Team India & Winning T20 World Cup 2026!

 

-- --

“Champions have different mentality; they have a stronger self-belief.”
― Sandeep Kakkar

“Don't aim to break records, aim to shatter them.”
― Matshona Dhliwayo

Pressure of being Champion is, whenever & wherever you play, people expect you to always win __ Me

Sandeep Kakkar is a highly successful Motivator and a Life Architect. He has authored the world's first self-help Novel “7 Buckets of Life”. Matshona Dhliwayo is a Canadian based Philosopher, Entrepreneur, and author of books such as The Little Book of Inspiration, 50-Lessons Every Wise Mother Teaches Her Son & many such. And I am a guy who tries to learn from all such names & use their wisdom in the best possible way I can, such as to start my sharing! Well, this is not about tadoba, not about wildlife, not about city or real estate but about sports & though it is about cricket yet it's more about characteristics of champions & how it helps us in our day-to-day life! I am not motivator or Life Guru but sports does teach us a lot, especially game like cricket where 22 players are in one game & this is era of modern days so you have to compete with not just payers on the ground but support staff & technology they use to stop you from performing & then there is media, fans & when you are defending champion then there is weight of expectations on your shoulder which is bigger than Mount Everest, & if you are part of Team India & the tournament is in India then suddenly you are carrying more than one “Mount Everest on your shoulders wala”, feel you get & my sharing is about how you perform with this burden!

Actually, this sharing I wanted to write last month only & most people have even forgot that we won T20 (plz google) ICC World Cup & while doing that we have broken many records (and jinx) & such in professional or say ease team India has done it that the usual thrill of winning a world title wasn’t there & people forget success which comes easily, though this success hasn’t come easily for sure however easy it may look on face! Ok, by now most of you know yet I will recite some records broken not from figures’ context but for pressure aspect about which I will elaborate later. Team India is the first team to win back-to-back titles in the T20 ICC world cup. Team India is the first country to win the T20 title as host. In two back-to-back world cups of T20 team India has lost only one match out of all the matches it has played, The final which team India won in 2026 is with the maximum runs margin in any of the finals played till now; there are many other firsts & records yet these few are very special & are important to understand the mindset of a champion as well becomes the hurdle for champions so I mentioned it specifically. Now let’s see what so special in achieving above feats while team India won this back-to-back T20 trophy, no team from 2007 when first T20 world cup has been played was able to retain this trophy, even most dominant team in white ball cricket i.e. Aussies also couldn’t do it & reason is, unpredictability of this format. The entire game gets done in mere forty overs (plz google for rules or don’t read if you don’t know, lol) & anything can happen during these limited time, one player, one catch, one over can change the fate of the game such is speed & uncertainty of this format. And uncertainty is the biggest hurdle in achieving consistency in winning as you don’t know on a day who will be your nemesis as when you know him then you are prepared, here it can be anybody & how you deal with an opponent player whom you don’t know & it’s his day that day, answer is, you don’t & usually you lose on such day! Like, in the semifinal with England, one young Bethel, twenty two years old, has nearly snatched away the game from Team India even they have made a biggest score to defend in any qualifier till now, yet such was the flurry of this Bethel’s game that suddenly all the Indian bowlers & fielders looked helpless to stop him & it took some extraordinary effort & planning to stop Bethel which is keep him away from strike & get other batsmen out, which India did, & that’s what champions do, adopt to the situation! This is why winning the T20 World Cup in succession is special as in this format of the game where any player can take away the game from you, winning consistently needs super efforts, which team India did!

At the same time another aspect is beating burden of past as on the very stadium where the final is being played nearly two years back the team has lost one day world cup final to Aussies & a country which live on beliefs as good omens & bad omens & blind faith (Andhshradha) this is something considered as bad open i.e. venue. And in the background of the present political social media war this aspect was being debated fiercely from both sides as to why the same venue has been selected when the ground isn’t lucky for us for finals. Actually, all over the world whatever you say is right or wrong yet even the champions have their own belief about some omens is a fact & I am not a judge for it! But a true champion believes only in his game, above everything as that’s what is going to make you win the game finally & not things like from which gate you enter in the stadium or which number’s jerky you wear or what room number has been allotted to you & this list is endless! Yet somewhere in the back of mind because we are humans & we have emotions, the past always keeps haunting us & the past of team India on this venue for finals wasn’t on our side & yet our team was able to put aside burden of the past & rewrote the history by winning the final, this is why the win is special! And a lot to learn from this aspect of team India for each of us, as every day is a new match & it throws new challenges on us & unless we raise ourselves above the burden of our past which may be of failures we won't even become champions of our life! Many of us crib for so many things as suddenly we point a finger at only when we try to justify our failure, I should not have taken this assignment on Tuesday as it’s not my lucky day or I should have avoided black shirt for interview & many such which in reality, are coverup just to shield our false ego of not accepting the fact that I failed because I didn’t perform, that’s it!

