The Jungle

Hundreds of thousands of insects were making hundreds of thousands of noises. They all combined into a single noise that can be called as ‘the voice of the jungle’. The birds chirped away. A large herd of spotted deer was grazing near the lake. The adult females formed a protective circle around the young ones, while the adult males kept watch. Accompanying the deer was a small herd of nilgai. The monkeys were upto their usual jumping around on the trees. A typical day in a typical Indian forest.
Then a monkey screeched loudly. The whole world seemed to come to a standstill. The nilgai and spotted deer stood at rapt attention, a dozen pairs of eyes looking in a dozen different directions, while the young ones continued grazing. The monkey screeched once more. This time, many others followed suit. The treetops were now filled with screeching and screaming noises. The deer sniffed the air around them. There was danger lurking somewhere.
The tiger had crept up to a stretch of tall, drying grass near the lake. His dark yellow coat and the black stripes on it blended perfectly with the colour of the dry grass and the shrubs. He moved his eyes over the entire herd, searching for the easiest possible prey. Having failed to knock down a wild boar in his last attempt and not having eaten since two days, he had to think carefully and decide. He singled one out. Now all he had to do was to create panic among the grazing animals and isolate his target.
He waited. Patiently, he waited for the right time to strike. Then he made a dash for it, his sturdy legs carrying his bulky body at a really good speed (although this speed can be maintained only for short distances). The daunting sight of the King himself charging with a look of hunger in his eye threw the entire herd into disarray. The animals ran helter-skelter, trying to stay together and keep the fawns safe. However, the nilgai that the tiger had singled out was not able to keep up and got separated from the herd. The rest of the herd could only watch helplessly as the young tiger grabbed the nilgai with his sharp claws and dug his teeth into his neck.
When you see a tiger crush its prey’s spine with its four-inch long canines, or see a leopard bite into the snout of a galloping gazelle, you can almost feel the gruesome power these beasts possess. No wonder the big cats are such a dominating presence and the bigger ones among them are called the kings of the jungle. But merely wearing their skin won’t give you the qualities that they possess, the qualities because of which they are feared. The most fearsome thing at present is that soon there will be no such thing left to be afraid of. And since fear is the key to survival on a number of occasions, it is about time that we understand this to be one of those occasions. It is time to put in some more effort to save these fascinating felines. There are just around 1400 tigers left, and the countdown continues…