Leopards in Marredpally? Tiger hunt in Erragadda? Hunting deer in Banjara Hills? These were not questions but facts of life in Hyderabad just three decades ago. While photographs showing Nizam and British Residents with their hunting trophies are not uncommon, the locations for the hunt remain a mystery.
As the Metro travels between Ameerpet and Miyapur, a glimpse of the wilderness that was part of Hyderabad can be spotted on the ground beyond the Institute of Mental Health. A little beyond is the Government General and Chest Hospital. But in an earlier era it was the Erramnuma (palace in paradise) Palace of Nawab Fakhrul Mulk. While Fakhrul Mulk lived in a palace in the area which is now known as Erramanzil, the Erramnuma palace was the take-off point for hunts. The sprawling palace was surrounded by a forest that stretched endlessly. “Hyderabad was surrounded by forests. Big game hunting was part of life,” says Shafat Ali Khan, standing beneath a photograph of Fakhrul Mulk. He begins telling an incredible tale of pet cheetahs and tigers. “Villagers would find abandoned tiger cubs which they will bring to the palace of the Nawab. There, the tiger cubs would be brought up as pets. They were kept in cages and taken out on a leash during trips. Though our devdi near Moula Ali has been abandoned, there are still large cages where pet tigers would be kept. My grandfather even took a tiger for the races at Malakpet,” says Shafat Ali Khan.
The relics of those hunts can still be seen in Shafat Ali Khan’s house where trunks of elephants, the legs of elephants long dead are used as props as well as baskets.
While photographs of pet cheetahs with collars near Falaknuma Palace or being taken on a cart evoke a nostalgic awe, other images of a heaped mass of tigers or backdrop of dozens of tiger skins evoke revulsion and disgust. One of the images that stick out is that of Lord Curzon and his wife standing under a massive banyan tree with a tiger lying near Curzon’s feet. Some of these hunts organised for the king showed cowardice rather than heroism.
The hunts indulged in by the nobility, rapid urbanisation and destruction of forests have decimated wildlife in Telangana where tigers and leopards have been reduced to a myth.
“Now, I am mostly called to tranquillise or hunt animals that go rogue,” says Shafat Ali Khan showing his tranquillising gun. A sophisticated weapon that fires a pressurised vial and releases the drug inside the animal. “Tranquillising a wild animal is more difficult than hunting. It requires more skill and patience,” he says showing the vial with a syringe stoppered by a plastic sheathing which comes off once the dart hits home.
But once, there was Hyderabad that teemed with wildlife.
