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

[prashantsingh]

Coming back to the hunt.
Sitting on the machaan one has to be absolutely still and silent. The slightest movement or sound (un noticed by the human eye) can easily be caught by the predator. I have mentioned this before. Leopards can see and hear 6 times better than humans.
The girl had been attacked at 7 30 pm.
At dusk (around 7 pm) we heard the frantic alarm calls of jungle babblers coming from the forest below.
15 minutes later we heard the calls of a lapwing (Titehri). The lapwing has a particular "ti ti ti" call . Jokingly called (u did it......u did it)
This came from the boundary wall on the right far end of the Bunglow (3 o'clock).
The bait was absolutely silent and sitting comfortably.
It was a big mountain goat (pahari bakra) white in colour.
On a dark night the white coat would give us a good background to take a shot.
Exactly at 7 30 , I saw the maneater come down from the road into the edge of the field.
I slowly raised my left hand a few inches and whispered " Aa gaya" (It has come)

[prashantsingh]

It sat there for a good ten minutes and was looking in the direction where the bait was tied (where the girl had been dragged and left).
Leopards are solitary animals.
The do not live in prides (unlike lions).
(I will make it simple.)
The girl had been killed in a field and not in a forest.
In one corner of the sprawling compound of Bangla number Nau (9). There was no chance of another leopard coming to this particular spot.
No other leopard would have known where it had killed this girl. Neither would the maneater told someother leopard . I have killed a girl there. "Go take a bite."
The timing was exactly the same.
Big cats work hard for every meal.
The maneater had worked hard and killed the girl. Using it's strength , stealth and speed it had sneaked in quietly from behind the girl and attacked.
Now it had come to feed on the kill.
There was no doubt.
We had the killer infront of us.

[prashantsingh]

Unfortunately. Neither Singh , nor Panditji could spot the animal.
Finally the maneater got up and walked on the mair (the partition) which devided the two field.
It stopped mid way and sat again. Now I could only see the head.
It was getting darker and darker with every passing minute and I had to strain my eyes to catch any movement.
At that particular moment Panditji coughed. He tried his best to supress it but came out with a low "Uughh".
The head turned towards our direction closely watching.
I slowly raised my rifle. But it was too dark to take a shot. Only the head was visible and without the flash light it was impossible to take the shot at 50 yards.
Singh and Panditji still had no idea where the animal was.
"Kahaan hai" Panditji whispered.
and the animal turned around and vanished through the field.
It went as quietly as it came.
We sat till nine p.m. but the maneater did not return.
We called Zaheer and the jeep arrived to pick us up.
We walked up to the spot as I narrated the story. There was lot of grass and we could not find a single pug mark.

Singh told me later (after the hunt was over). That the first day he did not believe me.
He thought I was lying.
It was only 24 hrs later. The next night when the maneater did exactly the same thing . That he realised I was saying the truth.

[prashantsingh]

Zaheer , Samarjeet and Thomas had been searching the area while we were on the machaan.
The came back with interesting information.
They had spotted 7 wild boar, more than 20 hare and a Kaakar (barking deer).
This was the first time in all our hunts that we had a maneater in an area with adequate prey base.
What had caused the leopard to turn to maneating.
This question boggled my mind.

I have been thinking about it ever since.
In all our previous hunts. We have one thing common. A depleted prey base.

I have been speaking with Baljit (a prominent IFG member, a friend and a fellow Shikari --from Canada) ever since we shot this maneater. Baljit has been kind enough to help me come out of the guilt feeling I was going through. I would like to thank him for calling me every weekend and discussing the hunt in detail for hours together.

Baljit feels that since the maneater was in her (almost) full term of pregnancy. Since she was carrieng three cubs inside. Her demand for food had increased drastically. Her last stages of pregnancy, had also restricted her ability to hunt it's natural prey forcing it to finally kill this girl.

[huntergill]

Parshant,I am not sure if you are aware of the fact that an eight years old male is trapped in the cage exactly at the same place in the field behind bungalow nine where Samikhsha was mauled. It happened the night after that female was shot.
I heard victim was walking the dog and holding the leash .Possibility that leopard came for the dog? The girl died later in the Mahant Inderesh hospital,was she able to say something about the attack?

[prashantsingh]

Parshant,I am not sure if you are aware of the fact that an eight years old male is trapped in the cage exactly at the same place in the field behind bungalow nine where Samikhsha was mauled. It happened the night after that female was shot.
I heard victim was walking the dog and holding the leash .Possibility that leopard came for the dog? The girl died later in the Mahant Inderesh hospital,was she able to say something about the attack?

