Saviors of the jungle

                 Rafeeq was watching out of the window of the bus on the way to Amarpur village. The scene out was verdant and full of the beauty of nature.   The bus was running through the dense jungle. He was happy to see the numerous trees along both sides of the road but he was not a nature lover.

         After the journey of about half an hour, the bus arrived at the bus stop of Amarpur. Rafeeq got off the bus looked around and found no one. The bus had gone out of his vision and the ambient around him was peaceful and no sound around except the chirping of birds. He likes the birds and sounds made by birds.

He sat down on the bench at the bus stop and lit a cigarette. He began to think something while smoking. 

                 

                 He had an old friend named Ajay who lived in the village. After a few minutes, he saw an old man coming toward the bus stop from a trail in a field. When the old man came near to him, he asked him the address of Ajay. The old man looked at him from toe to head and replied, "Come with me. I will take you to Ajay." 

         "Who are you and who are you to Ajay?" the old man inquired. 

Rafeeq replied, "I am Rafeeq from town Brijnager. I am an old friend of Ajay. I came here to meet him."

       The old man got silent and they were walking on a narrow way which ran through the fields of corn and some other crops. After walking for about half an hour, they reached a group of about fifty houses. Some were made of concrete,  some were made of wood and some were made of earth. The old man stopped at one of these houses and said to Rafeeq, "Here is the house of Ajay." Saying so the old man took leave of him. 

    Ajay was happy to see his old friend. He welcomed him with a warm heart and served him with hot tea.

      Rafeeq said to Ajay, "I have a business plan. The area around the village is full of teak woods in the jungle. We will cut the trees and sell them to some traders. There is a lot of money in this business."

      Ajay replied, "I know that there is a lot of money in this business.  But there is one problem here. There is a spirit that defends the trees of the jungle from those who cut the trees in large quantities. Those who try to cut trees or try to set fire to the jungle are punished and even killed by that spirit."

        Hearing this Rafeeq argued,  "There is nothing like the spirit exists in the world. These things exist only in stories. Don't be afraid of this nonsense and come with me and help me in this business. You will be a rich man in a few months."

       Ajay argued, "You people from big cities and towns don't believe in the existence of spirits and ghosts. But we here in this village, have seen many people being punished or even killed by these ghosts or spirits. So, I don't want to take any risk."

Hearing this, Rafeeq said to Ajay, "If you don't come with me, let it be. But at least tell me the name of the local forest officer." 

Ajay said, "Mr. Sinha is the forest officer and his office is in Rampur, about twenty miles from here." Ajay paused for a little while and then said,  "And yes, the forest guard Laxman and his assistant Veenu live in this village. You can meet them if you want." 

Rafeeq replied, "I would like to meet the officer Mr Sinha."

Rafeeq spent a sleepless night in his friend's house. He was determined to make a lot of money by stealing teak wood and other forest products from the forest. He had a dare and a plan to do so. 

                   The next day Rafeeq visited the forest officer in Rampur. He offered handsome money to the forest officer and the officer was ready to help him." coming out of the office of the forest officer, he said to himself, "No one can stop me from becoming a millionaire. Soon I have a big car, a big bungalow, and a handsome bank balance." 

      From here, he went home to Vajeerpur,  Where he put forth his idea to some of his friends. One named David got ready to work with Rafeeq. Soon they began their preparations. They bought some axes, saws, and other devices. They managed to purchase two guns from an illegal arms dealer. Rafeeq had an old truck that he got repaired for carrying timber. After this, he hired five woodcutters to cut the trees.

            One fine day, they started their journey to Amarpur. They had their dreams in their eyes and they wanted to fulfill all their dreams. On the way to Amarpur, a young and beautiful woman hitched a lift with them to Amarpur. David was unwilling to give her a lift but Rafeeq was impressed with her beauty and wanted to talk to her. 

Rafeeq broke the ice. He asked her, "Who are you and why are you going to Amarpur?"

