Taming the wild: Incidents that leave one a little in awe

I'm delighted to welcome Kiran K Mehra ( better known as KK ) to Indian Chai Stories. You will enjoy these tales that KK has chosen to share with all of us.

North East India - mainly Assam and West Bengal - is home to large tracts of tea. The region produces more than 900 million kilograms of tea annually amounting to eighty percent of national production. As a geographical location, the region produces, perhaps, more tea than any other place in the world.

Tea, which is native to China, wasn’t always cultivated in these parts. The earliest known incidents of tea cultivation were when 1) Charles Bruce cultivated an indigenous variety of tea, native to Assam, discovered at Sadiya circa 1837 and 2) Archibald Campbell introduced the Chinese variety of tea via Kumaon to Darjeeling in 1841.

Prior to that the entire area that houses the tea industry in North East India was dense tropical and sub-tropical forest. The establishment of tea plantations meant that vast tracts of forest were cleared. In so doing natural habitats of wild life were severely disturbed, resulting in man/wild-life conflict that manifests to this day.

At the same time several incidents of man befriending beasts in the wild, and taking them as pets, are known; poignant and often interesting relationships developed. I will try and narrate a few that I’ve heard. Names of people involved may not always be authentic as my account, too, is hearsay. And sometimes memory has a habit of playing tricks.

Betsy: the elephant

Young Ted, recently arrived from “Blighty, is the protagonist of my first story. Young and eager for adventure he had set out. to make a life for himself in the tea plantations of North East India, some of which were owned by his family.

Ted was also the nephew of a revered Director in the Company’s Offices in Glasgow. And therefore he ended up being treated with kid-gloves by everyone in the Company. The Calcutta office where he arrived after travelling cross-country from Bombay took due care. And eventually after a period of acclimatisation to India, he was posted to Kumargram, an estate in the Jainti Sankos sub-district of the Dooars; so chosen because of its proximity to dense forests, remoteness and difficult access that would enable Ted to engage in the adventure he yearned for.

Travel to Kumargram after reaching North Bengal in those days involved several river crossings by ferry – bridges on the Himalayan rivers/streams that flow in the region were yet to come up. The Teesta needed to be crossed at Jalpaiguri; followed by the Dudhwa, the Torsa and the Rydak in that order before reaching Kumargram. The estate lay in the Eastern Dooars close to the foothills of Bhutan, not far from the banks of the Sankos which formed the border with Assam.

Upon arrival, Ted loved his surroundings. The estate was a carpet of green with a view of the blue hills in Bhutan. In close proximity were the Rydak and Buxa forests which were teeming with wild life. And there was the attraction of angling in the fresh waters of the swift Rydak. The Sankos, too, afforded fishing but in deeper waters. So all in all Ted settled in quickly and went about exploring his neighbourhood.

Months went by; young Ted was having a whale of a time indulging in activity that at home he had had little opportunity to. In time, he became particularly fond of wildlife and acquired a few unusual pets; apart from the usual dogs and cats, his menagerie included parakeets, mynahs, a couple of rhesus monkeys, and a prize elephant which was named Betsy.

Time and energy spent on looking after his pets left him too busy to attend to his duties as the Assistant on Kumargram. He got away with it because of connections in Glasgow ; but eventually the lack of attention at the work-site began to show.

The Manager of the estate doubled up for his not so attentive Assistant for a while, but eventually asked the Calcutta office for a replacement.

Calcutta in its wisdom decided in turn, to transfer Ted to the Hantapara estate. Situated a 60 odd miles to the West, Hantapara lay close to the Bhutan border and on the edges of the lovely Titi forest. The usual mode of transport for members of staff on transfer within the Company’s estates was by lorry sent by the estate where the staff was to be posted. On a scheduled day a lorry would arrive collect the chota sahib and his "jiti miti" – colloquial for belongings.

Given the state of his menagerie, young Ted refused to travel by lorry – he was loath to leave any of his pets behind. Instead he decided to travel on elephant back with his jiti miti in tow.

