I have seen her a few times while on my walks around our farm, and I am sure she has seen me a lot more during the last 4 years since she moved in. The first time I saw her was on the Thirunelli road and she was just a cub then, and I clearly remember the scene that night where her mother crossed the road first, turned and looked at us as though she was standing guard and then a minute or so later, on came 3 small cubs one after the other crossing the road to the other side. Since then I have seen her grow into a sub-adult, and later into a beautiful Tigress in her prime; she is all of 4 years old now and has our farm as a part of her territory.
As a cub she was always very inquisitive. During many a walk both alone and with guests, I have felt her presence around us and though she followed us at a distance, she never came too close and we almost never saw her. But all that was about to change on that fateful day!
As some of you know, I do go into the outer peripheries of our farm and spend time sitting over waterholes and the grasslands on the West, these are areas that are undisturbed by humans as the cottages we let out are on the eastern side of the farm closer to the road. I usually reach the western edge by around 2 pm, and since we have the abandoned house there, it is easier for me to set up camp inside the house which overlooks the small waterhole on the other side. Though I was planning to spend the night there, I was not planning to cook, so I had taken some sandwiches with me, along with a flask of black coffee that would keep me going through the night. Since it was a short 15 minute walk from my cottage to the abandoned house, I remember starting at around 1:30 pm after a hearty lunch with my trusted backpack which included my basic kit that I would require for the next 18 hours or so. The plan was to spend the night in the abandoned house, then return back to the cottages by 8 am next morning, leave back to Bangalore by 3 pm and then back to the grind (office) on Monday morning.
I started the walk to the western side of the farm, and since it had not rained in Wayanad for a few months, the ground was bone-dry and it was near impossible to read any carnivore movements accurately as the baked sand hid all the secrets. There was a herd of deer near our main waterhole which was between the cottages that we let out to our guests and the abandoned house on the western side of the farm. Seeing me coming, the deer trotted in unison away from me, stopped, turned back keeping a close eye on me to make sure that I was not a threat to them. The best way to stop the deer from running away when you approach them, is to not make eye contact and to act very disinterested in them. So I tried the age-old trick of trying to find the missing item, by looking down at the ground, moving slowly in a non-threatening way in a zig-zag manner. This, I have seen, would pique the interest in most species of deer especially the Spotted deer! They all turned towards me and a few of the brave ones took a few steps towards me trying to understand what I was searching for and why I was not interested in them! I didn’t even glance up as I zig-zagged my way towards the old abandoned house, and soon, the deer that had trotted off, started coming back towards the waterhole where they were before I rudely interrupted them. I reached the abandoned house a few minutes before 2 pm and after keeping my backpack in the house, I moved towards the smaller waterhole which was right at the western edge of the farm. It was a large open area around 100 feet long and 70 feet wide with lots of large trees right around the clearing, and though the waterhole had shrunk due to the lack of rains, it still held enough water to keep the animals interested. Manu, our naturalist had told me that he had seen multiple tiger and leopard pug-marks in the sand on the banks and after scouring the area, I could see the distinct pug-marks of the resident Tigress etched clearly on the sand, and there were also smaller pug-marks which weren’t very clear but as Manu had mentioned, could well have been from the resident leopard that I have written about on a few occasions.
As mentioned earlier, it was not much of a waterhole anymore, the lack of rain had reduced it to nothing more than a small puddle measuring 10 feet long, 3 feet wide and half a foot deep. Looking into the water, it was clear that nothing had come near it for the last 12 hours, for it lay clear and undisturbed. If an animal drinks from a shallow pond or if it steps into the water, which is what a Tigress would do during a hot day, it is bound to disturb the water and make it murky, and it takes a good few hours for the dirt and sediments to settle down – but in this case the water was crystal clear which clearly meant that there were no visitors yet to the waterhole that day.
I retraced my steps back to the old abandoned house and went into the room in the middle. Let me give you an idea about the abandoned house. It has 4 small rooms, each measuring around 8 feet by 8 feet, with 2 doors, one facing the west, the other east. Each of these rooms were interconnected and had large barred windows and it had a tiled roof and a good portion of the tiles were already broken, thanks to the monkeys using the roof as a lookout point. The windows were still barred, but the doors were long gone, the elephants had kicked it down a few years back for reasons known only to them, and along with the doors, the southern wall was also damaged because the elephants had used it as a scratching post. The western side of the farm where the house sits is the best spot in the entire farm as it is close to the jungle, has ample tree cover, the waterhole is close by and hence there is a lot of animal movement in that area – and that is exactly why we left the house in the current state. The moment humans go there and take up possession, it’d drive away the animals from that area. But yes, I do use the house to mount my trail camera which senses motion and heat and I also use this house once in a couple of months or so to camp in especially if I am not cooking or planning to have a fire going.
