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Panting: taking short, quick breaths

The narrator’s wife got a pet sloth bear as a pet due to an accident. Two
years before, the time when this story was written, the narrator and his
friends were passing through sugarcane fields near Mysore. Farmers
were driving out pigs from their fields by shooting at them. Suddenly,

when it seemed as if it was apparently over, a sloth bear appeared from
the fields. It was breathing heavily due to running and the excessive
heat.

Now I will not shoot a sloth bear wantonly but, unfortunately for the poor
beast, one of my companions did not feel that way about it, and promptly
shot the bear on the spot.

Wantonly: for no good reason

The narrator says that he would never shoot at a bear without any
reason but one of his companions did, and the bear was shot dead.

As we watched the fallen animal we were
surprised to see that the black fur on its
back moved and left the prostrate body.
Then we saw it was a baby bear that had
been riding on its mother‟s back when the
sudden shot had killed her. The little
creature ran around its prostrate parent
making a pitiful noise.

Prostrate: lying on the ground facing downwards

The animal lay on the ground but a part of its fury black body moved. It
was a baby bear that had been lying on the mother bear’s back. Now
that the mother bear was dead, the baby got up and ran around the
mother’s body, crying.

I ran up to it to attempt a capture. It scooted into the sugarcane field.
Following it with my companions, I was at last able to grab it by the
scruff of its neck while it snapped and tried to scratch me with its long,
hooked claws.

Scooted: ran away
scruff of the neck: take hold of the back of the neck or collar suddenly
and roughly

The narrator tried to catch the baby bear. The bear escaped into the
sugarcane field. The group chased it and finally, the narrator caught hold