The Last Will and Testament of the Tiger

[diskaon]

The Tiger has been given great respect in coorg culture. if a hunter shot a tiger, there was a ceremony as grand as a wedding, symbolic of the tiger's soul being married to the hunter and all villgers (and neigbouring villages) pay their respects to the hunter.

here is an article from "The Illustrated London News" dec 6th 1873. This may have been one of the last tiger weddings recorded.

http://www.harappa.com/engr/tiger.html

the above is called "Naree Mangala". Strangely "Naree" does not mean tiger, but fox. Old stories tell us that while hunting in the dense forests in the old days, a good hunter would be able to spot a tiger hiding. He would then alert his fellow hunters that there is a "fox" near by. This was done so that the accompanying attendants do not come know as they could get scared try to run away and hence startle the tiger. Hence the name "Naree" and not "Hulee"
In most cases, shooting the tiger was avoided as the aim for hunting was food and not prestige (unlike the british officers and the many raja's of India)
regards,
diskaon

[hvj1]

Thanks Diskaon
Very interesting reading.
Regards

[gunnera4]

Great stories Jonah and Hvj..do they have any tigers around mahableshwar? With all that commercialization..

Is it possible to have a map with the locations for sanctuaries / forest where Tigers, leopards, lions --the cats are still found in India? For example not sure whether Tigers are in AP or Karnataka jungles; Does pakistan have any tigers left?

is there a link to Rana's site?
Cheers

would this be her lodge:

http://www.tripadvisor.in/Hotel_Review- ... adesh.html