(Continued from last week's story “Dhurva and the otter”)
After the monsoon, Gabbar and his pack moved back from the old den in the hills. One afternoon Gabbar and Dhurva saw some strangers walking along the river. They were not the regular fishermen they knew. As they watched, the strangers threw what appeared like a rock into the water and a moment later, there was a blast and water shot up into the sky. Dhurva had never seen anything like this before. He saw them swimming and collecting dead fish from the water, fish that had been killed by the blast. There were dead fish floating everywhere, belly up. He did not understand why somebody would hurt a river this way. He believed the only rightful and respectable way to catch fish was to use a net or a fishing line. You only caught what you needed. Dhurva loved the river and her animals and it hurt him to see this happen, but he was more worried for Gabbar and his pack, for this could potentially kill them. The strangers collected sack loads of fish and disappeared.
Dhurva ran home and narrated what he had seen to his parents who promptly called for a meeting with other fishermen. Some had heard of a gang of poachers on the prowl who killed fish using explosives. Dhurva’s father remarked that the poachers were likely to return since fishing was good in this stretch of the river. They had to stop them this time, or risk losing the river, her fish and their livelihoods.
While the elders of the village were talking, Dhurva was busy making his own plans. He had to be careful for this could be dangerous. Dhurva decided to set a trap at the spot where the poachers were likely to visit again. The otters would drive all the fish away from the pool to protect them from the blast. They waited for several days. Finally, two poachers arrived one afternoon with sacks to fill. The otters had already driven the fish away. The trap was set and Dhurva and Gabbar were ready. After making sure that nobody was watching, the poachers lobbed a bomb into the water. In a moment, there was a loud explosion and water shot up into the sky. One of the men jumped into the river immediately and swam to the spot to look for fish but there were none. At Dhurva's signal, Gabbar darted forward and, holding one end of a rope in his teeth, made a few quick circles around the poacher on the bank. In no time, the man was on the ground with the rope coiled tightly around him. During this commotion , the man in the river was trying to escape but the other otters had returned and had surrounded him. They had managed to find an old fishing net and promptly netted the poacher in the river and dragged him to the bank where he collapsed out of fear. Alerted by the blast, villagers had come rushing to the river by which time Dhurva, Gabbar and his pack had disappeared. The villagers were puzzled and when they checked the sack, they found sticks of explosives. Realising that these were the same men who had been seen earlier, they packed them off to the nearest police station, which was a few hours away.
The villagers often wondered who had caught the poachers, and joked that it might have been a river guardian of some sort. Meanwhile, calm had returned and Dhurva and Gabbar made a pact to protect the river. There was laughter in the air once again. Some of the fishermen spoke in hushed tones about a large otter seen near their nets. And their catch had mysteriously improved.
Otters face difficulties in many parts where they live. Dams disrupt their rivers. In some places they are hunted for their fur; in other places, fishing by people has reduced their food supply.
As a consequence, otters have become rare in many rivers.
If you see an otter in the wild, it's a sign that the river is in good health!
