A journey into the wild!

Over the last weekend, we had been to a small wildlife resort by name ‘Cicada’ located within the heart of Bandipur forest. It was an ad hoc plan and thanks to my bro, he put it up pretty fast and pretty neat. We started at around noon time on saturday and reached the resort by around 5:30 PM. The first thing we could notice around was the fresh, unpolluted air followed by the pleasant silence around! It was freaking cold but altogether the atmosphere made us feel very very nice.

At 7:30 PM was a small film session arranged – a small session on wildlife. Since I have had an overdose of these on National Geographic, Animal Planet etc, I didn’t feel quite excited about it. Nevertheless, I accompanied my dad, bro and my wife to the room where it was arranged.

There were 2 videos, one of which was concentrated on the life of a Tiger. By the end of the video session, I must say, I was eagerly looking forward to the safari next morning!

The Video narrated a story of a Tigress named ‘Lakshmi’ and it’s 3 cubs in the Kanha forest. Here are a few very interesting and surprising facts about the life of a Tiger!

Inside the forest, the male tigers rule individual territories. This means along the length and width of a particular territory, only one male Tiger will exist. However, there can be multiple female tigers. This male Tiger can mate with the female tigers in that territory but does not have a big hand in bringing up the cubs. Protecting and bringing up the cubs is the duty of the Tigress. And from the birth of a cub till it’s 2 years, the Tigress makes a lot of sacrifices in order to feed, teach and bring up the cub.

The Tigress is a very elusive creature. She ensures Pin Drop Silence while moving around. The cubs feed on the mother’s milk till it’s about 4 or 5 months old. And by the time the tigress realizes that the cubs are ready to eat meat, it puts in that extra effort and time required to make many kills to feed self as well as the cubs.

Deers are the most available and most favorite food of Tigress. Usually the deers appear in packs mostly near areas where Grass and water are in plenty. Langur are known as the eyes of the forest. They are the ones who alert other animals of the danger that’s approaching them. The case is the same even with respect to Tiger. The moment langur see the tiger approaching the deers, they making a particular noise to alert the deers, who get the message and run.

Sometimes, either because of lack of any langur around or probably because the tigress is too elusive even for the langur, one of the deers from the pack quickly forms breakfast, lunch or dinner for the tigress. The kill is very scientific in nature. The powerful jaws and sharp teeth of the Tigress clutches the neck of the deer, strangles and breaks the bone there to kill it. It then drags the meat to a secret place. Upon reaching the place, after ensuring that there is no danger around, the tigress calls the cubs to come out to have their food.

The tigress does not spoon feed the cubs on how to tear the skin to eat the meat. The cubs are expected to learn these on their own. While this is in process, the tigress keeps watch to avoid any approaching danger.

Not many a times do you see the father of the cubs meeting these cubs or the tigress. And when this happens, it doesn’t last long either.

A big fight is on cards if in case another male tiger from a different territory comes in. Then it is the fight for existence. A fierce fight is what follows. If there is no winner, the foreign tiger goes back to ensure that the wounds are healed while the native Tiger also spends time to heal the wounds. If the foreign tiger wins, then the territory belongs to him. In case the native Tiger wins, then he gets to keep his territory. Victory is nothing less that the death of one of the Tigers!

If it’s the foreign Tiger that comes victorious, the first thing it does is kill any Tiger cubs around. And that is not an easy job either, for there is the always-protective Tigress to give the Tiger another fight. The Tigress tries it’s best to hide its cubs from any potential danger and often goes out alone on hunting for food. Once the cubs are 2 years old, then it’s time for them to go and find their own living. The female cub is given a part of the territory owned by the mother tigress to make a living. But the male tigers are not allowed to be within the limits of the territory anymore. Now again, this is not only to enable them to live on their own but also to avoid any interbreeding. For the Tigers, after a specific point in time, don’t recognize their siblings. Only the mothe tigress can prevent any such casualties!

Sometimes, the mother tigress may get so heavily wounded after a fight with the foreign tiger that it knows it cannot win over the Tiger any more and protect its territory. So it flees to some other place where it may live for some more time and then die.

Sunday morning 5:30 and we were all set to go for the safari. We started at sharp 6 and in short time, we entered into the wild land! We got to see some wild hens, a beautiful peacock, a few other flying birds that’s not usually seen outside the forest and then… we couldn’t believe our luck. We saw the TIGRESS! And it’s 4 cubs!

