Its little body was like the fiery flames coming from the fire in its eyes, those big yellow eyes, burning bright with fear and pain. They looked wounded, they looked hurt.
There was the tiger cub, lying on the ground, an alien to the world without its mother, lost and confused...
I could feel the pain seeping through me as i spotted it in the shade of a __ tree. I ran to it, wondering what was wrong. It didn't seem right that this young predator was so lifeless, so miserable. I called out to the others, and seeing the tone of my voice, they came immediately.
A couple of friends and I had decided to explore this forest over the weekend. It was a beautiful, green forest, untouched by the polluted hand of us humans. Well, except for these occasional times when people decided to camp out here. Atleast this was the opinion we were of before we saw the tiger cub.
Evidently, people were hunting, or rather, poaching, here. This motherless cub seemed only too young to be left alone and uncared for. Seeing us, it was rather frightened. It tried to stay away from us, something instinctive, of course, but to no use, because when James brought it a bowl of milk, it came back, hungry and tempted.
Our plan was to lure the cub towards our van. This we were going to do by placing food in bowls a few feet apart, creating a trail to our van just a few trees away. The cub was following the trail. It was hungry, craving for comfort, in this wild place where anything could happen, absolutely anything. Whoever thought that the mother of this cub would ever end up as a rug or decoration on a millionaire's wall? No one. Its just as crazy and unpredictable as things get!
When the cub was finally in the van's boot, I jumped in along with it and shut the door. James and Tina sat in the front seat, James in the driver's seat, and we zoomed away. The situation was tense; I was in a boot, with a carnivorous animal jumping around in fear beside me. I was trying to calm it down, to soothe it,being its sole comfort for now. I tried to run my fingers through its coarse, fiery fur. It wouldnt sit still. I tried locking it between my legs and holding its head tight... aah! Cold blood ran through my hand; the little creature bites! "What's wrong?", cried Tina from the front seat. "Oh, nothing!", I said. "It just bit me."
I guess that's how things go when you try to do something extremely brave like this. But somehow, there's a sense of satisfaction I received from that bite, as if it was a gesture of gratitude from the helpless creature. I ignored the seething pain and continued to stoke it. Perhaps the 'animals sixth sense' I have read so much about proved to be right then, because within a few minutes, I could hear it's silent snores and deep breathing. The tiger cub that had faced so much trauma was finally at ease.
I could feel the pain seeping through me as i spotted it in the shade of a __ tree. I ran to it, wondering what was wrong. It didn't seem right that this young predator was so lifeless, so miserable. I called out to the others, and seeing the tone of my voice, they came immediately.
A couple of friends and I had decided to explore this forest over the weekend. It was a beautiful, green forest, untouched by the polluted hand of us humans. Well, except for these occasional times when people decided to camp out here. Atleast this was the opinion we were of before we saw the tiger cub.
Evidently, people were hunting, or rather, poaching, here. This motherless cub seemed only too young to be left alone and uncared for. Seeing us, it was rather frightened. It tried to stay away from us, something instinctive, of course, but to no use, because when James brought it a bowl of milk, it came back, hungry and tempted.
Our plan was to lure the cub towards our van. This we were going to do by placing food in bowls a few feet apart, creating a trail to our van just a few trees away. The cub was following the trail. It was hungry, craving for comfort, in this wild place where anything could happen, absolutely anything. Whoever thought that the mother of this cub would ever end up as a rug or decoration on a millionaire's wall? No one. Its just as crazy and unpredictable as things get!
When the cub was finally in the van's boot, I jumped in along with it and shut the door. James and Tina sat in the front seat, James in the driver's seat, and we zoomed away. The situation was tense; I was in a boot, with a carnivorous animal jumping around in fear beside me. I was trying to calm it down, to soothe it,being its sole comfort for now. I tried to run my fingers through its coarse, fiery fur. It wouldnt sit still. I tried locking it between my legs and holding its head tight... aah! Cold blood ran through my hand; the little creature bites! "What's wrong?", cried Tina from the front seat. "Oh, nothing!", I said. "It just bit me."
I guess that's how things go when you try to do something extremely brave like this. But somehow, there's a sense of satisfaction I received from that bite, as if it was a gesture of gratitude from the helpless creature. I ignored the seething pain and continued to stoke it. Perhaps the 'animals sixth sense' I have read so much about proved to be right then, because within a few minutes, I could hear it's silent snores and deep breathing. The tiger cub that had faced so much trauma was finally at ease.
Nine months later, I will find myself sitting in a large truck, the cub now a young adolescent, sitting in a large, cold box behind us. We are driving away into the very same forest me met in so long ago. We could not take the risk of allowing a young, healthy (though hungry) adult tiger to live in our backyard. One thing I learnt is that the wild will always be the wild, the tame will remain the tame, and as for the humans, who are a crazy combination of both elements, we have the brains and are absolutely capable of changing ourselves, yet we are to egoistic to accept that we are wrong. And our ego may sometimes result in cruelty. Millions of little cubs are left clueless, homeless, and we watch helplessly. Not all of them receive help as easily as ours did. Some of them go the same way as their family, and some, who may just survive, don't because they are too frail and too nimble to take care of themselves.
We will be dropping off the animal when we reach the forest, and can only hope, that he will find his way out of all traps set by humans unlike us, so that our attempt at "Saving the tiger" will not be futile.
We will be dropping off the animal when we reach the forest, and can only hope, that he will find his way out of all traps set by humans unlike us, so that our attempt at "Saving the tiger" will not be futile.
We have reached. I look down at the white remains of a bite I acquired so long ago. I leave out a long sigh, and I know, he will be okay.
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