Wild for Wildlife

As our jeep traversed the rough and smooth terrain of Tadoba looking for the tiger which could have been hiding just behind any bush on the path and yet go undetected, I wondered at this feverish desire we have for sighting tigers, lions and leopards. As these thoughts persisted and I thought of penning it, I felt they were not new and searched through my archives. Right enough, I found this blog I had written exactly a year back: Tiger = Maya (https://meera-lastingimpressions.blogspot.com/2023/10/tiger-maya.html).

Desires breed desires and this passion for tiger sighting too hasn't died even after a year. But not just for me - after all, I go on these trips only once in a while. Even those who go often seem to find the lure unabating. The more good photographs they get, the more the desire to capture the moments. 

Choti Madhu with her cub - one of the reasons that
made  the trip worth it!

What really made us take this mad journey by car when the city was being threatened by heavy downpour and floods (The details of our journey here: https://meera-lastingimpressions.blogspot.com/2024/10/escaping-depression.html)? What would have happened if we had waited a day and the rains had continued, making it difficult to get out of the city?

We wouldn't have got a refund, for sure. And it would have been a considerable sum for the 6 of us who were part of the tour organised by Naturographers. It would have disrupted the plans of two others who joined from other cities - Ahmedabad and Kolkata.

But even if that were not the case, we would still have wanted to go ahead. What drives us to go on such trips is not mere need for leisure and relaxation. For, there is anything but that! We wake up at unearthly hours - 4 am to be the first to enter the jungle at 6 am. Return to the room by 10 am, freshen up, and are back at the gate by 2 in the afternoon. Our eating schedules are erratic - only a tea that keeps us going for those six hours. Breakfast at 10.30 followed by a tasty heavy meal by 12.30, the two meals cramped together. Then nothing for another 6-7 hours, followed by tea and snacks and dinner within an hour - again sumptuous and lip-smacking.

In between these meals are the long discussions about the sightings, who saw what, who missed what, admiring photographs and regretting the blurriness and missed opportunities.

Back we go on the next safari hoping to outdo what we or others saw and captured earlier.

But this is one place where no one can guarantee anything. And so, even a tiger just sleeping in the shade is like a bonus. If two cubs are playing, then that's seventh heaven. A kill can send us in raptures. Mating... who cares about privacy? The animals themselves don't.

In our Tadoba trip too, we were lucky to catch a glimpse of how the cubs play with each other, at the same time learning to dominate. One cub - a subadult, really - found a cable of a solar panel and he pulled at it. The other arrived and wanted a share of it. Who won the match today will probably determine who will win the battle for territory later after the two part ways. 

Even a 5-month baby, still clinging to its mother's shadow, likes to try the power of its claws and teeth as it tests its strength against the bark of a tree, gnawing it and pulling at the creeper as practice for tearing at the entrails of its prey. Their vulnerable, curious and innocent gaping at humans is heart-warming, and like any other human baby. They get distracted and then scamper after the mother, who has to always have an eye on them or keep them safe when she goes hunting.

The mother's job is not easy at all... Her cubs are really vulnerable when they are young and she has to be detached while protecting them, knowing the weak will have to be sacrificed so the strong may survive. One of the tigresses we spotted, the mother of the young cub bravely fighting the tree, had just come for the morning dip when the young ones called her. The mother in me seemed to hear her mind voice crib, "Not a minute's peace." She needs to cool herself after a hunt or after eating by soaking in the water. But if her kids need her, even she has no choice but to put them before herself.

Then we heard about her tragic tale from our Gypsy driver. She had had cubs from a male tiger a year before. When they were 8 months old, another male entered the territory, defeated the incumbent, killed his cubs and mated the tigress. The cub we saw were that of the victor. A tigress takes two years after she has litters before she is ready to mate again. So, a male who wants a mate kills the existing cubs to get her into heat quickly.

Of course, we know this from watching National Geographic and Discovery. But watching the female who had undergone this made it more personal, more touching. Her stoic view of life is a blessing for her and a wonder for us.

And then, another guide told us about another male - the Casanova who had created rift amongst three tigresses with whom he had mated and all of whom were sharing territories next to each other. Their boundaries overlap and so they often fight. "But at least the tigresses sometimes let go, the tigers never do... They have to fight it out." Hmmm, I thought. Much like in the human world?

When a male is ready to mate, he gives a call. And what do the females do? If they are ready and willing, they present themselves to him. Otherwise, they quietly avoid and move away. 

The best part of this trip was the tales I heard and the insights I got from these drivers and guides who know much about every species in these jungles and how they behave. "In the Indian Gaur, the young males are sent away to survive on their own. If they do and return, then they become the leaders and the old leader is kicked out - mostly they die a natural death because of their size, or are killed, of course," one explained. We were in one part of the jungle when a canter carrying forest officials came our way. They had spotted one of the bold tiger cubs whose wont it was to walk on the forest roads, revealing himself to humans without fear. But even he had to run with his tail between the legs when a gaur chased it - what a sight this would have been had we been blessed to see it!

There is a region in Tadoba where there are not many sambars and spotted dears. So the tigers kill the gaur for survival. Even a tigress takes on this huge animal - indeed, it is a matter of survival of the fittest.

The dhols, wild dogs, are merciless as they eat their prey live. They hunt in packs and attack from all sides. As the poor victim tries to run, it leaves behind a trail of blood and its entrails. Not a pretty sight and one that we did not see... But can't be a good experience for the prey either.

Despite all this killing and wasting, of course, the forest ecosystem is self-sufficient and needs no vehicles to clean up after them. What the hunters won't eat, other nocturnal creatures such as the porcupine will scavenge willingly, including the tough bones. And, of course, our dear mother earth will swallow the rest and give birth to new trees. In this context, Maya, the tigress whom I referred to in my earlier blog, has vanished without trace, for the last year and a half.

Nature has her own ways and we can only look at it with awe and respect. One of my co-travellers spotted a snake in the resort. We all went rushing and we were lucky to watch it eat a frog. The frog wasn't lucky, but that's just the thing - the food chain is hard to wish away! In a parallel trip that happened to Ranthambore by another group of photographers, a trip that was also organised by Naturographers like ours was, a snake was the victim of a crested serpent eagle. The food chain illustrated in my biology textbook from long ago flashed in front of my eyes with live examples.

The beauty of these jungles is how the villagers in and around the jungle have also been roped in by the forest department to minimise human-animal conflict. Earlier, if a predator killed their cattle, they would poison the kill to kill the tiger. But now they understand the value of each tiger and are also compensated by the department so that they do not resort to such unjust practices. Of course, still accidents happen. There was a tiger that turned man-eater - she didn't eat the men she killed but she did kill a couple of them. The forest department got into action and relocated her to a place with lots of her kind of food to prevent further mishaps. There were also stories of a leopard with her cubs hunting people... But timely action helps to retain the balance and protect man and the beasts.

Just a 4-day trip and a few brief conversations revealed so much. What would living amongst these wild creatures do. It was like being in a National Geographic documentary. So when we taxied up and down the roads looking for rare birds and animals, the thought that preyed my mind was - how unnecessary mankind is for the survival of these animals! We are only an intrusion into their lives in more ways than one... We destroy them and then try to protect them! 

Passion or not, now I realise why our ancestors urged us to leave the life of a householder and spend some time in the jungles - it is enlightening or at least will teach us the art of peaceful coexistence - Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam.