by Ruskin Bond
Soon the men were quite merry, talking in loud voices. And when the first morning light crept over the forest, and Ramu and his friends came back to fetch the great hunters, they found them fast asleep in the machan.
The hunters looked surly and embarrassed as they trudged back to the village.
‘No game left in these parts,’ announced the American.
‘Wrong time of the year for tiger,’ said the second man.
‘Don’t know what the country’s coming to,’ said the third.
And complaining about the weather, the poor quality of cartridges, the quantity of rum they had drunk and the perversity of tigers, they drove away in disgust.
It was not until the onset of summer that an event occurred which altered the hunting habits of the old tiger and brought him into conflict with the villagers.
There had been no rain for almost two months, and the tall jungle grass had become a sea of billowy dry yellow. Some refugee settlers, living in an area where the forest had been cleared, had been careless while cooking and had started a jungle fire. Slowly it spread into the interior, from where the acrid smell and the fumes smoked the tiger out towards the edge of the jungle. As night came on, the flames grew more vivid, and the smell stronger. The tiger turned and made for the jheel, where he knew he would be safe, provided he swam across to the little island in the centre.
Next morning he was on the island, which was untouched by the fire. But his surroundings had changed. The slopes of the hills were black with burnt grass, and most of the tall bamboo had disappeared. The deer and the wild pig, finding that their natural cover had gone, fled further east.
When the fire had died down and the smoke had cleared, the tiger prowled through the forest again but found no game. Once he came across the body of a burnt rabbit, but he could not eat it. He drank at the jheel and settled down in a shady spot to sleep the day away. Perhaps, by evening, some of the animals would return; if not, he too would have to look for new hunting grounds — or new game.
The tiger spent five more days looking for a suitable game to kill. By that time he was so hungry that he even resorted to rooting among the dead leaves and burnt out stumps of trees, searching for worms and beetles. This was a sad comedown for the king of the jungle. But even now he hesitated to leave the area, for he had a deep suspicion and fear of the forests further east — forests that were fast being swallowed up by human habitation. He could have gone north, into high mountains, but they did not provide him with the long grass he needed. A panther could manage quite well up there, but not a tiger who loved the natural privacy of the heavy jungle. In the hills, he would have to hide all the time.
At break of day, the tiger came to the jheel. The water was now shallow and muddy, and a green scum had spread over the top. But it was still drinkable and the tiger quenched his thirst.
He lay down across his favourite rock, hoping for a deer but none came. He was about to get up and go away when he heard an animal approach.
The tiger at once leaped off his perch and flattened himself on the ground, his tawny striped skin merging with the dry grass. A heavy animal was moving through the bushes, and the tiger waited patiently.
A buffalo emerged and came to the water.
The buffalo was alone.
He was a big male, and his long, curved horns lay right back across his shoulders. He moved leisurely towards the water, completely unaware of the tiger’s presence.
The tiger hesitated before making his charge. It was a long time — many years — since he had killed a buffalo, and he knew the villagers would not like it. But the pangs of hunger overcame his scruples. There was no morning breeze; everything was still, and the smell of the tiger did not reach the buffalo. A monkey chattered on a nearby tree, but his warning went unheeded.
Crawling stealthily on his stomach, the tiger skirted the edge of the jheel and approached the buffalo from the rear. The water birds, who were used to the presence of both animals, did not raise an alarm.
Getting closer, the tiger glanced around to see if there were men, or other buffaloes, in the vicinity. Then, satisfied that he was alone, he crept forward. The buffalo was drinking, standing in shallow water at the edge of the tank, when the tiger charged from the side and bit deep into the animal’s thigh.
The buffalo turned to fight, but the tendons of his right hind leg had been snapped, and he could only stagger forward a few paces. But he was a buffalo — the bravest of the domestic cattle. He was not afraid. He snorted, and lowered his horns at the tiger, but the great cat was too fast, and circling the buffalo, bit into the other hind leg.