I went to the room facing the waterhole and tied the camouflaged blind around the windows, which meant that I could see the outside clearly and from the outside the blind would hide my presence. I took a rather uncomfortable log to sit on and that is what I did for the next 2 hours, sitting patiently and waiting for any sort of movement. I could see a pair of jungle fowls come down to the water’s edge, they looked around nervously before taking a sip or two and then wandering off into the jungle. The Malabar giant squirrel gave its alarm call which got me interested, only to realize that the calls were for the Black eagle soaring up in the skies and not for the striped or spotted variety on the forest floor. The afternoon turned to evening and evening to dusk, till then it was a very uneventful evening, but all that was about to change and change soon!
It was around 6:30 pm, the December sun had long set and the jungle hidden in the dark shadow, and I remember removing the blind so that I could see what was happening outside. In a few minutes I saw the ghostly shadow of the big Makhna elephant coming down from the south making its way towards the small waterhole. For no apparent reason, he paused for a few seconds, turned and started walking straight towards the abandoned house. I hid behind the window, with only my eyes above the windowsill and looked at him intently as he walked straight past the house towards the meadows and then towards the larger waterhole. The Makhna – as some of you have seen him during your stay with us, has a habit of breaking the electric fence which surrounds the cottages. He means no harm, but he wanders in once in a while, moves around between the cottages and the beauty is, though he stands well over 9 feet and weighs over 3 tons, he is as silent as a ghost and you wouldn’t even know that he was there till next morning where you’d see his large footprints right next to the cottage you were sleeping in. What can I say, he is a very gentle, well behaved elephant who loves to break electric fences! I was happy that he went right past the abandoned house and I knew that his walk would have been captured by the trail camera that was set on the roof for exactly such moments!
Standing over 9 ft. tall, weighing more than 3 tons, the Makhna was a large, powerful Elephant in its prime.
The Makhna had no idea that I was just a few feet away from him, as he lazily wandered off towards the large waterhole in our farm
The Makhna walked right past the house and he didn’t even notice me there, thanks to the wind being in my favor, while I sat inside the house, on the log with only my eyes and forehead above the windowsill thinking about what the Makhna was about to do next, a movement at the western edge of the farm caught my eye. I peered into the semi-darkness and that is when I saw her face and only her face, and she was looking straight at me from the bush. Even though it was dark, there was no mistaking her striking features, it was Snow white, the resident female Tigress! She was named Snow white because of the distinct white patch on her forehead, she stood there, with her mouth slightly open, looking back at me from around 25 feet away. But unlike the Makhna who didn’t know I was there, she knew exactly where I was, gave me just a few seconds to look at her, before she turned and walked straight back into the bush. I have seen her on multiple occasions, but each time I saw her my heart skips a beat or two! I knew that I’d not see her again that night because she knew exactly where I was and no Tigress would come near a human once she knows his presence! How wrong was I!
I sat there grinning from ear to ear, the body still buzzing with the adrenaline rush realizing that I live for moments such as these… and that is when I thought I heard her the first time. I thought I heard a deep-throated growl coming from the western side, or was I imagining it? The excitement I had soon turned to complete attention, and by then it was completely dark outside. The sun had long set and the moon had yet to make her appearance– this is when humans are at their most vulnerable and the predators most active. I sat there looking into the darkness, listening intently for any further sounds – and then I heard her again and this time there was no mistaking the growl, and it came from a lot closer. For the first time that night and in many such nights that I have spent in the jungle, I actually felt fear; the Tigress was coming closer and she was growling at me! I was confused and perplexed, why would she be coming closer to me and growling at me? She knew where I was, she knew that I knew she was around, but why growl and why come closer? Or was she growling at something else? Perhaps the Makhna? My doubts were put to rest with her next growl which came from the other side of the house and that too from much close quarters! There was no doubting anymore, she knew that I was inside the house and she was circling the house! She was not growling at the Makhna or anything else, the growls were directed towards me and she was right outside the house!
Listening to the Tiger growl, that too from such close quarters is perhaps the most nerve-wracking experience one could have. Here I was sitting in an old dilapidated house with no doors in the night listening to one of the strongest predators in the world and she was growling at me. In that confused state of mind, I tried reasoning as to why she was growling at me, and though I thought this behavior was most unusual, one thing was clear, irrespective of what the reasons could be, she didn’t want me there! I had 3 options in front of me, either sit tight in the room and hope that she’d lose interest and move on, but that thought was soon dismissed when I thought about what if she came inside the house? The next was to quickly call Manu and the staff and ask them to come rushing to the spot making a lot of noise which would surely drive the Tigress away, and I dismissed this option due to the exact reason – it was a privilege to have her take the farm as part of her territory and I didn’t want to drive her away for good by chasing her away that night. So the only other option was to step out meet her face to face and make my way back to the cottages – which was a good 15 minutes’ walk through the jungle in pitch darkness! This option was perhaps the one she wouldn’t expect me to take, and that is why I decided to do exactly that – meet her face on if required, but walk back unhurriedly to the cottage and hope I’d reach there!
