Tigress & boar in Madhya Pradesh well: A Kipling drama in Mowgli's jungle

BHOPAL: Panchtantra met Jungle Book in the jungles of Seoni, Madhya Pradesh, when a tigress and a boar fell into a well and were trapped in a dramatic battle of survival.
The tigress was perhaps chasing the boar when they both plunged into the unwalled well in the heat of pursuit. Predator and prey treaded water, often rubbing skin in the closed confines.
Interestingly, though, they mostly faced away from each other, perhaps by pure instinct. The tigress knew predation would be pointless if it couldn't eat, and faced the other way. The boar, realizing there was nowhere to run, followed the predator's lead, even leaning on it when tired.
They were rescued in the evening by forest officials with some jungle jugaad. And each went its own way.
Fittingly, this drama played out in the forest that was the setting for Kipling's 'Jungle Book'. Mowgli's Seoni is in Pench National Park, around 400km from Bhopal.
Villagers of Piparia Harduli, in the Jikurai forest area, were in for a shock when they made their morning walk to the well to fetch water - a tigress and a boar were looking up at them.
The tigress, exhausted from swimming, was visibly tired but remained calm. The boar would struggle from time to time just to stay afloat, trembling more from its proximity to the tigress than the cold water.
The villagers alerted the local forest office. Kurai forest range assistant Shariq Khan got the call around 9am.
A team from Pench Tiger Reserve, along with police, arrived on the scene and realized that there was no manual for such a rescue and they had to come up with some jugaad.
The well was roped off to keep villagers well away from the scene of operation. Foresters worked out a system of ropes and tackles and used a JCB and a hydraulic crane to lower a cot and a cage into the well.
The tigress lunged at the cot, and grabbed on to it, roaring, growing and refusing to let go. Foresters knew the cot would break under the tigress' weight and tried to push it away with a stick. The tigress snarled and roared and swiped at the stick but it eventually got the message and went back into the water.
Tigress to be released in Nauradehi Sanctuary
When the cage was lowered, with its trapdoor open, the tigress attacked it. It took a while to understand that the metal beast wasn't going to swallow it, and gingerly climbed into it to cheers from above. The trapdoor fell shut.
The boar, meanwhile, had realized that the cot was meant for it, and climbed on to it. Both animals were pulled to safety. The boar was released back in the forest.
The tigress, believed to be about three years old, will be released in Nauradehi Sanctuary of Veerangana Durgavati Tiger Reserve in Sagar. Jungle tales do come true. tnn