Those three bears

Those three bears

Ruskin Bond, resident of Mussoorie, is a well-knownwriter of fiction and non-fiction. This story is from hiscollection of short stories, essays and poems titled ' Animal Stories'

Most Himalayan villages lie in valleys, where there are small streams,

some farmland, and protection from the biting winds that come through the

mountain passes in winter. The houses are usually made of large stones and

have sloping slate roofs so the heavy monsoon rain can run off easily. During

the sunny months, the roofs are often covered with pumpkins, left there to

ripen in the sun.

One October night, when I was sleeping at a friend's house in a village

in these hills, I was awakened by a rumbling and thumping on the roof. I woke

my friend and asked him what was happening.

'It's only a bear,' he said.

'Is it trying to get in?'

'No. It's after the pumpkins.'

A little later, when we looked out through the window, we saw a black

bear making off through the field, leaving a trail of half-eaten pumpkins.

In winter, when snow covers the higher ranges, the Himalayan bears

come to lower altitudes in search of food. Sometimes they forage in fields

and because they are shortsighted and suspicious of anything that moves,

they can be dangerous. But, like most wild animals, they avoid humans as much

as possible.

Village folk always advise me to run downhill if chased by a bear. They

say bears find it easier to run uphill than down. I am yet to be chased by a

bear, and will happily skip the experience. But I have seen a few of these

mountain bears in India, and they are always fascinating to watch.

Himalayan bears enjoy pumpkins, corn, plums and apricots. Once, while

I was sitting in an oak tree hoping to see a pair of pine martens that lived nearby, I heard the whining grumble of a bear, and presently a small bear

ambled into the clearing beneath the tree.

He was little more than a cub, and I was not alarmed. I sat very still, waiting to see

what he would do.

He put his nose to the ground and sniffed his way along until he came to a large anthill. Here he began huffing and puffing, blowing rapidly in and out of his

nostrils, so that the dust from the anthill flew in all directions. But the anthill had been deserted, and so, grumbling, the bear made his way up a nearby plum tree. Soon it was perched high in the branches. It was then that he saw me.

 

The bear at once scrambled several feet higher up the tree and lay flat on a

branch. Since it wasn't a very big branch, there was a lot of bear showing on either side. He tucked his head behind another branch. He could no longer see me, so he apparently was satisfied that he was hidden, although he couldn't help grumbling.

Like all bears, this one was full of curiosity. So, slowly, inch by inch, his black snout

appeared over the edge of the branch. As soon as he saw me, he drew his head back and hid his face.

He did this several times. I waited until he wasn't looking, and then moved someway down my tree. When the bear looked over and saw that I was missing, he was so pleased that he stretched right across to another branch and helped himself to a plum. Icouldn't help bursting into laughter.

The startled young bear tumbled out of the tree, dropped through the branches some fifteen feet, and landed with a thump in a pile of dried leaves. He was unhurt, but fled from the clearing, grunting and squealing all the way.