Third & most difficult aspect of this T20 championship was no team has won it as a host i.e. on home ground & that’s interesting as in many other tournaments the home team does get leverage of playing in front of home-crowd as well you have upper edge of knowing the ground conditions better than any other team, whichever the sport may be! But, but not in India as there are few differentiations here, first, India is a big country by size also & with big diversity on geographic conditions too! For e.g. look at the three venues where last three matches have been played by team India, decider with W Indies was in Kolkata in W Bengal, semifinal was in Mumbai in Maharashtra & final was in Ahmedabad in Gujarat. All these locations are totally different on weather as well ground conditions from each other like playing in some different countries & that’s not the case in most other countries where playing conditions are nearly similar all over. As well players from team India also come from different parts of the country for most of them any ground barring the two or three local players the venue is totally unknown just like foreign players! So, practically there is no such advantage of knowing ground or weather conditions & yet team India won the trophy is special. At the same time the cheering from the home crowd, if it is a boon then the same home crowd can boo you & who better than team India knows it (plz recall memory of loss from Sri Lanka in Kolkata in world cup)! And then when you play a final in a country like India you are carrying the expectation of a must win feel from one fifty plus crores of Indians & trust me, that pressure most of us even can’t imagine, leave apart carrying & that’s why winning the T20 world cup as host team is special for team India!

Last but most important the way team India played in entire tournament, super professionally as there was a major setback, in the form of big defeat from S Africa in super eight stage which nearly blocked our entry to semis’, but champions don’t get defeated by one loss, is something this team India has learned & proved it that they have learned the lesson well! They took this defeat as eye opener & then the next three matches they played with the intent to show other teams that they have learned & not lost from a big defeat, that is something to be learned from this team India. As in our life also when we are doing fairly well there comes a day, a job, a deal which hits us badly & how we digest that blow only defines what we are & team India showed that they are champion stuff! And then the most important lesson I learned for this tournament win of team India is, the team wasn’t depending on one person yet every time some one person came forward & did the job. May it be Sanju Samson, Ishant Ksihen, Bumrah or Axar Patel or Dubey (plz google), we have a new hero in every match that’s what makes you a champion team as this team is not depending (read as mentally) on one or two names but every player believes that he can change the game for the team & that’s how we must look at our respective team even at our work! Such was the perfectness of team India (with due respect, barring some real poor catching) winning this T20 world cup that we just didn’t feel the thrill of winning it, i.e. no adrenaline rush, no till last ball nail-biting, no prayers, nothing, but a cold-blooded murder of opponent team (sorry but that’s only phrase came to my mind) by performance & dominance! This T20 team is the new team India, she is brutal & confident & ruthless when it comes to winning, this is the team which plays only for winning & has the attitude of a champion!   A champion team is the one where every team member thinks & acts like a champion & take lead when times comes, thanks a lot team India not for just winning T20 world cup but teaching me so many lessons in the process & expecting many such ahead is all I can say, adios with this thankyou note!

*The final of the T20 World Cup 2026 reminded me of a scene in Amitabh Bachhan’s movie Deewar. When Bachhan retrieves a looted cargo of his gang from the rival gang & gets reward from his boss for the job & was shown relaxing in his cabin, his boss tells to his deputy, “iss ladke ko dekh rahe ho, muze iss baat ka achraj nahi hai isne akele ye kaam kar dikhaya, muze iss baat ka achraj hai ki isse ye malum thaa ki ye wo kaam pura karega, akele!” Plz google for the English translation as I may translate the words but I won't be able to convey the feelings for those words, & this T20 team India fits in to Bahcchan’s role, is all I can say!

-

Sanjay Deshpande 

smd156812@gmail.com

Sanjeevani Dev.

Please view my sharing about finding a Right Home/ Office in Pune, at YouTube link below & share if liked...

 

https://youtu.be/27j3I3rwGPQ?si=-ODYBxVI2Dl_C345

 

Please do visit my blog links below to read about real estate & home buying! 

https://visonoflife.blogspot.com/2025/12/pune-real-estate-in-2026.html

https://jivnachadrushtikon.blogspot.com/2024/12/2025.html

Creating Togetherness; team Sanjeevani Way (Click link below) 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/65629150@N06/albums/72157627904681345

For any of your complaints about city, log in at link below

www.punecorporation.org

Think Green, Think Life

www.sanjeevanideve.com / https://junglebelles.

Water, Air & ATM named Real Estate!

