The mysterious creature weights 300 kilograms and lives on the hills in Garo, Meghalaya.

Everybody heard about Yeti (Nepal) named bigfoot in the USA, sasquatch in Canada, mapinguary in Brazil, yowie in Australia or sajarang gigi in Indonesia. The legendary creature - half man half monkey - has a less known version in India too, called mande barung, that is “forest man”. It is said that he lives in West Garo area, in Meghalaya, India. Many locals are sure that the “forest man” is alive lives between them, saying that they actually saw him.

He is vegetarian

Dipu Marak is one one of the few guys that believe in mande barung, he says that mande barung (”forest man”) looks like a monkey-man covered in black and grey hair, being 3 meters tall. He weights about 300 kilograms, is vegetarian and eats fruits, bark and roots, continued Marak.

 What a witness says

Neblison Sangma, a chopper who works near the National Park Nokrek, on Garo hills, says that in November 2003, he met a mande barung: “I saw that creature very clear, on the other side of the river. He was breaking tree sprigs and eating their sap. I tried to photograph him, but unfortunately I didn’t have a camera at me.”

It remains an enigma

Even science can’t help at this subject. Far from Nokrek, there is another National Park on Garo hills, Balpakaram, known for his canon covered in vegetation and surrounded by spectacular ridges. Getting down in there is extremely dangerous, the most famous apparition of a mande barung was saw there in april 2002, when James Marak and a team of 14 officials were making a census of the reservation tigers. They all saw and described something that looks like an “yeti”.