Devprayag Part 2

[prashantsingh]

Returned to Devprayag after four years. I was first introduced to hunting maneating leopards here by my friend S Singh. The senior most regt shooter in the state.
This time I came with my team. A four member team consisting of young blood. IFG members Zaheer Bakshi and Safarigent. And a friend from Moradabad Mansoor.
Hunting a maneater in the hills is very different from that in the plains. It is anyday tougher and in this particular hunt the odds were against us.
This was my first official permit. I did not have my old friend Singh to guide me . This was the worst season .......monsoons .....to go after a killer big cat. The roads for searching were in a terrible state. A promising 9 kms stretch on one side of the hill was permanently blocked by multiple landslides. The locals wanted their favourite shikari. We were inexperienced .....to handle the task ....They felt.
The victim had been picked up from within her house. Her two goats standing in the open spared. She was dragged down the step farms into the bush below and eaten overnight. Her arms and legs seperated from the body. The left overs were collected in a bag the following afternoon and cremated.


The lady was killed on the 9th. The permit issued on the 15 th. The delay caused would further hamper our search. There were enough pug marks to be traced. But not one was recorded. It was assumed that a female with cubs was the culprit. By the time we got there. The rains had destroyed all vital information including the pug marks. The maneater had returned to the same spot for 5 consequtive days looking for its missing meal. The regular sighting of the animal brought about fear amongst the locals who blocked the road , with one of the leaders going on a hunger strike. Finally I got a call from a forest officer if I could help.
The call came at 1 pm when I was working in the clinic.
Zaheer was fasting during the Ramazaan but was kind enough to come immediately.
We were on the road to Devprayag at 3pm.

Such is the passion of a maneater hunt.

[essdee1972]

Another awesome real-life hunting tale from our very own Corbett!! Eagerly awaiting the next instalment, Prashantji!

[prashantsingh]

The next ten days would be a frustrating chase. A game of hide ans seek. Coming very close to the maneater. Yet not getting it. My body and spirits were adversly affected and I would keep reminding myself ...the age old saying.
Its not the trophy but the race.
Its not the quarry but the chase.

[brihacharan]

[quote="prashantsingh"]The next ten days would be a frustrating chase. A game of hide ans seek. Coming very close to the maneater. Yet not getting it. My body and spirits were adversly affected and I would keep reminding myself ...the age old saying.
Its not the trophy but the race.
Its not the quarry but the chase.[/quote]

Hi Prashant,
> Going through the 'agony' & ecstasy' of finding the vagrant leopard, I could well empathize with what you are going through.
> Your narration of the search, chase & shoot is truly palpable....
> I wish you & your colleagues all the best in nailing the elusive beast!
Briha

[ckkalyan]

Another exciting, nail-biting episode brewing on prashantsingh's radar - bring it on sir, 'spot the spots', lurking in the gloom!

[zaheer.bakshi]

Some Photos

[brihacharan]

Zaheerbhai,
Breathtaking location!!!!
Is this where you are looking for the elusive leopard?
BTW...any tracks located yet?
Good Luck....
Briha

[prashantsingh]

Briha Sir
Shikar by chance.
We had combed the area thoroughly. Had come very close to getting the animal and had lost all hope when on the very last day the turn of event were such that we were rewarded for all the pains WE put in.
I give credit to the entire team for their extraordinary work which I shall write about subsequently.
Unlike Devprayag 1 where we never got the maneater.....
Devprayag 2 was a success.
Only one animal was shot and all human killings have ceased thereafter.

Our team does not do this for Name. Fame or Financial gain.
The news was published in only two news papers.
We did the job and left.
There were no reporters and no photo sessions.
We were happy that we had put an end to further loss of human life .
We were happy that innocent leopards in the area would not be victimized.

Over the years we have matured as hunters.
There was a certain gloom which surrounded us that evening. There was no scotch flowing that evening.
We all came back in the middle of the night and had a quiet vegeterian dinner.
We felt sad for our majestic Quarry.....an animal known for its stealth,speed and power.
The real King of the hills.
We felt sorry for the Leopards and all wildlife ....who were fighting for survival.....in an ever shrinking habitat.
Paying for man's greed.

