A brave woman who fought the maneater should be recommended for president’s bravery award

There is a news about a very brave woman of Srinagar Garhwal’s Gahard village namely Mamta Devi who was attacked by a maneater (leopard) while she was washing the clothes. Mamta, however, exhibited extraordinary courage and instead of being demoralised or terrorised put a brave fight with the predator and stoned him to death after repeated stoning as per the information of Vipin Pant an NGO activist.

This is undoubtedly an extraordinary act of outstanding bravery by a woman of immense courage who uncaring for her life bravely fought the maneater and stoned it to death. WOW.

She should be recommended for the President’s bravery award by the state government. The Uttarakhand Journalists Forum appeals to the chief minister of Uttarakhand Trivendra Singh Rawat to take note of this incident of outstanding bravery of ahousewife and financially compensate and reward Mamta Devi of Gahard Gaon near Shrinagar Garhwal.

It’s infact disturbing to note that the dreaded incidents of leopard attacks in Garhwal and Kumaon divisions of Uttarakhand are on rapid increase with number of casualties on the rise and the government of the state literally doing nothing to ensure the safety of the human beings and initiating steps to capture these maneaters who are more than 150 in Uttarakhand, may be the number might have increased by now.

What is more disturbing is the fact that unlike in other forests these maneaters have now come nearer to human settlements in Uttarakhand and are constantly making the human’ their easy prey, ever third day. In just last one week several incidents of maneater attacks and subsequent casualties have come to our knowledge.

The situation now has come to such a sorry pass that the forest department and the wild life officers including the minister concerned should seriously work on this matter as maneater casualties have gone beyond control, in the Uttarakhand hills.

Since 2000 after achieving statehood about 600 people have lost their lives in the maneater, leopard attacks and about 31 hundred injured, many of them grievously.

This spree of attacks unfortunately in still on, rather more speedily. The lives of the people whose houses are on roadside, in isolated places and near the jungles have become completely vulnerable.

Maneaters are entering house compounds and grabbing human beings, literally dragging them to the nearby jungles thereafter, thus killing them on the spot without any fear or terror of human attack.

It is incumbent of the state government to come out with a concrete policy and plan of action on these casualties so that the maneaters are tranqualised and captured in cages or if need be killed, as humans are more important than tigers, we believe, if they are killing us so rampantly. What’s your take, friends?