And thus one fine day Ted left on posting, astride Betty, for his new destination. The journey west was through dense forest and involved several river crossings; Ted was confident that he would make it . The journey of 60 odd miles, considering that he was on elephant back - with a servant in tow - should ordinarily have taken three to four days. Yet a week later, there was no sign of the young man at Hantapara. A search party was sent out only to return empty handed; two weeks later the same situation prevailed . A worried Calcutta office now informed the uncle in Glasgow. More searches availed no result. It was as if the forest had swallowed young Ted.

One afternoon more than a month later, there was sudden excitement on the edges of the forest bordering Hantapara; a deeply dishevelled young man emerged on elephant back, his menagerie intact!

Two men astride an elephant along with a few suitcases, a pair of monkeys, several parakeets and talking mynahs was, even in those days, a curiously strange sight. And novelties draw people !

A crowd led by an elephant with people astride greeted the Manager of Hantapara when he stepped out of his office upon hearing the commotion .

Realising that finally the missing Ted had arrived, he greeted the young man, feeling relieved at the sight of him, and enquired, “What happened ?”

"I decided to pitch camp deep in the forest when Betsy went into labour and stayed put till she had recovered sufficiently," was the simple explanation.

A little calf following the mother playfully had, hitherto, gone unnoticed !!

Sheroo in the 1960s

Image from dreamstime

Dumchipara is an estate neighbouring Hantapara – the two estates share a boundary. Towards the east, Hantapara is bound by the Titi river, across which lies the dense Titi forest. On its Southern fringes Dumchipara shares a boundary with the dense Rahimabad Forest Reserve.

Forests apart, both estates were well-endowed with afforested areas of their own. Large ‘Saal’, bamboo & thatch 'Barrie's ( a Barrie is colloquial for ‘house of’ ) were maintained by the management to take care of their own needs of such produce as well as to address environmental concerns. And of course, the tea cover at both the estates was luscious.

In such an environment, as prevailing in the 1960s, both the estates abounded in a rich diversity of flora and fauna. It was not uncommon to encounter rare bird species like hornbills, bald-headed eagles, flocks of myriad coloured parakeets, mynahs and spotted doves whilst going round the estate during the day. Excursions at night would invariably result in sightings of owls, giant sized bats, pachyderms, deer, wild boar and on not so rare occasions carnivorous cats.

A planter, during the course of a work day, apart from supervising gangs of labour is required occasionally to visit the afforested areas of the estate. Our protagonist, a young man named Mani, while holding charge of one of Dumchipara’s three divisions, would go around routinely doing his work. He had a flair for wildlife and considered himself fortunate to be working in idyllic surroundings.

Going around the estate's Bamboo Barrie one day, Mani was taken aback when a pair of leopard cubs darted in front, just as he approached a dense thicket. He hesitated, nay almost retreated entirely, fearing that the mother would be close by. But before he could, one of the cubs came back and looked up curiously, its big round eyes innocently trusting! In one sweeping movement, overcome by a surge of emotion, wildlife enthusiast that he was, Mani grabbed the cub & dashed out; not once looking back for fear that the enraged mother would attack. He stopped only after reaching his bungalow, the Beech Kothi or middle bungalow.

To rear the cub, Mani, helped by staff at home, bottle fed the creature which took to it after some hesitation. Duly acclimatised in human surroundings, “Sheru” as it was named, the leopard started to do well; graduating from cow’s milk to buffalo meat. In time he began to grow and soon outgrew the largest dog in the vicinity; a good two and a half feet tall and weighing a 100 lbs., Sheru had a presence !!

But for all intents and purposes Mani treated him as a house pet; free to roam around the front and back-yard during the day and kept securely inside at night.

One evening returning home late, after dinner with a friend, a slightly inebriated Mani was more than a little surprised then, to see Sheru sitting on the verandah, as he parked the car in the porch. Getting out he casually walked up to the animal, kicked his rump and said “ Ay saala tum yahan kya karta hai “ meaning “You silly mutt, what are you doing here ?”

With that he opened the front door, walked past the living room and. into the bedroom.

Dumb-struck, he was, when it dawned on him that Sheru was fast asleep on the couch!!

Realisation dawned in a flash – moments ago, the leopard he had seen on the verandah, was in fact, not Sheru at all! A trembling Mani, by now perfectly sober, fainted !!

