Scene- 3 (Cottage in the vicinity of Bandipur Tiger Reserve)
"Oh gosh! That's disgusting! wua... yuck!" said the Superintendent of Police covering his nose to prevent the smell of a decomposed body in the bedroom of the cottage at Bandipur. The face of the dead person was pale, swollen and had house flies as frequent visitors. The bite marks had widened and out of those punctured holes of flesh were partying the fat maggots. The entire room gave up such a foul smell that it was as though a decayed rat was stuffed into the nostrils! One of the policemen fell unconscious after a few minutes of unbearable torture of his sensory nerves in his nostrils.
"Sir, the forensic experts are here to collect evidence. Then we will have the body taken to the nearest Government Hospital for autopsy. " said a constable to the SI
"Okay, they can carry on and let us check for evidence around, that would be useful for this case. And.. could you call those two Forest Officials. They are supposed to be here." ordered the SI. He took a brief walk around the house. Everything seemed to be normal. There were no paw prints or foot prints clearly visible. But he could see a half burnt candle in the right hand of the victim, smoked up cigarette bud next to him and a match box. There was a pool of blood around the victim's body and there were dry blood spots here and there in various sizes leading to nowhere inside the room.
The SI and a constable walked out of the cottage and checked around. It all seemed normal in the front of the house; they walked around and as they neared the back of the cottage, they spotted paw-prints of an animal and the only animal in their mind was a wolf. Two human deaths, cattle missing, a dog killed - all by wolves were confirmed in this neighbourhood. Even this death by a wolf is only an assumption.
All the forensic formalities were over. The samples and evidences collected were neatly packed and taken to the vehicles. The forest officials inspected the spot thoroughly and also walked for a mile in the direction of the paw prints and once the lead disappeared they came back and confirmed that the bite marks and the measurements of the paw-prints and its structure clearly stated it was a wolf hunt. An official was pouring the plaster of paris mixture into the 2 pairs of paw prints that were chosen as they were deeper than the rest to get the paw impressions that will be useful to match any other wolves of paw prints in the forest to trace them.
While the ambulance came in to collect the body for autopsy and the others were busy packing, the SI wanted to convey the bad news to the victim's wife. He called his Station at Bangalore and asked the Writer there for the mobile or telephone number of the deceased's wife. The writer gave both the mobile number and the telephone number that was written by the victim's wife in her missing complaint form. The SI tried to reach the victim's mobile. It was ringing, but no one picked up. He retried another couple of times and then called the land line. No answer either. He called the station again and asked a sentry in the station to go to the victim's house and call his number from there.
After thirty minutes he received a call from the victim's house's land line number and the sentry from the police station who went to see the victim's family spoke in cold horrified tone,
"S.. Sa sa Sir! They are dead. Both the woman and the child are breathless!"
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to be continued
