Revenge of a Tigress  

Pratap Simha (PS) was born into a family of former kings. His great-grandfather ruled a small princely state in India, which was bestowed upon him as a reward for his loyalty to the British government. After independence, the princely state was merged into the independent Indian Union. His grandfather and father maintain the same pride and arrogance even today. PS imbues similar qualities.

PS's ancestors were great hunters. They used to go to the forests to hunt animals like deer for their feast, and also hunted lions, tigers, and cheetahs but they were rarely successful. They used an open-top jeep, a driver and a few followers with guns. They felt pride in hunting. They were showcasing the deer skins and horns on the palace walls. Tiger skin was used as their meditation mat.

As PS was born and brought up in the same palace and educated in Oxford alongside other children of erstwhile kings, he developed a sense of pride and ego in his behaviour. PS looks after the business his father created. They hold licensed guns. Yes-men surrounded PS.

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PS wanted to test his hunting ability, so he discussed it with his henchmen, and they supported him. They suggested that he take two tribal men from the forest area to have inside details of the forest.

One auspicious day, PS, accompanied by his followers, started for the forest. As they entered the forest, two tribal men were waiting for the jeep. PS followers arranged these tribals. They also boarded the jeep. PS and his followers had guns, while the tribals carried spears. One of the followers was driving. PS had binoculars to spot the tiger from a distance.

They found several rabbits, deer, and elephants on the way. There were various types of birds flying and resting in trees. It was a different world. PS did not show any interest in them. He was looking for a tiger. He asked the tribals to show him the tiger's living area or where they went for drinking water. The tribal men had some idea of the places, and they were guiding the driver. When they were deep inside the forest, PS could notice through his binoculars a tigress milking her cubs. PS stopped the jeep at a distance and asked his followers to load their guns and follow him silently. As they walked, the sound of the leaves under their shoes was audible. He asked them to saunter so that the sound of their footsteps would not be heard.

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As they reached the shooting range from the feeding tigress, PS signalled to everyone to stop talking and walking. He loaded his gun, and so did his followers. The tribal men were ready with their spears. However, the tribal men suggested not to kill, as it was a sin to kill a feeding tiger. But PS didn't heed their words. PS ordered them to be ready, and he fired at the tigress in the head, and it was dead. They waited for any movement from the tigress, and all approached the tigress, confirming its death by turning it over. The cubs were afraid and moved away from their mother. All the birds in the trees felt sorry about the killing of the milking tigress and flew from that place.

PS asked the tribal men to remove the skin and nails and bury the skeleton. The tribals applied their known forest leaf extract and cleaned the skin so that it would not decay. PS paid a substantial amount to the tribals and dropped them off at their village.

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PS decorated his palace hall with the tiger skin, where his friends and visitors sit, to showcase it as a mark of his achievement. He got the tiger nail in a gold locket attached to a gold chain. He puts this over his shirt so that people get attracted to it. His friends and visitors appreciated his achievement, and he took pride in it.

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The tigress's soul was craving for her cub's safety. When the forest range officer was visiting another area, his jeep got diverted to the location where the tigress had been killed. The cubs were weeping for their mother. On seeing the cubs, he got down and instructed his subordinates to search for the mother tiger. They found a recently dug pit covered with soil. They doubted that some people were here and opened the pit. To their surprise, they found the skeleton of the tigress and reported it to their officer. He ordered it to be sent for a postmortem examination at the city veterinary hospital. He also spoke with the city zoo officials and sent the cubs to the zoo for care.

He received the postmortem report stating that the tigress's death was due to a bullet shot in its head from a long-distance gun, and experienced persons peeled off its skin and nails. The officer believed that only tribals, who were capable of such high precision, were responsible for peeling the skin of a tiger.

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 After about six months, PS was interested in arranging a grand party for his friends, complete with deer and rabbit mutton. Hence, he wanted two deer and ten rabbits. He started with his followers and guns in a jeep to the forest early in the morning. As he entered the forest, a tribal girl was waiting on the path and asked for a lift to her village.

The girl was about eighteen years of age, dressed in tribal attire with a saree draped below her navel over her thighs and covering her chest in the front, taken to the back over her left shoulder and secured at the waist. She was black in colour and attractive with broad eyes, round cheeks, a straight nose, and small lips. She was more beautiful with her smile. She had long, curly braided hair that fell to the end of her back, covering her spinal cord and over her saree.

As they reached a certain point in the forest, she requested to be dropped there so that she could walk from that point to her destination. But PS asked the driver to drop her off at her place. The driver followed the instructions. After half an hour of driving, PS suspected that they were near the place where the tigress was. Suddenly, the jeep gave trouble and didn't move further. The driver switched off the engine. He and another follower got out of the vehicle and started checking the engine. PS also got down and asked the tribal girl to get down.

PS was standing under a big old tree with its branches spread in all directions. She was standing a bit far away from him. The followers were busy checking to find out what was wrong with the engine.

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All of a sudden, the climate changed. There was a windstorm accompanied by a heavy downpour. The followers stopped checking the engine and took shelter under the jeep.

The girl looked at PS furiously, her eyes widening and reddening, her hair standing straight up on her head, her face and body transforming into that of a tigress, with its upper teeth protruding on the sides. PS  was shivering with fear and dumbstruck by the sight of the tigress. The tigress then growled at him and swiftly jumped on PS, and he fell to the ground. The tigress sat on his chest, thumped on his heart and lungs, and split his neck and drank his blood. He was dead. It stood on its two back legs and roared about its achievement. By then, the thunderstorm and the downpour had subsided. With the roaring sound, the followers emerged from below the jeep and searched for PS and the girl. By then, the tigress's soul vanished into the air. They found PS dead with all his blood removed, muscles gone, only bones covered with skin left under the tree, with his neck split and his blood all around.

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The followers were afraid and went to the forest range officer and informed him of PS's death. He visited the site and sent the body for a postmortem to the city. The followers informed PS's wife. The postmortem report stated that the death was due to an attack by a tiger.

The forest officer said, "There were no man-eating tigers in their forest".

The followers thought the milking tigress took revenge.

PS's near relatives collected the body and performed the last rites.