Tigers of Taboo Valley

by Ranjit Lal

  ‘Whatever you say, huzoor!’

  Ayesha was utterly heartbroken when she heard the news about the killing of Raat-ki-Rani, late the next morning.

  ‘It can’t be true!’ she wept. ‘That gorgeous tigress! I photographed her with her cubs all of last afternoon and evening… Those poor cubs! They’ll die without their mother. They were such a loving family! And…and they knew I was there and let me photograph them to my heart’s content and never snarled at me even once. They made me feel at home with them. They were like family! My own family!’

  And so, again in no time at all, Raat-ki-Rani and her cubs became Sher-kila National Park’s latest, though tragic, international celebrities as their photographs were published around the world.

  ‘We have to find those cubs and help them survive!’ Ayesha begged the park authorities. ‘Just look what those wretched hyenas did to that beautiful animal!’

  ‘Ma’am, what we do to them is worse,’ the Field Director of the park said sephulchrally. ‘Don’t forget she was shot by a human being. If he had got his way, he would have skinned her or taken her bones and sold them to the Chinese.’

  ‘Yes, I know. Do you have any idea about who may be behind this?’

  The swarthy man pushed back his hat and nodded. ‘We have ideas, but no proof. We can’t move without proof.’

  ‘And the cubs?’

  He nodded. ‘We will look for them. Trackers will set forth on elephant back to look for them. Once we find them, we’ll decide what needs to be done.’

  ‘Thank you. Can I accompany one of the search parties?’ Ayesha begged making such big puppy eyes at the Field Director there was no way he could refuse. ‘They were like my own family!’

  ‘But of course, ma’am. I’ll give instructions.’

  ‘Thank you.’

  But in the days that followed, the search parties which fanned out all across the park came across no trace of the orphaned cubs. They had just vanished off the face of the earth.

  Wheeling about, high in the sky, Diclo and Fenac were also looking out for the cubs.

  ‘They’re small and young and inexperienced and tender. They’ll starve and weaken…’

  ‘And then we move in!’ Fenac giggled. ‘They got away the first time, but not again…’

  There was just one hitch. Even the vultures, with their wonderful telescopic vision and keen sense of smell could find no trace of the cubs.

  ‘They must have died and rotted away!’ Razia said with some relish as she came across Lolita while on patrol. ‘Besides which, madam step back, you are about to infringe into my territory…’

  ‘If they’d rotted those damn vultures would have spotted them. And I’m on my side of the border if you please!’

  ‘They say that Shaan-Bahadur couldn’t give a damn. Didn’t even twitch his tail when he heard the news,’ Razia snorted. ‘Apparently he said something about his cubs needing to have better genes than from a female like Raat-ki-Rani who got herself shot by a poacher. So it was like good riddance.’

  ‘I hear Shaan-Bahadur challenged your stud Thug to a fight,’ Lolita said maliciously.

  ‘He’s not my stud for your information. He’s just time pass!’ But she closed her eyes and purred. ‘Still, who knows…’

  ‘Oh yeah, sure, sure! Well wish him best of luck! He’ll need it!’

  Rana Shaan-Bahadur had just completed clearly marking his territory’s northern border—which that coward Thug had intruded into—when Naradmunni trotted up to him again, his face expressionless. He’d know what expression to put on once he gauged his boss’s reaction to the news.

  ‘Huzoorji, I hear that the cubs have vanished.’

  ‘Cubs? What cubs?’

  ‘Your cubs, sirji. I mean yours and Begum Raat-ki-Rani’s cubs…’

  ‘So?’

  ‘I just thought you ought to know, sire…’

  ‘Well, now I do. Good, if they’ve vanished. Now can we get on with our lives for a change and not be bothered about what’s happening to them?’

  ‘But of course, huzoor. Whatever you say!’ He blinked and swallowed. ‘Um…huzoor, there’s one more thing…’

  ‘Now what?’

  ‘You know that beautiful photographer who made you famous? Ayesha, of the silky black tresses.’

  ‘Yes, what about her? ’

  ‘Well huzoor, now she’s made Begum Raat-ki-Rani and her cubs world famous too. Apparently she photographed them on the day the Begumji was killed. Their pictures were splashed all over the world! They’ve gone supercalifragalistichyperviralonthenet.’

