“Fearful Symmetry” : Has it become a thing of the past?

Sukalpa Dhar: Most people have very limited number of close friends where I am no exception. Arup Sengupta is one of them. Mountain attracts both of us. Do tigers live in this mountain? I asked Arup while we were out for trekking in a mountain on one sunny winter Sunday afternoon. He smiled and said you never know it might come out any time. My face turned pale as soon as I heard it. I said once upon a time many foxes dwelled in this mountain. We could hear the sounds of foxes from our warehouse down there in the town. Arup said not to worry. No such ferocious animal live here now. I felt much relaxed.

Suddenly, a coo of an unknown bird came to my ears. I asked can you recognise that sound. Which bird’s sound it is? he said it might be Dove. Arup is a detective story writer. He asked me, which are your favourite detective stories? ‘Feluda’ series by Satyajit Ray I replied. They are my favourite. I asked how difficult it is to weave a detective story together. He said it is not much difficult. You have already read ‘Feluda’. In the beginning the writer has to make the reader engaged deeply in the story by creating highly suspicious characters. In that situation the reader believes in playing the part of the detective and tries to find the culprit along with the detective of the story. Wow! Amazing I reiterated.

Are all tigers consumes human flesh? I asked. No, only a few of them consumes. All tigers are not man eaters. Usually a tiger doesn’t consume human meat. They consume the meet of deer and other animals which can be found in the forests. Sometimes due to injury by a gunshot or porcupine quills or some other factors the tiger becomes disable. So, they attack on humans for their food. Once they discover that the human beings are a much easy prey then wild animals the tigers lose their fear and aim the human beings for their food.

Possibly, they feel human meat is tastier than any other animal’s meat. Jim Corbett was a British hunter, tracker, naturalist and author who hunted many man-eaters in India. Jim Corbett wrote many books Some of them are : (i) ‘Man-Eaters of Kumaon’ (1944), (ii) ‘Jungle Stories’ (1935), (iii) ‘The Man-eating Leopard of Rudraprayag’ (1947), (iv) ‘My India’ (1952), (v) ‘Jungle Lore’ (1953), (vi) ‘Tree Tops’ (1955) and many others. This book gives a detailed account of the experiences that Jim Corbett had in the Kumaon region of India between 1900s to the 1930s. During this time he was hunting the man-eaters of Bengal and the Indian leopards. Often it is found that many people were killed by one single man-eater.

Mr. Sabyasachi Chakraborty, one of Tollywood’s most accomplished actors, is an avid wildlife photographer and a wildlife enthusiast too. He often packs his bags and heads off to the forest to capture the various aspects of nature. He participates in the wild life photography exhibitions held in Kolkata. His favourite grounds include Kanha National Park and Bandhavgarh National Park in Madhya Pradesh.

Many objects of nature are beautiful and dangerous at the same time and a tiger is no exception. A tiger is called a big cat. It is said that cats are tiger’s aunt. So a cat and a tiger share same traits among them. William Blake (1757 – 1827) the well known poet of English Literature wrote a poem on tiger glorifying the powerful animal. The name of the poem is ‘The Tyger’ (1794). This poem got published as a part of his ‘Songs of Experience’ (1794) collection. As innumerable tigers had already been killed by the human beings their population has declined steadily to a great extent. We should take care so that no more tigers are killed. Stop killing tigers unless it is a man eater. Not only poaching of tigers has to be stopped but their population growth is to be nurtured by creating conducive environment in the reserve parks.