by G. Shaheed

Annoyed, the Tiger reacted with a grimace. Gautham, the tusker had snorted like a mischievous school boy to wake up the majestic cat from its sweet slumber amid the towering dry grass.

The Tiger peeped through the grass blades moving in the wind. The golden yellow hair and the stripes left those atop the elephant transfixed. It was an incredible sight. Someone cried out in excitement. Yet the Tiger was calm, though the elephant had intruded into its rightful territory.

Close by, equally unperturbed, was another Tiger cooling itself in a pool of water. By this time, more elephants with men and children had come around.

It is a priceless treasure - the Tigers of Bandhavgarh National Park in central India. Apart from the Tigers there, a young mahout named Mr. Abraham Kuttappan is the centre of attraction. Twenty - five years of camaraderie with animals has made Kuttappan a perfect guide to the visitors of the Park. Climb on the ramp of his tusker - doubtless, he will drive you to the Tiger heartland. He can scent a Tiger. Though the sand of the forest may go without pug marks, Kuttappan could track it from his rich and varied experience. He is endowed with such skills and sixth sense. A keen naturalist and scrupulous Tiger watcher, he is an accomplished photographer too. Interact with this splendid mahout at least once, and he will impress you as a never-to-be-forgotten wildlifer.

Wildlife experts say the Tiger is a shy animal. but in Bandhavgarh most of them are not shy. "They love to be watched and photographed", says Kuttappan, who would tell you more about Tiger behaviour and its ecology from his meticulous watching.

Kuttappan knows every nook and corner of the park. He is rightly judged as the man for all seasons of the Park. That is his great advantage. Step into his little apartment and you will be amazed by the hundreds of phonographs of the Tigers he has shot with his camera. You would be convinced he is a self-made wildlife photographer.

Kuttappan has seen the Tiger in all its moods. He would say that some Tigers are romantic and dreamy. A few are melancholic, thoughtful. Some look like cynics. But most of them have childlike simplicity. A few have marked personal charisma of their own. But unfortunately some are sluggish and apathetic. Most of them love to be photographed. They pose for the camera - holding wildlife enthusiasts. They seem to wonder what a marvel is a man devoid of a gun to shoot at them. Indeed by the passage of time the spirit of conservation, Tiger hunting has turned to the Tiger watching.

I have visited Bandhavgarh National Park many times, the first one in May 1989. The first visit itself was incredible. Kuttappan took me and friends to a Tiger dozing in the grass. I asked him whether the Tiger would raise his head and open his eyes. We waited for some time. The Tiger knew there was an intruder elephant. But it was a common sight for him. There existed excellent rapport with the Tiger and the elephant. It was an experience of mutual respect built over the years. So that the Tiger never had any occasion to grumble at the sight of the elephant.

When I was there again after six months, Kuttappan took me with him. We again searched for the big cat for more than four hours. The blazing sun made me tired. I quipped to Kuttappan, "What happened? Usually you used to trace the Tiger in an hour or so. Where are they? Have they broken the rapport with you?" Kuttappan took it easily. He said, "Don't be anxious. They are nearby. I have wind of them. You can see three or four". He directed the elephant to a rocky height. After that there was no regular path. But his pet elephant Gautham broke the bamboo branches and forged ahead. Later, we came to a very dry area covered with bamboo leaves. "Could you see Tigers?", Kuttappan asked. Myself and friends look around. But we could not feel anything.

It was a perfect camouflage. The yellow stripe of three Tigers had merged with the yellow dry bamboo leaves. It seemed difficult to separate the two. But Kuttappan could locate the Tigers out of his experience. Hen then drove the elephant closely to our astonishment to see the Tigers unmindful of us. We very much enjoyed them. My friends had their cameras clicking many times. It was such an eventful day. We called it a day, drank much Maruha (a local drink made from the mahua tree). We were so proud of him, and during the night we saw many of Kuttappan's colour slides of Tigers.

Next day when we saw a Tiger, it crouched. It seemed the Tiger was hostile and would charge sometimes. But Kuttappan told us not to mind him. He is only an actor, harmless, told Kuttappan. It was true. When the elephant advanced a little, the belligerent mood fizzled out. On another occasion we saw a mother and cub. The mother was relaxed and gave the cub a free hand. The cub had its tender age adventuresomeness. It tried to scratch the pillar-like front leg of the elephant. It was in a joyful mood and played around. Sometimes the cub was in a mood to charge. But the elephant straightened its truck to quell the uprising. The mother then called the cub to devour the flesh of a deer killed a little while ago.

There were man-eaters in the Bandhavgarh forest area till recently. In 1983. after three months of search Kuttappan shot one down in Gadpuri near the park under orders from the high authorities. The ferocious Tiger had killed four persons and wounded a few. That night the villagers had revelry with bells and bonfires. Another man-eater which had killed eight had also the same fate at the hands of Kuttappan.

Once Kuttappan asked me, "Have you seen a Tiger's mischievous smile?" I then made a counter question. "Do Tigers smile? Is it like Mona Lisa's smile, a riddle?" "It is only out of experience you can read the language of the Tigers. They can smile, laugh and sob. When once you get the clue, you can make something out of it," he said. He then showed me the mischievous smile of a Tiger. He has so many photos in close-ups of the predator. Showing some of the photos Kuttappan would say that it is innocence personified. It compels the visitors to wipe off the image of the Tiger was a dreadful, bloodthirsty man-eater as encountered many times by the legendary Jim Corbett.

