The story of a Braveheart

When first spotted in Kaziranga National Park around January 2014 he was almost gone. He was seen crossing the Brahmaputra and climbing a sandy river island. The right eye was missing and so was the right ear. His head had a gaping hole most probably from the bullet of a poacher. It was almost taken for granted that he would not survive and when he was not seen anywhere for the next one year he was counted as another casualty between human greed and animal survival.

In January 2015 I was conducting a safari with some Dutch tourists and on the last day the light was fading fast. When we took a turn in the forest path an alarm call was sounded by a Rhesus Macaque. I immediately halted my Gypsy and we waited with bated breath for a tiger to appear. In Kaziranga tigers are difficult to see because of the dense tall grass, though it has one of the highest density of tigers. A wait of almost 15 minutes and out strode the Tiger which was taken for dead. He noticed us and halted in his tracks and crouched down on his haunches and waited. When he did not detect any threat from us he got up and crossed the forest path and went on to drink water.

It was a joy for me personally to see that he had survived a terrible wound and was in good health even after an year with one eye and one ear. The head wound had miraculously healed. Here was a Braveheart if ever I saw one.

D7000+Nikkor 80-400 VR ; 1/320 ; f/5.6 ; ISO 800

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