  ‘What?’ Shaan-Bahadur roared. ‘What the hell are you saying?’

  ‘Indeed huzoor, they had better ratings than even you did in your heyday!’ Naradmunni wisely scuttled twenty feet away and was poised to flee.

  ‘What? No one, I repeat no one gets better ratings than I do!’

  ‘Of course, huzoor, of course! It must have been a computing error.’

  Shaan-Bahadur’s green eyes glowed like emeralds. ‘And,’ he growled so menacingly that poor Naradmunni piddled a little, ‘if we ever come across those cubs, I will kill them without hesitation! Stealing my thunder like that! What’s this shameless new generation coming to? No respect for their elders! Better ratings than mine? Pah!’

  ‘Thank god they’ve vanished,’ Naradumunni squeaked and then bit his lip. Fortunately his boss was pacing up and down so agitatedly he didn’t hear him. ‘But of course, huzoor,’ he said now, nodding virtuously. ‘I’ll send the word out that you’re looking for them.’

  ‘You do that!’

  T he cubs had ‘vanished’ for a very simple reason. For days after their mother’s assassination they stayed put in the cave that had been their last nursery. They emerged at dusk to hunt mice and frogs and whatever tidbits they could find; it was dangerous as this was when many big carnivores—tigers, leopards, hyenas and bears set out hunting, so they had to be extremely careful. But it was safer than emerging in the day, when the eyes of the Diclo-Fenac squadron missed nothing. Also, humans went around in daylight and they were the most lethal of all.

  ‘We can’t go on like this,’ Zafraan decided some days later. ‘We’re hardly eating. We’ll have to get away from here.’

  ‘Do you know for where?’ Phasti asked.

  ‘It doesn’t matter where. Just far away from here.’

  ‘We’re hungry!’ Hasti and Masti complained.

  ‘I miss Mamma,’ Phasti said tearfully. ‘I miss her like anything! ’

  Zafraan went up to her and licked her comfortingly. ‘We miss her too kiddo, but don’t worry I’ll look after you!’

  ‘My! My!’ Hasti smirked in spite of herself. ‘Wow! Suddenly we’ve got such a loving big brother to take care of us! He called her kiddo!’

  ‘Let him try that with me,’ Masti snorted. ‘He’ll get a swipe for his trouble. Kiddo indeed! He’s just ensuring she’ll share her kills with him, the lazy slob!’

  By the fifth night all of them were thinking of just one thing: their nearly empty tummies.

  ‘I’m famished!’ Hasti panted.

  ‘I’m starving!’ Masti agreed.

  ‘We’ll die if we don’t eat soon.’

  Zafraan looked at his sisters. ‘We leave tonight!’

  Biting back their tears, they left their nursery for the last time that night, remembering all the fun and games (and magnificent meals) they had had there with their mother. Zafraan led the way, followed by Hasti and Masti, with little Phasti huffing and puffing and tripping and falling as she brought up the rear. Every now and then the little procession would halt to enable the little cub to catch up. They travelled by night and took shelter by day under rocky overhangs or beneath lantana bushes. On the fourth night, they stumbled into an empty cave; it was rather like one of their earlier nurseries, a cave halfway up a rock-face, overlooking a grassy meadow. Exhausted, they lay down, their eyes sunken, their faces gaunt. They hadn’t eaten properly since their mother had died
. Zafraan looked sadly at his sisters.

  ‘We’ll have to hunt for ourselves. Proper big game! Not rats and bandicoots! There’s no other way. Try to remember everything Mamma taught us about hunting…’

  Alas, their first attempt was a complete fiasco. They had targeted an experienced chital hind, who detected them very early, snorted derisively and trotted off just out of range. She kept moving away as the cubs valiantly crawled towards her. ‘Come closer, come closer and kiss me!’ the wretched deer sang, grinning as the rest of the herd looked on in amusement. After a bit the cubs gave up and went back to their cave hideout to discuss the matter.

  ‘Really, you move like a bulldozer!’ Hasti accused Masti indignantly.

  ‘Me?’ Masti squawked. ‘Who tripped over that branch and fell flat on her tummy and squealed like a pig? The whole world must have heard that.’

  ‘You two, you have to learn to move quietly,’ Zafraan said in his smarmy voice.

