DNA tests on hair tufts part of probe into jungle ‘Bigfoot’ claims

AUTHORITIES in India are to investigate claims by terrified villagers that Bigfoot-type hairy giants are roaming the jungles of the remote north-east, a local official said.

The creatures have apparently been spoken of, and occasionally spotted, for years, but a rise in the number of sightings over the past month has prompted authorities to look further into the matter.

The bizarre sightings have reportedly been made in the Garo Hills area of Meghalaya state, close to the borders with Bangladesh and Bhutan.

Villagers have dubbed the mysterious creatures “Mande Burung” – which means Jungle Man”.

“A team of wildlife officials and other experts will conduct a study to find out if there is any truth in the locals’ claims about these hairy giants,” said Samphat Kumar, a district magistrate in the West Garo Hills district.

A local farmer, 40-year-old Wallen Sangma, claimed he had seen an entire family of the creatures — possibly a lowland relative of the Himalayan Yeti, or perhaps a distant cousin of the North American Bigfoot known as Sasquatch, or Australia’s Yowie.

“The sight was frightening: two adults and two smaller ones, huge and bulky, furry.

“Their heads looked as if they were wearing caps, and their colour was blackish-brown,” he said, adding that the four “monsters” were about 40m away from him as he looked for firewood in a forest area.

“The four of them quietly vanished into the undergrowth,” he said.

Claims to have sighted such Bigfoot creatures are treated sceptically by scientists because of a lack of solid physical proof, but there are scientists and researchers who believe they could exist.

One Garo Hills group, the Achik Tourism Society, has been trying to verify the creature’s existence for the past 10 years, photographing footprints and thatched “nests” reported by locals.

TK Marak, a zoology professor at the state-run university in Tura, 323km from state capital Shillong, said: “There is no trace of any gorillas or other unidentified animals inhabiting here.”

The group says footprints it has photographed are about 33cm to 38cm long.

It also says it has collected tufts of hair.

“We shall send these samples for DNA and other forensic tests,” said a spokesman.