Let me share with you a few of my own personal experiences:
1. LEOPARDS.........They have a saying..."You come face to face with a leopard when you least expect it"...Well, that's what happened with me in the Garhwal Himalayas, 5 miles from Mussoorie. We were a party of 3 trekkers coming back from a short walk to a nearby stream. It was a rare occasion since we had miscalculated our timings and IT WAS QUITE LATE IN THE EVENING, AROUND 8 P.M. It was past sunset, and we being without torchlights, we could barely see ahead. Being quite exhausted from a steep climb up, we were all silently walking, it was difficult breathing.
On our left was a "khud", steep downslope, on our right the mountain cliffs.....The left side was full of kalijhora and gooseberry bushes, and there were quite a few oak trees also. We could make out the silouhettes...there was just that little bit of light left.
THE LEOPARD CAME WITHOUT WARNING .....We suddenly saw, about 20 feet away, a SILOUHETTE.....It looked like a cat......but it WAS QUITE A BIG ONE.......It had, like poetry in motion, EFFORTLESSLY, WITH A FLUID LIKE MOTION, SILENTLY, jumped right in front of us.....
We were dumbstruck......It turned its head, looked at us....we could see its glowing eyes.....turned back.....AND EFFORTLESSLY JUMPED DOWN THE HILLSIDE.....a huge jump.
2. SNAKES......I have probably encountered 50 + snakes in my lifetime..........just lost count. They are so numerous in the Indian sub-continent. Believe me, not a single one threatened me, except one. The one that did raise its head and hissed, was one guarding its eggs. And probably it was a cobra.....WAS SO SCARED DIDN'T HAVE TIME TO CHECK OUT.....beat a hasty retreat.
Believe me, snakes are harmless.......BUT BE AWARE.... Most sea snakes of India are poisonous..... So, do be careful while bathing ....
3. MONKEYS.....Very funny. Mainly 2 types - one is the black faced LANGUR, other is the red-faced RHESUS... The langur is the noble monkey, it rarely attacks humans......It is much bigger than the red-faced though. Most interesting to watch is their HEAD or CHIEFTAIN......this guy sits on guard, quite visibly, even when you can't see others.
2 of my friends have gotten bitten by the red ones. One of them, a perpetually drunk guy, was dancing to some Hindi film songs in front of one. His dancing irritates most of us humans, no wonder the monkey didn't like it ......
4. SCORPIONS.........
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