VinsWorldCom has already mentioned that you need to escape backslashes in a double-quoted string, but you may not realise that you are using a double-quoted string in your here-doc your here-doc is being treated as a double-quoted string. Specifically,

my $qqstring = <<"HERE";
This text is subject to double-quoted interpolation.  It can include e
+scapes like \t, and $variables.
HERE
my $string = <<HERE;
This text is also subject to double-quoted interpolation.
HERE
my $qstring = <<'HERE';
This text is treated like a single-quoted string, except that it can c
+ontain embedded single quotes.  \t is just a backslash followed by a 
+'t', and $variables is just a dollar sign followed by the string 'var
+iables'.
HERE
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