ATTJC - Chapter 2

I could see the animal in my viewfinder as I sat crouched near a small pool of fresh water, right bang in the center of the cross section. At optimum zoom, the details looked sharper – I could see the whiskers on the left side of its face. Its coat of fur lush and beautifully colored. The stripes – yellowish orange, white and black – so rich and beautifully patterned. My father had said if you want a good shot you have to be patient and wait for the right moment. You may never get a second chance if you miss it. So I waited – not moving a muscle in my body. And surely, within a couple of minutes my knees – placed on a rocky surface – started to hurt. My back muscles became taut due to the tension in the position I had held on to. My hands became heavier and my palms grew sweaty. My eyes began to water as the animal slowly shifted upwards and out of focus and I feared I may lose this chance. The first of my life. I feared I may never get to shoot this animal again. And this thought itself strengthened my resolve. My back straightened and the animal again came perfectly in focus. But, even with this new found resolve I wasn’t sure how long will my body be able to hold on like this. Of course I could shoot the animal now. But that just won’t be good enough. So many things depended on me getting this one right. But, after 15 more minutes of diligent vigil, I could hold no longer. I decided to retreat, as inconspicuously as possible, so the animal wouldn’t be disturbed. Perhaps I would get a shot from some other position if it was unaware of my presence. I moved my right knee back an inch and at that instant the animal turned its head and looked at me. I froze where I was. No matter how much you are used to looking at tigers in their natural habitat, you couldn’t get used to this. The tiger was looking right at me and even though I was looking through the viewfinder, its eyes arrested me. The zoom which had provided me a breathtakingly detailed view of the tiger, was now frightening me because of the very same detailed view. But I knew this was the chance I had been waiting for for last couple of months. I had been on the trail of this particular tiger for 2 months now. And here it was, resting in a pool of fresh water, having eaten its meal for the day. I steadied myself first – I had been shaking due to the unbearable tension in the whole body and with a bit of fear now added. And then after reassuring myself that I had the best possible view, I pressed the shutter release button. And my camera clicked with what seemed like a deafening noise. I held my pose for a couple of moments more, apprehensive and waiting for the animal’s reaction. But the tiger just turned its head away, seemingly uninterested – acting like a model who had posed for that perfect shot and now had no more interest in the camera or the cameraman, rather a cameragirl. I painstakingly made my way back, keeping my eyes fixed on the tiger until I bumped into the hunched figure of my father. He inquired with his eyes, did you get it? I nodded my ascent. A smile of triumph spread on his face as we carefully made our way back to the jeep.

Once safely inside the jeep and being driven away by my father my tiredness disappeared quickly. The excitement of having accomplished my task successfully surged through my body. “Baba, it was sooooo big. But I wasn’t scared at all. It had those biiig claws,” I demonstrated just how big with my hands, “And biiig dirty teeth like daggers. You know, it looked at me very menacingly but I didn’t budge, just like you.”

“Really? You are very brave! I am so proud of you!” He was smiling.

“Yes, I was very patient just as you had said. I waited for full 20 minutes. You know, I was crouching all the time with my knees placed on hard rocks.”

“Achcha!?” He interjected, showing his interest in my great adventure.

“Haa! And my knees were hurting very much. See I even got a scratch.” I pulled up the right leg of my pants up to my knee and showed him the tiny bit of coagulated blood. He turned his head for a moment to look at it. He then turned back to focus on his driving and with his left hand patted me to show he was proud.

“Are you hungry?” He asked.

Well, I was, now that he had mentioned it. And very tired as well. We had been out since morning, trying to track my first tiger down. We had been first made aware of our new friend’s arrival 4 months ago. My father had observed an unfamiliar set of pugmarks near our bungalow. He had immediately set out to know more about the animal which had made these. It was obvious that they were made by a tiger. But because of the hard land they were indistinct to know anything more about it. The tiger was young and inexperienced, so it had been fairly easy for my father to track it and ascertain that it wasn’t a menace to the residents living around. It was a male and when fully grown up would develop into a medium sized tiger. I wasn’t to know that, of course. After all it was the first tiger I had set my eyes upon and luckily it was in the wild and not in a zoo. Ever since his arrival in our neighborhood, I had been bugging my father to let me see him. So, once he had made sure that the tiger wasn’t dangerous to humans – comparatively, of course – he decided it was time to teach me about the ways of the jungle. My nanny – Aaji – didn’t take the suggestion well, though.

