I wish the carnivorous wild beasts like leopard, tiger and others lived peacefully with the other 'good vegetarian animals' like they lived in the olden day 'ashrams’ among the Rishis!!. Alas, they are not grass eaters, unless they have stomach upset. (Has any one observed domestic cats or dogs eating grass any time? For them, grass is cure for the ailment).
One more thing, I have also heard that these carnivorous animals kill only when they are hungry - they do not kill rampantly. When their stomach is full, they ignore an animal grazing nearby. They always economise and avoid waste. Probably they intrude human dwelling to attack domestic animals, because there is nothing in the forest that is worth eating and a hungry beast does not differentiate. These are beautiful and powerful animals (on or off the television screen) I hope the forest officials set traps for the intruders and leave them at safe places where they can find suitable prey with ease. Now we can see the majestic pea-cocks with their colourful tail feathers fanned out and dance as they try to attract the attention of the pea-hen, and so many other birds, that I thought were extinct, because now the rampant hunting of these birds has been disallowed. The cuckoo bird sings a melodious 'cuhoo' and responds to even human response!! Wonderful experience. So is the blind bat clutching the plantain flower bunch (bondi) to suck out the honey at dusk) and some colourful tiny birds eating the wild berries called 'bensam', the Kingfisher hunting an insect (they have adapted to this living as fish is hard to find), the parrots eating the peru 'guava' fruit. The crows, if one of their kind is caught in between electric cables and hanging in there, dead, we find their entire 'khandaan' gather around and cry 'kaa kaa' every day until the dead bird falls down eventually or removed. What a sincere mourning!! For a few special days each autumn, Point Pelee is a temporary home to thousands of migrating monarch butterflies. As soon as favourable conditions occur, they begin one of nature's greatest journeys by crossing Lake Erie (Canada). They cannot linger, for their destination is some 3000 km further south in the mountains of central Mexico! Why would this tiny insect make such a monumental journey? Check website: http://www.pc.gc.ca/eng/pn-np/on/pelee/natcul/natcul5.aspx I am yet to see a quail these days. We used to call them 'lovo' that dwelt among bushes, they moved very fast. But due to the increase of houses, the bush land has disappeared, depriving these beautiful and secretive birds of their natural habitat, and probably are extinct now., and so are the wild hens, some water birds that emerged during tilling time, the streams teaming with rock crabs, turtles and variety of fish, that we could catch by a simple trap that was placed where ever the water plunged down..and the ambot-theik curry and the hot boiled rice with some salted palponos (a variety of wild jack fruit, the size of divi-guzo (breadfruit) or mango, with fire roasted red chillis mixed and squeezed into delicious chutney or paste!! Wow!! Those were the days. Yet I had the opportunity to pluck and then get them cooked, the fragile flower like lily white mushrooms that bloom during certain time at certain place of our backyard. Though the dish was not as good as mother’s, yet enjoyed the rare delicacy. The fisher women visit our native house daily even to this day. If they happened to see a visitor (son, daughter), their price goes sky high and sure, mother makes them pay blaming that the price increase is because she saw the visitors and sure the fish would be bought with or without grumbling by mum. The saltwater river Muddosho (ladyfish) and the fatty Mullets (Shevto) with roce curry, was out of this world. Only poor bangda (mackerel) was fried in the backshouse, on woodfire (so that the pungent smell does not bother the foreign-born grandchildren playing video games in the main hall!!) MD
