Vision of Life; by Sanjay: Super Moms of Tadoba, Episode 3; Alizanza Family!

“Jab Maa ka Dil tadapta hai na, toh Aasman me bhi darar pad jati hai”. – Movie “Karan Arjun”.

Seriously, when it’s about emotions nothing can beat our Desi Movies & their dialogues, especially the movies from 90’s as may be its my genre (those who are 45 plus now) as we were in our young age, I mean in true means, the virtual world hasn’t hit us then & AI wasn’t the term which ruled our life, indeed emotions were easily accessible! I do miss all such dialogues in today’s movies but that’s not subject of the sharing so let’s keep this aspect of Bollywood for some time next & let’s come to our (read as my) favourite topic, not just tadoba but its Super Moms! This is third & last episode in present season (OTT language) as Tadoba will be there & so will be Super Moms which I hope to explore more ahead but for now its three special women i.e. tigresses which in a way are one family but has their own way to live. Yes, I am referring to Alizanza zone females which are locally referred as Bhanuskhindi female, Babali female & Zarni female.

Well, for those who are bumping with the sharing for first time, Super Moms of Tadoba is a series of writeups about tigresses in Tadoba forest & their contribution to wildlife, their challenges & wonderful journey till now, which I have been lucky to witness some part of it & I am sharing glimpses here as a tribute to these great Moms & somewhere someone can make their life a bit easier by reading this sharing! Many will ask, how can by sitting in our cozy homes (well, most of us has such) thousands of miles away from the forests which is home of these Super Moms, we can make their life better/ And many more will ask, why in the first place we should think for these Super Mom tigresses, as we have enough Ladkya Bahini & Moms to take care of already! I won’t argue neither I am able to answer this why but how, yes, that I can try! First answer how we must care for these Super Moms of tadoba is, by reaching out to people over there & helping them in every possible way which eventually will help these tigresses Moms & for that one has to visit the forests. About answering why (which I dn’t want to actually), the only answer come to my mind is, if we won’t do something for these Super Moms, who will, that’s why! This is the sole purpose of my sharing & before we get to know these Super Moms, a disclaimer! I am not researcher, nor an expert on tigers but I have seen many tigers & forests than common people so whatever names, places, age, family tree of a tigress may not be perfect as this is not some research paper but simple sharing about what I learned & felt after watching these tigresses in their respective homes, so please forgive if any discrepancy on such details, rather do revert to me with right data if you have, I will correct the same in my sharing!

Coming back to our wonderful Alizanza family which may sound weird to our human society i.e. the three tigresses I mentioned i.e. Bhanuskhindi, Babali & Zarni, which lives with one Male tiger, out of them Bhanuskhinndi seems to be eldest & she has become weak also due to some injury. Tigers though are good climbers yet the terrain which this tigress has made her home has got some nasty sloping hills & in rains the boulders get real slippery & during one such walk she seems to get injured badly to such extent that she was unable to hunt. She has got four cubs to feed & you can’t imagine what must be going through her mind as injured tiger mom means a certain death for all the family by starving! There are tells (forest tells) that the male tiger, legendary Chota Matka who has fathered those cubs, helped her to feed by hunting domestic animals, some says forest dept kept cattle tied up near the place where she has been resting during injury, we will never know the facts. Most important thing is, Bhanuskhindi female survived, though she lost one of her four cubs, & at present her one female cub is on the way of becoming Super Queen of Tadoba i.e. Nayantara! Bhanuskhindi, after recovering from her injury often has been seen with all her cubs resting near a water hole & though she herself become bit shy due to injury, her cubs have grown up liking the tourists & outcome is, Nayantara is dearest of them, walking boldly among the gypsies, a sight for which people visit Tadoba! Though Bhanuskhindi tigress definitely has become weak in the tiring process of fighting with her injury & growing up three cubs & now she has to face nature’s worst challenges i.e. fighting with her own daughter for territory! So, recently she seems to have taken a step back & retreated in non-tourism area yet tadoba will always be grateful to her for her contribution! Last time when I saw them together, all the three cubs were sleeping peacefully but Bhanuskhindi was wide awake & was looking at my camera, her eyes were telling me, don’t make noise my kids are sleeping! The area in which Bhanuskhindi & her cubs made their home has human’s presence right within the forest due to a temple & this has made the family so used to humans that Nayantara has been filmed while carrying a Bisleri water bottle thrown in waterbody near temple & making media as well common people think that its tourists which littered the forest which isn’t the case. Its locals who did that & this is what we must do, have right knowledge about the facts related to forests. As well let’s keep our religion away from the wildlife as we can build temple of our god outside of the forests but poor bahnauskhindi can’t move out of the forest to raise her kids, that’s why this sharing!