“She is barely 4 years old” she raged at my father. Nobody could talk to my father like she did. She had been his nanny, too. “I am not going to allow you to take her in the woods. She has barely started going to school. And it’s not like you are taking her out on an elephant ride; you are taking her along to track a TIGER! You know it better than anyone else how dangerous those animals can be.”

“Aaji,” father was still trying to placate her, “This one is harmless. He is not a man eater. He is not going to hurt her. And considering the area where we live, she would be better off knowing about these woods. And this is the time to learn, no? Before she gets busy with her academics.” My father signaled me making sure Aaji didn’t see it. I understood what he wanted.

“You are not going to convince me. I may have become old and you might have grown up to be your own man, but I am not letting you take her.” She just turned her back and sat down with her potatoes and a peeler. I went to her and snuggled up in her lap – as my father had signaled. This was a sure shot way to mellow her down.

“Aaji, aajiii, please let me go” I sweetened my voice as much as I could.

“Aaji, please” my father joined in, “I promise she will be safe.”

We continued pleading until it built up a bit of a frenzy. She had to shout to make us stop. “All right, all right – stop it you two. Both of you are impossible. Fine you can take her out in the woods. But 2 months, that’s it. If you don’t find the tiger in that time you will have to give up. Agreed?”

“Agreed.” Both of us replied.

And so we began searching for the tiger. We first went over the areas that the tiger was known to visit frequently. We found his pugmarks near some of them and we tried to follow the freshest set among them. At first it was a hit and miss thing for me as I couldn’t make out which set of marks was fresher than the others. My father would just let me do the thing and stood back while I was at it. He would just make sure that I didn’t lose my interest. As soon as I got bored, he would put up a question and guide me through my own answers. For the first couple of days I used to follow any set of pugmarks I came across. When some of them led me nowhere, my father asked me – are you sure this is the right set of pugmarks? I pondered over the question. I had never thought on such lines before. I told him I am not sure and asked him how to identify the correct set. And he told me that it is virtually impossible to uniquely identify a tiger based on its pugmarks unless you are aware of some special characteristics. He said because there is only one tiger in this area we could be sure we were following the right marks. And he encouraged me to look at the marks and tell him if I could find anything peculiar. I crouched besides a well formed set of marks. I couldn’t see anything noticeable. My father told me to look carefully at the hind limb marks. And surely, as I walked along the path the tiger had taken, I noticed that his hind limb marks weren’t well formed. They weren’t as round as its fore limb marks were. They were slightly elongated. I told my father what I had seen. And he clapped me on my back and told me I was absolutely right. Then he asked me why would the marks be in such a way? I again thought a lot but couldn’t point out any reason. He said it was so because the tiger dragged its hind limbs while moving and he demonstrated it to me.

