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10 Fantastic Fact About INDIAN Wildlife
Wildlife
is one of the major fundaments of India’s Hindu religion, since a great
many of their deities revisit the Earth on four legs. But animals are
integral to the culture of India in more than just religious ways. Below
are 10 intriguing facts about the animals of India, from the deadly to
the drunken to the disgusting.
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10. Puppy Pregnancy Syndrome
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Dog bites are a problem around the globe, but in the Western world, most
canines are inoculated against rabies, and it’s merely a painful
nuisance. In India, the repercussions can be far worse. The country
boasts more stray dogs than any other on earth—tens of millions
attacking humans at will. It’s estimated that some 20,000 people die of
rabies in India every year.
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In more rural areas, a bizarre phenomenon has cropped up where those
bitten by dogs believe they’ve been impregnated by them and puppies are
growing in their bellies. Puppy pregnancy syndrome is a disturbing form
of mass hysteria that is most prevalent in those with little education.
Sufferers claim they can feel the puppies moving around inside them and
often revert to bizarre behaviors like barking. Instead of seeking
medical treatment, these people often seek out the help of a witch
doctor—who gives oral treatments designed to dissolve the puppies, which
are then “passed normally through the digestive tract.”
9. Monkey Trouble
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Like many other creatures, India considers its monkeys sacred. As such,
they are far too indulgent to the thousands and thousands of rhesus
monkeys that crowd city streets. The creatures are incredibly dangerous:
prone to destroying homes and biting passersby. Hordes of monkeys will
literally mug people—taking their food and ripping off their clothing.
Cities like New Delhi, where the plague is particularly terrible, have
instituted trapping policies. But in many cases, the animals are far too
intelligent to fall for the traps.
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In 2007, Sawinder Singh Bajwa toppled from his balcony and died trying
to fend off a gang of monkeys that attacked him. Though people are
attacked daily, they continue to feed the animals. The problem has no
end in sight; Hindu law dictates that the monkeys cannot be euthanized,
and residents complain that those taken to sanctuaries merely scale the
walls and return to the city.
8. Pig Toilets
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Pigs are undoubtedly the most brilliant of barnyard animals, at least on
par with dogs. Despite their cunning, swine are often overcome with an
extreme hunger, and they will devour anything even vaguely edible—from
garbage to the flesh of fellow hogs and even human feces.
The Goa pig toilet is a rural outhouse over a pit that runs into a pig
enclosure. The pigs gratefully accept whatever drops into their trough.
What it lacks in hygiene, it makes up for in efficiency. Modern plumbing
is slowly making the pig toilet a thing of the past, but for now, pig
outhouses are still a thing in India.
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7. Indian Vulture Crisis
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Evolution has designated vultures to be the ultimate scavengers.
Enormous wingspans allow them to circle in the air for hours. Their
beaks, while rather horrifying, are weak by bird standards, made to
scoop and devour flesh. However unappealing they may seem, vultures
serve an important role in the ecological cycle: processing carcasses.
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Only 20 years ago, India was inundated with vultures—flocks so enormous
they darkened the skies. But by 1999, their numbers had dropped
dramatically, due to a mysterious kidney ailment. By 2008, 99.9 percent
of India’s vultures were gone. It was finally discovered that they had
been killed by a drug called diclofenac (a pain reliever along the lines
of aspirin or ibuprofen). Indians revere their cows, and when a cow
showed signs of pain, they treated it with diclofenac. After the animal
died, the vultures would eat the corpse. And though they boast perhaps
the world’s most efficient digestive system, vultures cannot handle the
drug.
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India banned the use of diclofenac for veterinary use in 2006, but it’s
still widely used. The near extinction of vultures has caused a great
spike in disease in the country, as rats and feral dogs moved in to take
their place—spreading pathogens that would have otherwise been
destroyed in the gut of the carrion bird.
6. Tigers
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Tigers once roamed India in the tens of thousands. Always a danger,
villagers knew not to stray too far from the fires at night lest they
become an entrée. But man may be
responsible for most of the “maneater” tigers. Killing a tiger is
serious business; unless shot in a vital organ, it is unlikely to die.
Instead, the wounded animal would flee, but crippled by its injuries, it
would be forced to hunt meeker prey. And to a tiger in India, that
usually means unsuspecting humans.
