Most people have the notion that forests are haunted. Well, we can give credits to the movie Kaal for that.But the jungles of Kanha in Madhya Pradesh have secrets that will leave you speechless. This is the story of a hunter who sacrificed his own wife to a tiger.
The Story
One such story is that of a hunter, brave one at that who was the guardian of the villagers way back in the 1920’s. Before the forest became a tourist spot and was termed as a national park, it was home to the locals. That naturally meant they had the animals as their neighbours.
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Lapsi as the hunter was called would hunt down and kill man eating tigers using the traditional bow and arrow. On one such occasion when there was a man eating tigress roaming around the forest, Lapsi built a 15 ft high machaan in the trees and sat on it waiting for the beast to arrive.
When she didn’t come, he tied a buffalo as the bait. That also didn’t work. After that he tried his luck by tying a cow, goat and a dog. Still the tigress showed no signs of being even remotely close to the animal.
That’s when Lapsi made a drastic decision and tied up his wife. And it worked. The mighty tigress showed up, all set to have her meal. The hunter, up in the trees shot a poisoned arrow at her but missed it. To save his wife and kill the tigress, he jumped down and fought with the animal with a knife.
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In a scene that sounds straight out of a horrific battle, all three of them lost their lives.
Goosebumps, right?
The Memorial
There is a memorial made right in the center of the forest, where the bodies of the hunter, the wife and the tigress rest. It is a popular believe that if you throw stones on their grave, the chances of spotting a tiger in the park will increase.
And in most cases it turns out to be true.
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My naturalist at the Taj Safaris, Vipul told us this story and we were in awe. He took us back a century and we could imagine the scene being played right in front of us. Stories like these make you think about how beautiful and massive our jungles are and how little we know of them.
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