The buffalo crashed to the ground, both hind legs crippled, and then the tiger dashed in, using both tooth and claw, biting deep into the buffalo’s throat until blood gushed out from the jugular vein.
The buffalo gave one long, last bellow before dying.
The tiger, having rested, now began to gorge himself, but, even though he had been starving for days, he could not finish the huge carcase. At least one good meal still remained, when, satisfied and feeling his strength returning, he quenched his thirst at the jheel. Then he dragged the remains of the buffalo into the bushes to hide it from the vultures, and went off to find a place to sleep.
He would return to the kill when he was hungry again.
The villagers were upset when they discovered that a buffalo was missing; and next day, when Ramu and Shyam came running home to say that they found the carcase near the jheel, half eaten by a tiger, the men were disturbed and angry. They felt that the tiger had tricked and deceived them. And they knew that once he got a taste for domestic cattle he would make a habit of slaughtering them.
Kundan Singh, Shyam’s father and the owner of the dead buffalo, said he would go after the tiger himself.
‘It is all very well to talk about what you will do to the tiger,’ said his wife, ‘but you should never have let the buffalo go off on its own.
‘He had been out on his own before,’ said Kundan. ‘This is the first time the tiger has attacked one of our beasts. A devil must have entered the Maharaj.’
‘He must have been very hungry,’ said Shyam.
‘Well, we are hungry too,’ said Kundan Singh.
‘Our best buffalo — the only male in our herd.’
‘The tiger will kill again,’ warned Ramu’s father.
‘If we let him,’ said Kundan.
‘Should we send for the shikaris?’
‘No. They were not clever. The tiger will escape them easily. Besides, there is no time. The tiger will return for another meal tonight. We must finish him off ourselves!’
‘But how?’
Kundan Singh smiled secretively, played with the ends of his moustache for a few moments, and then, with great pride, produced from under his cot a double-barrelled gun of ancient vintage.
‘My father bought it from an Englishman,’ he said.
‘How long ago was that?’
‘At the time I was born.’
‘And have you ever used it?’ asked Ramu’s father, who was not sure that the gun would work.
‘Well, some years back, I let it off at some bandits. You remember the time when those dacoits raided our village? They chose the wrong village, and were severely beaten for their pains. As they left, I fired my gun off at them. They didn’t stop running until they crossed the Ganga!’
‘Yes, but did you hit anyone?’
‘I would have, if someone’s goat hadn’t got in the way at the last moment. But we had roast mutton that night! Don’t worry, brother, I know how the thing fires.’
Accompanied by Ramu’s father and some others, Kundan set out for the jheel, where, without shifting the buffalo’s carcase — for they knew that the tiger would not come near them if he suspected a trap — they made another machan in the branches of a tall tree some thirty feet from the kill.
Later that evening, Kundan Singh and Ramu’s father settled down for the night on their crude platform on the tree.
Several hours passed, and nothing but a jackal was seen by the watchers. And then, just as the moon came up over the distant hills, Kundan and his companion were startled by a low ‘A-ooonh’, followed by a suppressed, rumbling growl.
Kundan grasped his old gun, whilst his friend drew closer to him for comfort. There was complete silence for a minute or two — time that was an agony of suspense for the watchers — and then the sound of stealthy footfalls on dead leaves under the trees.
A moment later the tiger walked out into the moonlight and stood over his kill.
At first Kundan could do nothing. He was completely overawed by the size of this magnificent tiger. Ramus father had to nudge him, and then Kundan quickly put the gun to his shoulder, aimed at the tiger’s head, and pressed the trigger.
The gun went off with a flash and two loud bangs as Kundan fired both barrels. Then there was a tremendous roar. One of the bullets had grazed the tiger’s head.
The enraged animal rushed at the tree and tried to leap on to the branches. Fortunately, the machan had been built at a safe height, and the tiger was unable to reach it. It roared again and then bounded off into the forest.
‘What a tiger!’ exclaimed Kundan, half in fear and half in admiration. ‘I feel as though my liver has turned to water.’