           She replied, "I am Asha and I am going to Amarpur in search of my husband."

Rafeeq asked, "Who is your husband?"

Asha replied, "his name is Pramode. He is a woodcutter and works for a timber dealer. He has not come home for the last six months and neither has he sent me any mail nor has phoned me. The timber dealer, too was not in contact with me. I am so worried about my husband." 

Saying so she got silent. Her eyes got wet with tears. David and Rafeeq both looked at her. They felt sorry for her. 

When they reached the bus stop in Amarpur, Rafeeq found the same old man who had taken him to Ajay's house. Rafeeq thought for a little while and called that old man. The old man came to him and said, "You came again to our village!"

Rafeeq said, "Actually I am going to Rampur." Saying so, Rafeeq pointed at Asha and said to the old man, "Listen to me, she is Asha and she is in search of her husband who works as a woodcutter around Amarpur and he has been missing for the last six months.  Could you help her in this matter? "

The old man began to look at Asha. At this, Rafeeq said to the old man, "Please, help her." the old man said, "Don't worry, I will take her to the head of the village who will help her." Asha got out of the truck and thanked Rafeeq and David for helping her.

   Rafeeq and David drove to Rampur. Rampur was a small town surrounded by the hills. After having snacks and tea, they reached the office of Forest Officer Mr. Sinha. They talked there for about half an hour. After this meeting, Rafeeq and David were free to do what they wanted.  

Now Rafeeq and David reached straight to Amarpur. Here they met the head of the village.  Rafeeq and David posed themselves as a timber merchant. They show the head of the village a fake document. And they asked the head of the village to let them live in the village. 

                    The head of the village said to them, "You may live in the village. As far as cutting trees and collecting forest products,  I  inform you that there is a spirit or ghost in the jungle who protects the jungle and kills those who cut the trees in the jungle."

David argued, "Ghosts and spirits are nonsense."

Just then, Asha came with the watchman of the village. She was sad and worried. The watchman said to the head of the village, "Sir, I could not find her husband Pramode. I searched deep in the forest.  I think we should report the matter to the police." 

Hearing this the head of the village said to Rafeeq, "Her husband had come here to work for a wood trader but he went missing in the jungle." Saying so, the head looked at Asha and then said to the watchman, "So took the matter to the. Police. Took her to Rampur police station to complain."

When the watchman got out of the room, the head of the village said to Rafeeq, "Many people came here to steal the wood from the jungle but all of them got lost or killed."

       But Rafeeq and David did not take it seriously. They had confidence in their guns, axes, and knives. By the next morning, they convinced a villager to rent his spare cottage to them to live in. They started to steal wood from the jungle the next day. Nobody came to stop them from doing so. They were happy. Soon they had the first batch of wood to smuggle out of the Amarpur to a secret destination. Without wasting a single hour, Rafeeq and David drove their truck loaded with wood in the dark of the night. At the checkpoint, they found the forest guard Laxman and his assistant Veenu. Both were consuming country-made liquor. Rafeeq blew the horn of the truck. The forest guard signed him to go. 

When the truck passed the checkpoint, the forest guard said to his assistant, "Once more, we will have to do our work."

The assistant said, "I am always ready for that work."

In this way,  Rafeeq delivered the first batch. Now they had a handsome amount after paying woodcutters their wages. At this, Rafeeq said to David, "Look David, it was so easy. No one came to stop us. No ghosts and no spirits exist in this jungle."

             They started to cut wood for another batch of wood to be smuggled. One day, the forest guard Laxman and his assistant Veenu came to Rafeeq and said, "I know a place in this jungle where there are hundreds of sandal trees." 

Rafeeq asked with curiosity,  "Where?"

The forest guard replied, "About ten miles from here." Saying so, he looked into the eyes of Rafeeq. 

Rafeeq gave him a friendly smile and said, "Please, have a seat." and brought a chair for the guard to sit down and asked him politely, "So, how can we reach that place?"

The forest guard said, "You will have to make a deal with us."