 

--

“Land and water are not really separate things, but they are separate words, and we perceive through words.”
― David Rains Wallace

“Illegality is covered by an illusion of legality.”
― Steven Magee

“Cities across the world have prospered because of many factors but two things are always common, culture & water.”  __ Me

Well, after a long time something frustrating as it is important to be exposed to frustration from time to time if you want to do business here & more if the business is related to land development of any kind & most if you are a builder! I can see frowning faces as a builder if you weigh the scale of respect & affection then the way our country is always in the last few when the scale is of happiness index, the same way builders usually stand at last two three in the list of business/ profession in our country! And anything you write which even slightly is in favour of real estate or builder then it’s a taboo or say wrong, yet I have no shame to tell my earning profession is real estate & I am a builder & I try my best to do the business by law book which pinches on every page & if I don’t share about it then wrong people will keep joining this profession & right people will keep leaving it, which I consider as my personal defeat, so this sharing, even its frustrating for me! Why I repeated the word frustrating is because the sharing is about rules, by-laws & policies related to real estate as well some aspects of real estate industry if we even consider it as an industry!

Till a few months or say a year back Pune supposedly was having only two problems, in the eyes of common citizen or society & govt, one is traffic & another is water. These two, like Federer & Nadal did in Tennis, keep changing the top problem slot term by term, as in summers water used to take the top slot & recently like Djokovic entered, air pollution made entry in the problem race & suddenly took the top slot on city problems front! Open any day, any page of local newspapers & you will find these three as the city's worst enemies & the only industry which is considered as culprit i.e. base of these three is real estate, is my reason for my sharing!

I am not defending real estate, as I know it won’t help but what I am trying to put forward is just pointing fingers at some industry the city won’t be able to get any breather from these problems but if we understand, accept the facts & then make rules of policies then only we will be able to win over them! For e.g., for now nearly five to six years all the plan passing authorities in the region i.e. PMRDA, PMC & PCMC (plz google for long forms) are taking an affidavit or understating (whatever) from the builders for any new development that the water will be provided by the builder if the local body / sanctioning authority fails to do so & poor builders (read as helpless) use to sign such document as or else they cant get sanction & like Jio there is no other competition to get the plans sanction from another agency, so like God’s Word, whatever PMC pr PCMC or PMRDA authorities says the builders has to accept it! Nobody dared to ask when it's the job of local body to make infrastructure & they are taking nearly Rs 300/ 400 per sft of every sft area built, in totality under various heads from the developer yet how can they say that, they won’t be able to provide the water to the project! Ok, if they can’t provide it then the builder is making arrangements for the water, is I can understand but why the builder is supposed to pay for that water which the residents are going to use because if it is so then where PMC is providing water there PMC also should not charge the residents for this water, right? But on the other side PMC is planning for supplying every drop by metered water supply scheme means for every drop of water consumed the user will have to pay to PMC & if it is so then why when builder is going to provide the water the same residents, are not to be charged but the builder should pay, is my question & every such policy related to real estate, is the object of my sharing!

As well though the plans of every project are being sanctioned by the local-body (read as govt) but no local body supplies even a drop of water for any construction 9read as legal construction) & doesn’t even cares how the millions of sft of homes are being built when no govt dept is supplying them any water! Well, the answer is, here also the builder has to make his own arrangement of water & complete the construction, maintaining quality & trust me, civil works need huge water to maintain right quality of concrete & all finishing jobs such as tiling, plastering etc! Approximately, one lakh sft of construction built up area takes two years of time to complete & it needs nearly 60 lakh liters of water (approx. average 10k litters per day for 600 days of work) as this includes drinking water also, for the labours at site! Joke is, no other industry is deprived by the govt on water & power front, rather govt gives them water & power at subsidized rate & on priority while for real estate industry govt refuse to give any water & power is available at maximum rate as rate per unit for construction electric supply is nearly Rs 16, which is highest & still the govt expects the builder to make affordable homes! Though electric power is altogether separate subject of sharing so about it sometimes later but at present lets focus on water & air & allied infra issues! Coming back to water, if the builder is supposed to provide water even after obtaining occupation then tomorrow the govt can say to make drainage lines, storm water lines also if the local bodies are unable to provide it & going a step ahead the builder can be asked to make proper approach roads also for the project, & if there is no local public transport available then make compulsory to the builder to provide rickshaw or bus service or pay its fair to the residents or pay the residents their petrol bills also till the local body is unable to provide public transport, right? (Sorry, it's sarcasm or else govt will really implement it)! My point is, if the builder is supposed to be responsible for the infrastructure outside of his project, then what is role (read as job) of local body such as PMC/ PCMC as well govt itself & why they are also not part of RERA as service provider (read as beneficiary) because they also make money from every sft of area being sold in form of development charges & stamp duty! At the same time, what steps we are taking for rainwater conservation in completed projects & who is monitoring it as a drop saved is drop earned, is simple logic for water conservation!

