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After the death of Mat Jalil, the villages of Kampung
Som were living in constant fear of the man-eating
tiger. During the ay, they would move in groups, armed
with parangs and wooden poles. even then hey would not
venture far into the jungle, though their livelihood
depended on it. All the schoolgoing children had been
staying away from school Before sunset, all the adults
would be back home. No one would venture out at night.
It was like a self-imposed curfew. Even with their
windows shut and doors locked, the villagers had been
having sleepless nights. So far, a villager had been
killed and another injured by the tiger. A number of
goats and cows had gone missing. The villages knew that
a healthy tiger would not attack human beings. They were
angry that the hunters had injured the tiger, which
consequently changed its hunting habit. I was entrusted
with the task of capturing the wounded tiger alive.
Killing it would be a last resort.
I learn that the tiger had been prowling the village
for the past eight days. I took note of its movements
after talking to a few villagers and the headman. Then
with the help of my only assistant game ranger, Jaafar,
we set up a trap, using human blood and wild boar. We
hoped to lure it into a steel cage. I even placed
cameras in the jungle in order to keep track of the
animal. For the first two days, there was no sign of the
tiger. I wondered whether it had sensed our presence and
had retreated deep into the jungle. If it was so, our
efforts would be futile. On the third day, I came across
fresh pug marks some two hundred meters away from the
cage. this meant that the animal was still around.
However, it remained elusive and did not go anywhere
near the cage. On the fourth day, four Rela members
traveling on a four-wheel drive on late night patrol saw
the tiger sprint across their path. It was near the spot
where Mat Jalil was mauled to death. The pug marks
showed that the tiger weighted about 140 kg.
On the fifth day, I made a routine check on the trap.
As usual, the tiger had avoided it, though the bait we
used was wild boar meat, its natural diet. The five days
of vigil and lack of sleep had sapped our energy. I was
beginning to feel desperate. I told Jaafar that we would
call it quits if we could not catch the cat by the next
day. By now the sun was beginning to set as we came near
a stream, Jaafar sat on a rock for a puff while I
proceeded to the stream some thirty meters away to wash
my face. The water was cold and refreshing, just the
right tonic to keep me awake when night came. The
surroundings seemed to be usually quiet. Even the air
was quite still.
As I turned around with the intention of calling
Jaafar to join me, I froze instantly. It was the big cat
just a few meters away from Jaafar. It was in a
crouching position, ready to pounce on him. There was no
time to lose. I had to act fast. I got hold of my shot
gun, took aim and fired. the shot hit the tiger, but it
managed to run into an oil palm estate. The startled
Jaafar was quick to regain his composure. We wasted no
time tracking down the wounded animal. We found it lying
in a pool of blood. We did not have to fire another shot
as it was already dead. The man-eater measured 2.75
meters from head to tail, one of the largest I have ever
seen. It was about 15 years old, I regretted that I had
to kill it. But there was nothing else I could do
because i did not want to gamble with Jaafar's life.
The death of the tiger had ended two weeks of terror
for the villagers of Kampung Som. They were glad that
they could once again move about freely. More important,
the children could attend school again and the men could
resume their activity of collecting jungle produce as a
means of earning a living. To the widow of Mat Jalil,
however, it did not make any difference. She only hoped
that the authorities would not allow illegal hunters to
hunt the forests because they would cause a lot of
problems. Indeed, the man-eating tiger that was killed
by me had old gunshot wounds on its body. One of the
shots shattered its front right leg. Unable to hunt
effectively it turned to hunting humans. If not capture
or killed, it would keep on hunting humans. |
