Census of Tigers

TONGUE IN CHEEK – FOURTEEN ELEVEN

Nine Eleven, Thirteen Seven, Twenty Six Seven, Twenty Six Eleven and now we hear of Fourteen Eleven. Is it riots or a train accident or a fire or a factory explosion or a nuclear meltdown or a terror strike – no, no, it is, we are informed by reliable sources, the tiger count in our country! How reliable is this information? Do we accept it or do the census ourselves. What about the tiger in Pataudi or the tiger in Guntur who proclaimed he is free of AIDS? And, what about the tigers who have formed an army (sena) and are spread all over India? We have plenty more than the informed fourteen-eleven. Let the WWF go green (pun intended) with envy! The census mandarins need to look inward and find out where they went wrong in their count. Then what about the others – lots and lots of Lions, they even formed a club!The lions of this club eat better and are healthier than the scrawny mountain (Gir) lions of Junagadh. Then there is this society for cubs and bulbuls whose motto is ‘Be Prepared’ – don’t ask me for what. We, surprise, surprise, have a college for owls in Wellington, where they graduate and become wise.We also have plenty of Greyhounds, more than the Brits ever bred! We have innumerable Black Cats who seem to be the pets or pet peeves of politicos! So folks, do not worry, our concrete jungles are filled with plenty of animals and we need not worry of any species going extinct. What…oh…sorry, they never really said that they were counting only the four legged variety and that too in the green jungles!

KALI