Dhan Singh, the bungalow chowkidar ( watchman) explained in the morning that a wild leopard often sat on the verandah in the wee hours, awaiting, perhaps, the return of a sibling !!

Sherru at Lankapara - the 1980s

Pic above is representative only

The Northern boundaries of Lankapara Tea Estate forms the international boundary between Bhutan and India. The Titi Khola (river) with its source in Bhutan, a few kilometres upstream, forms the Eastern boundary of the estate; on the other bank of the river is the massive Titi Khola forest which merges into the larger Hollong Forest Sanctuary. The forest is rich in wild life; monkeys, lemurs, jackals, deer, elephants, leopards, wild boar, bison and even the rhinoceros ( only towards its Southern side ) form part of the fauna that make this wilderness its home.

Tea gardens that lie in close proximity are often witness to the shy creatures of the forest that cross over sometimes: looking for food, shelter or just because tea happens to have come up in their habitat.

Residents of Lankapara’s East line being closest to the forest had become accustomed to wild creatures as part of their lives; they, for instance, knew that a certain part of the sprawling tea area in their neighbourhood, resplendent in ground cover, was used by a leopardess to litter every year. This, whenever it happened was a time to be cautious - both because the animal felt threatened easily; and also because it hunted for food in the nearby labour lines - making livestock ( dogs,goats, cattle etc.) its prey.

By experience villagers in East Line had learnt that 1) attacks occur when they ventured close to the litter site; so that was to be avoided. And 2) the leopardess would forage for a kill at dusk when life in the village was lulled by laziness at day's end; and a straggler amongst goat or cattle, was easy pickings. To minimise the possibility, villagers found the tactic of bursting crackers at dusk close to the labour line useful. This kept the beast at bay most often.

In 1985 a young assistant named SK Santosh , a novice in tea , was posted to Lankapara on probation. The East division or Sarani division as it was also called became his charge.

Hailing from Kerala and new to tea, Santosh had served in the Indian Army for five years before tea ; an officer with the 4th Gorkha Rifles, Capt. SK Santosh was at home immediately with Lankapara’s mainly Nepali speaking labour force. The language skills that he displayed along with the the aura of having served in one of the crack regiments of the army made him instantly at home with the labour.

So it was that one day when workers stumbled upon a leopard cub lost in the tea they realised that the commotion caused by bursting crackers had somehow separated the cub from its mother. Not knowing what to do they took the little thing to Capt. Santosh (remember this was 1985; all sorts of curbs under the Wild Life Act were in place; penalties were heavy and Santosh a new-found hero. )

Having come into possession of this helpless creature quite by accident, Santosh, an amateur wild life enthusiast, fell immediately in love with it and decided to rear it as a pet. He was either ignorant of prevalent wildlife laws, or in his eagerness he decided to ignore them.

And so it was that Sherru, as the leopard was called , became a part of Santosh’s household. At this stage, no bigger than a small kitten, Sherru was a cuddly little ball of fur, grey in colour, that would happily roam all over the living and bed-rooms of the house making a mess of rugs, shoes and anything that came its way. It had teeth which were more like sharp fish bones and tongue that was like soft sand-paper. It couldn’t feed itself and had to be trained to bottle feed.

A couple weeks later spots appeared and the coat turned a bright yellow. It also displayed an amazing ability to catch any thing that was thrown up in the air: friends of Santosh would make a game out of tossing a paper ball four to five feet high ; the kitten sized Sherru would catch the ball mid-air in a flash giving proof of its natural hunting instincts.

With time, a growing Sherru made transition to solid foods. The hat bazaar in Lankapara ( weekly market ) was the source of buffalo meat for Sherru . A large quantity was purchased on  hat day and refrigerated for the weeks consumption. There was no room for anything else that Santosh may have wanted to store for himself.

Growing rapidly Sherru soon became about two feet high; at this stage the front paws had become strong with curled claws developing, which when open, could slice through human flesh like a blade. For the paper-ball trick Santosh would place a ball of paper 10 feet high on the shelf meant for music speakers . A leap from a stationary Sherru was all it took to get it down . With a little more time Santosh’s two bedroom bungalow was too small for Sherru despite removing furniture from the living, dining and spare bed-rooms. It was hence time for Sherru to be let out in the bungalow compound while Santosh was at work. It would happily prance around making itself a spectacle for passers by . But then came a stage that the mere sight of the animal would scare people.

