The idea popped in my head four days ago and sent my boys on their toughest assignment
Worked on design, headlines, editing etc. till late yesterday. Its today's Kolkata edition page two. I am pasting the entire text of the two stories. Hope all of you will like it.
here is the link to the e-paper : http://paper.hindustantimes.com/epaper/viewer.aspx
The last giant killers
It was 1969. A 23-year old youth was working at his desk in the Arms Act Section at Lalbazar, the Kolkata Police headquarters, when a man in his early 30s walked in to renew the licence of his .22 rifle. Years went by and the chance meeting developed into a
bond of friendship. The duo, Ranjit Mukherjee and Chanchal Sircar, now in their mid-60s, teamed up to become two of the most
formidable rogue elephant hunters in the country.
But the tale of Bengal’s elephant hunters should begin with Dr Dhritikanta Lahiri Choudhury, the most eminent of them all, with 30 recorded kills in Assam, Meghalaya, Orissa and North Bengal.
“I took up elephant hunting because I saw it as a challenge. My first hunt was in the Kachar area of Assam. It was in the late 50’s. I was not even 30. The chief wildlife warden of Assam made me an offer - to kill a rogue that had unleashed terror. It took us three days to track it down. In those days elephant hunting was legal in some parts of India such as Assam and Coorg because of the Elephant Control Act. But it was no easy feat. With no mobile phone and satellite communication one had travel on foot inside jungles to find a rogue with just a tracker, usually a local guy,” said Lahiri Choudhury, now in his 80s.
“In that first expedition I lost my way, roamed aimlessly in the forest and spent sleepless nights without food. One day we found a Kuki village where the people gave us some kind of a pulao cooked with dog meat. When I refused, they offered milk,” he added.
When Lahiri Choudhury used to go hunting during Puja and summer vacations at Rabindra Bharati University, where he headed the English department, his wife, Sheila, had to live in fear.
“He would not took me with him and used to get angry if I tried to join him,” said Sheila, who retired as an assistant professor of English at Jadavpur University.
After Lahiri Choudhury retired, the legacy was carried on by Sircar and Mukherjee. In 1969, Sircar shot his first elephant. He was summoned by the Raja of Dhenkanal in Orissa to put down a marauder. Mukherjee joined him in 1974. As a team they put down a tusker at Nagrakote in North Bengal. Between 1974 and 2003 the duo killed 31 rogues. Every hunt is fresh in their memory and still gives them goose bumps.
“We are probably the last of the elephant hunters. Not many people will put their lives in danger to put down a rogue in its own territory,” said Mukherjee.
Taking down elephants require some of the heaviest bores invented by man and the hunters chose theirs rifles carefully. Mukherjee used a .458 magnum and Sircar carried his trusted .450- 400 double rifle. Lahiri Choudhury used to rely on his .470 rifle.
Elephant hunters aim for the brain or the heart. But when an elephant constantly sways its head it is not easy to take aim.
“Imagine a 3000 kilo, nine feet tall marauder charging at you at 45 km per hour. Its brain is no bigger than a loaf and hidden somewhere 3-3.5 feet behind the forehead. But even if you miss the brain the animal will collapse because of concussion and rise again after 2-3 minutes. It happened with me several times” said Sircar.
Like Jim Corbett and Kenneth Anderson, these hunters too had superstitions and followed some ethics.
“Chanchal always carried his old film camera and the shirt he wore during his first hunt,” Mukherjee chuckled.
As far as ethics are concerned, Lahiri Choudhury made it a point not to kill any female animal unless it had turned rogue.
“The are certain dos and don’ts. Never touch alcohol and tobacco. Never use a new rifle. And, study the animal’s physiology and behavior first,” said Lahiri Choudhury.
Their modus operandi of a hunt is simple - listen to eyewitness accounts, piece together information and chart the course of action.
“Footprints will tell you the elephant’s height - twice the circumference of the foot is the height of the elephant at shoulder level,” said Lahiri Choudhury.
