The lure of the forest

 

The lure of the forest, once it enters into the blood stream of a person lasts till the end of his life. The love is so enduring and powerful, that each time he visits the forest, it leaves him invigorated in health and spirit, soothing the tensed nerves giving peace and contentment to the tired, jaded mind, refreshing the entire body and moral fibre of the living being. The embrace of the forest is like the loving patting of a mother.

I too was bitten by the bug of desire to be with the nature in the wild as also reading about the explores written by the famous wildlife enthusiasts like Raja Yadvendra Dutt, Jim Corbett, Kenneth Anderson and the like.

I give below an excerpt from the book titled Tales of Shikar by Raja Yadvendra Dutt:

"Once under a full moon I was walking back to my my house in the forest. The Jungle was full of the sound of night insects and the periodical calls of the night jars when I heard snarls and grunts, as if two animals were fighting. I stopped in my tracks behind a tall teak tree. I looked around me to locate the cause of all the noise. On my left at a little distance of about 10 yards there was a small clearing shaped like an egg and it was bathed in moonlight. suddenly my heart missed beat, for before me 2 tigers were fighting snarling, hissing, swipping with their paws at each other trying to tear each other to pieces. A female just sat there facing the contestants looking as if she had no worry in the world, sometimes she licked her paws, sometimes she just yawned. The fight was deadly, both the contestants leaped, traded blow for blow. I stood rooted to the ground in fear and fascination for the strange and unique sight that I was seeing. Being lightly armed I was in no position to defend myself if any of the tigers had chosen to attack me. The roars, growls and snarls were deafening and the thud of paws striking flesh could easily be heard. The fight went on for quite a long time. Suddenly the contestants reared up on their hind legs snarled and lunged at each other. One of the antagonist who had either tired out or was weakend due to its wounds fell to the ground and the victor was on top of him snarling and hissing with anger. I thought now the victor would deliver his final bite on the throat of the vanished and clinch his victory, but nothing happened. The victor stood over his fallen enemy snarling and making passes at the throat of the fallen foe with his bared fangs. The beaten tiger lay still. After sometime the victor leaped aside from his fallen foe and the defeated tiger got up and ran away from the field of battle as fast as his legs could carry him into the depths of the forest to safety. At the departure of the defeated tiger the victor gave out a full throated roar of victory. In the stillness of forests the roar was shattering and ear splitting. The female who was all along watching the battle between the contestants got up and walked up to the victor purring like a contended cat, rubbed near her neck and body against victor, licked his wounds and made all those loving gestures which human beauties made to their loving knights. The male responded to the gestures of his lady love and licked her. Once his temper was cooled, the pair made some more love and slowly walked away into the depths of the forest to enjoy their romance. The vanished tiger had not been killed once he accepted defeat, and submitted to the victor by offering his neck to the victor."

Can this drama of fight for romance by tigers in the wild be any less enticing in trapping one's sensibilities than watching the cinematic picturisation of the fight between N.T.Rama Rao and Satyanarayana in "Vetagaadu" to win the hand of the screen beauty Sridevi?