The Lord of the Jungle

Like most books published by the Travel Book Club, the cover is instantly appealing, and was a major encouragement for me to read this.

Published in 1967, it is written about an earlier time - unfortunately not recorded, or missed by me, however at the end of the book the author returns to the place he lived after a period of time - and that was in 1958. Changes at that time were significant, so we can assume the main story took place at a minimum several years before then, but possibly a dozen or more. But I am speaking of the end and not the beginning.

When the author retired from the Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) Police force, he negotiated a lease on an abandoned tank in the jungle. In this case ‘tank' refers to a man made reservoir for the storage of water collected over the wet season for use in (primarily rice) cropping in the remainder of the year. The tanks were created in the time of the ancient kings, and had since fallen into disrepair and the jungle had reclaimed the lands. In this case the reservoir was an eight-acre tank, and was called Motogonewa, meaning the-tank-of-the-sambur-without-horns.

The author with his wife set about building a house on the edge of the tank, and established the surrounding land (which they also leased) as a sanctuary for animals. They undertook not to shoot game in the vicinity (for food) and to prevent the nearby local villagers from doing the same. The wildlife quickly adapted to this safe zone, and they became well known enough for their love of animals that orphan or injured animals were also brought to them.

It would seem they were ahead of their time with their conservation thinking, although perhaps a bit more hands on than is sensible, and many of their rescued animals became pets without the possibility of returning to the wild.

The first few chapters of this book outline the setup and establishment of their house. The following chapters tell of animals and events that follow, generally with a chapter per animal -eg chapters on bears, snakes, moneys, leopards, pigs, even a slender loris (native to Sri Lanka). There are parts of chapters where the author takes an animals view of events - being hunted for example, and tells with a sadness of the death of animals whereby they are confused by the events that lead up to their capture. It takes on a fictional aspect, but he mentions in his epilogue that he based these side stories on actual events he witnessed. There are, within the chapters, other various stories and explanations about the history and culture of the Singhalese people of Sri Lanka, as well as some specific characters which the couple interact with.

The last third of the book concentrates on elephants - the lord of the jungle. There are a number of chapters telling stories, many focussed around the killing of elephants deemed rogue, and explaining why few of these elephants were in fact rogue. Most were deemed violent and untrustworthy, while in reality they were responding to the circumstances in which they were being put, by poor handling or animal management. Similarly many elephants deemed rogue were also dangerous precisely because they had been wounded by farmers trying to drive them away from their crops. Interesting the author tells plenty of stories of the culling of rogues that he, as a police officer was required to undertake, although he is clear in his stance that things must change to prevent this from carrying on.
There are stories of temple elephants, working elephants and zoo elephants, as well as wild elephants and of course the elephants that make a temporary home in the authors sanctuary zone.

The epilogue is broad ranging, and talks about animal conservation in general (a fair bit on Africa, which is a bit random, given the focus on Sri Lanka in this book), about the role of zoo's (good and bad) and the domestication and domestic breeding of wild animals. It also talks of the revisiting of the area after a number of years, and the changes to the immediate area.

Very much in the Travel book Club genre, an enjoyable and readable book. Less than 200 pages it is a quick read, and provides a look into the past in an interesting place, with entertaining and often amusing stories within an overall narrative.

4 stars.