Despite having picturesque landscape — replete with undulating hills, vast plains, crystal-clear streams, dense forest and breathtaking waterfalls — the Garo Hills in Meghalaya has not caught attention of tourists so far.
So local tour operators are now planning to market an exotic feature of this region — a mythical monster.
Come next winter and the Achik Tourism Society (ATS), a group of travel agents, will offer adventure-buffs a unique “trail-the-monster” tour tracking Mande Burung — the local version of what is known as Big Foot in America, Yeti in the Himalayas, Sasquatch in Canada and Yowie in Australia.
Officially, Mande Burung is not among the many wild animals found in the Garo Hills’ forests. But the “gigantic, hairy and ape-like” creature does exist in legends, folklores and local people’s belief. The mysterious monster is both feared and revered by the Garos, the dominant tribe of this land.
The fear of Mande Burung has kept even the avaricious timber-traders at bay and saved the forests in Nokrek and Chokpot areas in Garo Hills. It is now being billed as the latest lure to attract tourists.
“We have been documenting Mande Burung sightings by the villagers for the past 10 years. We have seen and taken pictures of giant footprints measuring 14-15 inches, very large scratch marks and other signs, which make us believe that it does exist,” said the ATS general secretary, Dipu N Marak.
The creature — said to be about eight-feet-tall — was last sighted in southern Garo Hills in July 2005, before it “reappeared” near Nokrek in western parts of the region in April this year. “We received reports of multiple bigfoot sightings last April.
The fresh reports – unlike the previous ones – suggest the presence of two adults and two children,” said the ATS president, T K Marak. “It may be a family of Mande Burungs.”
The ATS plans to take the travelers on a tour to the areas, where the Mande Burung ‘sightings’ were reported.
And even if they fail to catch a glimpse of the elusive monster, the tourists would not return complaining. For, they would by then have some “mind-blowing experiences”, like trekking through the National Citrus Gene Sanctuary-cum-Biosphere Reserve — the home to the mother germ-plasm of Citrus Indica (Indian Wild Orange) — to lush green Nokrek Peak.
The monster’s trail would also take them to Balpakram National Park, which is also a proven home to many real and not-so-elusive wild habitants, like elephants, buffalos, bears and deer, as well as carnivores like tigers, leopards and pitcher plants.
And off course they would come across waterfalls and caves, some of which are among the longest in South Asia.