Then he told me how to identify the pugmarks which were fresher. The fresher the pugmarks, the sharper they are. It also depended on the atmospheric conditions and the kind of surface on which the marks were made. If there was not much wind or rain or any other disturbing factor and the surface was soft the pugmarks could retain their characteristics for longer – even a week. Otherwise they could become vague even in a few hours. The correct estimation will come with experience, he said. For the moment, he added, he would be glad to assist so long as I asked the right question. I continued following the pugmarks on the soft surface. We were walking along a small footpath created by the frequent travelers through those woods. And then the marks vanished abruptly. I frowned and looked up at my father with questioning eyes. Then he explained some of the deductive detective work that‘s required in tracking the pugmarks. He said it was obvious that the tiger couldn’t have flown away. Also, the surface remained the same so there was no reason for the pugmarks not to be there. Then there were no trees close enough for the tiger to have climbed. Here he made a separate remark that tigers don’t usually climb trees but it wasn’t a completely unknown behavior among them. Some of them had indeed been captured on the camera climbing trees. Coming back to the task at hand, he asked me if I had observed that the tiger was moving across the path and not along it. Also, the fact that last observable pugmark was near the edge of the footpath. And I understood what he wanted to say. The tiger’s next step must have been on the grassy plane that surrounded the footpath. But how can I see any pugmarks on the lush grass? Look closely, my father said. So I looked and after a moment or two I spotted that some of the grass wasn’t even, their tips were bent and in some case they were broken. It was like somebody had trodden them. And these patches of grass made a neat trail to follow. Was that what he wanted me to observe? Yes, he beamed. And so we followed these new marks until they lead us into a shrubbery of bushes. The foliage was so dense that there was no way we could have followed the trail. My father duly chimed in, sometimes I will need to use the knowledge of the terrain, he said. That’s why I should know the jungle very well, also to be able to take any advantage that it may offer. Here, what he knew was beyond this foliage is a small pool of fresh water. The tiger was headed in this direction probably to drink some water or rest in the pool to avoid flies. We could find him there right now, I exclaimed. We could, but it was very unlikely, father said. These pugmarks were made yesterday, so we could have found him resting there yesterday. It was highly unlikely that the tiger would still be there now. And as it turned out, he was right. On the brighter side though, we found the tiger’s pugmarks leaving the pool. These pugmarks led into another foliage on the opposite bank and when we rounded the foliage to check up on the plane beyond, there was no sign of the tiger. The plane which we were looking up wasn’t a grassland as the previous one was. It was hard land where the pugmarks could be traced only if made very recently. I looked up at my father for another piece of information to lead me through and continue on the trail. He wore a frown and stooped down to examine the ground closely. Then he walked around a bit still examining the spot. Then he just shrugged his shoulders and said it looked like a dead end. So we moved on to the other spots and other dead ends.

And so we went to the woods everyday looking for the tiger. And I learnt many other things from my father. He told me that you can detect the presence of a carnivore not only by following a trail but also by the reactions of the jungle folk. Alarm and scare calls of animals like sambar, chital, bluebull, chinkara, langur or even Peacock provide clues to the exact location of the carnivore. Also, the edges of the roads will have scats, droppings, of tigers and their scrape marks, which are also indicators of the freshness of their presence. He told me that many a times you need to pause, listen and assess the clues that the forest provides about the tiger’s presence. Another common method of locating a carnivore and the tiger in particular is locating its last kill. Usually a kill will last for 2 or 3 meals and the tiger will keep coming back to it when hungry. That’s why the tiger after making a kill prefers to carry it to a secluded spot where it can not only eat in peace but also keep the kill away from other scavengers. So, if you are able to locate a kill, you can sit over it and wait for the tiger to make an appearance. If it intends to come back, it is usually within 2-3 days of the killing. Crows on a tree are good indicators of meat nearby and provide clues to a kill. Alternately, he said, you can also look for low flying vultures especially if they are dropping down at a particular spot. Is it too much, he asks as I yawn. No, I am emphatic in my response. He smiles but stops talking anyway as I sleep peacefully after another hard day’s work.

On another day he tells me that sometimes people think tigers are lazy. That is mostly because tigers spend most of their time resting. But it is a misconception, he adds. They spend time resting because they need a lot of energy while hunting. Tigers usually eat once or twice in many days, so they are just preserving their energy when they are not hunting. And the tigers usually rest under a tree trunk or in a pool of fresh water – to avoid flies, I complete his sentence. He also tells me that tigers declare a specific area as their own by urinating on the trees that form the border of that area. Their urine has a strong offensive odor which tells other tigers to stay away from this area. Also, tigers kill only when they are hungry. Do they eat us too, I ask. He says not under normal circumstances. Tigers attack humans only when they are disturbed while they are eating or during their mating season and when they become man eaters. What is a mating season I ask? He chuckles and says that I will know it in time. And why do they become man eaters? He pauses before answering. Sometimes when they get injured due to some reason, they are no longer able to hunt their prey down. At such times they find that killing humans is much easier than killing other animals who are faster and have better survival instinct. So, they become man eaters. Another reason has come to light, he continues. We have a tradition of burning the body once the person is dead. In some villages in the jungles, you have to walk a lot to get to the spot where these rituals take place. So when an epidemic hits such villages, the people die faster than their bodies could be disposed of. So what the village folk do is they put a burning coal inside the mouth of the dead body and dispose of it over a nearby hill or a river. If a tiger who hasn’t eaten in a while finds this body it obviously uses it for its meal. And it develops a taste for human flesh. One thing to note here is that tigers are very brave and usually aren’t scavengers. But sometimes they do resort to eating someone else’s kill or in this case an already dead person. There were also some cases where a tiger accidently killed a human and developed a taste for human flesh. But a man eating tiger is very rare, he assures me. Was this one, a man eater? Of course not, he answers, he wouldn’t be letting me see it if it was.