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The Champawat tigress ranks as the deadliest maneater in recorded
history with over 400 kills to her name. In 1907, legendary hunter Jim
Corbett ended her reign of terror. Tragically, the tigress was shown to
have been shot in the mouth some time earlier, which shattered her fangs
and rendered her incapable of taking regular prey.
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Today, there are few tigers left in the wild—as few as 3,200 according
to the World Wildlife Fund. They still claim dozens of human lives
yearly, especially in the Sundarbans, a mangrove forest where some 500
Bengal tigers roam. It is hypothesized that the brackish water causes
the tigers to become irritable and unnaturally aggressive. Fishermen who
enter the area sometimes wear masks with faces on the back of their
heads because tigers have a strong preference for ambushing their prey
from behind.
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5. Drunken Elephants
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We can’t help being captivated by elephants; they are so much like
us—empathic and intelligent. The most talented specimens have been known
to paint self portraits and even imitate human speech. And much like
us, sometimes they need a hard drink. In 2012, a herd of about 50
elephants were drawn out of the jungle when they smelled mahua, a strong
moonshine-like liquor. Downing some 500 liters of the alcohol, they
proceeded to destroy dozens of houses in the village of Dumurkota. After
three hours, they were finally herded out of town, but the damage was
done.
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This was hardly the first case of elephants going on a drunken rampage.
The problem has become so widespread, that in some areas fences strung
up with chili peppers have been *****ed. The peppers, sometimes called
“ghost chilies” are among the hottest in the world, and their pungency
is enough to turn back even the most determined pachyderm.
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4. The Goonch
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Catfish might be ugly, but they hardly evoke thoughts of danger.
However, in the Kali River of India, the goonch—giant devil catfish—is
believed to be responsible for several human deaths. Hindu funeral
rituals dictate bodies be reduced to ash and then interred in rivers,
but oftentimes charred remains are eaten by the goonch. With an appetite
for human flesh, this catfish, which can grow well over 150 lbs, has
been implicated in the disappearance of swimmers. While the goonch lacks
the fearsome nature of a shark, a specimen as large as a man would
easily be able to seize someone by the ankle, drag them underwater, and
drown them.
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3. Lions
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India belongs to the tiger, but in the Gir Forest National Park and
Wildlife Sanctuary, another massive cat can be found: the rare Asiatic
lion. Lions once roamed a vast swath of real estate from Africa through
the Middle East, India, Greece, and Hungary. Today, their range has
greatly diminished. The Gir lions number only about 400 and are
separated from their African cousins by tens of thousands of years of
evolution. They are slightly smaller than African lions and have a
diminished mane. Unfortunately, there are so few of these creatures left
that they are very inbred. A single forest fire or outbreak of disease
could wipe out the entire species. A handful of the lions are being
relocated to a neighboring state in an effort to ensure the survival of
the species.
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2. Temple Of The Rat
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A rat scuttling across the kitchen floor in the night is enough to make a
lot of people jump on the furniture. But in the Karni Mata Temple, the
rat is revered as the living manifestation of Hindu deities. As the
story goes, Karni Mata was a Hindu sage—the incarnation of a goddess
named Durga. When one of Mata’s stepsons drowned, she beseeched Yama,
the god of death, to bring him back. In a cruel turn of events, Yama
resurrected all of Karni Mata’s sons as rats.
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Built by Maharaja Sir Ganga Singh, the ornate marble temple is home to
some 15,000 black rats, which are fed milk and sweets by devotees. There
are a small handful of white rats amidst the horde, which are believed
to be the reincarnations of Karni Mata and her sons, and spotting them
is considered to be especially fortuitous. The temple is open to the
public, but beware—the rats are completely unafraid of people. And you
aren’t allowed to wear shoes.
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1. The Mongoose And The Cobra
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The king cobra is perhaps the most feared snake in the world. And with
good reason: a full grown specimen can rise high enough to look the
average human in the eye. Its hiss is terrifyingly guttural, often
compared to the growl of an angry dog. A full payload of king cobra
venom is enough to kill 20 people. But even this nightmare of nature is
not without enemies.
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Enter the mongoose: a cute little guy roughly the size of a ferret. But
the mongoose is a dexterous predator. The adorable little mongoose is
quick, agile, and capable of killing cobras and other snakes with
merciless efficiency. Should they be bitten, they have certain
immunities to venom, but oftentimes they are able to take out the snake
without being struck. A common method of dispatch is to dance from side
to side, dart out of the cobra’s way as it strikes, and seize it behind
the skull.
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