The man who survived a black panther attack, only to park his trailer better
By Praba Ganesan
Thursday, 10 Apr 2025 9:06 AM MYT
APRIL 10 — They size each other up. These were agonising seconds for the one in denim and fairly instinctual for the other. Man faces black panther.
On this Friday afternoon of April 4, 2025 along the backroads of Jelebu.
Separating them was life in the jungle, and living in lorries through hundreds of thousands of miles over a quarter of a century.
He could not and would not back away from the predator. I cannot imagine the fear gripping him then, but Poobala of Port Dickson understood this was not a choice.
It snarled, growled and leapt at him.
It was over in less than half a minute. The black panther in these parts is a leopard. What it lacks in size and speed compared to the tiger, it makes up by being a stealthy stalker.
The goal was to kill. While all four limbs were clawing at the middle-aged man, its mouth reached to bite and crush his skull.
Unarmed, he drew on the only object in his hand, a 1.5 litre plastic water bottle, and shoved it at the beast’s fangs to prevent it from connecting with either his head or neck.
With the Cuepacs boys, visiting Poobala (M. Suresh), in the centre in red T-shirt, on April 8, 2025, four days after the attack at his home in Klang.
Unable to deliver death to its prey with the furious honks from passing vehicles playing as soundtrack, the tormentor gave up. It crossed back into the forest.
Soaked in blood, he got up.
It had clawed off most of his scalp and just before his right eye. There were punctures and abrasions all over his body, especially on this right arm which held the plastic bottle and his left leg.
Three days of admission and observation at Seremban Hospital filled with scans, surgeries and medication, left him with 32 stitches on his head.
He has since returned to Klang, to his home, to his wife and two kids.
I’ve known Poobala for almost 40 years and I’ll insist his character powered his bravery rather than the other way around, to survive largely unscathed.
There’s a tale about an Orang Asli guide who also survived a black panther attack in Taman Negara some time back. But only to inherit a terrible limp thereafter and retire from his job.
Four days after, my friend walks around his Klang home, joking about life on the road. After three weeks of rest, he’ll be back to the job.
People in Cheras are just learning about the incident. The whole country was alerted about it, man survives black panther (harimau kumbang) attack. However, they were not aware it was Poobala.
Poobala and Bheem Boy
The news reports had him as M. Suresh.
To general folks that’s the equivalent of John Smith in Tamil. A very common name. You’ll pass at least 18 Sureshs driving from Leisure Mall to Bandar Hussein Onn on any given day.
But the guy we know is not common, and arrived by chance in our lives.
The youngest of seven brothers in a quieter Port Dickson of the 1980s was a runaway. Fearing a whacking from a queue of brothers after failing an examination, he took a bus to Kuala Lumpur rather than face the family.
Fifteen years old with only passable Malay — he was Tamil school educated — he ended up in Puduraya with no idea where to go next. He picked a random city bus.
It turned out to be the Foh Hup 582 which dropped him in Taman Cuepacs Cheras. The accounts vary. How many nights he slept on floors he found, but eventually Uncle George got him a security guard position.
Back home in PD, they called him Poobala. Not the name on his MyKad.
I met him on the football pitch. There’s no mall or video games, just football. He was tough and a year older, but kind and friendly to a fault.
His jovial nature made banter easy. People looked forward to seeing him. He lived with a family and never a problem was he.
Later, he started driving lorries on long haul trips, and gradually I saw less of him. The last 10 years has reconnected many of the football boys, through a WhatsApp group.
He shares his enthusiasm and reactions using voice notes, speaking in Tamil, even if most of the exchanges in Romanised text escaped him.
The boys love his comedy relief.
Between driving across the peninsula and cracking jokes in our chat group, he married and helped raise two children, one in college and the other started his SPM year.
The ambulance can wait
While the 16-second attack video went viral, what happened after tells about character.
Because even after the black panther flattened him, with blood spurting out from head to leg, he got up.
Most people, after light accidents, would sit idle by the road till help arrives and expect assistance from those in proximity.
Not Poobala.
Instead, he does a video recording — recounting the incident to warn others and added his disappointment the cat fled. This, when later X-rays show the feline’s claws exceeded past his skull.
Then he cleans himself up, ties loose clothing around his head into a turban and gets into the lorry.
He realised he needed a better parking spot for the long vehicle. Also, he did not want blood to mess up his company’s property.
Thereafter, he drives the trailer a few miles and parks. Only then he calls his boss to inform he’s incapacitated, regrets to inform he cannot continue and passes the trailer’s location. Only after that he calls for an ambulance.
That’s our Poobala.
Unsure of whether he’d make it through the day, but still he did not want to fail to fulfil his obligations.
He even managed a voice call with one of the lads as the ambulance sped its way through the backroads to Seremban Hospital.
On Saturday, the next day, Seremban RnR was filled with trailers and lorries. Legions of truck drivers left their vehicles there and made their way to visit him using e-hail rides.
I imagine he’s a favourite with many drivers with his antics.
Not a hero
Anyway, that’s my pal and he is on the mend.
However, it is not all hunky-dory. He is unable to sleep at night. He has flashbacks of the black panther inching itself to his head, to end him.
This is not over. I’ll ask more when he comes down to Cheras in a couple of weeks for a thanksgiving event.
He needs the support. Politicians and celebrities — and mineral water companies — should come around. He’ll be at home for now, recuperating in Klang.
Tamils call predatory jungle felines puli. The boys are calling Poobala, Puli Bala for now. Let’s see if it sticks. Black Panther meets Puli Bala in Jelebu
But how is the puli itself?
