Yeti Highway
Posted by: Loren Coleman on December 12th, 2010
The Abominable Snowpeople, Abominable Snowman, or Yetis have been in the news recently.
First up, it seems that locals in the habitat of the Yeti are excited by a new road being built through their area. According to the Hindustan Times, the Border Roads Organisation (BRO) of Arunachal Pradesh (a state of India, located in the far northeast) is developing a road through Bhutan to have faster access to the western district of Tawang, around 550 km northeast of Assam capital Guwahati.
In close proximity to this road is Bhutan’s Sakteng Wildlife Sanctuary — a 650 sq km reserve created specifically to protect the habitat of the Yeti or Abominable Snowman, known in Bhutan as the Migoi, or strong man.
This road via Udalguri in Assam connects the Bhutanese district of Trashigang before terminating at Tawang. “This road is expected to be completed in three years,” Tawang deputy commissioner Gamli Padu said.
There is a sense of fear among the locals. But they are intrigued by the possibility of this unknown cryptid, this legendary monster, known for scaring campers, boosting tourism in Tawang.
“We fear the yeti,” says Tawang-based trader Yishe Jungney. “But we know it means no harm unlike them,” he added, pointing towards Tibet.
The BRO, though, has refused to talk about the road through the tiny Buddhist country. “We are only working on a shortcut to Tawang that reduces travel from Guwahati by 93 km,” said a senior officer of the 14 Border Roads Task Force based in Tenga, 205 km south of Tawang.
About Loren Coleman
Loren Coleman is one of the world’s leading cryptozoologists, some say “the” leading living cryptozoologist. Certainly, he is acknowledged as the current living American researcher and writer who has most popularized cryptozoology in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.
Starting his fieldwork and investigations in 1960, after traveling and trekking extensively in pursuit of cryptozoological mysteries, Coleman began writing to share his experiences in 1969. An honorary member of Ivan T. Sanderson’s Society for the Investigation of the Unexplained in the 1970s, Coleman has been bestowed with similar honorary memberships of the North Idaho College Cryptozoology Club in 1983, and in subsequent years, that of the British Columbia Scientific Cryptozoology Club, CryptoSafari International, and other international organizations. He was also a Life Member and Benefactor of the International Society of Cryptozoology (now-defunct).
Loren Coleman’s daily blog, as a member of the Cryptomundo Team, served as an ongoing avenue of communication for the ever-growing body of cryptozoo news from 2005 through 2013. He returned as an infrequent contributor beginning Halloween week of 2015.
Coleman is the founder in 2003, and current director of the International Cryptozoology Museum in Portland, Maine.
When I was recently on expedition ,one of the things I and the rest of the team postulated about was whether the Mande-Burung travelled over the forested areas between Bhutan and India. I have been wanting to go to that part of Bhutan for years,but it isn’t exactly cheap in that country!