On one occasion he asks me if he didn’t tell me where to look for the pugmarks, where will I start? I think. I recite all the things he has told me about tigers. And then to him, I say, I will try and look for its latest kill. Bravo! I can tell he is very happy. And what if you don’t find it? I think some more. Then I say, I will look near water or places a tiger might be resting. My father is so happy he actually lifts me up and gives me a kiss on my cheek. I act disgusted and wipe it away with my hands. What’s such a big deal, it was easy, I think.

But, despite all our expertise we haven’t been able to find the tiger and our deadline is fast approaching – Aaji points out. After seeing how hard I had been working and how badly I wanted to complete the task, she was now beginning to worry that I might not make it. And that it may dampen my enthusiasm. But she need not have worried. Because, on the last day of our deadline – like a scripted film – we found a dead Sambhar. It was partially eaten and made a very horrible site. My father asked me if I was alright. I gave him the thumbs up. Although the sight was a bit disgusting and initially my stomach did churn, it wasn’t unbearable for me. There were fresh pugmarks starting near the dead Sambhar and leading up to the pool of water where we eventually found the tiger. The Sambhar was killed a couple of kilometers away to the south from where we had found its body. We had actually chanced upon some pugmarks along with the blood and drag marks forming a neat trail across the woods. My father bent down near the kill and pointed out its neck to me. He said the tiger carried the Sambhar here by holding its neck in his mouth. I couldn’t see the kill properly due to the swarming flies around it, so I moved forward to get a closer look. And I could clearly see the teeth mark on the Sambhar’s neck. Sometimes, my father said, the tiger will carry its kill by the neck and other times by its back. Then we paid attention to the pugmarks, we followed them and as we reached nearer to the pool, my father asked me to wait near a tree while he checked the pool. He then crawled on all fours towards the pool making sure that he was concealed from the view by a thick shrub. He crawled till he reached the end of the shrub and poked his head out of it. Then immediately backed out and told me in a low voice that the tiger was there, resting. He asked me to go ahead and take a picture. And he asked me to wait a while till I was sure I couldn’t get a better picture. So – with a camera hanging around my neck – I followed his lead and crawled towards the pool. As soon as I reached the shrub and poked to look, I saw the tiger resting peacefully in the water. But there were still a few grass blades obstructing the clear view. So I moved forward until I was practically out of the shrub. Then I lifted my hands to hold the camera and sat ready to take the photograph, for which the tiger posed very graciously.

“Well,” father’s voice brought me out of my reverie, “Now that you have seen your first tiger, would you like to name him?”

“It is a ‘he’? How did you know?” I was incredulous that he hadn’t already told me that it was a boy tiger.

“Well, for starters his pugmarks are rounder and well formed. And then there are other ways to tell as well. And,” he continued before I interfered, “I will tell about them later.”

“OK.” I thought for a while, “How about Tommy?”

“He is not a dog! Think about another one.”

“Then how about Siddharth? He looked so calm and peaceful.”

“Hmm, that is a good one. Fine then, we will call him Siddharth.”

When we finally reached home, Aaji was so proud of me. She said she would take me out for an ice cream later in the evening. After we had eaten, father took the camera to develop the photograph I had captured. And when he brought the photograph up after a couple of hours, he said, “This is one of the best pictures of a tiger in the wild that I have seen, no kidding.”

“Then what about the bicycle you had promised if I managed a good photograph?” I asked.

“Of course, sweety. You know I always keep my word. We will go shopping tomorrow.”

That day I ate a Vanilla and a Mango and then had some of the butterscotch we had ordered for Aaji. And then I slept proud and contented. I knew my father always kept his word.