1. Yesterday I was telling Vikram about the "innocent male" which was trapped subsequently.
I will TALK about it in DETAIL as the story progresses. I have photos of the male before it's capture and after it's capture.
Infact on 19th night one of the local boy's, who is now my "whattsapp friend" and lives in the village behind FRI called me up. He told me "Bhai saab apne galat leopard maar diya." and sent me a snap (he had taken) of the majestic big male. This is normal leopard behaviour which most people do not understand. I shall explain it subsequently.

2. The cage had been put up with live bait not "exactly at the same place in the field behind the bungalow" BUT INSIDE the forest on trail leading to the jungle walk. It is a beautiful pagdandee (mule track) which takes you through the jungle and is used by the IFS trainees for education purpose.

3. The maneater was shot on 16th. The male was captured on the 20th (NOT the night after the female was shot).

4. The Victim was NOT walking the dog and holding the leash.
You have seen the photos of the compound which have been put up on this thread. This is probably the biggest house in FRI. We later discovered the maneaters den which was actually within the campus in the North West corner.
I wonder if Zaheer has taken snaps of the injured dog.
The dog was sitting infront of the houses. When he heard the sound he ran behind the house (where the girl was standing) . Apparently she had been on the mobile for more than half an hour. When the dog rushed to the spot the folks standing there also came . They saw the leopard dragging away the girl. The dog chased the leopard. The leopard dropped it's kill and attacked the dog. As other people shouted. The leopard left and ran towards the forest.
It's a brown coloured local (desi) dog.

The girl had been attacked on the neck while the dog only had scratches on it's sides.
This confirms that the leopard actually came for the girl and not the dog.
Big cats pounce onto the game and grab it by the neck thereby distroying the vital organs in one bite. Damaging the major blood vessels to the brain , the neck and the wind pipe .

5. Such an attack can not be called "mauled" . It is an attack which leads to death. The girl was in no state to say anything. Whatever first hand info we got was from the eyewitnesses.

[goodboy_mentor]

Prashantji you have done right thing both ethically, morally and legally. Those making negative comments on some Facebook pages are ignorant or hypocrites. Just ignore them. Even the dog had sense to understand that something very wrong has happened and chose to chase and fight the leopard.

Problem probably is about exploding human population that is encroaching on wildlife areas. About which politicians are not willing to touch. Probably education and awareness about this matter may resolve the problem in future.

How about educating people to keep themselves armed with some common agricultural tools like light axes like gandasa etc. for self protection? Why the FRI officials not taking initiative to educate the villagers in this aspect?

[prashantsingh]

You have hit the nail on the head goodboy.

The only solution is to educate the people.
As life member of the Wildlife Preservation Society of India , my meeting next sunday is to discuss this.

I strongly feel that when the people of GUJRAT can live in harmony with the LIONS.
Why can the people of UTTARAKHAND not live in harmony with it's LEOPARDS ?

[kanwar76]

Well done Doc Saheb,

Do not worry about FB armchair conservationist, most ignorant of their kind lives there. That is why I am out of that cesspool. keep on doing the good work

-Inder

[prashantsingh]

I repeat
I strongly feel that when the peolpe of Gujarat can live in harmony with the Lions
The people of Uttarakhand I can live in harmony with it's Leopards.

Uttarakhand has the highest man animal conflict in the country.
Why is that so?

I blame the media for it.
Most journalists I have come across (unfortunately) are people who have no idea about wildlife. They see the news as a "Breaking News". Ever since I have started hunting maneaters I have tried to educate the media. But I find myself banging my head against the wall. They see the news as a NEWS Item. Something which will sell. Something which will increase their TRP (or whatever you call it)
Unfortunately. They are the ones who distort the facts.

Huntergills comments come from what he has read in the media. He is sitting far far away and does not know the real situation. Thereby I took upon myself to explain the facts point wise.
I was on ground zero. I had first hand information.

You will read in my story "Maneater of Devprayag / Chandmari " how we faced the same problem.
We shot the maneater of Chandmari in a Village called Birori. A distance of 25 kms by road . But a distance of 3 kms as the crow flies. The first victim was killed in exactly the same manner. Attacked on the neck. Killled but not eaten.
A week later we killed the leopard when it attacked and killed another child . In between we saw two leopards but did not I fire a shot.
The next day . the local news paper reported. ----Maneater of Birori shot. Maneater of Chandmari still missing.
I met the reporter and explained to him that the Maneater of Chandmari and Birori were basically the same animal.
He did not bother to report this.
"Yellow Journalism"?
I took upon the task myself and took a very senior Retd Forest Officer to educate the locals about Leopards.
Leopards are still sighted in Chandmari. But there has never been an incidence since 2013.
The people of Chandmari have learn to live with these animals.