And not content with its new found freedom in the confines of the bungalow Sherru began to cross the fence into the tea area outside where it would be camouflaged. Yet totally incapable of a kill or survival on its own it would return at meal times or as soon as it heard Santosh’s motor bike return from work. The animal was totally loyal to its master and obeyed every command. Santosh and Sherru ( now much bigger ) would wrestle on the carpet with gay abandon play fully . And yet a Sherru that was hardly a cub anymore was scary to every body around.

Somewhere around this time Sherru took to following Santosh to work. It was amazing to see Santosh riding a ‘Bullet’ motorcycle on ‘kutcha’ roads in the estate and Sherru following; not on the road, but inside the tea, protected by the cover that bushes provided. Its head would pop up , every few meters – to check bearings, perhaps, till it broke cover right next to where the motorbike rider had reached. Sherru’s instinctive behaviour to be able to follow, at great speed, unobtrusively, gives an insight into how leopards in the wild follow and hunt prey with speed, cunning, and unmatched agility!!

It was not long after that the forest department got wind of Sherru ! And they wanted to take possession of the animal to retrain and eventually release it to the wild. 

Both Santosh and Sherru were upset; but there was little choice.

But when the forest vehicle rolled in with the cage Sherru, smelling foul play, ran away into the tea. A lot of coaxing and Santosh himself getting into the cage convinced Sherru that it was safe. And then too Santosh had to ride all the way to Madarihat leopard rescue centre in the cage to keep the animal quiet.

Life possibly settled for Sherru at the rescue center for a while; Santosh would visit the place every day after work. A few months later, another twist to the tale occurred, when Santosh got transferred to Bagracote - an estate which was a couple of hours away from Madarihat . His visits to the leopard rescue centre became weekly . At the same time Sherru was now kept in a large enclosure with a few others of his kind. Santosh, during visits, got access to this enclosure; he would happily spend time with Sherru even as the other cats accepted this man/feline inter-action.

Life had settled into a pattern for both Santosh and Sherru, for a while, till one fine day an attendant manning the enclosure left the entrance unlocked. Overnight all the felines ( Sherru included ) escaped into the nearby forest. That was the last that was heard or seen of Sherru .

Amazingly, while all the other cats that escaped that night were eventually recovered; there was never any trace of Sherru. Santosh was approached by the wildlife authorities to help them retrieve the cat ; and even though sure that Sherru would return if he joined the search, Santosh declined - giving way to a sense, within himself, that Sheru deserved to roam the forests, that it was born to, emancipated and free.

One would never know whether Sherru survived his escape; & eventually learnt to live on his own in the wild ; and was able to find a mate to sire offspring or he became a victim of circumstances soon after escape.

I would like to think it was the former; either way a creature brought up with unending care and dedication by its master was lost. In the short spell of life that it shared with man, Sherru educated us about wild life behaviour in captivity, its ability to learn and in turn, demonstrate its natural in-born skills. Memories of that experience would be unique and incomparable. !!!

In closing the story of Sheru’s life l believe firmly that wild creatures are best left on their own, in their own environment & habitat to live and breathe free. A constant reiteration of the spirit of “BORN FREE” - 1966 film on the life of Elsa the Lioness, an orphaned lion cub raised to adulthood and released into the wilderness by Joy and George Adamson .

KKM.

Acknowledgments

1)Help received in the narration of events as above from my good friend and colleague Mr. J Varghese is gratefully acknowledged.

2). Post publication of this tale Capt. SK Santosh , the main protagonist , contacted me; interesting facets of Sheru’s life were pointed out by him. I have made corrections to the original, accordingly. And remain both indebted and grateful for his clarifications.

In his own words when he recently contacted me “ thank you very much for publishing this poignant true story which brought me to tears”.

Meet the writer: 

Kiran K Mehra

Retired planter living in Delhi ; interested in nature, travelling , gardening & golf . Dabble in poetry ; also write occasionally, narrating long forgotten incidents picked up/ experienced over a life-time in the plantations of North Bengal. 

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