GADAG : Two days after unusual ‘footprints’ were discovered at Antur village in Gadag district, forest officials have declared that there is no movement of any suspicious animal or ‘aliens’ during night hours.
A senior forester who visited the village on Tuesday suspected that the marks could have been made by wild boars or injured cattle.
Forest officials took up night patrol at Antur, located about 40 km from Hubballi, on Monday night after the ‘footprints’ were found. Villagers believed they were footprints of aliens. The villagers said they were haunted by the presence of “aliens” for the last 48 hours and women and children were scared to come out of their houses. The vigil was meant to quell their fears.
A forest official said the night patrol team found nothing unusual in the fields where the mystery marks were found. Yashpal Ksheersagar, Deputy Conservator of Forests, who visited the village on Tuesday said the night patrol will continue. “It’s possible that a large wild boar may have dug up the field. Sometimes the boar, while running, paces its paws closely and it could have raised suspicion among villagers. Such prints are seen in fields when injured cattle walk,” he said.
“We have taken photographs and will send them to the Wildlife Institute of India (WII) in Dehradun for an investigation,” he added.But the villagers were not convinced by the explanation. Jayprakash Nagaraddy, a resident of Antur, said it’s not “humanly impossible” to mark such “footprints” for more than 4 km in the fields.“The pug marks clearly show that some heavy animal has walked on the mud. The marks made by the mysterious creature are different from the usual marks in the fields which stretch from Antur village to Neelgund village which are 4 km apart,” he said.