Involvement of a tiger

He listened a while longer and then feeling a little more satisfied about the safety of the venture, moved on in the direction of the kill. We were extremely excited about the whole thing and kept looking ahead to try and get a look of the kill. There wasn’t a sign yet. We need not have bothered concentrating so much on the search because as we reached around 20 yards from the kill, the stench of the already decaying carcass began to fill the air. The kill had obviously been there for more than a single day and was already partly eaten. I could see our "tutor" relax a little as he could see that the tiger had already had quite a meal the previous night. He then began our lessons.




There was not a sound except the chirping of some birds. Some of them on their way back to their nests for the night and others that were startled by our intrusion into their territory.



It was getting close to five in the evening when Raju, the forest guard’s son, came and informed us that a villager’s buffalo had been killed by a tiger. Since my friend’s father was looking after the rehabilitation program of the forest department for the villagers, it was his duty to investigate such kills and confirm that it was actually the doing of a tiger.It was not uncommon for villagers to claim that all the cattle that died in the region, whatever the reason for their death may have been, had been killed by tigers.



At that moment, I was sure we were going to be witness to a very disturbing human kill. Initially the sight of this crazy man seemed to anger the tiger even more and it almost instantly doubled it’s pace. I guess it was the amazing courage of the old man staring almost definite death straight in the face that made us do what we did next. Almost in unison and without any communication between us, which there was anyway no time for, we all followed the old man into the famous proverbial well. The tiger was just about to pounce on the old man from a distance of around 8 feet when the man flung his stick at him with all his might. The stick struck the tiger straight in his face just as he took off. The tiger seemed to deviate from his path almost in midair but could not do so enough to avoid the man totally. The tiger’s left thigh collided with the left shoulder of the old man. I remember seeing a human form flying past us as we continued the charge at the beast. The tiger darted off into the jungle to his right and disappeared from sight. None of us were mad enough yet, or high enough on adrenaline, to follow him in there! We turned around and ran back to the forest guide. Initially, all of us felt a sickening feeling in our stomachs as we saw his form lying motionless on the ground. What was even more worrying were the odd angles at which his body parts lay twisted. His left arm was obviously dislocated at the shoulder. His right leg too seemed to be twisted at a strange angle from the knee. My friend’s father bent down and put a finger under the nostrils. He had spent many years in these jungles roaming around with this old man and they were as much family to each other as anyone could be. There was a fraction of a smile that crossed his dark eyes as he felt the hint of some breathing. Then after laying the guide on his back and straightening his limbs, he turned his attention back in the direction of the spot from where the tiger had disappeared. He obviously heard some signs from the jungle that told him that the tiger had left the area and was moving away because he broke the silence with the first words spoken in a long…time.



They were given a decent compensation, if the involvement of a tiger was confirmed. This time, we were also allowed to go along to learn how to investigate a kill. My friend’s father said we should hurry because it was already getting close to sundown and tigers are known to return to their kills once the cover of darkness envelopes the surroundings. So without much ado, we were off in the jeep to find the kill.