I wonder if deep in the forest near Jelebu, a black panther — also in its dreams — sees a man choke it with a plastic bottle and shudders.
APRIL 10 — They size each other up. These were agonising seconds for the one in denim and fairly instinctual for the other. Man faces black panther.
On this Friday afternoon of April 4, 2025 along the backroads of Jelebu.
Separating them was life in the jungle, and living in lorries through hundreds of thousands of miles over a quarter of a century.
He could not and would not back away from the predator. I cannot imagine the fear gripping him then, but Poobala of Port Dickson understood this was not a choice.
It snarled, growled and leapt at him.
It was over in less than half a minute. The black panther in these parts is a leopard. What it lacks in size and speed compared to the tiger, it makes up by being a stealthy stalker.
The goal was to kill. While all four limbs were clawing at the middle-aged man, its mouth reached to bite and crush his skull.
Unarmed, he drew on the only object in his hand, a 1.5 litre plastic water bottle, and shoved it at the beast’s fangs to prevent it from connecting with either his head or neck.
With the Cuepacs boys, visiting Poobala (M. Suresh), in the centre in red T-shirt, on April 8, 2025, four days after the attack at his home in Klang.
Unable to deliver death to its prey with the furious honks from passing vehicles playing as soundtrack, the tormentor gave up. It crossed back into the forest.
Soaked in blood, he got up.
It had clawed off most of his scalp and just before his right eye. There were punctures and abrasions all over his body, especially on this right arm which held the plastic bottle and his left leg.
Three days of admission and observation at Seremban Hospital filled with scans, surgeries and medication, left him with 32 stitches on his head.
He has since returned to Klang, to his home, to his wife and two kids.
I’ve known Poobala for almost 40 years and I’ll insist his character powered his bravery rather than the other way around, to survive largely unscathed.
There’s a tale about an Orang Asli guide who also survived a black panther attack in Taman Negara some time back. But only to inherit a terrible limp thereafter and retire from his job.
Four days after, my friend walks around his Klang home, joking about life on the road. After three weeks of rest, he’ll be back to the job.
People in Cheras are just learning about the incident. The whole country was alerted about it, man survives black panther (harimau kumbang) attack. However, they were not aware it was Poobala.
Poobala and Bheem Boy
The news reports had him as M. Suresh.
To general folks that’s the equivalent of John Smith in Tamil. A very common name. You’ll pass at least 18 Sureshs driving from Leisure Mall to Bandar Hussein Onn on any given day.
But the guy we know is not common, and arrived by chance in our lives.
The youngest of seven brothers in a quieter Port Dickson of the 1980s was a runaway. Fearing a whacking from a queue of brothers after failing an examination, he took a bus to Kuala Lumpur rather than face the family.
Fifteen years old with only passable Malay — he was Tamil school educated — he ended up in Puduraya with no idea where to go next. He picked a random city bus.
It turned out to be the Foh Hup 582 which dropped him in Taman Cuepacs Cheras. The accounts vary. How many nights he slept on floors he found, but eventually Uncle George got him a security guard position.
Back home in PD, they called him Poobala. Not the name on his MyKad.
I met him on the football pitch. There’s no mall or video games, just football. He was tough and a year older, but kind and friendly to a fault.
His jovial nature made banter easy. People looked forward to seeing him. He lived with a family and never a problem was he.
Later, he started driving lorries on long haul trips, and gradually I saw less of him. The last 10 years has reconnected many of the football boys, through a WhatsApp group.
He shares his enthusiasm and reactions using voice notes, speaking in Tamil, even if most of the exchanges in Romanised text escaped him.
The boys love his comedy relief.
Between driving across the peninsula and cracking jokes in our chat group, he married and helped raise two children, one in college and the other started his SPM year.
The ambulance can wait
While the 16-second attack video went viral, what happened after tells about character.
Because even after the black panther flattened him, with blood spurting out from head to leg, he got up.
Most people, after light accidents, would sit idle by the road till help arrives and expect assistance from those in proximity.
Not Poobala.
Instead, he does a video recording — recounting the incident to warn others and added his disappointment the cat fled. This, when later X-rays show the feline’s claws exceeded past his skull.
Then he cleans himself up, ties loose clothing around his head into a turban and gets into the lorry.
He realised he needed a better parking spot for the long vehicle. Also, he did not want blood to mess up his company’s property.
Thereafter, he drives the trailer a few miles and parks. Only then he calls his boss to inform he’s incapacitated, regrets to inform he cannot continue and passes the trailer’s location. Only after that he calls for an ambulance.
That’s our Poobala.
Unsure of whether he’d make it through the day, but still he did not want to fail to fulfil his obligations.
He even managed a voice call with one of the lads as the ambulance sped its way through the backroads to Seremban Hospital.
On Saturday, the next day, Seremban RnR was filled with trailers and lorries. Legions of truck drivers left their vehicles there and made their way to visit him using e-hail rides.
I imagine he’s a favourite with many drivers with his antics.
Not a hero
Anyway, that’s my pal and he is on the mend.
However, it is not all hunky-dory. He is unable to sleep at night. He has flashbacks of the black panther inching itself to his head, to end him.
This is not over. I’ll ask more when he comes down to Cheras in a couple of weeks for a thanksgiving event.
He needs the support. Politicians and celebrities — and mineral water companies — should come around. He’ll be at home for now, recuperating in Klang.
Tamils call predatory jungle felines puli. The boys are calling Poobala, Puli Bala for now. Let’s see if it sticks. Black Panther meets Puli Bala in Jelebu
But how is the puli itself?
I wonder if deep in the forest near Jelebu, a black panther — also in its dreams — sees a man choke it with a plastic bottle and shudders.
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