( Picture taken from facebook)
Uttarakhand especially the Garhwal region has so terribly digged and disturbed in connection with the widening of roads, all weather roads project worth Rs. 16000 Crores approximately including a multi crores underground rail project from Rishikesh to Karnaprayag, that carnivores like leopards, tigers and even wild bears have been disturbed due to their being displaced from their earlier peaceful living spaces. Today the wild bears, maneater leopards and tigers in the absence of their food and being disturbed due to alleged explosions, diggings and massive traffic movement are seen openly wandering near the human habitats , on roads, roadsides and even pouncing in the bikers. There have been hundreds of incidents of these maneaters killing human beings for want of food and wild tigers too making women their easy prey who go to nearby jungles to collect fodder for the domestic pets like cattle, buffaloes, goats etc. In Uttarakhand’s Pauri Garhwal district, Chamoli, near Devprayag, Srinagar, Maletha, Ghurdhadi, Lansdowne, Bironkhal , Almora, Champawat, Pithoragarh, Nainital etc one can easily see the maneater tigers and leopards wandering around freely some individually or done in groups. There was a time few years ago when villagers use to frequently come to their homes on foot covering several kilometres during evening and night hours but then there was no risk of maneater leopards. This was so because then there wasn’t encroachment in the jungles as frequented these days. Meanwhile, above Devprayag at Kandadhar Road a leopard ( Guldaar) has died after a vehicle hit it during the night hours. The leopard must been crossing the road and the vehicle on speed must have hit the leopard with a force with the former dying after covering some distance due to internal heavy injury and crying in acute pain. This accident speaks of the fact that the leopards and tigers are frequently seen on roads and roadsides posing threat to human lives in Pauri Garhwal, especially during evening hours.
