An Old Story

Once during his service period in Reserve Police, Odisha posted at the Headquarters, Phulbani my late uncle ( father's younger brother ) often he was being allotted with the night patrolling duties. One day he had to patrol in a mountaneous tribal area surrounded by dense forests. It was a dark night. During that period i.e. the year 1959, no sufficient electricity was available. Besides that ferocious wild animals were dominating the entire region more than the present time. Maneater royal tigers and panthers were plentily existing.

As my uncle was a DSP he was accompanied with four numbers of subordinate officers excluding the Jeep driver who was a Gurkha. Leaving Headquarters they travelled across a forest road which divided the forest into two parts. Both sides of the road were full of dense jungle with some mounds at some places. It was night 12 O'clock and roaring of tigers was heard. The special police jeep braked at a place as my uncle wanted to make water beside a rocky mound. After making himself easy completely he listened to a grumbling sound over his head. So suddenly he looked up and saw two red burning charcoal like eyes of a royal tiger sitting on the mound.

Then the jeep driver peeped out and warned my uncle at a loud voice. Then alas the quadruped jumped on my uncle at once. God is Great. Uncle was in police uniform for which the tiger nails could not pierce the body. Tiger grabbed my uncle with it's paws and tried to catch his head opening it's mouth. Uncle was trying to safeguard himself by pushing back the tiger's head applying his full strength. For about 5 minutes man versus animal combat continued. The Gurkha driver was puzzled and shouted out, " Sahab Sahab Kurki Kurki on your waist belt please draw out. " In timely warning alerted my uncle for doing the needful. He drew out the kurki ( a sharp dragger knife with a slight curvation in between ) and hacked off the tiger's head into two pieces. The danger was over then. The patrolling team waited for sometime and lifted the dead tiger into the vehicled. It was near about 4 am while they arrived at the Headquarters. In the morning the corpse was carried to the Collector's office and handed over to the concerned section officer.

A real life story of my late uncle narrated to me during my teens