In our summer retreat in Upper Coonoor, we used to see bison, wild hare and barking deer, and knew that leopards and hyenas from the reserve forest, a mile above our house, were regular visitors at night. Monkeys arrived in droves by day while we were in residence, and sat menacingly on balconies and window sills, leaving only when they were certain that entry was barred and no instant pick-me-ups could be found.
For a while now, black sloth bears have been a source of some concern in the Nilgiris. Coonoor was once dominated by huge acreages of tea plantations, but some of them have been converted to real estate, robbing the bears of their habitat. Many houses, particularly those set in large gardens, are hence the natural targets of these hungry animals.
Increasingly venturesome in their hunt for food, these bears are determined and clever in the way they tackle their targets. They raid fruit gardens, pull down clotheslines if they get in the way, lay waste to carefully tended flowering plants, and even climb over gates and turn taps off and on.
Last week, our watchman Robert called to say the kitchen window grille was broken. Someone had wrenched it away from its sockets, smashed the glass and entered. Robert’s FIR was that nothing had been stolen. The oven, fridge and TV stood undisturbed, but every kitchen cabinet had been violently explored for snacks. A whole bottle of cooking oil had been drained. A glass table in the living room was cracked as if someone had stood on it as might well have been the case! Worst of all came the news that our intruder (the scratch marks, bits of fur and smell indicated his identity) had discovered our bar. The bottles were emptied or broken. A bear, it appeared, had helped itself to what we enjoyed sipping, and left not a drop behind.
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