21.7.2013 The Jangal Lores: Episide-2 Before about five years of his retirement, sometime around 1954, my father had purchased a one acre plot on the Itarsi Nagpur motor road and built a one room kachcha house (hut) there with verandahs each in front and the back. The area around the land was hilly and densely forested, but as the land was situated at the foot of the hill, it was quite fertile with black soil, and hence the place was (and still is) called Kalimitty. On its south-western side, just a few meters way, was a perennial nalla and beyond it were unbroken hill-range of the Satpuras. On the east there was vast open grassland with patches of agriculture fields and still half a kilometer away beyond the river Machna, an isolated hill, known as the Bagh Deo ki Tekri (hill of the tiger god); named as such, because, it was the habitat of the tigers and other wild animals. Since, my mother had died in 1942 and two elder brothers being married and posted outside and I studying at Betul, my father mostly lived in Kalimitty. As a part of retirement planning, he had purchased few cows and buffalos, which in due course became quite sufficient in numbers. The incidence I am going to narrate, concerns the face-off a tiger with herd of buffalos It was the Deepawali vacation. Those conversant with the rural life know that it is the time when the forests are in the full bloom, the kharif crop at its maturity, fodder is in profuse, and the domestic milk-animals with their young calves are at their healthiest. They must also know that this is the time when the flies, and other insects are at their peak and as the buffalos are very sensitive to the insects, they are not able to graze to their full during the day. To protect themselves, they normally, most of the time, sit in the pool of water and mud. Villagers may be uneducated but they are man of wisdom. They understand the language of the Nature. They have found a way-out for the buffalos in the old-age tradition, what is known as, the “Pahat charana” (grazing at the early morning). They graze the buffalos between 3am to 6am when there are no flies etc. --- (To be continues)
Posted on: Sun, 21 Jul 2013 05:52:45 +0000