Despite their size, pachyderms can hide remarkably well amid tall trees and grasses and charge at extraordinary speed. To know whether an elephant is close by the hunter has to keep his ears open for strange noises – breaking of twigs, flapping of elephant’s ears or, rumbling in the animal's belly.
“Maljuri, something like an apprentice to the rogue and usually very loyal to its master pose a danger to the hunter. If its master dies the maljuri may refuse to abandon the carcass. Hunters make all attempts to drive it away but if the period of apprenticeship is long, the maljuri may becomes a rogue itself,” added Lahiri Choudhury.
Hunting tales can be fascinating. In 1980, Mukherjee and Sircar killed a rogue in Gorumara forest where the animal had earned the name 'grave digger' because it would carry away its victims and bury them.
“Our last hunt was in 2003. We shot the rogue at Dharamjaygarh forest in Chattisgarh. With a string of kills to its credit, the elephant had no fear. Driven by some deep hatred it would tear its victims into pieces,” said Mukherjee.
“Even though the state can declare an elephant rogue we first try to tranquilize and capture it. If it can’t be cured and continues to kill then it is. But such instances are getting rare. Several rogues got so traumatized by human company after they were tranquilized and cured that they stopped killing,” said chief conservator of forest (general) AK Raha.
Second Story
The last trophies
The three-storied white house on Suburban School Road, standing in the midst of old buildings from the same era, can go unnoticed. But, as you walk in and take the flight of stairs to the first floor you are bound to become spellbound. The house is a treasure trove. A part of history that will never repeat itself.
Trophies retrieved from hunting expeditions across the country adorn the walls around you. The awesome elephant tusks measuring seven feet in length, antelope horns, leopard skin mounted on the wall, and footstools made out of elephant feet are all part of the private collection of Dhiriti Kanta Lahiri Choudhury – one of India’s most eminent elephant hunters and conservation experts.
“My in-laws had 27 tame elephants in their house at Mymensingh in Bangladesh. All these idols of Hindu deities that you see here were made out of the tusks of those elephants when they died,” said Shiela Lahiri Choudhry, wife of the elephant hunter. “But the tusks can tell stories of his hunting expeditions,” she said, pointing at two huge tusks that Lahiri Choudhury brought home after a hunt in Assam years ago.
“These are the largest tusks we have in our collection. The villagers took five hours to cut them. One of the tusks still bears the scars of an axe stroke. We have sealed the base as elephant tusks are hollow up to a few feet. Muscles, nerves and ligaments in this hollow portion hold the tusk to the jaw bones of an elephant,” explained the man felled the giant.
The Lahiri Choudhurys have a tiger skin, a leopard skin and at least 10 footstools made out of elephant feet.
“When I killed elephants in the North East I could never bring back the feet because the local tribes love the meat. But I used to take at least one feet of the elephants I killed in North Bengal,” Lahiri Choudhury added
Chanchal Sircar, however, has a tusk which he claims is the most prized possession any elephant hunter could boast of.
“Even though we have killed elephants which were taller than this one, never did we see such huge tusks. This one measures more than eight feet in length. But the largest elephant that we killed was Kalapahar, a makna (tusk less male). It stood at 11.6 feet,” said Sircar.
Earlier, whenever a rogue was killed, the state forest department used to gift one of the tusks to the hunter as a token of appreciation.
“We engraved or mounted nearly all the tusks that we got as gift. We used to take the tusks to Murshidabad where the best of the ivory craftsmen lived. Today, most of our collection is kept at Chanchal’s house,” said Ranjit Mukherjee.
Days have changed. A ban on ivory trade was imposed in 1990 by 114 countries, including 35 African countries with sizeable elephant population.
According to Wildlife Protection Act, 1972 (WPA), only those skins and trophies that were acquired before 1972 and bequeathed or gifted are eligible for registration certificates. Also, if an animal is found dead in the wild it cannot be skinned. Neither can any body part be taken. It has to be burnt at the spot in the presence of an appointed representative of metropolitan court and witnesses.
Ends