If this is case for water supply then as I mentioned the third entrant in problem rankings i.e. air pollution as the builders are made to provide Air Sensor on site as their cost & what he should do with is after the project is complete, donate it ?/ I understand it's just Rs one lakh thing & most will say what’s big deal, with a project of few crores what’s value of one lakh, well point is, why the builder only & why not any other industry is forced to do so? Why not on all PMT buses who probably emit maximum smoke & then what about the govt itself whose road digging all along the year for every known purpose generates maximum dust where are air sensors on all such sites & what action is being taken on it! And on all such backgrounds when you get to read news of govt regularising all illegal construction of govt lands from the point of humanity for the poor people (is it?) occupying such illegal homes the you really feel pain as what efforts one has to go to build one legal home what about humanity for all such fools (sorry that’s the only word come to my mind for anybody doing legal business) as after paying (literally) for sins of others & pinching my own pocket I build something & a guy who hasn’t applied for any permission leave apart paying for water to these occupants or fixing any air sensor, his homes are legalized without any sanction on the ground of humanity, wow, just wow!

Guys, I repeat, keeping all sympathy for the people who can’t afford a legal home, illegal constructions on private or govt land is a serious crime, worse than burglary(daroda) or murder, yet we are taking it very lightly! As first, these homes add burden on civic infrastructure without paying anything & we, the legal path-takers has to pay for them & at the same time they are competition for a legal home which is costlier as it’s been built by following every law & right practice, & this is unfair competition making only one part ending up as a loser, i.e. the builder (legal one), is my subject of sharing!

High time, there has to be committee of experts (Mungerilal ke Haseen Sapane) for all such policies related to revenue & infrastructure for every local body who has some thinkers on it & then make the policies which will benefit not to just some dept or body or business but the entire city, as there lies the solution for affordable homes for every segment! This is month of April & I was reading figures of revenue generated by all depths of govt (including PMC, PCMC) & most of them were related to real estate i.e. building permission, stamp duty on agreements of homes & property tax & such & do mind all of these is from legal homes only & courtesy real estate (read as builders)! Just think, if one day this all stops as even you get an ATM machine in inheritance but unless you supply the cash to that ATM it can generate money on its own but neglecting this fact if you keep withdrawing from that ATM eventually it will go dry one day & to me it seems the Mai Baap Govt considers real estate as ATM machine which generates its own cash & if that is so then one day we all know the entire city will go dry, adios with this warning!

-

Sanjay Deshpande 

smd156812@gmail.com

Sanjeevani Dev.

Please view my sharing about finding a Right Home/ Office in Pune, at YouTube link below & share if liked...

 

https://youtu.be/27j3I3rwGPQ?si=-ODYBxVI2Dl_C345

 

Please do visit my blog links below to read about real estate & home buying! 

https://visonoflife.blogspot.com/2025/12/pune-real-estate-in-2026.html

https://jivnachadrushtikon.blogspot.com/2024/12/2025.html

Creating Togetherness; team Sanjeevani Way (Click link below) 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/65629150@N06/albums/72157627904681345

For any of your complaints about city, log in at link below

www.punecorporation.org

Think Green, Think Life

www.sanjeevanideve.com / https://junglebelles.in/

Observing a Tiger & Fate of Sub-Adult Tigers! Part 2, the Conclusion!

 

--

--

“This generation has given up on growth. They're just hoping for survival” … Penelope Spheeris

“I have always had a sense that we are all pretty much alone in life, particularly in adolescence i.e. teenagers” … Robert Cormier

“It is better to have lived twenty-five days as a tiger than a thousand years as a sheep.'… Tibetan proverb

“By observing a tiger in the forests, I have understood hardships & sacrifice which comes with the tag named a King”… Me

Welcome to Part 2 of Sub Adult tigers & just I mentioned in earlier sharing (Dhurandhar effect), this isn’t actually a part 2 but sharing in continuation of earlier write up about sub adult tigers & observing them in the forests but had I tried to cover it together then it would have a novel which not many people would have read so part 2tag! Ok, this is about forests & needless to say tadoba & tigers but this is more about the learnings which I have understood about tigers & the forests by merely observing the way a tiger, adult or subadult moves in the forest & its habitats. This is very important aspect in wildlife at large & not just tourism as recently I came across a post on Insta, where the guy has posted a video of himself & family in safari at tadoba with caption, “hajaro rupaye kharcha karke, ky dekha to do jungli bhaise, chhe deer, kuch bandar aur dhul ke sath dhup” (after spending thousands of rupees all we get to see is two buffalos i.e. gaur, few deer, monkeys & dust & heat), I promptly replied to his post saying Jungle sirf dekhneki nahi, samzne ke chij hai (forest is needed to lived not just seen) but I know that’s not going to change the guy’s perception or thousands of tourist’s perception about wildlife tourism or safaris, that’s why this sharing!

