Kodaikanal, 'Switzerland of the East', Western Ghats, Tamil Nadu

In the not so distant past, big game was one of the features of kodai life. When carrying visitors up the Coolie Ghat in chairs and doolies, porters sang and yodeled to keep panther and elephants away. It is said that the Raja of Podukottai would sit over tiger kills at the Golf Courses; another nimrod shot a bison near Coaker?s Walks from his window, in the 1950s. An underground occupant of the old cemetery was killed by one. And up until fifteen years ago, the baleful chorus of a pack of jackals was often heard as darkness descended.

Like the tale, a few years ago, of the panther at the bottom of the ghat road. The watchman at the ?Rock Garden? compound was sitting at the fence, watching life go by ? cars, bicycles, and cattle. But then he sat up with a start: there was a panther, sedately plodding along the road towards the village. He?d hardly recovered when back it came with a puppy in its mouth!