On 13^th Augut 1995, I was watching some larks near a nullah about 30 km from Udaipur, Rajasthan.  The place is called Dholi Ghati and it is about 3km from a township called Gogunda.

I was sitting behind a bush on the raised bank of the nullah and scanning the barren fields beyond the opposite bank with field glasses.  Both the banks of the nullah were overgrown with dense bushes.  Beyond that there was scanty vegetation.  There was a little trickle of water in the nullah.

I suddenly caught sight of a Jungle Cat about 50m from me on the opposite bank.  It emerged from the dense undergrowth, scanned the surroundings and slowl walked towards the bank where I was sitting.  From its appearance it looked quite sick; its limbs were not steady and were trembling.  Slowly it crossed the nullahand stopped near a shrub.  It sniffed the shrub and plucked a leaf and gulped it down.  One by one, it plucked and gulped five leaves.  It remained motionless for a minute or so and then again it ate two more leaves.  It remained motionless for a couple of minutes and then again it ate two more leaves.  It then took three steps away from the plany, arched its body and vomited.  In this fashion thrice it ejected food and secretion from its stomach.  Then it raised its head, took a careful look around and trotted off into the undergrowth as if it had no ailment and disappeared from sight.

I took a specimen of the shrub and it was identified as Eclipta Alba (Family Compositae).  The Hindi name of the shrub is Bhringraj.  From experts in Ayurveda, I heard that the shrub is used in Ayurvedic medicines.  It is used in Ayurvedic medicines for liver ailments, to regulate bile secretion, for Jaundice and for improving digestion.

Acknowledgement

I am thankful to Dr Satish Sharma for his help in identifying the shrub

Source

Published in Journal of Bombay Natural History:

Tehsin, R.H (1997) Induced Emesis by Jungle Cat (FElis Chaus)

Contributed to UT by: Arefa Tehsin