‘Aim for the heart, four fingers away from the shoulder’

19 November, 2005

Devi Singh never missed his mark. He has been a well-to-do Moghiya tribal who became a sarpanch one-and-half year back and runs a shuttle jeep to district headquarter Sheopur in Madhya Pradesh. He has two wives, a motorcycle, and two houses in two adjacent villages, Dhamni and Angora. His elder son has been to the local school before he was big enough to look after his father’s agricultural land.
Devi Singh loves the challenge of his muzzle-loading gun. It gives him just one chance at a time. During last two years or so, he used it on tigers on five occasions. Be it twilight or moonlight, he never needed to fire one extra round. Five striped skins were his for just five country-made bullets.
Like most men in his community, Devi Singh hunted for bush meat. For Moghiya and Bagri tribals, it is a way of life. Traditionally, farmers hire them to protect their crop in the night. And the Moghiyas kill whatever comes their way—usually deer and wild boars. Devi Singh’s second wife belongs to Rajasthan but more than the hospitality at his in-law’s place in Uliana, he loved the bounty the adjacent forests of Ranthambhore National Park offered. His shooting skill made him a hero of sorts and he often camped at Uliana for months together, hunting spotted deer and wild boars.
Then, one evening, he met Azad. The villagers never knew much about Azad, except for the fact that the man used to visit them with promises of what seemed to them big money in exchange for tiger or leopard skin and bones. Once Devi Singh felt greedy, there was no stopping the man revered as the shikari in his community.
Devi Singh targeted the Pilighati area, about a kilometer from Uliana. With his brother Mukesh, sisters-in-law Rup and Bhola and nephew Bablu, he used to comb the jungle for pugmarks and hunt tigers from trees after sundown. The first one was a 7-foot male. Devi Singh still remembers he was on a Jamun tree. The bullet pierced the heart and the animal died within minutes.
"Pasli me, kandhe se char anguli piche, dil pe marna parta. Sher awoon awoon karta rehta hai jab tak pran na nikal jaye (Aim for the heart four fingers below the shoulder, the tiger cries till it dies),’’ he explained to The Indian Express. No tiger survived more than 15 minutes after being shot. Sometimes, Devi Singh and his team had to wait for hours atop trees. Sometimes, the tiger showed up within minutes of taking position. The men usually returned in the morning to skin the carcass. They disposed off the flesh, carried the skin and bones and dug the booty in the village field. Then Devi Singh used to call Azad from the nearest telephone booth at Kundera village. The code (bolibhasha) to guard the message from the booth operator was simple: "Bada kar diya (Done a big one).’’
Next he used to pack the skin in a bag or suitcase and take a bus to Sawai Madhopur, about one hour from Uliana. Another bus and a little over two hours would take Devi Singh to Sheopur. Here he would board the afternoon train and reach Tentra by seven in the evening. The handover would take place near a nallah outside the village.
Why Tentra? "Thoda out si hai, log nahin hota us jagah," he explained. Bulk of the payment was made on the delivery of the skin. Devi Singh would again return with the bones — by now treated with salt etc — in a few weeks and collect the rest.
Besides killing five tigers himself, Devi Singh also guided other poachers in the trade. He was the person Kesra contacted after killing his first tiger. Devi Singh took the skin from him for just Rs 38,000 and sold it to Azad for Rs 60,000.
Kesra, a Moghiya tribal, was lured to the trade by his in-laws, all Bagri tribals, and made base south of Ranthambhore. Once he personally came to know Azad, he used to deliver skins to him directly at Sawai Madhopur railway station, usually near the ticket counter. A poor landed Moghiya, Kesra admitted he was tempted by the lure of easy money. "Das-das hazar ek ek ko milta tha. Mushkil nahin tha marna. Baas thoda time lagta tha," he told The Indian Express.
Pirthia, a small-time hunter, killed his only tiger after coming in contact with Kesra and passed on the skin to him. While both Devi Singh and Kesra claimed that they didn’t hunt in recent months, they didn’t rule out the chances of others still continuing in the trade. But didn’t they feel bad killing tigers? Kesra softened up a bit: "Teen bachcha hai, paisa chahiye tha. Aadmi se galti ho jata hai (Had three children, needed the money. People do make mistakes)." But Devi Singh looked surprised: "Paisa milta hai to achcha lagta hai, dukh thodi lagta hai (You feel nice when you get money, there’s no sorrow)."