WILD LIFE

Aijeba and I continued down our path as quietly as possible.

As advertised, about a mile in, we came across remnants of her

kills. Chital bones, gaur and boar tusks gleamed in the dusky

shade of the trees; in areas, there were still tufts of fur clinging

to the wet bone. This was no ordinary jungle predator; tigers are

usually solitary hunters and one gaur bull alone would be enough

to satisfy several hungry felines. This creature had ravaged three

rather large animals in a few days at most. The killings were so

recent that the vultures had yet to clean up the mess; or, perhaps,

they too shunned such evil.