Let’s meet Zarni, the mysteriously shy Super Mom of Alizanza, she occupies far end of Alizanza buffer forests beyond which human settlements starts & that’s the reason of her being more cautious in giving sighting! In every buffer forest there are two regions, one which is towards core side & another towards outer side i.e. not forest area! This outer part of buffer forests meets with human settlements & tigers as they can’t understand our definition of boundaries like buffer, core, tourism zone or non-tourism zone as the only thing a mom tigress knows is to find safe shelter for her cubs & some food. Tigers actually are extremely afraid of humans & most attacks on the humans by the tigers is by accident or in fear & this the great Jim Corbett himself has noted down nearly hundred years back & that still is a fact. No wonder with lots of human movement around Zarani has learnt to keep away from human eyes & her cubs are also developed that way. This is why cubs of bold tigresses which has got privacy in the forest becomes bold & walk freely on road even when numbers of gypsies are around, which Nayantara, daughter of Bhanuskhindi does & Chandani, female cub of Zarani is shy the way her mom is! But this doesn't take away Supe Momship of Zarani as her job is tougher as on one side, she has to protect her cubs from threats in the wild as well she has to keep her cubs safe from humans as even a sub adult cub which may be hardly one & half year old but unable to hunt on its own can accidently enter in to village nearby or kill some humans resulting putting the cub’s life in danger! This has happened as one of the Bhanuskhindis bold male cub has been taken away as it supposedly has killed two or three villagers which ventured in the forests but price has to be paid by the tiger family! In so many of my Aliszanza trips I could click Zarni only once & that to on a hot summer noon when she has to come at water hole, the guide told me to be read saying, "sir tayyar rahena ye tigress jada time nahi bahar rukati, bass ek ya do minute milenge aapako photo khichane" & practically it was three minutes show, she came out of thick bushes where she was resting drank water & went back but in that three minutes she has given me a dream shot of my photography (though I couldn’t encash it fullest), a beautiful tigress with her reflection in still water with green forest in the background, that’s Super Mom Zarani!

And here is the third & most popular one Super Mom of Alizanaza, Babali! As the name says she is bold, bubbling all the time & she stays near core area of Tadoba from navegaon side & ventures even in the area of Choti Tara (one more Super Mom from core area) also, yet with keeping safe distance! In her territory comes huge & probably only real meadows of tadoba & no wonder she isn’t shy of showing herself in open as this part of forest has lesser green cover as well its near to core so not much human movement is here. Though the danger of male tigers does loom in Babali’s territory but she has a protector in the form of Chota matka male tiger, this is why Babali's most cubs have survived & are bold to such extent that her eldest male cub is named as Kalua & is delight of the tourists at present! One of her female Sub adult cubs, named Bali has been relocated to Project Tiger in Odisha recently! I don’t know what a mom tiger feels about such things as by now Babli has already got new cubs, but that’s how wildlife is, cruel a times!

There are two common factors for these three Super Moms of alizanza, one is their mating partner i.e. huge male tiger named Chota Matka & another is fight to make their cubs grow-up safe! Advantage of having one strong male tiger around is, other male tigers doesn't enter in the territory & the chances of cubs getting killed by them are les. But disadvantage is, the next mating from the existing male tiger can make the existing cubs get detached too early which I have observed here. Ideal time of superstation of cubs from their mom is two & half years but due to pressure of mating, cubs of above tigresses are on their own nearly a year early. This can make things miserable for the sub-adult cubs as lack of hunting knowledge & inability to make their own territory at such young age can cause their death, which is the only outcome in the forests if you can't protect yourself! Here is where our job to make life of these Super Moms easier comes in the picture as we must try everything to accommodate these new cubs (coexistence) which can give these moms some peace of mind, is all I can say! And it’s easier to write such words from my protected office cabin but to accommodate a tiger in your backyard is very tough yet forest dept & villagers around tadoba are doing it, so we can at least join hands with them in such efforts, that will be real tribute to all these Super Moms of Tadoba as well other forests! At Jungle belles we are conducting series of presentations in schools in Pune about these Super Moms, so the kids of cities can understand efforts of theirs’s as well Tiger moms to make them grow, that’s our tribute to all the Super Moms, adios with this note in this episode, with a promise for introducing some more Super Moms of Tadoba, soon!

You can check some more images at link below…

https://www.flickr.com/photos/65629150@N06/albums/72177720317550777/

Sanjay Deshpande

smd156812@gmail.com

Sanjeevani Dev.

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