A myth caught in mist

If the seas of Europe are inhabited by mermaids and sirens, if Scotland is home to the Loch Ness monster, the Garo Hills in Meghalaya, it goes, gives refuge to a huge ape-like creature known in the local dialect as ‘Mande Burung’ or jungle man — a beast that is said to be the Indian counterpart of the American bigfoot, the Australian yowie or, closer home, the Nepalese yeti.

Now hair from this elusive beast has been dispatched for DNA analysis to Oxford Brookes University in central England. With the results eagerly awaited here, local lore and ‘first-hand’ accounts are all that interested parties — including several well-regarded news publications from the West — have to go by.

Although Marak is not certain whether the beast sighted by his son was just a large monkey or the fabled Mande Burung, he is convinced that the jungle man exists. “The creature disappeared after its mate was booby-trapped and killed by Bachok Sangma. I wanted to take a picture but Bachok had already eaten it and sold the skin.”

When questioned about this, Meghalaya Principal Chief Conservator of Forests V K Nautiyal found it difficult to conceal his impatience. “In 1988 I was the Conservator of Forest (Wildlife) and frequently travelled to Garo Hills. Then how is it that I was not aware if somebody trapped a Mande Burung?” He adds that Bachok might have trapped a tailless hoolock gibbon and mistaken it for the jungle man. “Nobody has come with any credible proof or information, and in the absence of any scientific evidence, the Mande Burung rightfully belongs to Garo folklore and mythology,” he insists.

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