  ‘Look who’s talking, bhai-jaan. Who fell into the stream with a splash like a buffalo?’

  Then one by one they looked at little Phasti who was sitting quietly, her green eyes sad. She had got closest to the deer, much closer than the others and the animal had been startled by her. And amazingly, she had slunk up close soundlessly, neither tripping on branches nor stepping on crisp, dried leaves.

  ‘I have an idea,’ Phasti said quietly. ‘Maybe it would work!’

  ‘What’s your idea, little girl?’ Zafraan asked kindly in that tone that automatically made the claws of his other two sisters unsheathe silently.

  ‘This is what I thought…’

  Zafraan listened gravely as Phasti told her plan and then inclined his head regally. ‘Yes, excellent, little lady. In fact I was thinking just the same thing! We can try it!’

  ‘What a fibber!’ Hasti nudged Masti. ‘He just can’t stomach the fact that Phasti thought of it. Little lady! Sheesh!’

  ‘Guys, I tell you! Farts, from head to toe!’

  They spent the day in their cave hideout fine-tuning Phasti’s plan and trying to ignore their rumbling tummies. They had managed to survive on mice, frogs and lizards but that’s no diet for growing tiger cubs. As dusk fell, they set out, lithely leaping between and over the rocks. Ahead, where the thorny bush gave way to the grassy meadow, a herd of chital browsed peacefully in the moonlight, some of the animals were even lying down and resting.

  Phasti’s eyes shone and she checked out the herd. ‘Okay,’ she whispered to her brother, who was regarding her indulgently. ‘That one is the target…’ She’d picked a medium-sized doe which was grazing peacefully and looking up from time to time.

  ‘Which one?’ Hasti asked, jostling Masti who nearly jumped on her.

  ‘Keep quiet, you idiots, you’ll spook them even before we start the hunt.’

  ‘Okay, you guys, go and do your thing,’ Phasti said. ‘I’m off!’ And she just disappeared, poof, she was just gone!

  ‘How does she do that?’ Masti asked plaintively. ‘It’s freaky!’

  ‘She creeps me out, I tell you!’ Hasti agreed. ‘There’s something weird about her!’

  ‘Come on girls, let’s go!’ Zafraan, who as usual had been lying down regally, got to his feet.

  The doe spotted the cubs from a long way off. She emitted a laconic snort, alerting the others.

  ‘Beware! Beware! The morons are coming, the morons are coming!’ she called, with mock panic in her voice. ‘Come on girls, let’s have some fun with them!’ she grinned. She called out again, ‘Come and get me babies, dinner is ready!’

  Her friend looked around warily. ‘Funny, their Mamma doesn’t seem to be around!’

  ‘These cubs have been here for a several days and no sign of their Mamma so far. They must be those cubs whose Mamma was shot recently. Everyone’s been talking about them! ’

  ‘Then we’re cool!’

  ‘Babies, come on!’ crooned the doe, stifling a giggle. She could see where the cubs were clearly—they left a trail of swaying grass as they moved through it, not to mention a flurry of moths and other insects that they disturbed. As they moved closer, she moved the same distance away so there was no chance of their coming close enough to catch her.

  The doe’s friend was also keeping an eye on the cubs. ‘You know, I thought there were four cubs…’ she said thoughtfully.

  ‘Yeah, so?’

  ‘There are only three in the grass!’

  ‘The fourth one must have died… They’ve been motherless for three or four days after all.’

  ‘I guess…Watch out! Run! ’ her friend shrieked suddenly and stamped her foot hard.

  It was too late. A small tigress with blazing green eyes suddenly just erupted out of the grass from behind the doe and clamped her jaws around her neck before she knew what was what. She keeled over, kicking desperately, but the grip on her throat did not slacken. She struggled to her feet, kicking every which way, but the little tigress hung on grimly.

  Little Phasti had sprung! While the other three had been distracting the doe, she had circled around her and had positioned herself perfectly for an ambush: the silly doe had been looking entirely in the wrong direction. And fortunately, there had been no breeze. Now the other three charged up. The poor doe gave them one look and her eyes rolled up as she fainted with shock. Then she was down, even as the rest of her herd thundered away across the grassy meadow.

  ‘We did it!’

  ‘Gimme five!’

