22/11/19 Curfew

There has been a curfew in place since we arrived in Pathiswara. It was 6.30pm and I managed to get it extended to 7.30pm to give the volunteers a little extra time to socialise.

The reason for the curfew?

Leopard attacks! Mainly on livestock and dogs, the most recent just a few days before we arrived. Actually the locals refer to Tigers but I think Leopards aree more likely.

Nothing further reported since we arrived in Pathiswara, that is until Wednesday night:

About 9pm I step outside to brush my teeth. There are two lengths of flatten corregated iron in the garden (for mixing cement on) and something stepped on one of the pieces and it made a noise. You need some weight to make it do this, so ruling out a dog or cat as neither are heavy enough and there are only 2 dogs in the village and both are friendly so would have approached me. Ran back in to grab my headtorch and glasses and went out into the garden, round the side of the building into the dark. I shone the headtorch out into the field and was met with yellow eyes staring back at me, about 15m away. The eyes were wide apart (although the same head) , certainly not a cat (haven't seen any here anyway) and dogs eyes do not reflect yellow....

The next morning I went back out and checked the area. Where I'd seen the eyes there was a large flattened area of maize, sadly the ground to hard to make out any foot prints.