204 THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [Sept. 1, 1000. 
TIGER SHOOTING IN THE MALNI 
FORESTS, 0. P. INDIA. 
At tlie foot of the Hatpuras, not far from the 
mountain homes of Muhadeo, lies the Malni 
Forest Kesei ve. In the t<ood olil days, to the, keen 
shikari, there could liave been no fairer country, 
both for .scenery, climate and " import." In those 
days, the Malni Reserve lay on the borders of an 
interminable expanse of forest-country, open and 
park-like, crossed by many small streams, running 
swiftly in iheir rocky beds. Low hills, covered 
with a pleasing mixture of teak* and larce 
featiiery bamboos, were dotted about at 
frequent inteivals, and in the near d. stance 
range upon range of mountains rose high, one above 
the other. In all this vast extent of country 
there were but few smnll scattered villages ; but, 
on the other hand, it was the home of the abori- 
ginal gond, a race which, alas, is fast di.sap()eaiing 
with the advance of cultivation and so called 
civilisation ; and it has already lost, at le.ast in 
tliose parts, all its manly, noble characteristics. 
In those days every man could have prided him- 
self on being a simple, truthful, unsophisticated 
man of the woods, a true lover of the jungle, a 
real sportsman. In addition, each village bad its 
recognised shikari, or leader of the hunt : but the 
leader of them all, the recognised and accepted 
king, was Telu. He wa", pisrhaps, the last of the 
real unadulterated aboriginal gonds of the old 
school. 
A BORN .SHIKARI, 
a perfect tracker, a polished jungle gentleman. 
He was long, ianky and venerable in appearance. 
Clothed in his black, v\rinkled, epidermis; a piece of 
string round his waist ; a " cliakwak" (pipe) worn 
behind the ear ! with his long flowing matted locks- 
nothing could rulii'i his temper, or his keenness 
after shikar. Alas, poor man, he died, so tlie 
legend goes, many years ago, a victim to the ire 
of the Deo. over' some little neglected shikar 
offerin*^. 
The^gonds, however, did not hold undisturbed 
possession of these wilds. There were many other 
(ienizens of the jungle ; and the bison, the 
sambhar, the cheetah, the smaller deer, the black 
bear, the tiger and the panther were all to be 
found hero. " My first year in India was drawing 
to a close when I found myself posted to the 
Malni Reserve. During the whole of the year, 
my one and only ambition had been to shoot a 
tiger : and in the vain endeavour to get one I 
had tried every expedient that mortal youth 
could dream of— stalking, beating, bribing, 
praying, cursing, sitting up by day and by night, 
everything had been tried in vain. I had in fact 
bei'un to"tl)ink that tigers were a fraud and a 
diffusion, except as regards their pug-marks. But 
the Malni Reserve soon raised my hopes. Not 
only were pug-marks plentiful enough, but my 
gond friends, who had got over their natural 
shyness, and with whom I very soon got on the 
best of terms, assured me of easy success, and 
toid me many a startling tale. Mot only this, but 
the good sport I had with otlier beasts— my first 
sambhar, my two bears, my panther— soon raised 
n,.my fallen hopes. , , 
-,' It was under these circumstances that lelu and 
the little band of shikaris 1 had collected together, 
came to me one day with the news that a tiger 
was creating much havoc among the cattle at the 
vi'lbige of Malni, which gave its name to the 
Reserve ; and they urged me to proceed to the 
place as 'soon as possible. Accordingly, Telu and 
his little court, with a herd of yoinig buffaloes 
went on ahead to prepare the way, and I myself 
soon followed. 
In those days, Malni was a small Gond village, 
though pet haps larger tlian most, situated some 
short distance from the river of that name ; and 
the strip of bi-oken ground between the village 
and the river was covered with scrub jungle, 
fairly dense in places, with a few lart'e tree-; 
the whole intersected by numerous small, moist, 
shady stieamlets and nalas. On ariival the 
reports I received were so excellent that I soon 
determined 
TO GET THAT TIGER, 
and I am afraid it would ln,ve required uiany, very 
many, reminders from my superior nliicer before I 
could have been got to budge. Moreover, postal 
arrangements were veiy defective. However the luck 
was with us, for the^ery first morning after my 
arrival Tela came rushing into eam|) with the news 
that one of the young buffaloes had been killed 
during the night, and its carcass dragged away into 
the jungle — always a most auspicious sign. Mes- 
sengers were immediately s-enL oil" to bring up as 
many lieaters as they could from the surrounding 
scattered small villages. Meanwhile, Telu and 
myself did a track round the area in which the 
tiger was supposed to be slumbering after its 
gorge, 'i he tiger had killed in the patch of 
jungle between the village and the river, and 
so the matter was comparatively easy. The 
River Ma ni on one side the village and lields on 
the other, and a nice sandy path above and below ; 
and the results of our investigations \?cie most 
satisfactory. The tiger was there, so Telu 
assured me. 
The next operation was the tying up o? the 
machan, and more particularly chosing the right 
tree to have it on. Personally, I knew nothing 
about it, and so hard to trust to Telu ; and we 
chose a spot with a small open space in front, and 
a small strip of growth on the lelt. 
Eventually tite heateis arrived. I was seated 
on my tree, the stops were duly arranged on the 
right and left of me, and the beat began. For 
volume of noise, mingled wiih queer weird local 
sounds the beating of the tom-tom and the ubi- 
quitous kerosine tin, it would be impossible to 
beat a throng of aboriginal gonds. And so the 
beat came merrily alonj?, and I was ready to jump 
out of my skin with very excitement. Suddenly, 
a grunt and a growl was heard — and then a huge 
beast is seen by me to be moving through the 
patch of scrub, away on my left, some 200 yards 
away. At tlie same time, the group of stops on 
my left start coughing and hammering. 
Mad with excitement I loose off my rifle in 
the direction of the tigress. Bang goes my right 
barrel, bang the left : and by the time the smoke 
has cleared away, there is no sign left of the 
tigtess. However, no sooner have I had time to 
reload tny rifle, then the tigress appears in the 
open, start in front of me. She is apparently 
looking straight' at me, and about .S3 yards away. 
This is too much for me, and whizz goes the 
bullet from the right-hand barrel. Over rolls the 
tigress, kicking like a shot rabbit, and bang goes 
the second bullet, and the smoke clears away 
for me to see 
THE TIGRESS BOLTING 
T»ack towards the beaters. Much excited, I 
bad hardly time to reload when away 
on my light, across the open space a snjaU 