[brihacharan]

Briha Sir
Shikar by chance.
We had combed the area thoroughly. Had come very close to getting the animal and had lost all hope when on the very last day the turn of event were such that we were rewarded for all the pains WE put in.
I give credit to the entire team for their extraordinary work which I shall write about subsequently.
Unlike Devprayag 1 where we never got the maneater.....
Devprayag 2 was a success.
Only one animal was shot and all human killings have ceased thereafter.

Our team does not do this for Name. Fame or Financial gain.
The news was published in only two news papers.
We did the job and left.
There were no reporters and no photo sessions.
We were happy that we had put an end to further loss of human life .
We were happy that innocent leopards in the area would not be victimized.

Over the years we have matured as hunters.
There was a certain gloom which surrounded us that evening. There was no scotch flowing that evening.
We all came back in the middle of the night and had a quiet vegetarian dinner.
We felt sad for our majestic Quarry.....an animal known for its stealth,speed and power.
The real King of the hills.
We felt sorry for the Leopards and all wildlife ....who were fighting for survival.....in an ever shrinking habitat.
Paying for man's greed.

Hi Prashant,
Your narration, especially your humility & sincerity is so touching which in my humble opinion can come only from a person whose ideals in life are far above those who seek praise & adulation
The last para of your post "sums up" an honest confession as it were, as a task you had undertaken had to be finished, that's it & no more!
Bravo my bro
Briha

[aadhaulya]

Prashant,

I really appreciate the way you feel about being a hunter. My experience of hunting is that after finishing my education (engineering) I hunted for a few years around Gurgaon till they stopped giving hunting permits about 1991 I think.
I never ate fish but because of my dad (who insisted that you kill only if you eat) though he never hunted and was a vegetarian all his life, but I started cleaning, cooking and eating fish as I enjoyed fishing in Dumdama Lake near Gurgaon.
Now I do not hunt or fish at all as it is not a pleasurable exercise for me at all. (Because I shot a few birds after a gap of a lot of years, ate them and fell sick. After that I have never hunted again.
But when someone is threatened I feel I would never back out at shooting some person also if he is in a position to harm someone (come what may, my situation).
Hence, I understand your situation and really appreciate your position.
Take care.

Atul

[Safarigent]

Boys and girls(if there are any here!)grab yer seats and packets of popcorn! Here is the master story teller ready to enchant you once more!

[SMJ]

Prashant Singh ji, waiting with bated breath for the rest of the story....

[prashantsingh]

Devprayag 1. The maneater had been trapped and managed to break open and escape.
In the process it had injured itself.
My friend Singh and I strongly believe that the injuries caused may have got infected and the maneater must have died thereafter. Since no further humans were killed and no leopards spotted thereafter. This is the most probable assumption.

In Bhatkot, where this incident took place. The lady had been killed on the 9th.
A famous local Shikari had been called. The shikari stayed for a day but since the official permit had not been issued. He was unable to do anything much and returned thereafter.
The locals were already biased against us the moment we reached Ground Zero.
I was issued the permit at 1pm , I left home at 3 pm and by 7pm. Zaheer and I were on a make shift machaan close to the spot where the lady had been eaten.
It was a big mango tree.
In all the hurry we had forgotten to pick up Odomos.
The next couple of hours were the most miserable.....trying to sit still with king size mosquitoes feasting on our blood. Every minute was painful.
To make matters worse the maneater which had been spotted till an evening earlier......never turned up.
At 10 pm we called it a day.....and Zaheer finally had his first meal of the day half an hour later.
The road ended half a kilometer away and thereafter was this steep climb which had us panting and sweating.
It was embarrasing and we heard some locals talking amongst themselves.
"Ye to pahar hi nahi chad sakte.....ye kya adamkhore marenge" (These guys cant climb for nuts....they will never be able to shoot the maneater.)
Our first impression was probably the worst we could have expected.

After our late dinner we decided to go searching in the jeep.
Two new roads had come up and the hillside had been irreversably damaged.
Zaheer may I request you to put up the photos of the damage caused by the road construction.
There is no doubt that these winding serpentine roads had caused tremendous ecological devastation and taken a toll on the wildlife of the area.
During the night search we only found a couple of fishing owls.
There was no doubt that the leopard had been forced to kill the lady out of starvation.
But why it left the goats and took the lady.....needed further investigation.

[Kittu]

Zheer bhai
just upload the images as attachments with few words they will display here as thumbnail
thanks

[zaheer.bakshi]

Some More photos of the event.