Upon conducting a post mortem ... I realized that my initial speculation had been correct. There , lodged in the left shoulder of the brute... were 3. 0.36 calibre lead pellets of LG shot size ... clearly hand moulded . There was another similar LG pellet lodged in the nostril of the forest panther . And another Lg pellet lodged in the left eye of the brute. His wounds were beginning to turn gangrenous and there were even maggots squirming around , inside his wounds . The wide spread of LG pellets were indicative of an operator who had used a smooth bore gun with absolutely no degree of choke in the barrel . What I deduced ... was that some irresponsible local poacher armed with a “ Jin Jal “ ( a locally made Indian match lock muzzle loading smooth bore musket ) had in all probability , taken a shot at the panther with a charge of “ Chawrah Guli “ ( Locally moulded Indian LG pellets ) . He hoped to secure a nice forest panther skin for selling to the black market ... and in doing so, ended up inadvertently unleashing a man eater upon the villagers . The brute weighed 182 pounds and had a nose to tail length of just above 7 feet .
The fact that the forest panther had been blinded in 1 eye could possibly explain why it had tumbled in to the hole , where I had been hiding at night . I had been most fortunate to be able to quickly shoot him ... before he actually became aware of what was going on. “ Sheer Luck “ would be the most appropriate word , I suppose.
The next day , I showed the skin of the dispatched man eater to the local village chief ... and I happily collected my 500 Rupees. Before leaving ... Ponual decided to do something noble ( which the good fellow was often wont to do ) . He requested if we could give the dead 16 year old girl’s corpse a proper Hindu cremation . Acting indifferent on the outside , I told Ponual “ Zurur” ( Of course , we can ) . Deep on the inside ... I was actually proud of my trusty servant boy . Unlike the villagers ... Ponual truly had a heart of gold , and a great degree of humanity and empathy in him . He did not care about the fact that the dead girl was a lowest caste prostitute . He merely saw her as another human being . Thus , I used a little bit of the 500 Rupees reward money , to purchase some lakhree ( funeral pyre fire wood ) and a white , seamless piece of cotton cloth . I watched Ponual wrap the deceased girl’s corpse in the white , cotton cloth and I layered the lakhree over her corpse . Then ... I took out a box of matches from the breast pocket of my shirt , got 1 out and lit it . Ponual chanted a small Hindu prayer and took the match from my hand . He lit the funeral pyre , and both watched the girl’s corpse disintegrate to ash. Ponual collected the girl’s ashes and scooped them in to a small clay pot . After that , we set off back to Nagpur ... in my Land Rover Series 1. On the way , Ponual dumped the dead girl’s ashes in to a small flowing stream on 1 side of the road .
When I later shared this story with old Tobin and his wife , 2 days later while enjoying dinner with them ... they both told me that surely the Lord / Allah was watching over me that night . I had an extremely close shave with a man eating forest panther . Yet , I had walked away from the ordeal ...completely unscathed .
I realized that henceforth, whenever I would need to ambush a forest panther ( or indeed, any dangerous game) by hiding in a hole in the ground ... I would need to slightly modify my existing strategy . What had happened that night in the hole ...was surely a very clear sign from God . I could not tempt fate any longer.
I resolved to start placing sharpened wooden or bamboo stakes vertically , on top of the hay thatch being used to cover the hole. This was done , as an added safety measure ... in order to deter the panther from walking towards/ over the hole where I would be hiding. The panther would then , be FORCED to walk AROUND the hole in order to reach the bait .
Below , I have provided a simple and crude diagram of the whole affair. Hopefully , this shall allow me dear readers to properly imagine and picture the arrangement ( Please pardon my atrocious English hand writing ) .
View attachment 342896
I sincerely hope that this article has proven enjoyable to all my fellow members of African Hunting Forums . Hopefully, I shall commence writing my next article for the forums after 3 days. I intend to write a reminiscence about an incident involving a devious Asian Sloth Bear .
THE END
