Vision of Life; by Sanjay: Tadoba; New Season, Same Excietment!

“Love is when you always look forward to seeing the same person everyday with more excitement”… Me.

Well, don’t start jumping on conclusions as the sharing is not about love or romance or relationships as one that’s not my forte & second, this aspect of life (i.e. love) is a very personal thing & can’t be generalized! So, if you are wondering in what context I used such a quote then it’s about my feelings for Tadoba forest (what else!) & I know most of you have got bored with me & my tdaoba franticness, then it's ok if you don’t read ahead, lol! But as I said, when you love something then that thing never stops surprising you & the excitement is ever increasing to meet those surprises & Tadoba exactly does that to me, the recent trip though very short one wasn’t an exception to this law of surprises or love! Actually, when you start feeling suffocated in the city & miss that fresh green fragrance in your lungs,& your ears crave for the music of birds chirping with alarm calls in along & your eyes search for sight of yellow black stripes, then you have become a wild lifer by heart. This is what always happens to me when I am away from the forests, which was for four straight months this time, thanks to heavy rains this year across central India. And what better destination to head for Tadoba when you start feeling like a drug addict, your system misses that adrenaline rush when your gypsy rolls on the bumpy roads, which I did. It was October first week & season opener for the core area though buffers were open yet the rains have made safaris difficult during this monsoon & as I said, it was a short trip with just four safaris yet its Tadoba which never stops surprising you in every safari! And most importantly it fulfilled my wish-list yet again by sighting the mighty Chota Matakasur tiger, which was giving a dodge to me for nearly the last four years! And then there were spotted deer herds on the background of every shade of green along with some wonderful birds & yes, one of the Tadoba's Super Moms, Zunabai tigress with cubs, & will cover her in Super Moms chapter yet there was a lot to tell (and learn) in this rip too!

First, the forest of Tadoba is at its best in the month of October & the main reason is, freshness post monsoon which reflects on every tree, creepers, stream, roads & on the animals also! You will get tired while identifying the shades of one single colour Green & the fragrance of many flowers on the creepers fill your lungs with joy & every water body is flowing with fresh water (a rare sight for we the city people) & right from the orange yellow coat of Tigers to Sambhar Deer to velvet on the horn of Spotted Deer, entire forest wears welcoming attire for the winters ahead! Though the sightings (of tigers what else) is bit difficult but with the grace of the God (and of tadoba) I have seen enough of tigers & can afford to enjoy the forest also & yet when its Tadoba, you can always hope for those yellow black stripes also which becomes orange red in this season! Starting with first safari which gave us opportunity to study a big pack of wild dogs again with wonderful reddish gold colour & same ferocity, it’s amazing to know these playful little creatures can so violent & deadly when they are in hunting mode. Many tourists consider them as cruel the way they hunt & eat their prey alive but it’s not fault of wild dogs but their small size which makes them unable to kill their prey in one go the way tiger or leopard do. So, the only option they have is bleed the prey when its sambhar or spotted deer or nilguy & make it exhausted with the chase & eat it alive which is very disturbing to watch. Here also though we couldn’t see the action but the forest was filled with the shrikes of their kill as the pack was eating it alive! Another animal which ates the wild dogs is none other than the tiger as these dogs attack small tiger cubs as well disturbs prey in the territory of the tiger, so whenever the tiger senses presence of wild dogs around it attacks them with full force & tries to shoo them away!

The best part of this trip was I got to see five male tigers & just once saw a female tigress about which I will cover in another chapter. This is very special as get to see even one male tiger is always difficult because of the large territory size a male tiger has & then it doesn’t have to guard for cubs which is a job of a mamma tiger & free to roam around at its will. Through this trip I get to observe different behaviour of male tigers & a few things about choosing right safari options which I will share here. We have booked a half day safari option for buffers on the Kolara side which covers Belara, Madanapur & Kolara gates as this gives us access to all these three zones. When sightings in one zone are not surety which usually happens in these times of year then it’s better to take such an option which allows you to cross the zones so you can cover all territory. Here in these three zones one male tiger rules named Xylo & we come to know he has not been seen for the last five six days, a normal thing for a male tiger when it has got such a big area to move around. As this Xylo guy primarily prefers to be in Belara zone first we decided to check that zone & to our wonder at one spot few gypsies of that zone were waiting as they saw him walking for marking his territory. One you see a male tiger then to locate it is easy as the tiger never changes its course of walk especially while on area marking as it follows a fixed path which the local guides & drivers are well versed with. So, Mr Xylo, a huge guy, gave us a good show & at one point it came so close to gypsy that his stare could pierce my mind asking me, what this can’t you guys allow me to do my job! And the reason is, the buffer's forest is thick and dense with shrubs, grass & the roads are narrow & turning, so unless the tiger comes on the road you don’t know where it's emerging from, in one case near our gypsy itself! And there are fewer deer or monkeys (prey base) in buffers in comparison to the core part so you don’t get to learn from the alarm calls the track of the tiger & you are dependent on visual sighting of the tiger only! What forest dept can do is, cut away the ground shrubs & grass, at least along the roads so it will be easy for the driver & the guides to track the tiger & maintain safe distance & avoid it coming close to the gypsy even by accident! Yet while Xylo was emerging from the fresh grass, the image of him staring at me was engraved on my mind & that’s one of the best take-aways from this trip.

