The Leopard by
Ruskin Bond is a short story that highlights the relationship between humans
and animals. The story is set against the forest of Mussoorie – especially of
the time when the forest belt was declining and hunters were growing.
A little far
from his cottage, down the hill, Ruskin goes for a walk around a stream. After
some time, the trail of the path disappears in the forest and a stream appears,
its water making a soft gurgling sound flowing down the ravine. The ravine is
so deep that below only shadow appears, nothing else. He is a frequent walker
through that path. Birds, monkeys, and other herbivorous animals are familiar
with his smell. They know he is not a hunter. At times, he spots a silent
leopard at the stream for drinking water. Ruskin often stops upon seeing it.
That also happened that they both crossed each other’s path several times. Even
animals can smell the intentions of man. Like other animals, leopard sensed Ruskin
as a harmless human. It trusted him.
On day Ruskin
finds a few men resting under a tree with guns. They are shikaris, they asked Ruskin if he had seen any leopard here. Ruskin
denies. The thought and sight of hunters made him feel bad for that leopard.
Several days pass by and Ruskin does not see that leopard. One day Ruskin goes
to a serene and silent hill. The silence there begins gnawing him. He sensed
something is eerie. When he focuses to one cave, it is dark inside, and he
feels that there is that leopard. He returns home silently.
Next day while
on a walk, he sees some men making a jubilant sound. When he sees them, he
freezes with disbelief. On a bamboo pole the same leopard’s corpse is hanging.
The men were singing their song. “We told you that there is a leopard in the
jungle”, said one of the shikaris.
He, then,
remembers the lines of a poem by D.H. Lawrence: ‘There was a room in the world
for a mountain lion and me’. This line is heart-touching and reminds us the
distance growing between humans and animals. Once when civilization was not so
taking up, humans and animals both lived side by side, in forests and around
by.
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