‘You missed him completely,’ said Ramu’s father. ‘Your gun makes big noise; an arrow would have done more damage.’
‘I did not miss him,’ said Kundan, feeling offended. ‘You heard him roar, didn’t you? Would he have been so angry had he not been hit? If I have wounded him badly, he will die.’
‘And if you have wounded him slightly, he may turn into a man-eater, and then where will we be?’
‘I don’t think he will come back,’ said Kundan. ‘He will leave these forests.’
They waited until the sun was up before coming down from the tree. They found a few drops of blood on the dry grass but no trail led into the forest, and Ramu’s father was convinced that the wound was only a slight one.
The bullet, missing the fatal spot behind the ear, had only grazed the back of the skull and cut a deep groove at its base. It took a few days to heal, and during this time the tiger lay low and did not go near the jheel except when it was very dark and he was very thirsty.
The villagers thought the tiger had gone away, and Ramu and Shyam — accompanied by some other youths, and always carrying axes and lathis — began bringing buffaloes to the tank again during the day; but they were careful not to let any of them stray far from the herd, and they returned home while it was still daylight.
It was some days since the jungle had been ravaged by the fire, and in the tropics the damage is repaired quickly. In spite of it being the dry season, new life soon began to creep into the forest.
While the buffaloes wallowed in the muddy water, and the boys wrestled on the grassy islet, a big tawny eagle soared high above them, looking for a meal — a sure sign that some of the animals were beginning to return to the forest. It was not long before his keen eyes detected a movement in the glade below.
What the eagle with his powerful eyesight saw was a baby hare, a small fluffy thing, its long pink-tinted ears laid flat along its sides. Had it not been creeping along between two large stones, it would have escaped notice. The eagle waited to see if the mother was about, and as he waited he realized that he was not the only one who coveted this juicy morsel. From the bushes there had appeared a sinuous yellow creature, pressed low to the ground and moving rapidly towards the hare. It was a yellow jungle cat, hardly noticeable in the scorched grass. With great stealth the jungle cat began to stalk the baby hare.
He pounced. The hare’s squeal was cut short by the cat’s cruel claws; but it had been heard by the mother hare, who now bounded into the glade and without the slightest hesitation went for the surprised cat.
There was nothing haphazard about the mother hare’s attack. She flashed around behind the cat and jumped clean over it. As she landed, she kicked back, sending a stinging jet of dust shooting into the cat’s face. She did this again and again.
The bewildered cat, crouching and snarling, picked up the kill and tried to run away with it. But the hare would not permit this. She continued her leaping and buffeting, till eventually the cat, out of sheer frustration, dropped the kill and attacked the mother.
The cat sprung at the hare a score of times, lashing out with his claws; but the mother hare was both clever and agile enough to keep just out of reach of those terrible claws, and drew the cat further and further away from her baby — for she did not as yet know that it was dead.
The tawny eagle saw his chance. Swift and true, he swooped. For a brief moment, as his wings overspread the puny, little hare and his talons sank deep into it, he caught a glimpse of the cat racing towards him and the mother hare fleeing into the bushes. And then with a shrill ‘kee-e e-ee’ of triumph, he rose and whirled away with his dinner.
The boys had heard his shrill cry and looked up just in time to see the eagle flying over the jheel with the little hare held firmly in its talons.
‘Poor hare,’ said Shyam. ‘Its life was short.’
‘That’s the law of the jungle,’ said Ramu. ‘The eagle has a family too, and must feed it.’
‘I wonder if we are any better than animals,’ said Shyam.
‘Perhaps we are a little better, in some ways,’ said Ramu. ‘Grandfather always says, “To be able to laugh and to be merciful are the only things that make man better than the beast.”’
The next day, while the boys were taking the herd home, one of the buffaloes lagged behind. Ramu did not realize that the animal was missing until he heard an agonized bellow behind him. He glanced over his shoulder just in time to see the big, striped tiger dragging the buffalo into a clump of young bamboo trees. At the same time the herd became aware of the danger and the buffaloes snorted with fear as they hurried along the forest path. To urge them forward, and to warn his friends, Ramu cupped his hands to his mouth and gave vent to a yodelling call.