Next day we were greeted by another male tigers’ pair famous in tadoba as Mama-Bhanje (Uncle & Nephew) as this unique combo of two male tigers though young are hanging along together & hunting also jointly, a rare thing for male tigers. At the same time, they are not siblings which makes this bonding more special as on one side the biggest threat to the tigers is, their own fights over territory & prey but here are two male tigers which are not bonded with blood yet are getting along, is it sign of behaviour changes of tigers?

And then to save the best, I got to see the Father-Son relationship of tigers which is common in Lions, remember Mufasa & Simba from Lion King? (Please don’t ask what’s this, just google) Same bonding & affection I witnessed with Chota Mataka. named a big male tiger & his fully grown-up male cub named Kalua (because of his blackish face). As I always say, these names are given by the locals & because of birth prodigy or location of birth or somebody mark & forest dept doesn’t accept this but give every tiger an identification number yet for the ease of readers I use names only! Chota Mataka is by no means Chota i.e. Small by size but probably biggest tiger in tadoba forests & rule a large part of forest i.e. territory which includes three female tigers. All of their cubs belong to Chota Matka & he is comfortably hanging around with these grown-up cubs which are now separated from even their respective mom tigresses, again a rare thing for a male tiger! When we saw CM (Chota Matka has been fondly called by the locals), he was limping with his left front leg & it was swollen, probably because the throne of a porcupine is what our guide guessed! I informed this to local forest officers so they can keep an eye on him, as agreed this is forest & things happen as per nature but the way we have treated (read as destroyed) the wildlife over the years it’s our duty to intervene & try to protect the existing wildlife, especially the tiger, as its being apex of the forest chain! This is where tourism can help the forest dept by becoming their eyes & ear & this is why every part of forest must be open for tourism!

Seeing CM & his sub adult cub hanging along & probably hunting also together, my guide asked me, “sir, tigers ka bartaw badal raha hai kya?” i.e. sir, is the behaviour of tigers changing? Because a male tiger never allows his grown cubs, especially male cubs to hang along as that's a direct threat to his prey as well relationship with other females! I replied, maybe yes, as though for thousands of years the tiger is considered as a loner i.e. not living by pack or group like lions but maybe lack of space is becoming the reason for their changing pattern of life. Though it’s too early to make any conclusion but what I observed as well guides & drivers are seeing everyday there indeed is something changing in the patterns & no wonder it’s from Tadoba because this is the place where Tigers have learned to live with humans already & may now it’s time that they are trying to live with their own specie! This aspect forest dept & wildlife researchers need to study as its delight for tourists but tigers roaming in groups can be a big hurdle in coexistence because their aggression may increase as when in group, we always tend to dare more is what we have observed even in the humans also! Here is where forest depts role comes in picture more strongly as to make more spaces, water holes available for the tigers so that they also can disburse all over the forest & not needed to concentrate in some particular area for their needs such as road from Kolara gate to Jamani village, we can add water holes here so this stretch can be used by some tiger which is empty at present & many such small things can be thought of & I am sure park management also must be working on it! Oh yes, at Tadoba, it’s not just about tigers & clicking them but during that you can see hundreds of things around right from butterfly pair’s dance in air, behaviour of Sambhar deer when tiger is around & many such! With all such learnings I left Tadoba, eager to visit again with more excitement, soon!

You can watch more moments at the link below…

https://www.flickr.com/photos/65629150@N06/albums/72177720321143099/

Sanjay Deshpande

smd156812@gmail.com

Sanjeevani Dev.

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