That way like forest even life teaches us every day new things but learning is when we gain knowledge & use it in the life or else it’s just “palthya ghadyawa pani” (pouring water on container’s wrong side), sorry it’s a Marathi phrase ! But that’s different story so let’s focus on observing a tiger & learnings from it & here many will say ( as the guy with insta post), to observe a tiger first one has to see a tiger in the forest & let me tell you its “pahale anda ya pahale murgi” wala matter (plz google)! Because when I say observing a tiger, it’s not just zooming on a tiger but it’s observing the entire habitat in which a tiger resides as this is the first step which will make you help  for the second step i.e. seeing a tiger! Let me tell you (for those who are not well versed with forest) a tiger rarely indicates or shows its presence to the forest unless a specific purpose is there such as mating call or a tigress calling for her cubs or a warning for scavengers to keep away from its meal & other all times its very silent & that’s because then only it can hunt, right? So, to locate a tiger you have to observe the forest around him as every living thing in the forest is aware of the tiger's presence which is a master of camouflage. Humans are weakest species on all fronts of senses in the forest & birds, monkeys, deer all can either see, smell, or hear a tiger from a distance & even in dense of the forest or grass & once they do that, they all give a peculiar alarm about presence of tiger, this is what observing a tiger means! Many times a tiger is a few feet from you & the tiger has very clearly seen you, but you can’t see it unless it moves or makes sound & at such times all the alarm calls from other species can help you to locate the tiger!

Another help is, a tiger usually likes to walk on forest tracks & an adult tiger definitely follows a particular road or trail to mark its territory & from the pug marks in dust or droppings on the road, you can judge a tiger’s presence around as well its whereabouts! Here is where sa tigers (remember part 1, sa is sub-adult) are more difficult to track than the grownup or adult tigers as they don’t have a specific territory of their own so they don’t follow any particular tracks. Rather unlike grown up tigers, sa tigers prefer to move from the shrubs or through grass or any cover & reasons are obvious, one, they are low on confidence of moving on their own, two their training isn’t yet complete & mom has taught them not to come in open unless she is around & third, they are afraid of showing themselves as in this stage sa tigers especially males are most vulnerable to attack from other male tiger who is not their father! And the same time, sa tigers which are born in buffer areas has seen humans around & their mom has told them to keep distance from humans as that’s important aspect of survival while the sa tigers in core areas are not at all exposed to humans on feet or on two wheelers but are comfortable on walking on roads among gypsy vehicles which they know are not a threat, so in core sa tigers does walk in open on roads also though still lesser confidence than a grown up tiger! In classic case of recent sa tiger sightings at tadoba moharli village these are sa cubs of choti madhu named tigress & since childhood they are seeing loads of human activity,& they do have seen humans walking on roads around them as well humans working in farms near forest , even with this exposure the sa tigresses now the mom is not with them, rarely walks along the main road & immediately hide or take shelter or thickets along the road when they sense any vehicles approaching! So, when you see any tiger walking ahead on road, towards you are away from you its advisable to stop the vehicle then & there only & first observe it keenly & if you are photographer then take shots from the distance & then slowly advance towards the tiger keeping safe distance is what I will advise, so you can get your shots also & you can observe the tigers also properly!

Coming to the sa tigers & observing them & photography, here I will tell you one thing, I also like to see a tiger & click it but in that clicking so called best shot frenzy we miss to observe the tiger which must be the main focus of our wildlife trips! The shot we will click & post on Insta/ FB & will get likes & next day the post will be a history but the entire experience of feel when a tiger is around, right from the way it walks in open as well in stealth mode under cover, the calls, the stillness everything we miss if we are only focused on clicking the tiger, is my point of sharing! And I too have missed many such experiences for clicking but now I have realized what’s important & fun is in balancing between clicking a tiger & observing a tiger at the same time! Here again, when you are buffers where open areas are less & your vehicle only if is in front or at the rear chances of seeing a tiger clearly are more, so be patient when you see a tiger, don’t rush to grab the piece of sighting, wait, observe the tiger’s moment, understand what type of tiger it is & then makes your gypsy move in right direction. Because if the tiger is a sa, then it will try to avoid the gypsy i.e. people & either will take shelter of shrubs cover or will cross the road keeping distance from the vehicles & you will miss even seeing it leave apart clicking! If it's the core area forest then it will just walk inside the forest where you gypsy can’t follow it, so understand the tiger's mindset & then make your moves! And for that observation of habitat is very important as that helps you tracking the tiger more easily as tiger is animal of habit, it will follow the path which it’s using always or which has been shown to it by its mom if it’s a sa tiger but you must have patience to observe & trust on your observations, is the  key! Recently in tadoba we were observing a sa tigress who was just twenty months old but has started living on her own & when we saw her entering grass patch while all gypsy’s followed her on a track in that grass, we left her & went far ahead  & waited at a water body which we though she will come to, considering the distance she has walked & direction. While all the other vehicles waited in the grass from where she has entered in the grass but we waited patiently far ahead & after nearly thirty minutes her head emerged cautiously from the patch of the grass near the water body where we have been waiting, giving us perfect shots also & more than that a satisfaction & joy of understanding a young tigress! This is what observing a tiger is about & this is an art which is missing in the rush of photography as well just having a glimpse of a tiger at any cost, which we must make others aware of!

