Yesterday, while we were driving along, got a call on his cellphone which made him swear. Earlier in the evening, he had been given the news that a tigress had died in K.Gudi, in B R Hills. We were speculating about whether it could have been roadkill, or a poaching attempt gone awry...and the call informed him that it was a tigress pregnant with six, yes, SIX, cubs: see today's news at

http://www.deccanherald.com/deccanherald/jun252006/state1832462006624.asp

The newspaper says the infection found in one of the cubs could have caused the death. How sad that seven of these beautiful animals were snuffed out….from the photo that accompanied the article (I don’t know if that will display on the link), the cubs seem to be near full-term as well. A loss indeed…..not good news for naturalists who have the welfare of the tigers, and the increase in their population, close to their heart.

A tigress, not yet a mother– Her life taken by the very lives being nurtured within her…. The fact of motherhood has stopped her breath; Her children, her immortality, have brought her to death. The majestic, striped beauty lies upon the road, Stilled in death. The unborn ones are rowed Along her abdomen…almost-living, They look as if they are suckling of the milk,life-giving… Cubs who have died without being born; Children who never lived, but are gone: Death has visited them in the womb; The womb itself has become their tomb. What, then, does creation mean, When death comes even before a life can begin? I pause and reflect, but sadness overshadows my muse. The random ways of Nature leave me bemused.