PIONEER EDGE NEWS SERVICE/ Nainital.
With over a week having passed since a woman was killed in a wildlife attack in the Jyoli area of the Bhimtal development block, the villagers are still scared. “She was killed on April 22, but the foresters are clueless about the movements of the man -eater. We scarcely step out now and after dark, we perforce confine ourselves to our homes,” said a villager.
Notably, the forest department has found no trace of the animal till date. Trap cameras, installed in the forests, have also failed to provide any concrete information about the animal’s whereabouts. “Our teams are on the lookout for the suspected man-eater,” said the DFO, Akash Gangwar. “Jyoli, Bhimtal and Suriyagaon are interconnected, which is why wildlife movement remains limited in these areas. We have installed another cage in the Sattal area, and a tranquiliser team has also been deployed so that immediate action can be taken if and when needed,” he stated.
Despite the foresters’ efforts to capture the beast, scare among the villagers refuse to die down. “We will remain scared until the animal is captured. It is now disrupting our routine life,” a villager from Suriyagaon said.
