MAN EATER casualties on the rise in Uttarakhand. Govt should formulate a concrete policy to save human lives !

The prominent shooter and killer of 90 maneaters in the forests of Garhwal and Kumaon himalayas, about 8 decades ago, is again remembered today after the incessant horrifying killings of human beings in the villages of Uttarakhand, spreading terror around and the government agencies, particularly the forest department doing literally nothing to protect the precious lives of the inhabitants living in interior villages.

There was a time when these leopards and tigers used to roam and confine themselves within the highly dense jungles and would harm the human beings only when they posed them any sort of danger.
These predators, then used to attack human lives in retaliation to protect themselves.

But unfortunately, during the last two decades, especially in the previous five years after the increasing construction activities like road constructions, construction of dams and infrastructural developments around and in the forests, the wild life has been badly disturbed, displaced and are coming nearer to houses for want of prey.

The jungles of Uttarakhand are bereft of the wild life and the leopards, tigers whose main food is flesh find it difficult to arrage food as increasing jungle fires have also imbalanced the ecology resulting dearth of wild animals shifting elsewhere.

According to a confirmed statistics there are about 150 maneaters in Uttarakhand and the government and the wild life still seems to be more concerned to protect the maneaters than the lives of the inhabitants living in villages despite so much of human killings.

In just last one year, good number of brutal killings of Uttarakhand villagers have come to the fore in Garhwal and Kumaon regions and the death involves those of children, old aged persons and women who go for fodder in the jungles. Majority of these maneater killings have been noticed from roadsides and near the human settlements.

Just fifteen days ago a man eater brutally killed a 65 year old man near a bus shed in Pauri Garhwal’s Chowbatta khal area followed by two killings in Manila, Kumaon area where two children aged 7 were dragged to the jungles several metres away by these maneaters n brutally killed on the spot. But the forest division could not do anything to avert these incidents despite so much of hullaballoo and concern.

On 11 June in Bageshwar a seven year old boy named Deepak son of an eighty percent handicapped Dalit Diwane Ram became the easy prey of the maneater who dragged the boy from his house till the nearby jungle and ate half of his body.

In retaliation the angry villagers in Harinagari area of Uttarakhand’s Bageshwar district set a forest on fire Monday evening. The boy’s half-eaten body was found in the nearby forest area on Tuesday morning.

A crowd of over a thousand gathered in the village due to which the foresters could not go into the affected area during the night, forest officials said. Harinagari is around 25 kms from the district headquarters.

There is terror all around and the local residents including the traumatic parents of the deceased are demanding adequate financial compensation including killing of the maneaters at all costs.

The moot point is as to how long will the inhabitants of Uttarakhand, particularly the villagers live under the terror of maneaters’ unpredictable attacks which can happen at any unknown place and time.

Hundreds of such predators are roaming freely near the roadsides and the human settlements in Uttarakhand and clandestinely look for human flesh.

It has almost become an order of the day as such terrorising incidents of leopard attacks appear in newspapers after every three days with the hapless and ignorant forest department literally doing nothing to chalk out a concrete strategy to counter this increasing menace.

Since Uttarakhand comprises of 70 or more % of the forest cover Tigers, leopards and Panthers roam in these jungles freely and in view of the dearth of animal prey they usually remain in search of human meat near villages and even isolated houses in towns.

Finding an easy prey they attack on human beings on roadsides, houses near jungles and lonely places and fulfill their hunger.

Though there is no definite statistics available in government records about those killed by maneaters but it is believed that the number has crossed thousands.

The government should hire the expert shooters and grab these maneaters physically and if not possible to catch them physically, should get rid of them as human life is more precious than these dreaded maneaters who’d let loose their reign of terror in entire Uttarakhand. An expert and specialised shooter like Jim Corbet of the British area is the need of the hour.