Animation, admiration and passion blend together as he talks not only of their uniqueness but also their idiosyncrasies, as a father would lovingly talk of his sons and daughters.‘Genghis’ would race with rippling muscles into a lake, grab a sambhur watering there, dunk it and then kill it, says this ‘tiger man’ of India, Valmik Thapar, describing the “unique behaviour” of this great hunter which he had watched and admired oft times.

The northern part of the Augusta Hill Estate, extending on to the north end of the picturesque Peradeniya University Campus offered a panoramic view of the Gannoruwa valley and the distant Alagalla peak on one side and the gentle rise of the Hantane mountain range on the other.