New Delhi - Mountaineers from the Indian
army on an expedition in Nepal have found mysterious large
footprints in the snow that they think belong to the Yeti, or
the abominable snowman, the military said on Tuesday.
Largely regarded by the scientific community as a myth, the
Yeti is part of Nepali folklore and is said to live high in the
snow-capped Himalayas.
In a tweet accompanied by pictures, the Indian army said it
had sighted footprints measuring 32 by 15 inches (81 by 38 cm)
close to a camp near Mount Makalu on April 9.
"For the first time, an #IndianArmy Mountaineering
Expedition Team has sited Mysterious Footprints of mythical
beast 'Yeti'" it said in a tweet, not explaining how a mythical
beast could leave footprints.
Located on the border between Nepal and China, Makalu is
among the highest mountains in the world and stands near the
Makalu-Barun valley, a remote wilderness that has also been
surveyed by researchers hunting for the Yeti.
Tales of a wild hairy beast roaming the Himalayas have
captured the imagination of climbers in Nepal since the 1920s,
prompting many, including Sir Edmund Hillary, to go looking for
the creature.
In 2008, Japanese climbers returning from a mountain in
western Nepal told Reuters they had seen footprints, which they
thought belonged to the Yeti.
And although they carried long-lens cameras, video cameras
and telescopes, they hadn't seen or taken any photographs of the
creature.
But scientists have found little evidence of the Yeti's
existence so far. In 2017, a group of international researchers
studied multiple purported Yeti samples collected from across
the Himalayan region and concluded they belonged to bears.
In 2008, two men in the United States said they had found
the remains of a half-man, half-ape, which was eventually
revealed to be a rubber gorilla suit.