Uttarakhand man eaters : Will Trivendra Singh’s government formulate a credible policy to save precious human lives ?

The Uttarakhand state is under the incessant grip of forest fires and maneater attacks resulting in loss of flora fauna and human livesas well.

The depleting forest cover due to the increasing incidents of forest fires have resulted in not only loss of animal flesh inside the jungles but has also complelled the cheetas, leopards n tigers move towards human settlements near villages n local towns hunting for human beings. This has become an order of the day.

This is a most disturbing trend and a direct unpredictable threat to human lives in the interiors of Uttarakhand hills.

Since pre independence days when British ruled India n Uttarakhand, then undivided part of Uttar Pradesh, there lived a famous British hunter based in Nainital n Kaldhungi called Jim Corbett who is known to had killed 31 maneaters in Garhwal and Kumon divisions.

During those days there weren’t laws for conservation of wild life so strong and credible as are now and hunting animals was the hobby or adventure of interest for the affluents, Maharajas and the professional hunters.

According to old sayings Rudraprayag in Chamoli district had the grave terror of a maneater which had killed several people including children, elders and women as well.

There was terror all around n Jim Corbett was specially called to kill that maneater and he did succeeded in killing it after several days of hard efforts.

During his entire stay till independence before shifting to Kenya where his sister lived Corbett tracked and shot a total of 33 man eaters, the cheetahs, leopards n tigers.

Of the 33 maneaters killed, two of them were dangerous maneaters ” leopards”.

According to a news report of January 2016 only a dozen of these killings have been properly documented. These maneaters had killed more than 1200 people who included men, women n children working in agricultural fields, while in roadside homes and on jungle lonely sites.

After the formation of separate Uttarakhand state 19 years ago in the year 2000, there have been hundreds of casualties of the children, senior citizens and women who are most vulnerable.

Uttarakhands Garhwal and Kumaon divisions’ newspapers are full of news of maneater attacks every week but the successive governments seemed to be more worried for the conservation of wild life n the depleting endangered spieces of leopards, tigers n cheetas than to worry for the safety and security of human beings.

They go to foreign countries to seek training on wildlife conservation on highly expensive government budgets but are least bothered for the safety of human lives from the attack of these dreaded carnivorous animals.

The contruction activities inside or near the jungles like buildung of resorts, Hotels and increasing load of traffic creating sound pollution compounded with the increasing jungle fires resulting in the depleting forests, the carnivorous animals have been badly disturbed constrained to approach near the human settlements in search of human prey to fulfill their hunger.

The greatest alleged bottleneck in this context was the was the order of the Uttarakhand High Court of 2016 in which it strictly imposed a blanket ban on the killing of tigers, leopards and panthers that were declared maneaters/ predators/ rogues. While imposing the complete ban on the killing of these carnivorous animals the court also directed the forest and wild life department officials to catch the maneaters alive by tranquilising and capturing them simultaneously and either keep them in Zoos or release them in the nearby forests in their own habitats. It was indeedanice n concrete directive.

In addition, he court also restricted them to hire the private hunters for killing these man eaters.

It was after this order of the High Court, inview of the increasing incidents of maneater killings, the then state government of Uttarakhand was constrained to approach the apex court of the country which granted it a stay.

The government’s constant stand was that the big cats are a serious threat to human lives in Uttarakhand.

However, in special cases the state government has to seek special permission from the High Court to execute killings of the maneaters who’d been a constant threat to human lives.

The maneater of Bageshwar n some parts of Pauri Garhwal who’d created havoc bykilling several innocents including children, had been killed with court’s permission by the professional hunters’ like Joy Ukhil.

Hukil is a government appointed hunter who has by now during his lifetime killed about 31 maneaters and is summoned in cases of repeated man eater attacks in Garhwal and Kumaon divisions.

Just recently few days ago a ten year old girl was killed by a maneater in Paabo block of Pauri Garhwal while she had gone to the agricultural field where her mother and another women were involved in the work.

The maneater looking for the human pray cladestinely pounced on her and grapped her body by the throat.

The poor girl died on the spot after her dead body was forcibly snatched by both the women literally fighting the maneater n getting injured themselves.

As per the 2008 survey about 2300 leopards presence was shown in the Uttarakhand hills as per an old news paper report.

However a separate survey was carried out in 2015 but the wild life department was unable to furnish the latest statistics.

However the latest reports suggest about the presence of 400 leopards, panthers n tigers in entire Uttarakhand with half of them becoming man eaters n few of them extremely active thus posing a direct threat to human lives especially children, school going kids, women n age olds.

The government of the day should formulate credible ways n means in the shape of a formidable policy to ensure safety and security of human lives from maneater attacks in the Uttarakhand hills which has increased manifold these days.