By Riaz Sharrif
AFTERMATH
“ The man eating Royal Bengal tiger was the very first to have his skin removed and his limbs butchered . 13 LG slugs from my shotgun were found embedded on the rock hard chest muscles of the animal . They had completely flattened against the chest muscles . Captain Howard’s 570 grain soft nosed bullet had penetrated right into the Royal Bengal tiger’s head and this what what had killed him. The animal’s mouth was missing a fang , for some reason. No doubt... the loss of a fang , was what had caused this Royal Bengal tiger to become a man eater.
The Royal Bengal tigress was the second animal to have her skin removed and her limbs butchered . Four of Mr. Naidu’s 300 grain soft nosed Winchester Silvertips were found inside the animal’s heart and lungs . One was found inside her left lung . One was found inside her heart. Two were found inside her right lung . The iron spear blade had broken the animal’s spinal column .
The male Hunting Leopard which I had killed ... was the third animal to have his skin removed and his limbs butchered . I was particularly keen to examine this one , because it was the very first dangerous game animal in my life which I had killed .
I had shot the animal twice at ranges of less than ten feet with two Eley Alphamax LG cartridges. Now , I looked at the results . I did not feel proud. I felt lucky .
12 LG slugs were found embedded in the rock hard chest muscles of the Leopard. They were all flattened like clay putty . One .36 caliber LG slug had somehow managed to penetrate into the animal’s heart . This was what had killed him . Had that one LG slug been unable to reach the animal’s heart ... then I am fairly certain that the fate of myself and the cameraman would have been far worse. Interestingly enough , we found a human toe bone inside the Leopard’s stomach and two or three porcupine quills stuck under the animal’s chin . Captain Howard speculated that this Leopard was a man eater , as well .
The female Hunting Leopard which I had shot and the American female client had finished off ... was the fourth and final animal to have her skin removed and her limbs butchered . As soon as the skin was completely removed... Ten .36 caliber LG slugs dropped to the ground ; virtually all of them flattened . Some had dented and cracked the Leopard’s skull . Yet, not even one had actually managed to penetrate into the Leopard’s brain . The American female client’s 300 grain soft nosed Winchester Silvertip had completely blown clean through the animal’s spinal column .
Mr. Naidu and Captain Howard both proudly told our clients that Riaz Sharrif , 17 year old junior professional Shikari had just killed his very first Hunting Leopard , today . I outwardly acted quite proud , but in reality I was just thanking God ... as to how fortunate I had been , that one LG slug had managed to reach the Leopard’s heart . Our American clients cheered for us and the American female client told me that technically I had killed two , because I had actually managed to knock out the female Hunting Leopard with a charge of LG slugs ...before she had managed to finish it off . I shyly told the lady that I could only take credit for one . She bagged the female Leopard.
When we all had returned to Allwyn Cooper Limited , we all looked at the footage collected on the video cameras . To say that it was amazing ... would be an understatement. We saw some live footage of a massive python slowly crawl down from a tree branch and get ahold of a langur monkey ... before suffocating it to death , crushing it’s bones and swallowing it whole .
We also learnt that the terrified beater who claimed that he was attacked by a python... was actually telling the truth. The video footage showed the poor man walking under a tree while beating ... when all of a sudden a huge python hanging from a tree , suddenly wrapped itself tightly around his neck . The terrified man struggled in vain to escape the python’s grasp . He finally managed to break the tree branch , itself . This caused the python to fall to the ground ... temporarily causing it to loosen it’s grip around the beater . This bought the beater just the window of opportunity that he needed. He bolted away from the fallen python as fast as possible .
Th finished film looked beautiful , if somewhat untruthful . It was edited to make things look ... as if I had successfully taken out both of the Hunting Leopards . For the last 61 years of my life... I have always personally believed that the American female client deserved credit for putting down the female Hunting Leopard. The pregnant Royal Bengal tigress killed by Mr. Naidu was made to look like a man eater. Other than that , the video was truly amazing.
This day was quite a memorable one in both my career and my life . It was the day when I had successfully brought down my first Hunting Leopard ( albeit through sheer luck , than skill ) . I would go on to shoot and kill five more Hunting Leopards ( three of them , man eaters ) and two Royal Bengal tigers ( both of them , man eaters ) in my life .
When I returned home , Father was enraged that I had lied to him and disobeyed him . Mr. Shukla had proudly told Father over telephone about how I had successfully brought down a man eating Hunting Leopard... blissfully ignorant of the fact that I was attempting to keep Father in the dark about the incident. I was extremely terrified of the possibility of Father forbidding me from ever working for Allwyn Cooper Limited again .
However , Father was Father and he loved me very much . He finally accepted the fact that his son derived enjoyment from hunting dangerous game . Within a few days ... Father was proudly telling all of his friends ( as well as the owners of the other Tea Estates near ours ) about how his 17 year old son had successfully brought down a charging man eating Hunting Leopard with a shotgun . As long as Father lived , he always was proud of me. And I was proud to have a Father like him.
Unfortunately, Father breathed his last... two years later , in 1961. During an unfortunate incident while horse riding ... Father fell from a mare and broke his neck. Death was instant ... but for me , the pain was endless . I was 19 years old , at the time and Father had left the entire Tea Estate in my name. I graduated from Dacca University in 1962 and decided to honor Father’s soul by running the Tea Estate. However , I also needed to keep my mind off of any negative thoughts .
Thus , in 1962 ... I began to work in Allwyn Cooper Limited as a professional Shikari.
Captain Howard and his family had permanently returned to Australia . Indians were getting increasingly hostile towards all Caucasians who had still chosen to remain behind after India won it’s Independence in 1947. They were attempting to deprive American , Australian, English and European residents of all of their property and wealth ... by making all sorts of excuses to confiscate their lands and valuables . Captain Howard did the intelligent thing by returning to Australia with his family , before he would have to face the same indignity and harassment ( He clearly had a good amount of foresight ) . Mr. Naidu now completely ran the show . I had also inherited Father’s Brno .22 LR bolt action rifle , by now . Becoming a professional Shikari brought a great deal of peace and mental stability to me . For the next nine years of my life ... I was actually able to enjoy the golden age of Shikar in India.
For quite a few years of my life ... I had to make do with just Father’s 12 Bore William Wellington Greener side by side shotgun and Brno .22 LR bolt action rifle for hunting all of my quarry . Much later , in 1996 ... I was quite fortunate to be able to purchase a fine Savage Model 110 bolt action rifle chambered in 7 mm Mauser ( 7x57 mm Mauser ) when eight of them got imported into Bangladesh for sale , by the BSF ( Bangladesh Shooting Federation ) . I found the Savage Model 110 and the 7 mm Mauser to be quite a regal combination . Aside from Chital Deer for the pot , Bengal Bush Boars and the odd Asian Sloth Bear , I used it over the years ... to dispatch two man eating Hunting Leopards and two man eating Royal Bengal tigers after
receiving authorization from the Forest Department to put an end to their attacks on local villagers. However , I do not need to bore anyone with those stories . “
THE END