 Rafeeq replied, "I am ready. Tell me what you want?"

The forest guard replied, "I will tell you later.  Be prepared to go there."

      The next morning, the forest guard Laxman and his assistant Veenu took Rafeeq and the woodcutters to that place. Rafeeq and David were so happy to see hundreds of sandal trees spreading over a large area. Although it was very arduous to reach there, Rafeeq and David were ready to do anything to steal this precious sandalwood. They began planning to steal the sandalwood. 

       After two days, Rafeeq, David, and the woodcutters along with their guns, ration, and equipment reached that place to cut off the sandal trees. They camped at the bank of a water stream and began to cut off the trees. When they cut down the first sandal tree, Rafeeq shouted with joy and said, "We are cutting down trees in the middle of the jungle. Where are those spirits and ghosts who protect the forest?  I will cut down all the sandal trees and sell them." Saying so, he looked at the woodcutters and said, "I will pay all of you extra money for every tree. Cut down all the trees" They worked all day. In the evening David said to Rafeeq, "We are hungry after cutting down trees all day. Let's cook a meal. I have an idea. We have a lot of sandalwood here, so I want to cook the food on the fire of sandalwood. "

            Hearing this Rafeeq said, "That's a great idea."  They cooked the food on the sandalwood fire. The area around the camp was filled with the fragrance of sandals. After having a meal, all of them began to sing and dance around the campfire.  All of them were drunken except David. 

           It was around midnight. The campfire was burning and David was on guard sitting by the campfire. He had a gun in his hand. The rest of the gang were sleeping in the tent. All of a sudden, David heard the footfall on the dry leaves.  He shed the light of his torch to where the footfall coming from. He found nothing there. All of a sudden, he heard a splash in the water stream. Hearing the splash, he jumped to his feet and shed the light of his torch along the water stream but he found no one. He tightened his grip on his gun. He waited for a while but nothing happened. He felt relief and again sat down by the campfire. He lit a cigarette. All of a sudden he felt something behind him but it was too late. That something didn't give him any chance. He was caught by many hands and a gag was tied around his mouth. A silhouette leaned toward David and asked, "Do you recognize me?"

Hearing this, David looked at him and became shocked but before David could say anything, his head was cut off. 

And then, all of a sudden the jungle filled with strange sounds made by some unknown things. Rafeeq's deep sleep broke upon hearing these sounds. He saw through the semi-transparent material of the tent some strange silhouette against the campfire. These silhouettes with spears and clubs in their hands were coming toward the tent. Seeing this Rafeeq got purified in fear for a while.  Meanwhile, the woodcutters began to wake up hearing the sounds. Now the silhouettes were poking and thrashing the tent with spears and clubs. Seeing this Rafeeq and the woodcutters were trembling with fear. Now, Rafeeq was regretting his decision to come here. He somehow pulled himself together, took the revolver from beside his pillow, took aim at one of the silhouettes, and pulled the trigger. The tent was filled with smoke. The bullet hit the target but it fell flat. The silhouette kept on thrashing the tent with a club. Seeing this Rafeeq and the woodcutters lost their wits. Rafeeq was trembling with fear. Soon the silhouettes tore the tent and fell on the Rafeeq and the woodcutters and the jungle filled with the screams of Rafeeq and the woodcutters. No one was there to hear these screams and no one was there to see what was happening. After some time these screams ceased to come and the jungle became silent. 

       The silhouettes were dancing around the campfire, after killing Rafeeq, David, and the woodcutters. After dancing to its heart's content, one of the silhouettes removed its mask. It was no one else but Mr Sinha the forest officer. The other masked silhouettes were forest guard Laxman, assistant Veenu, the watchman, the head of the village,  the old man, and two other villagers. 

Sinha said, "Laxman, let's get rid of these dead bodies. "

Laxman removed his mask and said, "Yes sir." 

They dumped the dead bodies into a hidden cave in the deep jungle by the morning. The jungle was safe once again.