The buffaloes bellowed, the boys shouted, and the birds flew shrieking from the trees. It was almost a stampede by the time the herd emerged from the forest. The villagers heard the thunder of hoofs, and saw the herd coming home amidst clouds of dust and confusion, and knew that something was wrong.
‘The tiger!’ shouted Ramu. ‘He is here! He has killed one of the buffaloes.’
‘He is afraid of us no longer,’ said Shyam.
‘Did you see where he went?’ asked Kundan Singh, hurrying up to them.
‘I remember the place,’ said Ramu. ‘He dragged the buffalo in amongst the bamboo.’
‘Then there is no time to lose,’ said his father. ‘Kundan, you take your gun and two men, and wait near the suspension bridge, where the Garur stream joins the Ganga. The jungle is narrow there. We will beat the jungle from our side, and drive the tiger towards you. He will not escape us, unless he swims the river!’
‘Good!’ said Kundan, running into his house for his gun, with Shyam close at his heels. ‘Was it one of our buffaloes again?’ he asked.
‘It was Ramu’s buffalo this time,’ said Shyam. ‘A good milk buffalo.’
‘Then Ramu’s father will beat the jungle thoroughly. You boys had better come with me. It will not be safe for you to accompany the beaters.’
Kundan Singh, carrying his gun and accompanied by Ramu, Shyam and two men, headed for the river junction, while Ramu’s father collected about twenty men from the village and, guided by one of the boys who had been with Ramu, made for the spot where the tiger had killed the buffalo.
The tiger was still eating when he heard the men coming. He had not expected to be disturbed so soon. With an angry ‘whoof!’ he bounded into a bamboo thicket and watched the men through a screen of leaves and tall grass.
The men did not seem to take much notice of the dead buffalo, but gathered round their leader and held a consultation. Most of them carried hand drums slung from their shoul
ders. They also carried sticks, spears and axes.
After a hurried conversation, they entered the denser part of the jungle, beating their drums with the palms of their hands. Some of the men banged empty kerosene tins. These made even more noise than the drums.
The tiger did not like the noise and retreated deeper into the jungle. But he was surprised to find that the men, instead of going away, came after him into the jungle, banging away on their drums and tins and shouting at the top of their voices. They had separated now, and advanced single or in pairs, but nowhere were they more than fifteen yards apart. The tiger could easily have broken through this slowly advancing semicircle of men — one swift blow from his paw would have felled the strongest of them — but his main aim was to get away from the noise. He hated and feared noises made by men.
He was not a man-eater and he would not attack a man unless he was very angry or frightened or very desperate; and he was none of these as yet. He had eaten well, and he would have liked to rest in peace — but there would be no rest for any animal until the men ceased their tremendous clatter and din.
For an hour Ramu’s father and others beat the jungle, calling, drumming and trampling the undergrowth. The tiger had no rest. Whenever he was able to put some distance between himself and the men, he would sink down in some shady spot to rest, but, within five or ten minutes, the trampling and drumming would sound nearer, and the tiger, with an angry snarl, would get up and pad north, pad silently north along the narrowing strip of the jungle, towards the junction of the Garur stream and the Ganga. Ten years back, he would have had the jungle on his right in which to hide, but the trees had been felled long ago, to make way for humans and houses, and now he could only move to the left, towards the river.
It was after a long time that the tiger finally appeared in the open. He longed for the darkness and security of the night, for the sun was his enemy. Kundan and the boys had a clear view of him as he stalked slowly along, now in the open with the sun glinting on his glossy side, now in the shade or passing through the shorter reeds. He was still out of range of Kundan’s gun, but there was no fear of his getting out of the beat, as the ‘stops’ were all picked men from the village. He disappeared among some bushes but soon reappeared to retrace his steps, the beaters having done their work well. He was now only one hundred and fifty yards from the rocks where Kundan Singh waited, and he looked very big.