Coming back to sa tigers, they are like an unguided missile & the biggest problem of a sa tiger is, it has nobody to protect it or it can trust & this makes it very unpredictable which if is a hurdle for good sighting then a threat for the neighboring humans! In our recent tadoba trip we observed a sa tigress chasing a peacock & after an unsuccessful hunt attempt, she attacked a calf of indian gaur which also was unsuccessful as the mom gaur charged on the tigress to protect her calf! Now you can imagine, in normal a grown-up tiger will never waste its energy to chase a peacock but that’s what difference is in sa tiger & grown up one, though it was fun to watch both charging episodes of the sa tigers & yet I felt very sad after seeing her tiered post both unsuccessful hunt attempts! While a grownup tiger will never attack a human, even if it collides with one accidently but a sa tiger can attack  humans or any bigger animal like indian gaur without thinking, because it gets panicked & becomes desperate too, easily! Here is where observing a tiger helps a lot for us a s tourists & for the people around the forest as these tigers are part of their life now! To conclude all I will say, observing a tiger is important for conservation of the tigers as well it makes your mind train to observe every smallest detail as every detail matters & when you are back in your concrete jungle then also this habit of observation helps as survival is even more difficult in the concrete jungle because here the hunters are two legged & far more cunning than a tiger, mind it, adios with this note!

--

Sanjay Deshpande 

smd156812@gmail.com

Sanjeevani Dev.

Please view my sharing about finding a Right Home/ Office in Pune, at YouTube link below & share if liked...

 

https://youtu.be/27j3I3rwGPQ?si=-ODYBxVI2Dl_C345

 

Please do visit my blog links below to read about real estate & home buying! 

https://visonoflife.blogspot.com/2025/12/pune-real-estate-in-2026.html

https://jivnachadrushtikon.blogspot.com/2024/12/2025.html

Creating Togetherness; team Sanjeevani Way (Click link below) 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/65629150@N06/albums/72157627904681345

For any of your complaints about city, log in at link below

www.punecorporation.org

Think Green, Think Life

www.sanjeevanideve.com / https://junglebelles.in/

Forests, Humans & Fate of Sub-Adult Tigers! Part 1

 

--

“If you just watch a teenager, you see a lot of uncertainty.”…Jamie Lee Curtis

“This, teenager’s generation has given up on growth. They're just hoping for survival” … Penelope Spheeris

“A tiger's function in the scheme of things is to help maintain balance in nature and if, on rare occasions when driven by dire necessity, he kills a human being or when his natural food has been ruthlessly exterminated by man, he kills two percent of the cattle he is alleged to have killed, it is not fair that for these acts a whole species should be branded as being cruel and bloodthirsty.” … Jim Corbett

“Most common thing between a sub adult tiger & a human teenager is, both are like unguided missile” … Me

Four quotes (including mine) for a sharing, that’s something I haven’t done in recent but such is the subject of it, yes there is Tadoba (after a long gap) & there are tigers but as the quotes of Curtis & Spheeris says, it's about teenagers in the tigers i.e. sub adult tigers & trust me this is total new experience for me also! The best part of forests is they never stop to surprise me even after being in them for more than two decades & this Tadoba trip was no exception to this & add UKPWS in it (plz google), the package gets more than complete, though on knowledge front it’s never complete! If you are wondering what’s so great about it then first, I always love to visit Tadoba & central Indian forests I Feb End to March End as during this time Flame of Forests are at their best i.e. Palash trees, especially the hilly terrains around Nagpur are full of them & add Mahua flowers & ripe fruits fragrance in them, well I have never been to Kashmir but had I been a Shahen-shah then I would have said, “Jannat Agar kahi hai to yaahi hai”! I know most will laugh & said this is utter madness as where is Kashmir with all its cool breeze even in summers & tulips beauty with almond & apple orchards, & look at these 40 degrees plus grey-yellow coloured land which breaths fire, how can I even dare to compare this with Kashmir! I don’t blame all such people but beauty is in the eyes of the person & for me, these dry lands with red palash & mahua trees are more beautiful than Kashmir or any place in the world as its these lands which are home for the tigers which you don’t find in Kashmir & I am sure this is what differentiates wildlifers’ from others! Ok, sorry Kashmir lovers, no offence but specifically the flowers near Nagpur are darker in colour than MP palash & reason is more the heat darker the colour of Palash & you can’t beat the heat of Umread/ tadoba region on temperature front as well on spice front when its food! So, I was happy for the red carpet on the yellow land of palash flowers with my lungs full of the sweetest fragrance of Mahua flowers, the summer in the wilds has started on a wonderful note for me!

