Priyanshu Sikder, [24-11-2022 23:51]

in the forests of the Western Ghats in Karnataka, the local tribes of the Kodagu district have an
interesting legend. They claim that a particular tree is both their guardian and an avenging deity. This
tree is a huge banyan tree, thick with age, and with plentiful roots reaching down to the ground from
its branches. It looks impressive enough to be a good and judging from the offerings the locals bring
they certainly treat it as one. The most common legend surrounding this tree is that it knows if you
have committed a crime. If that crime is relatively minor, like stealing, it demands that the thief
make an offering at the tree before returning the stolen property, or something equal to its true
value, to the owner. But if anyone in the forests commits the biggest crime of all, the killing of a
fellow human being, then the tree knows it and never forgives this. A killer in these forests, then, has
no choice but to leave the forest to escape the zone of influence of the tree god. Otherwise, strange
things start happening to such a person. Under no circumstances must such a criminal try to go near
the tree, not even to give an offering because no number of gifts will be able to ward off the wrath
of this god towards a murderer. The first time I heard of this tree was when I was doing an
assignment for National Geographic magazine. They knew of my reputation as a wildlife
photographer and had asked me to take some pictures at Nagarhole National Park. One of my
college friends was now working as a forest officer there, and he was happy to let me stay with him.
One fine evening, as both of us, were sipping tea and looking out from the balcony at the growing
darkness, he told me the story of Domalu, who had been found dead near the tree.

At first, I don't believe him but I thought this could be an interesting story to cover for my project so
I asked my friend to take me there at first he was hesitant about it but I managed to convince him.

We decided on a date to go there in the morning between those few days I started to have strange
dreams of me getting burned alive, getting hit with sticks and seeing my funeral.

The day arrived and we packed our bags to start the trip towards the tree God

Because it was quite far away we call some more people who were also coming to visit that place.

There were 4 people including both of us.

Let me describe those 2 people to you

The first guy who joined our team was Souvik

He was very good at art and photography, but he had some problems with his family about him
getting into a photography school

He was very kind to everyone but was a little introverted

The second person who joined our team was a girl name Sneha

She was a girl who like to show off her expensive stuff like her bag, shoes and dress

She was very polite to everyone and she also knew a lot about the wildlife that used to live there.

It's been two hours since our journey started

It was like 9 am so we decided to stop at a nearby River to make some breakfast

While we were cooking and talking about how beautiful the surrounding was
Suddenly Souvik said 'hey if the story is really how does the tree judge someone to be guilty of some
crime for example if I accidentally kill someone or if I kill someone while defending myself will that
be counted as murder ?'

We all looked at each other and started to make jokes if that is true then we all are going to die
because we all have done some kind of crime or a bad act at some time in our life.

The breakfast was done so we started to pack our bags then suddenly we heard a scream

Which was coming from the forest

We were not sure what was going on

we started to walk towards the location from where the scream came from

Sneha on the other hand was trying to stop us

Because it can be an animal and we can get hurt if we cross its territory

Priyanshu Sikder, [24-11-2022 23:51]

But my friend thought it was his duty to look and help that woman so he pushes through the rough
terrain and overgrown plants and trees

We all started to help him and start calling

For that unknown women

But nobody respond

Some of us started worrying about our safety so we thought we should return and come back later

We start to walk and after like an hour an so

We started to realise that we have seen the same location before

and for sure it was the same spot where we had breakfast

At first, we thought that we just walk around in a circle and nobody thought about but then after
another hour of walking we find that same place again and again and again it started to get a little
creepy the weirdest thing was that our phone timers and watches show that no that only 4 to 5 mins
have passed

But we knew that more than 3houra have passed we did not know what to do and why it suddenly
happening because he used to work here and it never happened before

I started to get late so we all decided to make tents and spend the night there

We were a little scared but thought that it was happening because we were tired

We eat our dinner and went to sleep

It was like an hour or so that we were sleeping suddenly the whole tent glow up and

We all came out of the tent to see what happend to our surprise it was morning and we all check our
time
It was showing 9 am and on the same date

Now we were seriously scared not only because the date and the time were moving forward our
tents were also changed location

I and Souvik look around a little to see where exactly we and suddenly we saw movement through a
nearby place we slowly approach the four figures and to our surprise it was us

Like we were speech but specifically Sneha

So she let out a scream and those four duplicates of us heard that voice and start approaching us so
we grab Sneha and closed her mouth and start retrieving towards the camp we were in shock that
what is happening

Suddenly Souvik heard someone running away from us and started shouting who was that

And then he turns towards my friend and screaming I know that you are doing this to us

I heard that u guys were planning to make scared us and steal our stuff

While Souvik was speaking he slowly take out his gun from his pocket and points it towards my
friend who was scared by this act

Did not show any amount of fear and started to realise what is going on

That he managed to calm Souvik down and explain to us that maybe the spirit of the forest

Is real because there was no explanation of what going on we decided that find the tree and make
some offerings to the tree now with some real determination we started walking towards the tree
when we reach there we find out that we don't have anything to offer exactly and it was late so we
decided to set up our camps and sleep

Next day morning

We realise that time was now moving normally so we thought that now we are safe from whatever
was going on so we made our offerings and started running towards the main base and we were
hoping that it has ended

And sure it was because we made it to our base in like an hour or so

It was the most bizarre experience for me because I thought I was going to die or be stuck in a time
loop or so

I think because the question was how the tree judges us got us into trouble

But at least we were safe now and I am going to write about this experience for my project