[prashantsingh]

This time again I had issues wth the media.
To the extent that I reported a particular reporter of a most famous newspaper, to her Editor for distorting the facts.

This is the threat I got from the reporter. It is a message which I have saved in my mobile and anyone can see it if they are interested.
"The way you are complaining against me shows how insecure, frustrated , incompetent and hollow you are from inside. As a journalist I have slammed higher officials and ministers for reght reasons but none indulged in gross cheapness as you did. You can do whatever you want to do against me. it will not effect me> My eyes are now on you. JUST SEE HOW I EXPOSE YOU WHEN I CATCH HOLD OF SOMETHING CONCRETE."

I could have taken this further. But I decided not to. This fight is not PERSONAL. I am fighting for the LEOPARDS of my state.
My concience is clear and I have nothing to fear.

Time and again I had explained to this reporter how we go about hunting a maneater.
Yet the reporter would come out with some controversy.
The day the male was trapped this reporter again distorted the facts and went on to question If this male was the maneater.
I called her up and again tried to educate her.
Told her that every time a female maneater is shot. We have observed the male has come back looking for her after 3 to 5 days.
We have observed it in Jhajra 2010 , Birori 2013, Fulsaini 2015 and again in FRI.
A male's territory is larger than a females and may overlap with two or more females.
In this territory, the male is the BOSS. He will not allow another male to move in. But will accept another female.

In all the previous episodes. The Dominant Male came. Looked around for the female for another three to four days calling her with loud grunts "haaah , haaah ". (and after not finding her) has moved on.
This male has never caused any harm to human life and is in all cases innocent.
The porblem in FRI was that the male got trapped.
The media again tried to make an issue out of it.

[prashantsingh]

Inspite of explaining to them . They refused to hear my story.
I GIVE FULL CREDIT TO THE FOREST DEPARTMENT FOR NOT BOWING DOWN TO MEDIA PRESSURE.
The media probably wanted this animal DEAD like the maneater or best perhaps sent to a ZOO.
But the DFO relocated the animal to a reserve forest where it will have enough food and probably go on the spread its gene pool.

THIS I FEEL IS MY GREATEST ACHIEVEMENT IN THE FRI HUNT.
The greatest achievement was NOT when I squezed the trigger. But when the DFO called up to tell me that he has released and relocated the innocent male.

[prashantsingh]

Last year Safarigent, Zaheer and I went to Pithoragarh to hunt the maneating Leopard there.
We came very close to getting the animal but had to return when the most Famous Shikari was invited.
The maneater had killed 14 people over a period of two years.
The Shikari took 2 months to gun down this maneater. A fantastic female more than 7 feet in length.
Within a week another "MANEATER" was killed by the same Shikari , not far from where the female was shot.
THE SECOND "MANEATER" WAS A BIG MALE.
Close to 8 feet in length.
The explanation given was that they operated in pairs.

I Willl refrain from saying more. Lest another controvery be created.

[timmy]

Prashantji, you are under a lot of pressure, and anyone would feel tension from the sort of treatment you have received. Even though the facts are clear enough, there are still many people in this world who are so tied to their private theories and interpretations that they cannot listen to anyone else, nor are they subject to reason. Talking is simply not a viable tool to correct the problem with these people. They cannot be educated.

You have done a tremendous job, and a very valuable one. You are trying to make things right and truly give wildlife a chance to live in a world where it is being crowded out, more and more. I think you are on the right path, but your path is also too often a thankless one.

As far as this reporter goes, just look at what she is saying: how she will expose and destroy you -- then ask yourself, who is insecure, frustrated, and hollow. Ask yourself, if she is a professional journalist, is this competent behavior she is displaying? It sounds to me like she got a talking to by her editor and is now lashing out at you because she was drawn up short -- in other words, she wants to revenge herself on you because her own position is insecure.

Let her blow herself out, Pranshantji, and do not let her problem become yours. You have done the right thing in this, and that speaks quite strongly for itself.

[prashantsingh]

I don't bother about these journalists. I would not have come out with the truth had Vikram not sent me that link.
I do not do this (dirty) job for Name, Fame or Money. I do it for the passion.
I have said it before. Passion to save human lives. Passion to save innocent leopards.

The NEWS which was most important to me, Timmy. Had no selling value.
I doubt any of the news papers reported the successful relocation operation.
A Vet. from the Wildlife Institute of India, tranquilized the captured male and did a thorugh clinical examination before the animal was released in Barkote range.

Yes. If the locals had burnt the caged animal alive.
That would have made bigger news.
"REAL MANEATER BURNT ALIVE BY LOCALS".
It would have flashed all over the world and thousands of comments would have come within no time.

That's the MEDIA for you my friends.