THE MYSTERIOUS CROW

                       

Note: This story is based on Author’s fiction. It does not apply to any real-life incidents and historical references.

19 MARCH 2021

CARDAMOM HILLS

IDUKKI, KERALA

A 38-year old man Richard took his two teenage children: Joseph and William Charles to Cardamom Hills (Western Ghats), the largest hill range in Idukki district of Kerala. These hills are made up largely of several contiguous protected areas intended to restrict human access, protect specific endangered species and preserve some of the still undeveloped forest biomes. The central part of the hills comprise the Periyar Wildlife Sanctuary covering an area of 777 km². The 350 km² core zone of the sanctuary is the Periyar National Park and Tiger Reserve. Periyar is a major ecotourism destination.

To the south of the Periyar Tiger Reserve are the reserve forests of the Ranni, Konni and Achankovil Forest Divisions. The Srivilliputtur Wildlife Sanctuary and reserved forests of the Tirunelveli Forest Division are contiguous with Periyar on the eastern side of the hills in Tamil Nadu in the rain-shadow area with mostly drier forests. The Meghamalai reserve forest, also contiguous with Periyar, is proposed to be the 600 km² Meghamalai Wildlife Sanctuary to protect several threatened species including: Bengal tiger, Indian elephant, Nilgiri tahr, lion-tailed macaque, slender loris, grizzled giant squirrel, Salim Ali's fruit bat, great Indian hornbill, Hutton's pitviper and Vindhyan bob butterfly.

Richard’s plan is to go to the hills to hunt a deer, which has big horns where the crow tribe live. Crow tribe means the people who are living in that hill range. The mountain area where they are going is full of thick forests and big craters. But Richard know very well how to live in such places. Why because he was there in the Indian special operations. So in a very harsh terrain and conditions, he has done many survival trainings.

So Richard was an expert in that. Both of Richard’s son learned a lot of stuffs like his father. Now on September 19^th when they reached that hills, they took the bow and arrows and went for hunting the deer. And now what was their plan is, both of the boys should go separately and chase down the grazing deer from the edge of the big craters.

When the chased deer comes down, Richard who was standing there will hunt the deer with his bow. So, according to this plan, all three of them went separately. But when the boys went to the edge of the craters, there was no deer. So they waited till noon and even then they didn’t see any deer. So the boys thought that, it was enough for the day, and prepared to leave.

They have already prepared a meeting spot where they will meet up after the hunting. So they packed everything and left to the meeting spot. In a short while, the boys reached the meeting spot. But the boy’s father Richard still didn’t reach that spot. So, the boys started to wait for their father to come to the meeting spot.

The time started to pass out but their father didn’t return. There is no cell phone service in that forest so they couldn’t call him. Now what does the boys thought is, since it is a familiar place for their father, they thought that he will return anytime.

Now the boys who were waiting there discussed among each other.

“Suppose if our father was unable to come on time, he can be alone da.” Charles said to which, Joseph replied: “Yes. He can be alone because he had warm jackets.”

“He knows what to do. Don’t worry Charles. He will be alright.” But when the sun started to set, even then their father didn’t return. So, immediately they left from the hill ranges and informed the forest authorities. Immediately the authorities also started searching. Near the craters where Richard is said to be lost, they started to search there with helicopters and low level thermal imaging. What is a thermal image searching means, in the right time, when we look at the forest from the helicopter, we can’t see anything. But if we look through thermal imaging means, the things which are hot will be seen in red.

The heat which comes from our body, and the heat which comes from animal’s body will be clear in thermal imaging. So when searching in the dark place, if a red color is seen, either it should be a human or an animal. So with this we can find out easily. But for the whole night they searched everywhere.

But they couldn’t find Richard. But what did the authorities thought is, Richard was a trained person so maybe, he might have built a shelter. Maybe he went to a cave and stayed there. Or maybe he made a camp with tree branch. So if he was inside there, it will not be visible in thermal imaging. They thought that they can definitely find him tomorrow.

But the next day, more than a hundreds of people and the dog bloodhound which has high smelling capacity, and few people on elephant, few more helicopters and small plane, with such a large team they started to search. Even then they couldn’t find Richard. This search continued for several weeks.

But since they couldn’t find Richard the search was stopped. Richard’s family was devastated. What happened to their father who was their superhero? And they couldn’t accept that something wrong was happened. Though the official search was stopped, his family often went to that hills and started searching there. But Richard was never found.

