Wolf as man-eater

THE MAN-EATING WOLVES OF ASHTA: Ajay Singh Yadav; Srishti Publishers Distributors, 64-A, Adhchini, Aurobindo Marg, New Delhi- 110017. Rs. 125.

THOUGH NOT so well known as the man-eating tigers, wolves have struck terror occasionally in different parts of India. During the British period, just in one year, in 1878 A.D., about 624 people were killed by man-eating wolves. In the late 1980s the Indian gray wolf came into the news. On the one side its disappearance was being lamented and on the other, in Banbirpur in Uttar Pradesh and in Ashta in Madhya Pradesh, there was news of man-eating wolves targeting unwary children. It is the latter locale that concerns us here.

In 1986, the author of this book was the Collector of Sehore district in which the little town of Ashta is located. A pack of baby- lifting wolves, operating in daytime in an area roughly the size of Delhi, killed about 17 children. He himself went after the man-eaters, along with other sharp shooters and masterminded the destruction of the beasts. He documents the events in this book in a delightful and unpretentious style of story telling. The news of child-lifting wolves created a long drawn debate and the author documents this important episode. He has a distinct style and overcomes the temptation to fashion oneself after Corbett and the rest of Shikar writers. In fact this book is a much better read than many of those famous titles from Shikar literature which tend to fall into a hackneyed pattern.

It is a highly readable book, each page egging you on to proceed further. The author honestly acknowledges his propensity to go hunting and records that as a Collector he went duck shooting. Still his unfamiliarity with Indian wildlife is evidenced by his reference to blackbuck as a deer.

One part of India, not well known to outside world is vividly presented to the reader. As a senior civil servant he had a vantage view of the land and people of the area. He talks about birds and animals of that area and also about a tribe called Korku and their knowledge of bush craft. His descriptions of landscape and moments are charming. Here is a sample: ``The moon shed a flood of radiance on the scene, a radiance which was too white as to be almost blue. I have never seen moonlight like this since then, this light had a glass like transparency, a clear lucent quality, like the clarity of thin ice or a cold clear vein of water cascading over stones in a mountain stream.''

While narrating the story, his attitude to many other aspects of life surface and this adds to the distinct character of the book. He took voluntary retirement from Indian Administrative Service, wrote a book, Why I am Not a Civil servant and took to farming.

THEODORE BHASKARAN

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