Encounters of the wild variety

Kenneth Anderson must be known to many through his wonderful books on man-eating tigers, leopards and rogue elephants that roamed the south Indian jungles in the fifties and early sixties. His narration is such that you feel as though you are by his side when he tracked those tigers.

I came in contact with his writing when I was in SSLC. Our English textbook carried a chapter entitled ‘Bruno Our Pet’- an extract from one of Anderson’s books. It was a real story of a bear cub rescued from a jungle and brought up fondly in his house in Bangalore. When it grew big Anderson's neighbours objected to its 'dangerous' presence. Anderson took it to the Mysuru Zoo left it there and returned with a heavy heart. But his wife and the poor bear pined for each other. Finally, Anderson went to Mysuru accompanied by his wife and brought the bear back to their Bengaluru house where he created a small island surrounded by a moat for his hairy pet. The story was told in a touching way.

Each one of his encounters with maneaters and rogue elephants was unique. The story 'The Black Rogue of Moyar Valley' in his book ' The Call of the Man-eater' is the best. This black rogue was a bull elephant that trampled people to death in Moyar Valley of Nilgiris. Anderson recounts how he and his American friend, a photographer, ran into this rogue and came within inches of its deadly trunk. But it met with a tragic unexpected end.

Another story (The Killer from Hyderabad) will make the reader's heart race. It was about a man-eating tigress to shoot which Anderson sat on his haunches in the dead of night in a hole he made on the trunk of a dead tree with the half-eaten corpse of a tribal woman killed by the beast earlier, lying in front of him in the heart of a thick forest in Diguvemetta Andhra Pradesh.

Years ago, when I was in Kerala, whenever it rained ceaselessly during monsoon, I used to sit near my bedroom window and read and reread Anderson’s adventures. When it comes to shikari literature, Anderson’s books are the best.