  ‘Awesome or what!’

  ‘Come on, we better get it up to the cave! Hasti, Masti get a hold of her and pull; you too Phasti!’

  Under the expert direction of Zafraan, shouting instructions, the three sisters tugged and pulled the doe’s carcass up to their cave, panting and heaving.

  ‘God, she’s heavy!’

  Hasti eyed Zafraan. ‘Did you notice his lordship hasn’t moved a muscle? He’s just been shouting directions.’

  ‘Typical! Mamma really spoiled him!’

  The cubs feasted hugely that night; they really gorged themselves.

  ‘That was so good!’ Hasti purred, lying replete and doing her toilette daintily.

  ‘Delicious!’ Masti lay on her back, her paws in the air in a state of dizzy bliss. ‘I can hardly move!’

  ‘A kill never tasted better!’ Zafraan looked at his kid sister. ‘Baby, you were awesome,’ he said as though bestowing a benediction on her .

  ‘Yes,’ the other two agreed. ‘You were great!’ They rolled their eyes at each other. ‘Wow! Now bhai-jaan is calling her baby! Whaddya know!’

  ‘Thanks,’ Phasti said. And then added in a small voice, ‘but I so wish Mamma had been here to see the hunt.’

  ‘What are we hunting dinner tonight?’ Hasti asked her siblings some nights later. The cubs had decided to stay on in the area where they had successfully brought down the doe. Their cave was well hidden, there was a stream and pools of water nearby, and there was dinner grazing on the meadow just ahead. Also, they were tired of being on the run.

  ‘Let’s stay here,’ Masti had suggested. ‘We’re pretty far away from where Mamma was killed and it’s nice here.’

  ‘I feel like wild boar tonight,’ Hasti said, licking her lips at the thought. ‘Tender pork; we haven’t had that for quite some time.’

  Zafraan licked his lips and nodded. ‘Yes, pork chops, that sounds good. And there’s that noisy sounder that comes into the meadow every night.’

  ‘We should go for a big one this time,’ Masti said, ‘those piglets are tasty but they’re so small! Two bites and they’re over!’

  ‘Yeah, we should pick a real fatty, he won’t be able to run very fast… ’

  ‘It’ll be easy!’

  Little Phasti looked a little doubtful. Considering she would be the one to make first contact with the boar, she’d have to bear the main impact and counter the defence reaction of the animal. A big boar could do a terrible amount of damage to a lightweight like her. But she couldn’t let her sibl
ings down, they had taken such good care of her ever since their Mamma had died. They depended on her for their meals.

  ‘Okay,’ she said softly, ‘let’s do it.’

  They fanned out into the meadow that night and quickly picked their target.

  ‘That one—she’s really fat,’ Zafraan said, indicating a huge sow which was moving about laboriously in the meadow, snuffling loudly. The rest of the sounder roamed around her, some mothers trying to control their broods, several young hirsute males and a couple of magnificent, mustachioed adults with deadly curved tusks, their tails up like the antennae on ministers’ cars.

  They had to be a little more careful while hunting wild boar. Hasti, Masti and Zafraan had to judge the distance they kept from their target precisely. They had to ensure that they were far enough from it not to panic it, but merely make it move away casually as they approached, towards the spot where Phasti would be lying in wait. At the same time, they had to make sure they didn’t irritate it enough to prompt a charge, which would upset poor Phasti’s strategy completely.

  The sow and a couple of other mothers with piglets spotted the three tiger cubs quite quickly. The mothers led their piglets away, but the sow was one stubborn thing. She eyed the cubs balefully and snorted. A couple of hirsute males with massive tusks watched her and the cubs from a little further away. And as usual little Phasti did her vanishing trick and slithered close…

  She sprang and caught the sow completely by surprise. But it was tough trying to get her little jaws across that massive armored neck. She clung on, clawing at it desperately. Hasti, Masti and Zafraan charged, and then suddenly stopped dead in their tracks.

  The two boars behind the female had put down their heads and were thundering towards them, grunting ferociously. The three cubs turned and fled.

  The sow, which was immensely strong, flung off little Phasti as though flicking away a bluebottle. She turned and faced the dazed tiger cub who was scrabbling to her feet. The boar’s little piggy eyes pulsed, red with rage.