richard parker was so named because of a clerical error. apanther was terrorizing the khulna district of bangladesh, justoutside the sundarbans. it had recently carried off a little girl.
all that was found of her was a tiny hand with a hennapattern on the palm and a few plastic bangles. she was theseventh person killed in two months by the marauder. and itwas growing bolder. the previous victim was a man who hadbeen attacked in broad daylight in his field. the beast draggedhim off into the forest, where it ate a good part of his head,the flesh off his right leg and all his innards. his corpse wasfound hanging in the fork of a tree. the villagers kept a watchnearby that night, hoping to surprise the panther and kill it,but it never appeared. the forest department hired aprofessional hunter. he set up a small, hidden platform in atree near a river where two of the attacks had taken place. agoat was tied to a stake on the rivers bank. the hunter waitedseveral nights. he assumed the panther would be an old,wasted male with worn teeth, incapable of catching anythingmore difficult than a human. but it was a sleek tiger thatstepped into the open one night. a female with a single cub.
the goat bleated. oddly, the cub, who looked to be aboutthree months old, paid little attention to the goat. it raced tothe waters edge, where it drank eagerly. its mother followedsuit. of hunger and thirst, thirst is the greater imperative. onlyonce the tiger had quenched her thirst did she turn to thegoat to satisfy her hunger. the hunter had two rifles with him:
one with real bullets, the other with immobilizing darts. thisanimal was not the man-eater, but so close to humanhabitation she might pose a threat to the villagers, especially asshe was with cub. he picked up the gun with the darts. hefired as the tiger was about to fell the goat. the tiger rearedup and snarled and raced away. but immobilizing darts don'tbring on sleep gently, like a good cup of tea; they knock outlike a bottle of hard liquor straight up. a burst of activity onthe animal's part makes it act all the faster. the hunter calledhis assistants on the radio. they found the tiger about twohundred yards from the river. she was still conscious. herback legs had given way and her balance on her front legswas woozy. when the men got close, she tried to get away butcould not manage it. she turned on them, lifting a paw thatwas meant to kill. it only made her lose her balance. shecollapsed and the pondicherry zoo had two new tigers. thecub was found in a bush close by, meowing with fear. thehunter, whose name was richard parker, picked it up with hisbare hands and, remembering how it had rushed to drink inthe river, baptized it thirsty. but the shipping clerk at thehowrah train station was evidently a man both befuddled anddiligent. all the papers we received with the cub clearly statedthat its name was richard parker, that the hunter's first namewas thirsty and that his family name was none given. fatherhad had a good chuckle over the mix-up and richard parker'sname had stuck.
i don't know if thirsty none given ever got the man-eatingpanther.
