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There was only one strong tree near the carcass,
growing on the steep slope of the hill. We fastened one
end of the platform to this tree. Then, we rammed some
poles into the side of the hill. To these, we tied the
other side of the platform. Just after three in the
afternoon. Ranger Siva and I climbed up to our hide-out
and made ourselves comfortable. As I sat watching the
jungle ahead of me, my eyes were suddenly attracted by a
slight movement. Not very far away from us, I noticed
the waving of a twig on a bare bush. There was no wind,
and no sign of any bird which could have caused the twig
to move in this manner. Everything else was quite still
in the heavy afternoon air. Suddenly, as though
appearing from nowhere, the face of a tiger appeared at
the exact spot where the twig had waved, and looked
straight at me. I noticed the grey hair on its face, and
knew that it was fairly old. For a few seconds, the
tiger continued to stare in our direction, as if
uncertain whether or not there was some hidden danger in
front of it. In our hide-out, we were hidden from the
animal by a screen of branches, but it was possible that
it could see something unnatural about our tree. Very
slowly, I moved my right hand towards the shotgun on the
platform. Normally, I kept the gun ready in my lap, but
the tiger had come before we were ready for him. He must
have seen the slight movement of my hand. with a deep
coughing sound, he moved straight up the hill. Before I
could pick up the gun, he had disappeared ! We looked
at each other in disgust. As the tiger had obviously
seen us, I feared that he would not return during the
night. However, we knew that the indigenous people had
faith in us, and would expect us to sit through the
night if necessary. We settled down again, but not very
hopefully. Two hours later, we heard a
slight movement below us.
We both looked quickly towards the carcass. In the
faint light, it was
difficult to see clearly, but we just managed to make
out the shape of a large monitor lizard, feeding on the
dead calf. About an hour later, just before eight
o'clock, we head the sound of snapping twigs. There was
a large animal down below us, near the carcass, and we
strained our ears to try and find out exactly where the
noise was coming form. Even in the darkness, I new that
Ranger Siva had the torch ready, pointed towards the
carcass. I raised the gun to my shoulder, and Siva
switched on the torch. There the tiger stood, above the
carcass. He was right between the clumps of wild bananas
and almost directly below the platform. I aimed at a
spot between his shoulders and fired. The tiger gave a
tremendous roar and made a great leap through the lower
banana clump. By the light of the torch, he lay biting
madly at the banana stems, quite unable to move. I fired
into his shoulders a second time, and his head went
limp. No further movement could be seen, but I have had
some unpleasant surprises, so we decided not to descend
in the dark. Despite the mosquitoes and the uneven floor
of the platform, we slept soundly for the rest of the
night. In the morning, we inspected the tiger. I
noticed that, as I had thought, he was quite old, and
had two of his large canine teeth broken – one reason
why he had turned to domestic animals as an easy way of
getting his food. |
