Copyright@shravancharitymission
By Kamlesh Tripathi
By Kamlesh Tripathi
Human beings
are the biggest killers on earth. They have the discredit of liquidating many species
for their own whims and fancies. They alone had the devious mind to invent
fire-lance much before firearms. But the question remains who is a bigger
destroyer of fauna; the inventor of firearms or the user. The debate will ever
be on.
But in the milieu of the killing world,
this is what the Burmese tribal have to say about the green imperial pigeon
that I read in a novel. Although a fiction but the very thought puts human
species in shame as it is so very touchy.
“Look out!” said Flory, “here’s an imperial
pigeon, Let’s have him!”
A large heavy bird, with flight much slower
than the others, was flapping overheard. Elizabeth did not care to fire after
her previous failure. She watched Flory thrust a cartridge into the breech and
raise his gun, and the white plume of smoke leapt up from the muzzle. The bird
planed heavily down, his wing broken. Flo and Ko S’la came running excitedly
up, Flo with the big imperial pigeon in her mouth, and Ko S’la grinning and
producing two green pigeons from his Kachin bag.
Flory took one of the little green corpses
to show to Elizabeth. “Look at it. Aren’t they lovely things? The most
beautiful in bird Asia.”
Elizabeth touched its smooth feathers with
her finger-tip. It filled her with bitter envy, because she had not shot it. And
yet it was curious, but she felt almost an adoration for Flory now that she had
seen how he could shoot.
“Just look at its breast-feathers; like a
jewel. It’s a murder to shoot them. The Burmese
say that when you kill one of these birds they vomit, meaning to say, ‘Look,
here is all I possess, and I’ve taken nothing of yours. Why do you kill me?’
I’ve never seen one do it, I must admit.”
“Are they good to eat?”
“Very. Even so, I always feel it’s a shame
to kill them.”
***
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