65 yr old Ganga Singh killed by a maneater in Joshimath on Monday, after a labourer 2 months ago
As the media is regularly highlighting the unfortunate incidents of increasing maneater attacks in various parts of Uttarakhand, the casualties are incessantly on the rise with the forest n wild life department claiming to have been doing their best to cope with the situation but unfortunately nothing fruitful seems to have been done on this front, except actions of cover ups or at the most hiring of the government appointed hunters killing some of the man eaters or assuring the deceased families of financial compensation. But the human lives are at terrible stake with maneater related human fatalities going on and no concrete action being taken by the concerned authorities except assurances of monetary compensation.
But the moot question is , is this the concrete solution to the unending tragedies occuring due to incessant carnivorous attacks on humans in Uttarakhand on every alternate days claiming several lives of innocents ?
On Monday morning at 10 AM there was yet another casualty of a sixty five year old senior citizen in Joshimath, Garhwal Uttarakhand hailing from Painka Ward who was brutally attacked by a maneater ( leopard) while he was on way to the local bazaar leading to his brutal death.
According to the latest information, a sixty five year old senior citizen of Painka Ward in Joshimath who was on his way to the market at 10 in the morning was attacked by a maneater on prowl for human flesh.
The maneater clandestinely pounced upon Ganga Singh all of a sudden and by the time the other persons could raise an alarm by creating noise , the leopard left the dead body of Ganga Singh on the way and disappeared in the jungle.
By the time, the victim was declared dead. The deceased Ganga Singh was heading on foot for Joshimath market from his house when suddenly the maneater in search of human prey pounced upon him about 100 metres above the Baldur’s bridge on the walking path.
While the maneater had grabbed Ganga Singh the people following him to the Joshimath bazaar on foot, raised alarm shouting at the leopard but by the time, the carnivore left the human body and went into the jungle.
What is shocking and surprising is the fact that no forest or wild life department’s official had visited the site of the tragedy till four in the evening where the dead body of Ganga Singh was lying unattended.
The local residents and people of Joshimath bazaar were extremely angered and infuriated over the negligent attitude of the forest department.
The Nagar Palika president of Joshimath Shailendra Panwar has complained that there was the terror of maneater in the entire area for the last two months but the concerned authorities have taken no remedial action in this regard like tranquilizing the maneater or fixing the cages to capture it resulting in killing of a labourer on the road side.
The Sub Divisional Magistrate Kum Kum Joshi had taken a serious view of the negligent forest department officials for not visiting the site till 3.PM, despite the fact that the tragedy had occured at 10.30 in the morning.
She had taken the negligent officials to task and issued necessary directives to initiate urgent departmental action against the responsible forest officers for negligence.
It is believed that the concerned forest officer was on leave at the time of occurance of the tragedy. The district forest officer has now assured infuriated people of Joshimath regarding safeguarding of their lives from maneater by arranging the government appointed hunters to get rid of the carnivore of Joshimath who has taken two human lives in two months.
It may be recalled that according to a TOI report a month ago about 364 leopards have disappeared in 286 days. On September 6, there was a news about killing of a maneater leopard in Devprayag, Pauri Garhwal by a professional shooter Joy Hukeel after seven days who had reportedly killed several human beings. Similarly another News reported about the killing of another maneater in Tehri Garhwal a month ago who’d killed two children including a maneater in Pithoragarh etc. Similarly in Almora, Pithoragarh, Nainital districts several incidents of maneater killings were reported creating panic all around compelling the local residents to go indoors before sunset.