Ohk, coming back to our subject (finally), this was a short trip & apart from tadoba I wanted to check on third gate of UKPWS i.e. Pauni gate & while I was hoping to see some new terrain, what I got to see (read as experience) made me realize how little I (read as we) know about wildlife which is actually now in our backyard, at least for the people of tadoba we can say that! This trip I came across sub adult cubs which are like teenagers if you apply the scale of the life span of humans to the tigers. A tigress looks after her cubs ideally till they get two & half years i.e. thirty months & trust me a sub adult tiger of that age nearly looks like a grown-up tiger in size though by mind & experience its still a teen ager & its this age bracket of the tigers which we must study as well look at as if you check the death tally of the tigers,’ then the maximum tigers die when they are subadult is a sad fact of tiger conservation! And if we want to avoid or rescue it then we must look after the lifestyle of sub adult tigers is my subject of sharing! What is happening in tadoba & UKWPS, because of increasing numbers of male tigers & new younger males the females i.e. tigresses which have cubs are unable to protect these cubs from the male tigers which are not their father! For those who don’t know wildlife, a male tiger always kills every cub of a tigress it is mating or trying to mate to create its own blood line or say to show its dominance! This for many may seem cruel but that’s how nature has made the tigers & on cruelty scale humans are far ahead than the tigers so be it! So, when a tigress is having cubs from X male tiger & if that X male tiger is not dominant like Chota Matka (plz google) who eventually succumbed to these dominance battles, then the new male tiger chasing her becomes a constant threat to her existing cubs as the new male tiger is bound to kill them if it founds them tagging along with the tigress! So, to protect them the mom takes a hard decision, she cuts the training short & detaches the cubs just after eighteen or twenty months when they are in their early teens & this is the biggest problem Infront of conservation of wildlife which we are missing, is my point of sharing!

This trip was full of my encounters (in the right & good way) with sub adult tigers & if it's fun to watch them then its lots of learnings also for me about the way these young tigers are trying to cope up with hardships of wildlife on their own! First, I saw one sa tigress (sa is a sub adult) which is the daughter of collerwali, a dominant tigress in tadoba moharli range & mighty Chota Dadhiyal male tiger! These are nicknames given to the tigers by the locals while the forest dept recognizes them only by code-numbers yet I prefer to use nicknames only, better connectivity with the tigers! This sa tigress has two siblings both females but this one is bigger & bolder & not even two years old, she looks size of her mom & hunting alone. Here, collerwali tigress is being chased by another male tiger named Shambhu & locals are expecting a faceoff between Shambhu & Chita Dadhiyal soon & collerwali doesn’t want her young daughters being caught in fire in this fight so she was moving with CD or alone leaving the three sisters on their own. The sa tigress though can hunt alone yet she was looking for her sisters & calling them as it’s a big forest & even for the tigers its not easy to find their siblings & another threat is too much calling can lead the male tiger who is not your father to your location!

Then I met two sa tigresses which are daughters of another most famous tigress of tadoba, Choti madhu. These two are also nearly twenty plus months old & have started moving alone & creating their own territory. This is the tricky part as till now they are tagging with their mom but now the same forest area needs to be divided in three of them, which means less space & food. Recently a reel has gone viral about villagers (do mind not tourists) & locals are filming a tiger on their cell phones on the road & the tiger is running away from them. It's not a grown-up tiger but one of the sa tigresses of choti madhu. They have been seeing villagers & people on road since they were tiny cubs & often cross the main road from tadoba to Chandrapur among vehicles yet in search of food & territory they are wandering bear village as their mom has left them already. Both these sa tigresses gave us good time & I could observe them moving through forest & making their markings. It's these markings which are in the form of urine, and rubbing their body on tree bark & claw marks which makes other tigers aware of new tigers in the area as well this will help them to find their mate also! 

