By Riaz Sharrif
AN UNEXPECTED SURPRISE
“ It was the January of 1997 in Bangladesh . Among other properties , my loving wife and I owned ( and still do own ) a Bungalow near the Sundarban Mangrove Forests ... where we (would ) often spend some quality time among nature ... once every two months . Naturally , our quality time involved the hobby which we both love the most -
Shikar . Thus , we both always brought along our firearms in anticipation of a good time . The employees of the Sundarban Forest Department were all extremely close to us . In January , we had both gone off for another such trip ... to the Sundarban Mangrove Forests .
I had brought along my William Wellington Greener 12 Bore Side By Side Shotgun ( for which I had brought along Eley Alphamax Number 6 , Eley Alphamax Number 1 and Eley Alphamax LG cartridges ) and my 7x57 mm Mauser caliber Remington Model 700 bolt action rifle . The shotgun was a weapon which I was intimately familiar with . It was inherited from my late Father . The Remington Model 700 was one of the eight 7x57 mm Mauser caliber Remington Model 700s which was imported into Bangladesh by Bangladesh Shooting Federation in 1996 ... along with eight boxes of Winchester Super X 175 grain soft nosed cartridges . I had immediately purchased one on the very first chance that I got ... along with three 20 round boxes of cartridges . I also owned a .22 LR ( Long Rifle ) caliber Brno bolt action rifle ... but I decided to leave that one home for this trip .
My beautiful wife brought along her .22 WMR ( Winchester Magnum Rimfire ) caliber Anschutz bolt action rifle for Shikar , as well as her .32 ACP ( Automatic Colt Pistol ) caliber Astra Model 4000 semi automatic pistol for her personal protection ( For the Sundarban Mangrove Forests are crawling with Dacoits , as well ) .
So one day , my wife and I were both hunting cranes near one of the streams , there .
My talented wife ( being a competition shooter ) preferred ( and still prefers ) to take cranes out with a 40 grain full metal jacket .22 WMR slug to the head or neck ... while the crane is on the water . I ( lacking such finesse) prefer to simply take the cranes down with 12 Bore 36 gram Number 6 shotgun cartridges. After shooting our legally permissible bag limit of cranes ... we had our male servants from the bungalow , collect all of the fallen cranes . While waiting for the boys to collect all of the fallen cranes , my wife and I could see two Shaotaal villagers frantically running towards us .
I asked them what was wrong . They told us that a Baagh ( a member of the Panthera family ) had killed two Shaotaal children in a village nearby ... and they begged me to shoot and kill it . My wife and I exchanged glances and even without saying a word ... we both instantly mutually agreed that something must be done to aid these villagers and rid them of this nuisance animal . I asked the Shaotaal villagers how big this Baagh was . They replied that it was a Baagh Dhasha ( Clouded Leopard ) .
Now, Clouded Leopards do not worry me even one bit . They seldom weigh above 52 pounds or reach a nose to tail length of anything larger that four and a half feet . My late friend , the dearly deceased M A Karim killed 73 Clouded Leopards in his life . He would spend his entire nights in the mango gardens of the Terai region, chasing and shooting Clouded Leopards on foot ... often going so far as to take down three of them in a single night . I pondered whether I should rush back to the Bungalow to get my Remington Model 700 ... or if my shotgun was enough . Since Clouded Leopards were not very large ... I rationalized that my shotgun would be enough .
I was carrying four Eley Alphamax LG cartridges inside one of the pockets of my hunting vest ( This is something which I always do , whenever I go wing shooting ... because the Shikari never knows when he might cross paths with larger game , while attempting to have his dogs flush out a quail or a pigeon ) . So , I broke open the breech of my William Wellington Greener shotgun and watched the automatic ejectors pop out the expended Eley Alphamax Number 6 cartridge cases ... before I slipped an Eley Alphamax LG cartridge into the chamber of each barrel and closed the breech of the shotgun. I told my wife to take the freshly harvested cranes and our servants and to return to the bungalow . I expected to kill the Clouded Leopard rather quickly and return back to the bungalow . I then , set off with the two Shaotaal villagers to find the Clouded Leopard which had killed the two Shaotaal children .
When we arrived at the village , I could see at least two dozen Shaotaal villagers surrounding a hole in the ground . In their hands were fishing harpoons and Ram Dao machetes ( locally made machetes forged from the steel of truck leaf springs ) .
I asked the Shaotaal villagers where the Baagh was . They all pointed at the hole in the ground . I pondered for a few seconds and decided to crawl into the hole with my shotgun ... in order to find and shoot that Clouded Leopard . I held my shotgun in my left hand and a small torchlight in my right hand , as I began to crawl into the hole . The torchlight provided me with barely enough illumination ... as I crawled through the hole. I heard a feral snarl and I quickly pointed my torchlight at the source of the sound .
At first , I could only make out a vague outline of something moving ... right in front of me . I saw something which looked to be similar in size to an English Stallion , but it had black stripes all across it’s body .
It was not a Clouded Leopard . It was a Royal Bengal Tiger . It looked as big as a horse . And it was staring right at me . It was slowly crawling towards me and I knew that I had to defend myself . So , I thrust the barrels of my William Wellington Greener shotgun forward ( Roughly two feet away from the head of the Royal Bengal Tiger ) and pulled both triggers ... in a last ditch effort to protect myself . I immediately regretted doing this .
Firstly , you should never discharge a firearm inside an enclosed space , without wearing some sort of hearing protection . This is because the sound has no where to go ... but right back into the ears of the Shikari . When said firearm happens to be something as loud as a 12 Bore shotgun ... you are only adding to the problem . My ear drums felt like bursting .
Secondly , those 16 LG .36 caliber lead slugs ( despite being fired directly into the Royal Bengal Tiger’s forehead at a point blank range of two feet ) did not have any visible effects upon the Royal Bengal Tiger ... other than to make it extremely furious .
It loudly roared and crawled towards me . I desperately began to crawl backwards ... in a frenzied attempt to escape the hole , before the Royal Bengal Tiger managed to reach me . I can honestly admit without any shame , that had we both been on open ground ... the Royal Bengal Tiger would have effortlessly reached me , and I would have been pretty much done for . The only reason that I had survived this incident ... was because we were both crawling inside a hole , and the Royal Bengal Tiger’s movement was greatly constricted inside the hole ( This is because it could not properly move it’s limbs inside the hole ... or even stand up , for that matter ) .
Finally , I managed to crawl out of that hole and onto the surface . But things were not over . Far from it . “
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The wife's .32 ACP caliber Astra 4000 semi automatic pistol.
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My William Wellington Greener 12 Bore Side By Side Shotgun .
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Eley Alphamax LG cartridges ( Old Stock ) , with the eight .36 caliber lead slugs cut out and displayed ... for reference .
