It was the April of 1974 , at our family Tea Estate in Jolpaiguri . I was a mild mannered , ( stupid ) law abiding citizen during the day . And a poacher during the night . It just so happened that on one night , our employees had notified me of a large Nilgai ( Blue Bull ) which had wandered into our property . Knowing how delicious the tenderloin of Blue Bull can be when grilled like a steak , I was determined to make an attempt in bagging it , that night .
So I took my IOF 12 Bore DBBL ( Indian Ordinance Factories 12 Bore Double Barrel Side By Side Shotgun ) and decided to make the right ammunition to take down a Nilgai . Back in those days , Indian Ordinance Factories used to make 12 Bore 2 3/4 inch cartridges in three shot sizes : No. 2 , No. 4 and No. 6 . Buckshot had become prohibited in India ( and indeed , any shot size with a pellet diameter larger than 4.8 millimeter ) and thus , we poachers had to resort to some extremely innovative solutions . Fortunately , an extremely simple solution existed , back in those days .
If you visited any bicycle repair shop in India during the 1970s , then they would sell you ball bearings ( which were used in the pedals and brakes of bicycles ) . Unlike modern ball bearings ( Which are made of hardened steel ) , the ball bearings used in bicycles in India back in those days , used to be made from lead . I would simply purchase entire bags of ball bearings of different sizes , to reload into my 12 Bore cartridges as I saw fit .
For a Nilgai or a Chital Deer , what we would do was to remove the birdshot from a 12 bore cartridge and replace it with six large leaden pellets , before re attaching the cardboard top wad once again . This was what we used to call “ Indian LG “ . It was workable , as long as the ranges were kept short . And this was exactly what I had done , that day . As customary for all of my nocturnal shooting activities , I also had a small , but powerful flashlight attached to the fore end of my IOF 12 Bore DBBL with duct tape .
I enlisted the help of T E and we made our plan of action . At about 10 ‘ O clock at night , we both set out to the part of the Tea Estate where my employees had reported seeing the Nilgai earlier during the day . We finally ( but predictably ) caught sight of him , at the orchard where our mango garden was ( I had also managed to bag two Chital Deer in this part of our Tea Estate , on two separate occasions ) . He was 150 yards away from both of us , and I resolved to get much closer to him . I whispered to T E to get circle around the Nilgai and try to get behind him . T E would then “ spook “ the Nilgai into coming towards me . TE obediently nodded and began to circle around the Nilgai , while I cautiously kept my eyes glued to the prize . I hid myself , by crouching down amongst the grass.
T E got behind the Nilgai and scooped up a handful of pebbles . He threw them towards the direction of the Nilgai , and the startled animal bounded away from him . In doing so , the Nilgai was coming right towards my direction . I patiently waited until the animal was within eight meters of me , before leaping up and switching on my flashlight as I raised my IOF 12 Bore DBBL to my shoulder . I fired off my left barrel at the animal ; center of mass before quickly firing off my right barrel as well . The concentrated charge of Indian LG ( 12 leaden pellets ) caught the Nilgai square on , in the chest and the animal went down fast . I had done it . We would now able to enjoy some delicious Nilgai meat for the rest of the week . Dad in particular , used to absolutely love the rump of Blue Bull ( And he still misses eating it very much , today ) .
I used to have a close childhood friend in a neighboring Tea Estate ( who is still extremely close to me ) who was well aware of my nocturnal poaching activities . He used to hunt at night , himself with his IOF 12 Bore DBBL in his own Tea Estate . Since he still lives in India currently and still hunts at night ( outside the parameters of the draconian Indian law ) , let us just refer to him as S T . Now ST was a Hindu , but he followed a school of Hinduism which did not believe that Nilgais were members of the bovine family ( a species of animal , which is sacred to followers of the Hindu faith ) . To the best of my my knowledge , there are a few different schools of thought followed by different followers of the Hindu faith :
- You had vegetarians who ate eggs and dairy , but no meat .
- You had vegetarians who ate dairy , but no meat or eggs .
- You had Jains who were COMPLETELY vegan and even avoided root vegetables , because they believed that pulling a root vegetable out of the soil would harm the micro organisms around the soil .
- You had non vegetarian Hindus who ate all meat , except bovines . They considered the Nilgai to be a bovine .
- You had non vegetarian Hindus who ate all meat , except bovines . They ate Nilgais too , because they considered Nilgai to be a large antelope instead of a bovine .
It was ( and is) with these last two groups of Hindus with whom my family and I bonded extremely well . S T absolutely loved the venison of Nilgai and when I told him that I had bagged a beautiful Nilgai the previous night , he immediately accepted my invitation for dinner . Mom prepared an entire tenderloin of Nilgai in a Continental style . She oven roasted it to medium doneness , and served it with roasted root vegetables , crispy potatoes and horseradish cream . As Mom , Dad , S T and I ate our meal , we all began to chat .
S T’s personal man servant ( let us henceforth refer to him , as C ) was out side our house and was eating his meal in our servant’s quarters . After he was done , he had gone to the servant’s washroom ( which was located quite far from the servant’s quarters building ) . By the time S T had completed his meal and it was time for him to go home , he had called for C . However , C had never returned from the wash room . Dad sent one of our servants to go to the servant’s wash room to call C .
However , our servant came back and told us that C was not there . He had simply vanished . S T went back home , by himself ; quite confused and worried . Mom suggested that maybe C had felt sick and simply returned home , to S T’s Tea Estate .
If only Mom was right .
In the morning , we heard a scream of horror from our Tea Estate workers .
There ; lying at least 800 meters away from the servant’s washroom , was the brutally mangled corpse of C . The corpse was eviscerated , and the innards were jutting out like a coil of Cumberland sausage . His rib cage was torn open and his lungs were pierced . Almost all of the flesh in his throat had been bitten off , right down to the spinal column . Both of his eyes had been gouged out . One ear was merely dangling by a strand of skin . His face and body looked as if someone had dropped a power saw over him . However , just by glancing at the wound patterns on C’s corpse , I knew that this was the work of no power saw . The flesh from the buttocks had been completely gnawed off . Right down to the bone . This was not the work of a power saw .
No. This was the work of a Chita Baagh . A Hunting Leopard. A man eater .
IOF 12 Bore DBBL
IOF 12 Bore Cartridges ( No. 2 , No. 4 , No.6 and another No.4 )