I waited for the next growl, which duly came from the western edge of the house and I was waiting for this signal and I remember standing up, switching my torch ON and walking towards where the door was on the eastern side. I have heard from the tribals that when they are cornered by elephants and when their escape route is completely cut off, they would stand rooted to the spot and start talking loudly and confidently and it invariably confuses the elephants! Men are supposed to scurry away like ants when being charged by the elephants and all of a sudden, rather than running off into the jungle, here was a group of men standing and talking confidently – and if you are the elephant, you’d be thinking “this is not how it is supposed to happen”! This usually gives the men a few fleeting seconds to escape from the elephants. I didn’t know if that would work with the tigers, but I had nothing to lose. I remember walking out of the door into the pitch dark night while talking confidently and loud with my backpack on my back and torch in my hand … and strangely, though I knew that the Tigress was perhaps 15 feet away from me I didn’t feel fear anymore!
It was pitch dark by the time I stepped out of the abandoned house and armed with my torch, I decided to walk towards the cottages
I continued my walk towards the cottages and I could see the warm light coming from where the cottages were. A few thoughts raced through my mind – which would be the best way to reach the cottages, what about the Makhna who was still in that area? I am sure he would have heard the growls and I didn’t want to bump into him on foot in the night, and what about the Tigress, was the she still behind me? The answer to the last question was very clear, I remember turning and looking behind me when I heard the distinct sound of a small twig breaking behind me, whichever animal broke that twig was a heavy animal that did not have a hard hoof.
I turned back and looked and I knew I was not alone, I was being followed!
Yes the Tigress was indeed tracking me! I didn’t wait any longer, I turned and walked towards the cottages, talking loudly and in a confident voice, and though my instincts told me to climb a tree or run, my better judgement told me no to do any such thing as this would trigger the hunting instinct in the Tigress, because that is what a spotted deer or a Langur would try and do when faced with a Tigress – either to run or climb a tree to safety! I was neither and I knew that if I tried running, the Tigress would pounce on me from behind in no time, so the best thing to do was to keep walking head held high and act as though you are not perturbed by her presence – which was easier said than done!
I had reached the halfway point by now, just another 200 meters more to go to the cottages and then I realized that I had taken the patch over the rocks, which meant that I’d soon reach a spot where I’d have to jump down a good 10 feet and there was no way to circumvent it as there were thick lantana bushes on both the sides. I didn’t want to land awkwardly and twist my leg, especially with the Tigress behind me and I remember slowing down and using the torch to find an easier way and that is when she growled at me again! She was still behind me, not more than a few meters away and she didn’t want me to stop! I remember jumping down the rock and thankfully I landed OK and I continued with my walk towards the cottages! I fully expected to hear her jump down from the rocks, continue coming after me, but she didn’t. I’d attribute that to the torch light that fell on me, it was Manu, along with the guests shining the torch towards the direction from where the growls had come! They all heard the growls and they were expecting to see the Tigress walk into full view, what they didn’t expect was to see me walking towards them! Manu and the guests came towards me talking to me excitedly asking me whether I had heard the growl, what I was doing there in the night, and that is when I realized that I was sweating profusely in the cold December night! Without talking much and as politely as I could, I excused myself from the excited crowd, I went to my cottage, closed the door and washed my face and looked in the mirror – what had just happened?! Would anyone even believe if I told them what had just happened? Well, if someone told me that he/she was chased away by a full grown Tigress in night, I just wouldn’t believe it. No way! So I decided not to talk to them till next morning and I knew exactly what I had to do then.
They were all having their breakfast next morning, and as I entered the breakfast area with my laptop, they were still buzzing and talking about the growls that they had heard the previous night and how scary and amazing it was! They saw me coming in and they all wanted to know what had really happened yesterday, why was I there in the night and was it really the growl of the Tigress that they heard the previous night? I remember placing the laptop on one of the tables and I let the pictures from the trail camera mounted on the house do the talking. They all left their breakfast, came towards the laptop and there was a collective gasp as her photos filled the screen…
Though I quickened my pace, I didn’t want to run, for it’d trigger her instict to attack!
The photos from camera trap caught her walking right behind me – the very same minute!
She was walking fast, keeping pace with me and there were instances when I turned back and looked and then I saw “Tyger Tyger, burning bright, In the forests of the night…”
