Kolebatakhs were the ducks that inhabited the lakes, rivers & their tributaries in the South Asian dale of Kun. On the landforms of Kun’s plains, hills & plateaus lived animals & non-aquatic, besides other aquatic, birds. Kolebatakhs’ aquatic habitation was centuries old. But as they were feeling too weary to swim & submerge anymore for living in waters, they craved soaring high through the air to the farmlands around. Yet they couldn’t do it for their obstructive body-heaviness. They then craved non-aquatic-life, without disturbing somehow their centuries old nexus with waters, though.
“Living non-aquatic life isn’t possible without turning waters to no-waters around us”, said their head drake, Gulhaangee, while addressing an assembly of elderly & old drakes whom he had called for discussion and suggestion for switching over to non-aquatic life.
“How can we do that Gulhaangee?”, asked the drakes in a single voice.
“That is so simple, we’ll have to fill waters on peripheries of bodies with soil, gravel & stones”, replied Gulhaangee. “We’ll have to move to different areas to collect the filling-stuff & dump it on the water-bodies’ edges till waters get converted to solid land progressively, I mean, from their edges towards their middle, for our future non-aquatic habitation,” continued Gulhaangee, bringing stupid grin on his unlovely face.
“But won’t it be time taking to reach out to our desired goal of full scale encroachment of waters, we being not many in number?,” inquired a black drake with white tashes.
“There’s a point from a smart drake, I understand, guys. But, as I say, I’ve already talked to old friends, Kanjraals & Chuhraals “, said Gulhaangee, turning his face towards drakes’ gathering.
“Who are Kanjraals & Chuhraals?”, asked the drakes.
“They are eagles & vultures of Kun who’ve got tons of expertise in grabbing and vandalising Kun-lands and flood channels, who’ve assured me of all sorts of help in our mission-encroachment …,” explained Gulhaangee.
“You are right Gulhaangee. We’ve seen them often flying over us, collecting & carrying rag & muck, scraps of waste bottles, papers, tin-bins, from different lands & depositing it on vacant lands, flood channels & even just on roadsides of Kun….…”, the drakes shared the vital information about Kanjraals & Chuhraals.
“O yes, I know, they’ll bring that waste for us too, God willing very soon, which will help us in fast conversion of wetlands into dry-lands”, said Gulhaangee who was overjoyed with promised assistance of Kanjraals & Chuhraals.
“But we’ve a fear, we may be caught & ripped apart by Vataals, the jackals of Kun, who often keep a vigil on our nasty activities”, the drakes expressing their anxiety.
“No, no, that isn’t issue. We know Vataals. They are always foraging the areas of Kun for eating carrion & dead ducks. We can sufficiently supply them their diet to keep them in good humour, away from our illegality”, Gulhaangee told the assembly.
“Wah, what a great idea from your small brain-box, Gulhaangee!”, admiration coming from the drakes in general.
“When to begin auspicious work, then?” asked an over-excited dull drake.
“Sharp today, right now, disperse…ssssss….. ducks & drakes to gather soil, gravel & stones & fill the water-bodies with them from rim to brim, don’t leave a single one unfilled by the dirt & dust;…. let they be stuffed full….”, Gulhaangee’s announcement sounded death bell across shivering water-bodies of Kun.
“Hurrah…..”, the happy-go-lucky ducks from all over Kun got jerked to jubilation by Gulhaangee’s coarse whistling inauguration of filling the water bodies. Fluttering and flapping their wings, they moved & quacked loudly in different directions, gathering the material, dumping it from-n-onward-the-banks of the water-bodies. Kanjraals & Chuhraals too joined the ducks in filling waters with waste & scrap that was collected by them from all places of Kun. During encroachment by the Kolebatakhs, the Vataals, led by their chief jackal, Ghasbah, faked the Kolebatakhs’ dissuasion from disfiguring the water-bodies by their voiceless howling, as their snouts were shut by their favourite feast of carrion & dead ducks spread before them by the Kolebatakhs who knew of their dietary weakness.
After water-bodies’ grab, the Kolebatakhs placed wooden logs on them [waters-changed-to-lands] to fend off the hyenas, whom they feared more than jackals, and who were brought along by the jackals to intimidate them. They knew that Kanjraals & Chuhraals too had heaped up mountains of scraps of waste bottles, papers, tin-bins & rag during water-land-grabs of Kun. Mighty hyenas felt voiceless without laugh before the loads of wooden logs & muck heaped up on the grabbed water-lands by the Kolebatakhs, Kanjraals & Chuhraals that they wildly unleashed on fast approaching hyenas to scare them away.
Slowly but surely, with active connivance of the Kanjraals & Chuhraals, most of the lakes, rivers & their tributaries in Kun were reduced by the Kolebatakhs to halves of their original full dimensions. Kun’s water-bodies surreptitiously fell prey to the avarice of the Kolebatakhs to lead an easy non-aquatic life by converting them to dry-lands for their future habitation. Kun’s flood channels too were blocked by the Kanjraals & Chuhraals’ grab, as plasma in human body solidifying into death causing clots.
Then, came a doomsday scenario for Kun when a dreaded deluge swallowed it up like hay eaten by fire. It got heavy rainfalls & melting snowfalls for several days. Several times in the past, water-bodies of Kun that had served as natural capacity-reservoirs & secured its all aquatic & non aquatic life from being devastated in floods had now lost their existence to the grab of evil trinity of the Kolebatakhs, Kanjraals & Chuhraals. The water level rose to the hillsides & mountainsides surrounding Kun. The Kolebatakhs struggled hard in flood waters to save themselves out by swimming to safety to the top of hills & mountains but their easy non-aquatic life of years had snatched their ability to swim. The Kanjraals & Chuhraals, even though flying creatures, by relying so much, over years, on the muck grounded on the water-land-grab that their wings were no more operational for flights. They had become living parasites on the mammoth accumulation of the muck on the ground. While the flood-waters were inundating & washing away the Kolebatakhs to drowning death, they were heard crying & cursing Gulhaangee & their old drakes whom, they thought, responsible for their destruction. Before drowning, the Kanjraals & Chuhraals too were seen lamenting each other for the grab-greed that had led them to annihilation. The other docile birds failed to fly to safety of the hill-mountain-tops as God seemed having crippled their power of flight for their criminal silence on water-land-grab by the Kolebatakhs, Kanjraals & Chuhraals. For their failure to protect the water-bodies of Kun, the jackals & hyenas were devoured up by the beasts of Kun while they were escaping to safety towards the top of the hills & mountains. Many angry animals too lost their lives when they chased down the dying drowning Kolebatakhs, Kanjraals & Chuhraals to death.
Deluge had reverted Kun to its ancient past of a big lake all over. It looked a horrible vast ocean of flood waters with no exit point, no life, but only some animals on hill-mountain-tops and some foreign hawks flying over it like dignitaries in choppers above taking stock of the silent graveyards, the devastated deluged land below.
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