The First Council of War
After gathering all the information that we could about the first two kills we decided to meet in the Dodi Rest House to prepare our strategy for tacking the man eater. I have already described the topoography of the village of Dodi, situated on the banks of the Dudhi river, this is a roadside hamlet, typical of the many such village to be found by the side of the Indore- Bhopal highway. Its location- roughly half way between Indore and Bhopal makes it a favourite stop over for those traveling between these two cities. The chief building of this place is the PWD Rest House, a solid masonry structure, with two identical rooms situated beside a central hall. This ordinary looking building stands right at the side of the highway in a large compound of its own. There is nothing remarkable about the building, but as the reader shall see later, unusual things do happen there sometimes.
As this building was situated in the heart of the man eater's territory it suggested itself as the natural place to convene the first council of war so to speak. A few words should be said about the people who gathered at this conclave. The first of these was Bruno D'cruz, the district Superintendent of police. D'cruz, whose untimely death was universally mourned, was a man loved by all those who knew him. He was a hard drinking, hard driving, hard working man who did nothing by halves. D'cruz was proud of his marksmanship, as he was of his physical strength. Once, to prove a point he raised the solid iron axle of a railway carriage overhead, in one smooth hoist. He could also do one arm press ups. He was certainly fond of his drink, but then so are a number of lesser beings who have risen to the top. D'cruz was warm hearted and generous to a fault, and no one was sadder than I when his career ran in to trouble over the usual trifling matters. An adverse remark, made almost in passing by a censorious superior, was enough to destroy the career and ultimately to take the life of this loveble heman being. But all this was still in the future, in these far off days, D'cruz was still in the prime of life, fit and strong and game for everything.
The Divisional Forest Officer in these days was Chandhry, a young officer in his first divisional charge, ideally he should have been one of the heroes of the story, but somehow, he doesn't seem to figure very largely in this narrative, instead it is his two Assitant Conservators Shrivastava and then Naqvi, who played the stellar role on behalf of the forest department, shrivastava, quiet and efficient, did commendable work in organizing the whole operation in the initial stages, Naqvi, who shall be mentioned in the dispatehes at a later stage, was more of a character, brash, excitable, and prone to bouts of violent enthusiasm, he made a lively member of the party.
I must also mention the suffering Kaurav, the sub Divisional Officer of Astha, who had never ventured on a Shikar in his life, but tried manfully to rise ti the challenge. I remember one morning in particular, when news was brought to us that a wolf had been sighted in village semli jadid, on the extreme South West on the Dewas border. I was on the spot within an hour, with a party of SAF jawans armed with 303 rifles and Kaurav unarmed but willing to play his bit. I asked one of the jawans to give him a rifle. We soon fanned out in a large semicircle and started combing the fields and the rough country that led into the forest and the neighbouring hills. As the sun rose higher, the going got tougher, but there was no sign of the wolf. After walking thus, with our eyes peeled, our hands on the trigger, our nerves tingling, I realized the futility of looking for the wolf in the vast stretch of broken country chase and returned to our vehicles, but this unaccustomed exertion proved too much for kaurav, who well ill that very day, and was bed ridden for the better part of a week. Notwithstanding this misadventure, Kaurav looked after the logistic side of the operation, the provision of guns and cartridges as well as Shikaris and not least the task of providing food at irregular hours, to all and sundry. His successor Sharma was a tall personable man with a ready smile and a bluff and genial manner who also played a notable part in this story at a later stage.
That day those of us who sat down around the old dining table at Dodi Rest House included D'cruz, Shrivatava, Kaurav, and myself. D'cruz had a simple idea, saturate the whole area with an army of armed policeman and sooner or later they will shoot down the man eater. I explained to him that killing a man eating wolf was a different kettle of fish from killing a dacoit in te ravines of chambal, and in any case I could not risk the consequences of surrendering the area to the fancies of a whole posse of trigger happy cops. For one thing they might come in each others way, and shoot each other rather than the elusive animal, even if it were to fall into any trap scare away the animal lay for it. "No", I told him politely but firmly, "the remedy proposed was worse than the disease and some other option would have to be considered."
Shrivastava suggested tying up baits at selected spot and putting up local shikaris and forest department sharpshooters over these baits. This idea seemed to make more sense and we agreed with his suggestions. Shrivatava also felt that we should rope in the wild life experts at Bhopal, chief of whom was Mr Lad, the chief wild life warden. This too was agreed upon.
After much deliberation and disputation-this was what we decided-
1-Baits should be tied up at Rupahera. Amal Mazzu, Gwala, Arnia Gazi and the Dodi Plateau. These baits, consisting of young goats or sheep, should be tied up, either at water holes or game trails frequented by the man eater. Shikaris, armed with. 12 bore shot guns should sit over these baits.
2-Shikari should also sit in ambush, concealed in carefully constructed hides, situated by the side of game trails or other sports which we had reason to suspect were used by the man eater.
3-Police pickets should be posted at all the affected villages to keep up morale and to assist search parties should the need arise .
4-There should be four mobile patrolling parties ,moving over the area at times of the day and night .
These elaborate arrangements -dictated both by common sense and logic should have definitely brought the man eater 's activities to a stop ,but as luck would have it they had not the slightest effect on the killings ,which continued unabated.