When some of the Indian magazines published Tiger photographs of Kuttappan, the park shot into the limelight. More visitors poured into the park which is in the state of Madhya Pradesh. Jabalpur is the nearest town, nearly four hours drive from the park. From New Delhi if one flies to Jabalpur it would take one and a half hours. By train it would be around fourteen hours.

Bandhavgarh is in the Shadol district of Madhya Pradesh, cradled by the hills of Vinhyas. The park spreads over 448 square kilometres. It was the private hunting ground of the former Maharajas of Rewa. The forest area, with matchless beauty of grasslands, rocks, springs and marshes was declared a national park in 1975. Though there are leopards, wild dogs, sloth bears, different kinds of monkeys, and bison, the park is famous for its Tigers. Whether you go on elephant back or in aj eep, a Tiger sighting is assured.

If the visitors are keen wildlife enthusiasts, Kuttappan loves to share his experience with them. He will describe Tiger sightings, and locations are recorded in his little notebook. He will tell you a great deal about Tiger behaviour and its ecology. No other wildlifer in India has such intimate knowledge of Tigers as Kuttappan.

Kuttappan belongs to a sleepy village called Koothattukulam near Ernakulam in South India. While he was a child his parents migrated to Thamarasserky near Calicut. At the age of 14 he ran away from home in search of a job , due to poverty. He first toiled with some timber operators and later went to Parambikkulam forest. There too, he worked with a timber contractor. He thus came into contact with the elephants and became an assistant to a mahout.

He eked out a living, a very painful experience. He toiled and toiled, sleeping in shacks. He had only rags to shield him from the winter, and the night was frightening because wild elephants were on the rampage.

A year later he could see a silver lining. Mr. Peter, the Chief Wildlife Conservator from Madhya Pradesh State, came to Parambikkulam in search of elephants. The Madhya Pradesh Forest Department wanted to buy a few. Smart and agile Kuttappan attracted Mr. Peter's attention; the way was thus paved for the fortunes of this boy of 15. Gautham, the tusker, reached Bhopal, capital of Madhya Pradesh, in a train, and Kuttappan was employed by the forest department as an assistant mahout.

In 1976, Kuttappan and Gautham were assigned the job of taking visitors to Bandhavgarh National Park on elephant back. "it was a challenging job. Mr. Peter had great confidence n me. Moreover, he belonged to my state, Kerala", Kuttappan recalled. For him it was a rather big opportunity to delve deep into the forest and understand the language of the wild. Tracking Tigers was a hard assignment, patience-testing and exasperating. Gautham, with a mahout and visitors to the park on his back, was a new experience to the Tigers. In the beginning some of the Tigers resisted. Some seethed with discontent. They felt the tusker was a trouble-maker causing damage to their territory and habitat. A few stared and made little charges. But soon they cooled down, realizing that the tusker and mahout would never be a threat. It was the beginning of a splendid rapport between the Tigers and the tusker. There now exists a solid foundation of trust. When Tiger cubs grew up they imbibed the spirit of their mother, of tolerance and mutual respect in the wild.

Kuttappan is now 44. When wildlife photographers came to the park with cameras he could not resist the temptation to buy one. He started with an ordinary camera. Since his schooling was very meagre he did not have much knowledge. He was struggling with the local dialect of Hindi. English was a strange experience. But with time he became well versed in Hindi and other North Indian languages. English he can understand. He is now an excellent wildlife photographer; his varied colour slides bear eloquent testimony to his marvelous composition and vision. He is self-made. He is industrious. His knowledge of Tiger behaviour and its ecology is sound.

Since he left home without notice at the age of 14, his parents never knew where Kuttappan was. Someone had told his mother that a tusker had gored him to death in Parambikkulam. And Kuttappan was uncaring of his parents' worries. He never bothered to write them or send word of his adventures either in Parambikkulam or Bandhavgarh. "I rather forgot them", he said when he met me for the first time in the park.

But July 1989 was an epoch-making event in the life of Kuttappan. His mother and sister wrote to him and thanked God that he was not dead, though someone had said he was no more. I had written an article about the Tigers of Bandhavgarh in the Sunday Supplement of Mathrubhumi newspaper of which I am a correspondent. His sister and brother-in-law had read the article, and in excitement informed his mother. His mother could not believe it, but saw his photograph with Gautham in the press, her eyes struggling to recognise the son who had left her without a word. Her joy was boundless. It was as if Kuttappan had been resurrected from the dead. Two months later on September 12, Kuttappan went to visit his mother in Thamarassery, near Calicut in North Kerala. His mother embraced him very affectionately and conveyed her thanks to me for making this family reunion a reality. It is not an exaggeration to say that if there had not been my article, Kuttappan would never have found his mother. Now, once a year, Kuttappan goes down to Kerala to see his mother.

Endowed with a deeper and keener knowledge of Tiger behaviour than any forest official well-read or trained in any wildlife institute, Kutappan, from his experience, says that he can distinguish one Tiger from another. A Tiger's stripes are unique. No two coats are alike. "I can differentiate them in Bandhavgarh Park", he says.

It is really difficult to see Tigers mating in the wild. But once, when Rajiv Gandhi, former Indian Prime Minister came, Kuttappan spotted one, to his own amazement too.

The eyes of the Tiger are the brightest of any animal in the wild. At dusk or in the beam of a torch they blaze back the ambient light with awe-inspiring intensity. It would be a tragedy and a dereliction of duty if we allowed that magical light to burn out. Kuttappan often repeats these thoughts of wildlife expert "Billy" Arjan Singh, as told to him by a friend: the mahout always dreams of the Tiger, "solitary creature, master predator and India's national animal."