Unlucky Near Lucknow: Mystery Animal Attacks
Posted by: Loren Coleman on April 20th, 2009
The search for the mysterious animal that attacked four persons is not over in Ballia (near Lucknow, India). It was on April 9 [2009] that four villagers under Bhimpura police station were left injured by an animal which forest officials suspect to be a fishing cat.
The efforts like caging and deploying extra staff to track the animal in the vicinity of Govindpura village under Biltra Road range of Ballia has not yielded any result.
“We will deploy extra staff till the harvesting period of wheat is continuing,” said RK Singh, DFO, Ballia.
The officials do not deny the presence of the animal as the villagers have sustained injuries and one of them was even seriously injured. Initially, the floating rumours suggested it to be a leopard. But since no pugmarks and no kills (animals killed to prey on) reported from the area it was difficult to confirm the type of the wild cat behind the attack.
The fact that the village does not have a forest in the range of 150 kms at least, there are lesser chances that it could be a leopard. The village lies in the the agricultural belt and with the wheat fields harvested clean, forest officials are hopeful there will be no space left for the animal to lurk. The animal has not been spotted by anyone and none have been attacked since April 9.
Source: “‘Mysterious’ animal still untraced” ~ 20 Apr 2009, Times of India.
Perhaps this has something to do with the Indian “hyena” reports we noted here in January 2009?
Please…
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Loren Coleman no longer writes for Cryptomundo. His archived posts remain here at Cryptomundo.
A fishing cat seems like an unikely candidate for this mystery feline, for one its habitat is usually near water or mangrove swamps, which doesn’t seem to fit the agricultural nature of the lanscape described in the report. Also why are forest officials involved if there isn’t a forest for 150km.
Also the fishing cat is rare throughout its range, and it seems unlikely at best that one would show up in this area.
Thirdly the fishing cat is nocturnal, is there any information as to when in the day these attacks occurred.
Finally, whilst I don’t doubt a determined fishing cat could attack a human (I’ve seen feral tom cats savagely scratch and bite people who have tried to handle them), to attack four in one day, and one to a point of being seriously injured, has me slightly disbelieving. I think this a leopard, and as to there not being any cover, this is rarely a problem for the leopard. A leopard could live in the park at the end of your street and you would never know it.