killed".
says one of the comments on facebook.
I was going through all those comments yesterday night and saw our man : Vikram: trying to put his point in the most civilized manner.
Thank You Vikram for doing it.

Nice work Vikram! You not only explianed the pertinent points patiently and calmly, I observed that your efforts were unflagging - well done!

Tough, thankless job well executed prashantsingh - your courage and dedication are exemplary! Kudos!

[zaheer.bakshi]

Kudos to Vikram for proving his point . It was one man against so many. I read all the comments made on fb. Vikram not only defend the debate but educated the people who dont have any clue about a maneating leapord but completely ignorant of the issue. Just debating without knowledge. But in the end fact is fact. As part of the team I understand how much time & effort is required to go for a maneater hunt. Its a team sffort.

[SMJ]

Dear Prashanth Singh ji, I am a massive admirer of people like yourself, Safarigent and Mr Bakshi - you gentlemen are like superheros- undertaking a thankless task - getting brick bats from environmentalists, the politicians, the villagers themselves and possibly even from the forest department. Despite this you do your best to keep calm and try to ensure that you carry out your task in the best possible manner to ensure no more danger to humans as well as innocent leopards-its astounding! You write with a lot of humility when speaking about the hunts undertaken to save human lives - speaking for myself, nowhere do I see ANY sense of triumph in your writings when forced to kill these beautiful creatures- I really wish there were more people like you. I am quite certain the team you work with also have the same principles as yourself.

However I must confess a few years ago my reaction would have been the same as a lot of the posts I have read as a reaction to Rajrani Sharma's post . When i read them now it saddens me to know that just like me a few years ago, very few of them would have bothered to try and asses the situation or even try to understand man/animal conflicts better before commenting. Some of the comments are so stupid and childish that its just laughable.
I am just as much a lover of wildlife and our jungles as anyone here and certainly hate seeing any animal put down. Fact of the matter is that we humans have decimated what were once beautiful forests, shot out and hunted prey species by the hundreds through illegal poaching and over hunting thus upsetting the balance of nature. What we did and are doing is creating ecological disaster's through our ever growing population and the need to feed our greed and situations such as this are going to be unavoidable unless the political class wakes up to the calamity they are allowing to take place. I live in Bombay and one truly astounding fact that I learnt a sometime ago through a documentary on the leopards of Bombay is that leopards living in the national park feed mainly on stray dogs and possibly goats and other livestock occasionally- some of them have never hunted or even seen a deer! Its indeed a sad state of affairs.

Be as it may, one thing I DO know is that whenever I visit Masinagudi (Mudumalai/Bandipur forests) and stay at friends place in the jungle it gives me the shivers amongst other things when sitting on his verandah in the evening with a clear warning from him not to even step off the verandah even to walk inside of his own property as bears, leopards and elephants and sometimes tigers regularly pass his property. Hell, wildboar are constantly in the property at dusk and one gets scared to step into his garden when one see them. I recall times when sitting on the verandah at night and hearing bamboo branches being broken just a few feet away the sense of helplessness and fear man can actually feel in the jungle- whether armed or otherwise. To walk through the forests at night in thick bush the way Prashant Singh ji and the team do requires balls of steel to say the least! This small experience in my friends jungle home has also made me understand much better why locals would fear an animal that has become a threat and want it eliminated. Its very easy to pass judgement on these situations sitting in a plush apartment in the city. To all such people I would recommend staying in a house in the forest -come dusk and when the jungle comes alive, when you are scared to even take a walk in the property itself, only then would you then understand what it is to experience real fear of the jungle at night. In elephant and bear country you have to be on full alert even during the day when walking in the forest. So hats off to you Mr PrashantSinghji!!

May I also just add that my observation of the picture on face book is that nowhere do I see anyone smiling or gloating over the body of leopard triumphantly - makes one wonder how people came to such a conclusion?

[prashantsingh]

We reached home at lunch time. Singh and I had a quick meal and after getting ready I picked up my rifle and started for FRI.
Zaheer , Sudhir and Panditji had already started the initial preperation.
The machaan was ready by the time we reached the institute.
The closest tree was a Leechee tree about 50 yards from the spot where the girl had been left (after being dragged) by the maneater.
The machaan was a solid thing and this time we decided to have 3 people sitting on it instead of two.
Panditji is an expert at making machaans( hide) and over the years I have seen him improve and get better.
Singh would sit on the left , Panditji in the middle and I on the right.
Singh with his .315 , I would my 30 06 and Panditji with the flash light in the middle.
The decision to switch the light on was Panditjis. Singh and I would fire at the count of three.

Zaheer, Sudhir, Samarjeet and Thomas would be in the jeep searching the area with the flash light.

The bait was tied at the same spot where the girl was left. The girls clotted blood was still there along with a piece of her cervical bone . The maneater had attacked her from behind and bit into her neck.

We had a quick meeting with the senior forest officers and a briefing with the Estate Manager. We went through the google maps of the area and camera trap photos of the three resident leopards.

Singh felt that since the maneater had made a kill and not got a chance to feed on it. There was a very strong possibility of it's coming back to the same spot looking for the kill.

We were on the machaan an hour before sunset.
Unfortunately the bait was absolutely silent.
It refused to bleat.
When the bait does not bleat. The chances of a big cat coming to it reduce drastically.
Yet that evening I was in for a big surprise.

[prashantsingh]

SMJ
Even when the photograph was taken we were not awair that this maneater was pregnant.
A whole lot of Forest Officers came to see the dead maneater. Officers from Rangers to DFOs and Conservators.
Since the animal was shot in the Forest Research Institute , it is understandable that most people who saw the carcass were from the Forest Dept.
Not one pointed out that the leopard might be pregnant.
and mind you
They had the chance to see the animal closely.
While when we fired we were 50 yards away in a dark night.
It was only after the Vet did the atopsy was the pregnancy detected.

[SMJ]

Prashant Singh ji, its sad the leopardess happened to be pregnant. But as you pointed out none of you could be aware of this fact then. However, this gives rise to an interesting question sir - this is not intended to put you in a spot in any way its just out of interest and curiosity. Your answer will only add to my learning:) My question is that had you known the leopardess was carrying cubs but was also the one who killed the girl would you still have proceeded to shoot it? I am guessing the answer would be yes as there would be no choice really, but would love to read your thoughts sir.

[prashantsingh]

I have mentioned this before in my post "Maneater of Devprayag".
I grew up listening to certain Shikar rules which one would follow.
"Hunting during the season, never shoot a female, never shoot a sitting bird, Sun down Gun down" to name a few.
But when it comes to hunting maneaters. You don't go by the rules.
I felt horrible when I came to know that the leopard was pregnant.
Infact all the members of or team felt that way.
The posts on Facebook made me feel worse.
But the response I have got here has made me over come it now.
I have no doubt that if I am sure if the animal infront of me is a mankiller. I will not refrain from shooting it down. Irrespective of the fact that it is pregnant or not.