Blue Sky White CLoud by Nirmal Ghosh

BLUE SKY, WHITE CLOUD: Three Novellas by Nirmal Ghosh
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

She moved like an illusion, like smoke, or water, weaving soundlessly among the big, dark woody boles of the ancient oaks, their leaves now the colour of copper and dust

Three intense and distressing stories about man-animal conflict. Increased encroaching on the natural habitat of animals by humans finds the latter coming out second best. The conflict is beautifully narrated from the viewpoints of an elephant in Assam, a leopard in the foothills of the Himalayas and a pair of bar-headed geese on their mind-boggling high altitude migration above the Himalayas from Mongolia to the marshy Bharatpur Bird Sanctuary.

And through the trees, the storm wind howled, and the grass bent under its force and the lash of the rain until it seemed to Ronesh that the whole wilderness was mourning with him.

The bar-headed geese

The air here contains less than half the oxygen content at sea level. Bar-headed gees fly at the limits of life, beyond what mountaineers call the 'death zone' - an elevation higher than the black ravens of the crags, higher than the great Himalayan griffon that cruises the tall spores looking for carrion and prey, taking them clear over across the massive mountains, and down into the plains of India.

And after this arduous journey conquering nature, dodging jet-liners, the geese sadly succumb to the rapacity of humans

Wheeling around the field to gain height, watching the figures below making a noise, they initially failed to notice the high-tension wires strung across the fields, hanging from pylons marching across the plains, partially hidden in the fog.
The lead goose did see them at the last second and, with a honk of warning to the rest of the flock following close behind and alongside, he managed to clear them. The rest somehow managed to get above them as well.
The rest, except for BH7.
White Cloud slammed into the wired and was briefly entangled in them. Then there was a bright flash and she was dead, instantly, her heart giving out.
Crumpled into a ball, she hit the ground, convulsed once and lay lifeless on the field.
Bh6 turned and came down for her, landing nearby. He walked to where she lay. There was no sign of any life. He stood there for a while.
His companion of ten years was gone.

All the stories will move you to tears.

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