And it’s not as if Nautiyal has a closed mind. When he was conservator of forests, Nautiyal had equipped his forest guards with cameras so that they could capture anything unusual, but no shaggy beast ever showed up for the photo op. He adds that most of the 6000 sq miles of forest land in the Garo Hills is always under observation, but officials have never come across anything resembling the Mande Burung.

Nonetheless, at the very least, the ‘animal’ could belong to an as yet-undiscovered primate specie. Preliminary tests done on hair belonging to the purported monster have certainly ruled out that it belongs to any known animals in the region — interestingly, scientists have said that the hair resembles ‘yeti’ hair collected by Sir Edmund Hillary.