this is a real life incident that happened on a tea estate in assam, where many a planter will be able to share many such real life episodes. this is true because even my husband had come across young tiger cubs in the forest surrounding the first estate he had joined in dhekiajulie. i too have sighted many a wild animal during my 6yr stay on various tea estates, in south india and the north east of india.
once a young tea planter found an abandoned tiger cub when he was on a round of the tea estate. the managers in charge of the field(tea estate) have to keep taking rounds of the estate to check on plucking of tea leaves, stray cattle, encroaching wild animals etc. though i always felt it is we humans who encroached on the natural habitat of the animals. life on an estate is never dull as there is something unusual happening all the time and of course in assam the insurgency added an element of fear too.
the young planter looked for the mother of the cub and took it home as he could find no trace of the mother, neither did he find any other siblings of the small cub. he did this as there are packs of wild dogs moving around and they are vicious. i once saw these dogs and they gave me an eerie feeling even though i was in a jeep.
the planter let the cub have free reign of his house and instructed the bungalow help to feed the cub at regular intervals. every evening when he came home, he would play a bit with the cub, and pet and kiss it's forehead.
this became a daily routine and with time the cub would wait at the upper floor window. many tea bungalows are built on stilts, so he would climb up the stairs and go pet the cub which was growing up fast. this unusual pet of this planter was the talk of many parties and gatherings, so people kept getting updates on the cute antics of the cub.
soon a day came when the cub became a mature tigress, the bungalow help were a little worried about the food and the tigress now. soon it started to go out into the jungle for days on end, but when ever the planter saw the tigress, he would never fail to pet it like he used to. once when he saw the tigress after a gap of a few days, he was happy to sight it and went and pet it like always, though he found it a bit strange to see it on the ground in the porch. he went up to the verandah upstairs.... and got the shock of his life..... there was a tigress sitting in its usual spot......and for the first time he was scared and i guess the animal too sensed his fear and strange withdrawal. that was the last time the tigress was sighted by the young planter.
it is difficult to distinguish at a quick glance if it is a tigress or a tiger ....specially if they are seated, and so the planter got confused as to whether he had petted his pet or had he pet a fully grown male tiger!!!!! the saving grace being animals never kill unless hungry and i always wondered at why the tigress never came back after that incident. did it know it was time to move on? or did it sense the fear in its human friend for the first time? ....questions that will never be answered,
i too used to go for walks on the estate in assam but it was irritating that i was never allowed to go alone for my walks, unless i did it without informing anyone. if i asked my husband permission he would insist i take the maid along. i loved to go for walks alone and did so sometimes as the estate we were staying on was so beautifull, the manager had planted wild flowers all along the estate near the tea bushes. some of the other executives kept telling me about sighting a tiger, but i used to think they were joking or pulling my leg as a lot of that too went on, specially because i was from the city and had never experienced rural life ever before. i stopped going for walks the day the manager sent a warning to all the people on the estate, of having sighted a tiger on the estate...... how i missed my walks from then on !!!!
once a young tea planter found an abandoned tiger cub when he was on a round of the tea estate. the managers in charge of the field(tea estate) have to keep taking rounds of the estate to check on plucking of tea leaves, stray cattle, encroaching wild animals etc. though i always felt it is we humans who encroached on the natural habitat of the animals. life on an estate is never dull as there is something unusual happening all the time and of course in assam the insurgency added an element of fear too.
the young planter looked for the mother of the cub and took it home as he could find no trace of the mother, neither did he find any other siblings of the small cub. he did this as there are packs of wild dogs moving around and they are vicious. i once saw these dogs and they gave me an eerie feeling even though i was in a jeep.
the planter let the cub have free reign of his house and instructed the bungalow help to feed the cub at regular intervals. every evening when he came home, he would play a bit with the cub, and pet and kiss it's forehead.
this became a daily routine and with time the cub would wait at the upper floor window. many tea bungalows are built on stilts, so he would climb up the stairs and go pet the cub which was growing up fast. this unusual pet of this planter was the talk of many parties and gatherings, so people kept getting updates on the cute antics of the cub.
soon a day came when the cub became a mature tigress, the bungalow help were a little worried about the food and the tigress now. soon it started to go out into the jungle for days on end, but when ever the planter saw the tigress, he would never fail to pet it like he used to. once when he saw the tigress after a gap of a few days, he was happy to sight it and went and pet it like always, though he found it a bit strange to see it on the ground in the porch. he went up to the verandah upstairs.... and got the shock of his life..... there was a tigress sitting in its usual spot......and for the first time he was scared and i guess the animal too sensed his fear and strange withdrawal. that was the last time the tigress was sighted by the young planter.
it is difficult to distinguish at a quick glance if it is a tigress or a tiger ....specially if they are seated, and so the planter got confused as to whether he had petted his pet or had he pet a fully grown male tiger!!!!! the saving grace being animals never kill unless hungry and i always wondered at why the tigress never came back after that incident. did it know it was time to move on? or did it sense the fear in its human friend for the first time? ....questions that will never be answered,
i too used to go for walks on the estate in assam but it was irritating that i was never allowed to go alone for my walks, unless i did it without informing anyone. if i asked my husband permission he would insist i take the maid along. i loved to go for walks alone and did so sometimes as the estate we were staying on was so beautifull, the manager had planted wild flowers all along the estate near the tea bushes. some of the other executives kept telling me about sighting a tiger, but i used to think they were joking or pulling my leg as a lot of that too went on, specially because i was from the city and had never experienced rural life ever before. i stopped going for walks the day the manager sent a warning to all the people on the estate, of having sighted a tiger on the estate...... how i missed my walks from then on !!!!
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