I thought it was a just a courtesy call, when the phone rang at 7:30 pm that day, with the display blinking the name Nambiar Uncle who incidentally was Panchayat president (someone similar to the Mayor). Boy, was I wrong! I answered with a hello, but he was in no mood for pleasantries and all he said was “The Tiger has killed again, could you come with me to Appapara” to which I answered I am on my way.
In 10 minutes, we were on our way to Appapara, which is the closest village to Jungle Retreat Wayanad, just 1 KM away, with a few tribal huts and nothing more. We reached there by 8:00 pm and by that time an agitated crowd of local tribal folks armed with spears, bows and arrows had gathered. I followed Mr Nambiar to the crime scene and we could see a young lady sitting on the ground looking lost. Seeing us, she got up and narrated the incident. It was around 7:00 pm and she was standing in her compound talking to her neighbor. Her kid, a 3 year old boy was playing right beside her. All of a sudden she saw the clothes that she had hung to dry, move wildly, and she went to inspect why they were moving because there was not much wind. She moved the clothes to one side, and then she saw a big male Tiger walking past the clothes, towards the cattle pen. Picking up her boy, she ran inside the house, locked the door and started screaming at the top of her voice. She could, from the open window see the Tiger moving towards the cattle pen and on reaching the pen, it took a swipe at the door with its massive paw, tearing the bamboo door into shreds. The next sound she heard was the neck of the cow breaking and then there was silence for a few seconds. Unfortunately, the calf of the now-dead-cow was also in the pen and the calf panicked and started bellowing. The Tiger jumped on the calf and broke its neck like a twig, all this in full view of the petrified mother and child behind the bamboo walls of their hut!
Hearing this commotion, the tribesmen came with fire-torches, bows and arrows, they started throwing stones and rocks at the pen to distract the Tiger, which they successfully managed to do. The cat disappeared back into the darkness leaving behind 2 dead cows, but not before pausing at the entrance of the pen and taking a good look at the men, who by now fled back to safety.
Pictures are not for the fainthearted?
While we were standing there waiting for the forest officials to come, the Tiger decided to show its displeasure by emitting the most thunderous roars one could imagine. Clearly, he was hungry and angry. A large fire was quickly lit in the middle of the compound to deter the Tiger from coming back, and the crowd huddled together with the spears and arrows at the ready. The Tiger kept calling at regular intervals and it was clear that the cat was circling the tribal colony where all of us stood petrified. After an hour or so, the calls stopped and by that time the forest officials had come to face the ire of the tribals. After much deliberation, it was decided that a cage be erected and to tempt the Tiger, with the calf?s body placed inside the cage. A plan was quickly hatched, the cage was bought in from the range office and by 1:00 am the cage was in place with the body of the calf placed inside it.
Now we all knew that it was very unlikely that the Tiger would visit the colony once again, especially after the disturbance that had ensued, but for the lack of a better option, the cage was erected close to the colony. Then started the waiting game. I remember sitting in the open veranda/balcony of one of the tribal huts facing the cage which was perhaps 80 meters or so away. I wasn’t alone, was accompanied by a forest guard and a tribal man with bows and arrows for protection. We decided to take turns in keeping vigil, but none of us slept for the first 2 hours. Soon the chill set in and before we realized, the three of us were fast asleep.
I remember walking up with a jolt to the sound of the metal door clanging against the cage. Something was trapped inside the cage! Surely, it can’t be the Tiger or was it?! It was around 4:00 am and we didn’t want to shine the torch, nor did we want to go to the cage. We decided to wait it out till it was bright enough for us to go and check. The three of us didn’t sleep much after that and at the break of dawn, we went to investigate why the trap had sprung. To our disbelief, there was the famed cattle lifter of Thirunelli trapped inside the green metal cage. He was not happy seeing us and started charging us from within the cage, only to be stopped by the metal bars. We didn’t want the Tiger to hurt himself and so retreated back to the tribal hut and informed the forest department about the catch.
By 6:00 am, the forest officers came and tranquilized the cat. The cage was opened and it was noticed that the Tiger had actually ate almost the entire calf which must have weighed at least 40 kg! On closer inspection, it was evident that the Tiger was an old male, well past his prime and its canines were worn out and it also had a festering sore on its front paw. The age, combined with the worn off teeth and the injury was the reason as to why it couldn’t hunt its normal prey such the Chital or the Sambar deer. It had turned its attention to easier prey such as cattle. This was the 14th cow that he had killed in Thirunelli area and he would hunt in these jungles no more, as he was transported to another forest range a few hundred kilometers away where I am sure, he’d be up to his old tricks.
An interesting adventure from the jungles of Wayanad.
Anil