ONE YEAR LATER

19 MARCH 2022

Exactly after a year, on 19^th March 2022, a hunter went to the same hills for hunting. He had no idea about Richard’s disappearance. But now he was hunting in the same place where Richard disappeared. He went there alone and he was not hunting like a pack. He was looking around in that dense forest and kept on moving slowly. Then he heard a sound like crow cawing. First he didn’t notice that, and it was like the sound of all other birds. But as he walked deep inside the hill’s forestry range, the crow’s sounds were aggressive and deep.

Now he slowly looks back at the side where the sound came from. But he couldn’t see that crow there. But he knew that the crow was cawing from the direction he was looking at.

FEW DAYS LATER

2 OCTOBER 2022

A few days later, the hunter said the following in the latter days to news media and Richard’s family: “When I looked back, some kind of intuition has risen in my mind. My intuition said the crow was trying to communicate and talk with me.”

“What?” asked the news channel media to which the hunter said: “I spent most of my life in hunting. But, I never had this kind of experience till date.”

(The story flashes back to 19^th March 2022)

19 MARCH 2022

CARDAMOM

So what he was thinking is, “To go and see where the crow is cawing from. He thought of why the crow is cawing like this.” So he started to walk slowly in the direction where the sound is coming from. But since it was a very thick forest he couldn’t see that crow.

When he kept on walking slowly, he saw a big clearance before him. There, in the middle of the clearance, a tree was broken into half and fell down. The broken tree was just 5 or 6 feet only. And he saw that the crow was sitting on that broken tree. When the hunter moved close to that crow, he walked by looking at it. But the crow kept on cawing in another direction.

When he went near that crow, both of them looked face to face. As soon as the crow saw him, it stopped cawing. But it continued to see him. This sudden behavior of crow makes the hunter feel a little uncomfortable. It was like the crow was confirming that it’s cawing for him. Now it saw him, so it stopped cawing and started looking at him.

Now this hunter walked slowly into the clearance and went near the crow and looked at it. Then suddenly that crow looked down at the mud. He also looked down to see what the crow was looking at. Now there he saw a skull in base of that tree. The hunter, who was frightened by this, looked at the crow again.

That crow was also looking at him. The total situation was very terrible. The hunter, who was so scared, marked the map where he was now, and immediately ran away from there. He went to the area with cell phone service and immediately called the authorities of Idukki district. Authorities also come there immediately. And the hunter said what happened to him.

He tells about the crow and the skull under the tree. So the police went there to check and the skull was there as he said. But that crow was not there. Not only skull but also a femur was there. Two shoes were neatly arranged and kept there. Near that shoe, a belt was neatly rolled and kept. And there was a jacket next to that belt. A wallet was found in that jacket. Inside that wallet Richard’s ID card and some money was there.

Now the police started to search whatever they could find anything else. But nothing was found. Richard’s bow and arrow was also not found till the end. There is definitely something wrong in this case and as soon as they found there was a foul play, the CBI(Central Bureau of Investigation) came into this.

First what the CBI said is, Richard had been shot. But after that, they said that: “Richard died because a tree fell on him.”

PRESENT

At present, the media man asked the hunter: “If Richard died because of the fallen tree then where did his body went? What happened to his body?” As he listened them, they added: “Ok. Let’s leave it asides. Even when we assume that it was dragged by some animal, how his shoes, his jacket, his belt were neatly arranged and kept. If a tree fell on him, why should he arrange his belt and shoes neatly?”

The media man concludes by telling the hunter: “If there is no one, who arranged like that? Besides, where did his bow and arrow went?” Pausing for three minutes, he said: “Though it was officially declared that he was died by a fallen tree, What his family and those who were there thought is…someone on that hill side, or something might have attacked him.”

“But even if he was attacked, his two boy were there only, so his sound must be heard to them. Because there the sound travel too far. But nothing was heard like that.” The hunter explained to the media men. 

“Ok. Even if a person attacked Richard, why he didn’t take the money from Richard’s wallet? Apart from that, the place where Richard’s body was found, is near the meeting point where the boys were waiting. So if he was hit by a tree, or if an attacker attacked him, he should have been found during the first search itself. Why was he not found then?” The media man asked the hunter, who blinked for a second looking at everyone.

“There may be two reasons for this. First, everyone may missed Richard without seeing him. Or Richard might have been there until the search was over. After that, they might have brought Richard and put him there.”

“Where was Richard until then?” The Media man once again questioned the hunter, after he said those two reasons. The hunter vents in frustration and says, “The media man can ask his questions to the authorities and CBI. Since, they are the one, who investigates about this case and he is just a mere-informer about the progressing of Richard’s case.