Laughs
April 1st? Nope! The Indian army claims to have found 32-inch footprints of a Yeti in the snow during an expedition in the Himalayas and has even posted photographs to social media. The photographs were taken in eastern Nepal, near the base camp for climbing Makalu, the fifth highest peak of the Himalayas.
“For the first time, an Indian Army Mountaineering Expedition Team has sited (sic) mysterious footprints of mythical beast ‘Yeti’ measuring 32×15 inches, close to Makalu Base Camp on 9 April 2019. This elusive snowman has only been sighted at Makalu-Barun National Park in the past.” the Indian army tweeted.
Despite the obvious skeptical and mocking responses on social media, the army remains unabashed in its claims, according to The Times of India, saying that the photographs had been handed over to experts for evaluation before publication. The army decided to go public with the pictures 10 days later to “excite scientific temper” and “rekindle interest” in the matter.
But some of the responses appear to support the army’s claim that this is evidence of the existence of the mythical snowman, although many tweets share a common criticism: the beast appears to be either one-legged or hopping!
Although tales of the Yeti, or abominable snowman, first caught the imagination of the Western world in the 19th century, the hairy ape-like figure, taller than a man, has long been a feature of folklore in Nepal. The quest of finding the mythical creature, too, stretches back over thousands of years.
“The search to find the Yeti can be traced back to the time of Alexander the Great, who in 326 B.C. set out to conquer the Indus Valley,” according the National Geographic website.
Over 2,000 years later, and the Nepalese government decided to cash in on the Yeti in the 1950s, granting Yeti-hunting licenses priced at $500 per Yeti. So far no one has found one, dead or alive.
