Tiger Tales from the Sunderbans
On the afternoon of the 10th of February 2008, one of our groups was lucky enough to see a tiger swimming across the Khonakhali Creeks near Dobanki Watch Tower. Tanmoy Ghosh, our field guide, had his camera at hand.
A Tiger symbolizes unlimited power: Durga riding a Tiger indicates that she possesses unlimited power and uses it to protect virtue and destroy evil.’ Durga Ashtotram
‘Although they fear Tiger attacks, the people of Sunderbans have turned the Tiger into an object of veneration……. Montgomery concludes that Sunderbans has been protected by the Tigers who, watching over the mangrove wilderness, prevent humankind from destroying their own habitat.’ Howard Mansfield ‘Spell of the Tiger’.
‘Better to live one year as a Tiger, than a hundred as a sheep.’ Madonna
‘From the Oyster to the Eagle, from the Swine to the Tiger, all animals are to be found in men and each of them exists in some man, sometimes several at the same time. Animals are nothing but the portrayal of our virtues and vices made manifest to our eyes, the visible reflections of our souls. God displays them to us to give us food for thought.’ Victor Hugo
‘The living self has one purpose only: to come into its own fullness of being, as a tree comes into full blossom, or a bird into spring beauty, or a Tiger into luster.’ D. H. Lawrence
Tags: Sunderbans, Tiger