Burning Bright

Chapter 14

‘Mr Macken, can you tell me how you came to be at the tiger sanctuary that day?’

With occasional prompts by Manish, Eoin described his work for the World Wildlife Fund, his involvement with the Dublin Zoo conservation programme, and his fund raising achievements. He finished with his requests to the sanctuary to film, his acceptance, and his application for and grant of an Indian Journalist visa. This seemed to give Mr Jurinder some cause for concern, possibly because I knew how notoriously difficult they were to obtain. I must admit, it was news to me as Eoin’s passport was being held by the police and I’d just assumed he was on a tourist visa.

‘So, you arranged a visit to the tiger sanctuary to film a report?’ Manish prompted. ‘An official visit?’

Mr Jurinder looked uncomfortable again.

‘Yes, I’d requested an initial five days to visit, with a guide, of course, in order to get sufficient footage for the documentary.’

‘Just you?’

‘I have done a significant amount of directing and filming, as well as writing and acting. It was only necessary for me to go.’

‘If I may, Your Honour, I would like to show some of the footage that Mr Macken shot on the previous two days he had visited. I’m afraid his camera is still . . . missing, so we can’t view the footage of the particular day in question, but this had already been downloaded onto his computer.’

The magistrate nodded and a screen was lowered and a projector wheeled on, already connected to a laptop. The footage, of which twenty minutes or so was shown, was narrated by Eoin and full of praise for the work of the Vimla Tiger Sanctuary, one of the few where the tigers were successfully protected and breeding such that they could export any abandoned or high risk tiger cubs to other suitable zoos for conservation and breeding purposes. There was a murmur of appreciation as the footage was stopped.

‘So, Mr Macken, can you explain what happened on that Wednesday?’

‘I met my guide, Banjul, outside the tiger sanctuary as normal at 6am.’

‘Is Banjul here today?’ Manish asked.

‘Yes, he’s sat over there,’ and Banjul dutifully raised his hand.

‘Carry on, Mr Macken.’

‘We went inside and Banjul told me where we were going to go as tigers had been seen the evening before. He told me that we would be alone and no other official visitors would be in that location so we should get some good shots.’

‘He told you there would be no other official visitors?’

‘Yes, that’s right. And said that there was a female with cubs there so we needed to be careful, but there was a good viewing point he knew of. We drove for a good hour and then walked for another hour until we reached this small cliff where we could see the tigers. It was amazing. The two cubs were really young and stayed close to their mother. Banjul left me in position with my camera while he went to look for another observation point. I could show you my filming, but I don’t have my camera. I was filming the tigers when, to my right, I saw some movement. There were at least three men there. They weren’t wearing the uniform of the tiger sanctuary, so I didn’t know who they were. Banjul had warned me that poachers were still active as they simply couldn’t patrol the whole of the sanctuary and that a tiger cub had recently disappeared. I didn’t want to call out in case I disturbed the tigers so I watched the men as they looked . . . well . . . suspicious.’

‘Were you still filming?’

‘I honestly can’t remember. I don’t remember stopping, but I do remember putting my camera down.’