Man eater leopards are the real threat to human lives in Uttarakhand with women working in agricultural fields, in their house compounds, children playing at their residential precincts and senior citizens in particular becoming their easy prey who are on regular prowl looking desperately for human flesh in villages and near human habitats near the jungles.
The human beings here have become vulnerable with maneater attacks unpredictable. The excessive road construction, construction activities in and near forests and frequent traffic movement has disturbed the peaceful lives of the carnivores living in jungles not finding their food and therefore running towards villages for human flesh.
Though there is no specific statistics of the forest and wild department mentioning about the exact number of human deaths due to maneater attacks- a conservative idea leads to the possibility of hundreds of deaths by maneater attacks during the past few years in Garhwal and Kumaon divisions of Uttarakhand with children, women being dragged to the nearby bushes or jungles by the maneater leopards and tigers becoming easy prey of these carnivores with their highly mutilated bodies being found several metres away from their house.
In Ram Nagar forest area there have been several incidents of maneater running behind motorcycle riders and pouncing on the pilon riders making them their easy prey including pouncing on people sitting in the parks or roadside near the jungles in Corbet national park area.
In the recent few months there have been several incidents of human kills by maneaters in Kaljikhal block, Devprayag, Maletha, Kirtinagar , Chamoli, Rekhnikhal, Lansdowne in Garhwal and in Pithoragarh and Nainital district villages.
Just today a maneater has brutally killed a seven year old child who has come to her grandmother’s house on the eve of Raksha Bandhan festival in Tok Qota area of Padera Gaon in Rikhnikhal, Pauri GARHWAL sending shock waves in entire village and surrounding areas. One Mahesh Kalouni also tweeted : Just got the news that a 9 year old boy from village Kota, Rikhanikhal block was kidnapped from his home by a leopard. We all the nearby villagers were searching for him when we got the sad news about the boy ‘s brutal tragic death said Kalouni on X.
The maneater has forcibly taken the child dragging him to the nearby jungles after pouncing on him. The women and children are the regular victims of the maneater attacks in Garhwal and Kumaon divisions of Uttarakhand.
What is surprising, astonishing and worrisome to note that in Uttarakhand the financial compensation is just Rs 6 lakhs for those killed by man eaters or wild animals. Earlier it was merely four lakhs. But even for this meagre amount of financial compensation the bereaved families have run from pillar to post for several days allegedly greasing the palms of those involved in this process.
