The Indian Army is being mocked after recently tweeting that one of its mountaineering teams spotted mysterious footprints of the mythical Yeti in an isolated mountainous area between Nepal and Tibet.

“For the first time, an #IndianArmy Mountaineering Expedition Team has sited Mysterious Footprints of mythical beast ‘Yeti’ measuring 32×15 inches close to Makalu Base Camp on 09 April 2019,” the official Twitter account of the Indian Army tweeted a couple of days ago. “This elusive snowman has only been sighted at Makalu-Barun National Park in the past.” Humans have been searching for proof of Yeti’s existence for centuries, but so far it’s all been debunked by science. So why is the Indian Army tweeting about Yeti, and more importantly, why does its tweet imply that it actually exists?

Photo: scheuebergziege/Pixabay

Well, the first explanation that comes to mind is that the Indian Army was just joking, but so far they’ve given no indication of that. In fact, the only reaction it had to being mocked on social media was to add that the “evidence” of Yeti’s existence had been photographed and “handed over to subject matter experts”. That didn’t really go well with scientists.

“With all due respect, institutions such as yours should be more responsible and careful before going ahead and declaring the sighting of any footprints as ‘Yeti’s’!” Kushal Prajapati tweeted to the Indian Army. “There’s been lots of research done on Bigfoot/Yeti (including sighting/footprints) with none proving its existence.”

After the controversial tweet went viral, Twitter was inundated with jokes and memes mocking the Indian Army, and the hashtag #Yeti became one of the trending topics on the popular social network.

To be fair, the “photographic proof” revealed by the Indian Army isn’t exactly irrefutable. The pictures it posted simply show a single-file line of impressions in snow that appear to be partially-melted footprints. They don’t seem to feature any claw or tow marks, so claiming that they were made by a Yeti may not have been the best idea.

It’s not like these were the first large footprints spotted in the Himalayas, either. In 1937 Frank Smythe also alleged the footprints he had photographed belong to the mythical snow beast, but experts all agreed they belonged to a bear. I guess the Indian Army didn’t take that possibility into consideration between sharing its proof of Yeti’s existence.