Blog by Shantanu Kalambi, WTI veterinarian, posted in Bandipur Tiger Reserve.
I always imagined a wildlife veterinarian’s job required a high level of fitness with loads of running towards animals and running away from them even faster, jumping on crocodiles (Steve Irwin be praised).
Sadly, it isn’t really what I spend a bulk of my time doing. Most of the time I end up driving for ages as most of my cases occur randomly very far away from where I’m located.
One fateful morning on a hot, dusty day in July, my routine was disrupted. I was doing my general rounds in the northern part of Bandipur Tiger Reserve in Karnataka, staying in a rather lovely old forest bungalow, which looked like it had fallen straight out of a Ruskin Bond book, when I was asked to rush to another range in Bandipur TR with the tranquilisation kit.
The previous day my assistant and I had been conducting awareness camps in several villages as well as helping on leopard and elephant drives with the Forest Department. These drives had a few department staff handing out firecrackers to the locals and getting them to scream and whoop while dashing through their fields in formation, chasing away imaginary tigers, leopards and hippogriffs.
Meanwhile, at this point I was also handling a baby elephant which had been abandoned by its mum. Well, I spent a very sleepless night, in a cramped, uncomfortable prison cell, being squished at random intervals by this little calf trying to snuggle into bed with me.
At about 10am the next morning, I was called out to another range in Bandipur TR, around 15 kilometers away. I was given barely any case description over the phone, except being told to carry along a tranquilization kit. This didn’t bode well for what was in store for me. When I got to the site (dressed in my shorts and crocs which isn’t exactly official wildlife vet attire!), there were hundreds of villagers crowding the streets, surrounding a densely wooded plot, adjacent to a village.
The Forest Department staff were already on the scene trying in vain to keep the villagers away from the lantana bushes where the tiger was reportedly hiding. The tiger had allegedly killed several cattle over a month-long binge.
After almost an hour of failed crowd control and panic, I was positioned downwind of where the tiger was reported to be. Armed with a large tranquilizer gun, I was told to shoot the animal which was to be driven towards my location.
Needless to say, I was scared out of my mind! I did not fancy a scared, angry tiger running straight at me as there was very little cover to hide in. However, we soon got reports that the tiger had already given us the slip and snuck out through a narrow canal that went under the road and into more woods on the other side.
Half an hour later, a forest guard ran up to us and directed us to another site where the tiger was spotted. The entire lot of FD staff and my team drove to the spot, parked our vehicles and then walked nearly a kilometre away to a small L-shaped ravine created by a dried up stream.
The FD staff were divided up into squads and instructed to walk along the length of the ravine hurling firecrackers and firing their guns into the air, in an effort to drive the tiger down to where the FD veterinarian and I were waiting with loaded tranquilising guns. The plan backfired since the tiger refused to emerge into the open and instead turned around and charged at the Department staff. It was the first time I had ever heard a full throated roar from a tiger, and it scared the bejeezus out of me!
There were several attempts to flush it out which were hampered by the crowd of at least a thousand villagers that had gathered around to watch, cheer and drink. It was almost 4.30 pm when a young forest guard approached me quietly and asked me to follow him without letting anyone else know. He told me that he could get me to a spot where I could shoot the tiger without anyone getting in the way. I followed him down to the other end of the ravine, and found myself in a spot about 15 feet away from the tiger.
Although, all I could see was the lower half of his right hind leg as he was standing in a lantana thicket. I raised my gun quietly, set the CO2 canister to the required setting as he was too close for a full canister and waited for a good shot. Suddenly, some of the villagers on the other side of the ravine threw in a firecracker which exploded right next to the tiger. The tiger roared and charged at us. The guard and I, who were flanked with an armed escort, turned, and ran as fast as we possibly could. I ran uphill, towards the bend in the ravine, assuming naturally that it was the safest place to be. I also assumed the guard and the gunner were running alongside me.
I ran, faster than I have ever run before, imagining myself being torn to shreds as I could hear the grunting of the tiger right behind me. I got to a vantage point at the L-bend and found the tiger right in front of me. The tiger had run along the length of the ravine and was in the process of crossing a narrow man made path that crossed through the gully. I lifted the gun and shot him on the thigh.
Here I was, completely out of breath, wearing only one croc as the other had fallen off in my mad dash to safety and found myself without the guard and gunner at the top of the slope facing the tiger I was trying to get way from.
It was rather hilarious later on as the officials and media who were on the other side of the ravine saw me running up the slope, lifting up the gun and shooting the tiger in matter of seconds. They thought I had run after it to shoot it and handed me a commendation a few weeks after. I was trying desperately not to giggle during that ceremony and didn’t have the heart to tell them that they had got it all wrong.
The tiger required one more tranquilizer dose before it was netted and shifted into the cage, towards a life in captivity. The process was slowed down by the locals, all of whom wanted to touch the tiger and jeer while the poor beast was being rounded up. I was given a resounding thump on the head with a stick by one drunk villager after I hit him or his friend (I am not so sure) with the butt of the gun while I was attempting to aim the second shot at the tiger.
The said villagers were standing right behind me and holding the gun stock, trying to aim it for me while the tiger, which was still awake, but drowsy was walking up the slope towards another bunch of locals. This is when I wrenched the gun out of their grasp, , lifted it up the second time that day and shot the tiger in the left thigh.
About a second later I was hit in the head, after which I retreated to a safe spot. I was told later on that the tiger had been shot the previous night by a villager and that the veterinary team at the zoo pulled out several metal shotgun pellets from his hindquarters as he had been shot in the rump while running away.
I didn’t see the tiger again until almost two months later when I was allowed in to the zoo hospital where he was recuperating. He managed to scare the pants off me yet again when he lunged at me through the bars of his enclosure. He is fine and healthy now and his release back into the wild is being contemplated. I now ensure I jog and run as often as I can, just in case I’m forced to make another hasty scoot for safety…