Luckily, the naturalist who came with us saw these crossing the road and the driver quickly switched off the engine. We waited near the bush into which the Tigress and the cubs had gone hidden. After a few efforts with the binoculars, we finally saw the angry, disturbed tigress looking straight at us from within the bushes. It looked Majestic, as if to say ‘Im ready for anything. Come and fight if you have the will to’. It stood like a statue for a few minutes and then started pushing the cubs one by one further into the interiors for the bushes. We were so very surprised at that fact that at this young age (probably 3 or 4 months old) the cubs had mastered the art of being elusive. Each cub moved ahead without a bit of sound. And not even the langur around spotted them! All this while, the Tigress stood there giving cover to the cubs and inspecting our movements. FInally after all the cubs were done, the Tigress followed to invisibility!

“You guys are really lucky’ opined the naturalist. My bro repeated the same for about a dozen times in 10 seconds!

“That is the largest Tigress within the tourism zone in Bandipur” Explained the naturalist. “She has four cubs. The father of these cubs moves around in the other end of the forest. There are about 3 or 4 Tigress within this tourism zone and just that one single Tiger”. We listened with excitement and patience. “There are leopards also in this forest. Usually its the leopards and Wild dogs who post danger for the cubs. The leopard is a lazy guy who sits on top of a tree and watches the show. It doesn’t put as much effort as a Tiger does in hunting. But when there is something close enough, it kills the prey and takes it to the top of a tree. Wild Dogs on the other hand hunts in packs. There are about 13 or 14 packs of Wild dogs in this forest. They usually don’t hunt in the same area every time. They usually plan, surrounds the Prey and kills it. A Single Tiger cannot take on the pack of Wild Dogs. But it can definitely take on a couple of Wild dogs pretty easily. sometimes the Tiger kills a Wild dog and leaves the meat there it as if to warn the other members of the pack from entering further into it’s area!”

It was sounding more and more amusing for us. All this while, we also kept our eyes and ears around so as to avoid missing anything interesting.

The jeep suddenly stopped and we heard Trumpets. There was a family of elephants – a few elders and a few kids – having their share of breakfast – the lush green grass and tree leaves. Upon hearing the noise of our Jeep, the kids disappeared into the bushes while the elders pretended to charge at us. “It’s showing off. Don’t worry. It’s actually trying to scare you” the naturalist seemed to know it all. The eldest of the elephants in fact plucked a huge piece of mud with its feet and poured the dust on to itself trumpeting. This was all, indeed, a part of trying to tell us ‘Don’t come near me. I can be very nasty’.

“When an elephant charges at you, don’t run. Once it reaches close to you, the visuals get blurred for him. It just trumpets and goes away confused not knowing what else to do. ” said the Naturalist! “Similar to the Tigers, the elephants also push the small male ones off the herd once they are 2 years old. The decision is taken by the leader of the herd – usually the oldest female amongst the lot”

We finally left the elephants alone and drove on and down the lane saw a few huge wild boars.

“Each weighs around a ton” I recollected from what I heard from the video last night. The Bull looked to weigh double the females. But generally the boars are very shy in nature and tend to hide the moment they see some humans around. They all did the same here as well! “Only a male Tiger can take on a Bull” said the naturalist as we drove on.

“This forest has about 79 different types of snakes, the Indian Python being the most cited one because of its size” the naturalist was answering to one of my queries. “There are no Lions here whatsoever but there are leopards”. We weren’t lucky enough to see any though.

And suddenly we saw a small pack of wild dogs crossing the road slightly far from where we were. They ran quickly and disappeared and hence we couldn’t get a good glance of them. “They are here means by tomorrow morning we can expect one of the deers or langur to be killed” stated the naturalist.

The deers were in plenty. “That’s the leader of this herd” the naturalist told us pointing to one of them sitting and munching the grass looking at us. “Only the leader is allowed to mate with the female deers though there may be other male deers in the herd”

As we drove back, we all were again looking around to see only one thing – The Tigress! If possible, the cubs also. “A few months back it was recorded that the Tigress and the cubs were seen along with the father Tiger. It’s a very very rare thing that happens in the forest” the naturalist told us as we drove back to the resort. It was already 9 AM by then!

Signing Off…