About the video gone viral, the forest dept has banned any vehicles stopping on this main road which now is frequented by many tigers but the point is, why to ban stopping of safari vehicles also which are there by paying the charges & which follow every rule, is my question! Rather the forest dept should ban any private vehicle without purpose on this (or any such) road & keep twenty-four hours patrolling along the road so illegal tourists will be curbed on all roads passing through forests. This will make tigers also feel safe as well reduce such shameful acts of humans chasing a tiger on foot just to make insta reel. As I said it was sa tigress so she shied away but had she panicked & attacked these humans then we would have declared her as a threat to humans & sent her to the zoo or killed her! And all this sa tigress’s fault is, her mom has left her without proper training because we have taken their space & on the other hand, we only are troubling her like a circus animal, rather than supporting her, is my point of sharing!

Lastly, we went to Umred Kharandala Pauni Wildlife Sanctuary where again I got to meet more sub-adults, adding more knowledge to me about this category of tigers. Here there are two tigresses X Mark & Shadow & both have sa cubs which are near separation & trying to make their living on their own. At the same time the famous F2 tigress which has five cubs, all of them have separated from her & now imagine a forest where there were two male tigers & three female tigers now there are nearly nine more tigers in the same space, what kind of mayhem must have been happening here & I am not counting other tigers existing earlier in this! Needless to say, villagers around these forests are having sleepless nights as on the very same day I was in UKPWS, F2 tigress's one of the sa cubs have killed (sorry for the word) a villager & the situation was tense. When I enquired about the incident, the deceased man was a youngster of twenty-two age & had taken his cattle to graze. One of the sa tiger has attacked his cattle & to rescue them this boy got exposed to the tiger & eventually got killed himself! This is bound to happen as first these sa tigress is not fully trained to kill in an instant the way a grown-up tiger does & then they have grown up seeing humans around so they are not that shy with humans like core tigers where human exposure is near zero. And then hunger makes you do the weirdest things even for the humans, these are just teenagers though they are tigers. And then even the villagers also need to understand, if you try to take away food from your pet dog, it also snarls at you, here you are trying to intervene in the lunch of a hungry tiger, which must be avoided! But again, the involved human was also a teen-ager, & he must have thought the tiger would run away seeing him!  Now the scene around all these forests is that you are not even getting workers to work in fields with such kind of incidences as grown-up tigers are survivors & they understand rules of survival & first rule is keep away from humans! But the sa tigers are desperate to survive & with their incomplete training & lack of strength to hunt as well to protect themselves from other bigger tigers they are bound to get involved in such a situation, for which we the humans are responsible & we only must find solution, is my subject of sharing! On Pauni road where we left the two male sa tigers just a few hundred meters from that spot village main road was there & group of village women were waiting for a bus unaware of two tigers relaxing inside the forests so close! On one hand this is a very heartening sight but on the other hand we are sitting on a time bomb as sa tigers are unpredictable & you never know what will happen with them, something we must make humans aware & trin to handle & fast!

Outcome is, as I have already mentioned, most deaths of the tigers are of these sa tigers as they are not trained to deal with obstacles which humans have made around the forests & the death comes in many ways, by electrocution, by falling in open well, by road or railway accident & if you survive all these then even by another big tiger! Some where our land policy makers must sit with forest dept & find a balanced solution as space is something even humans are fighting wars over it but for these sa tigers, the only army they have is their young body & a curios brain & we all know that isn’t enough to win any modern day’s war of survival! Only if some of the humans decides to stand in between the people around forests & sub-adult tigers, taking right steps, then there is some hope for these teen-age tigers or else I can see the darkness ahead for the young tigress which even their sharpest night vision can’t see; adios with this warning or request to those few humans!

*There is lot to share about sub-adult tigers & observing them, will do that in part 2 (Dhurandhar effect, lol) just one thing the place I was staying at Moharli gate i.e. Vasundhra has developed a small courtyard where flowering plants have been planted & it was like fairy land in the morning hours with butterflies, which are a very important aspect of wildlife & forests. I decided to make such patches in every project I will build back in my concrete jungle, as these are small acts but they can do so much nice support to nature!

-

Sanjay Deshpande 

smd156812@gmail.com

Sanjeevani Dev.

Please view my sharing about finding a Right Home/ Office in Pune, at YouTube link below & share if liked...

 

https://youtu.be/27j3I3rwGPQ?si=-ODYBxVI2Dl_C345

 

Please do visit my blog links below to read about real estate & home buying! 

https://visonoflife.blogspot.com/2025/12/pune-real-estate-in-2026.html

https://jivnachadrushtikon.blogspot.com/2024/12/2025.html

Creating Togetherness; team Sanjeevani Way (Click link below) 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/65629150@N06/albums/72157627904681345

For any of your complaints about city, log in at link below

www.punecorporation.org

Think Green, Think Life

www.sanjeevanideve.com / https://junglebelles.in/