The Royal family of Tadoba

There are always two groups, glaringly opposite to each other. Coffee lovers and Tea lovers. Cat lovers versus Dog lovers. Mumbaikars fighting Punekars. Similarly, there are Lion lovers and/or Tiger lovers. I am without doubt 'Tiger' lover. For me, the lions are lazy, dirty, graceless wild cats, who have unnecessarily been crowned as the 'King' of the jungle! The real king without any doubt whatsoever is definitely 'Tiger'! It starts with the appearance itself. The brightly glistening yellow black stripes, the pattern of which is unique for every individual animal, in itself are mesmerizing. The face though devoid of mane, sharp and prominent whiskers with distinguishing features make him look as if some dignified king is making his presence felt. And if you watch him walking, ah, that grace, that poise, that grandeur even the topmost model cannot imitate to the tenth! 
We were extremely lucky to have Paresh Deshmukh and Ameya Gole as our guides, mentors and teachers in the jungles of Tadoba. They knew the entire terrain like the lines on the palms. At every juncture, we were told some enthralling details which not only made us richer in the knowledge but removed many misconceptions about tigers and their abode!
Royal Bengal Tigers, tigers of India, were about to be extinct but thanks to the hard work of youngsters like Paresh and Ameya and the original inhabitants of the jungles, now the population of Tigers is on the rise.
The forest is divided basically into two prominent zones, The Core zone where the animals rule the roost and The Buffer zone where humans and tigers try to coexist. The hamlets those were deep inside the Core zone have been shifted elsewhere to facilitate the free movement of the tigers for breeding. And it has helped. There are hardly any villages now in the core zones but the buffer zones still have more than 50 villages where the tussle for existence between the beast and the humans goes on. It's really a dicey situation because the question is, what should be put at the stake, conservation of the tigers or the human lives? I don't have the answers.
The first one that we sighted was male. Shying away from the passing crowd of so-called nature lovers who were more of picnickers than the 'Tiger' lovers, he lay cool in the shades of bamboo bunches. The interesting thing is that every tiger in the area is affectionately called by some name and he was Chhota Mogali.

The immensely hot season, though not suitable for humans, is the best season to sight the animal with grace par excellence! They set out to be near the waterhole all the time, to keep cool and quench the thirst! But the natural waterholes were limited and far apart so the Tiger conservation body has built many artificial waterholes those pump out the water from the borewells using solar panel electricity. I may have sighted an another one behind Chhota Mogali but everybody vetoed me out. And within minutes, call of another tiger sighting came in. These calls are absolutely mysterious for the city dwellers and they can hardly comprehend them! But the locals immediately pick them up and take the necessary action. The peculiar call may be in the form of, monkeys running amuck suddenly or making shrieking sounds, birds flying away in every direction or the deer running away for their lives.  

The guides and the jeep drivers are picked up from the local tribes, mostly 'Gonds' and 'Pardans' They are so adept with the topography of the region that they navigate to the site where the 'Movement'[ that's the word used for feline activity] is observed, in no time. Within minutes, with the least audible sound of our jeep engine, the driver took us to the site where a tigress was taking her afternoon nap. She was 'Kuhani'.[ maybe Kouni].

Of the tigers and tigresses, we saw thereafter, she was the most listless! As they say, without even batting the eyelid she viewed us with her kinky eyes and went back to sleep or did she pretend? Because within minutes she changed her posture, yawned opening her jaw widely, showing her menacing dentures with those ultra-sharp canines, for which the wild cats are famous, and just ignored us as if we were some unimportant creatures trying to beg for her 'Darshan'!

The waterholes too have been given names which are as peculiar as tigers themselves. Kankazari, Raiba, Shivanzari etc. At Shivanzari,  the black leopard was sighted only a few days ago, probably for the first time in the history of Tadoba Andhari Tiger Reserve! Here the titbit provided by Ameya was damn interesting. There is nothing like 'Black Leopard'. It's only the variation in melanin pigmentation, just like us in humans, that makes the cat special. So the way we have Albino tigers of Rewa in Madhya Pradesh where they don't have melanin, here it is the leopard who has the excess of it! 
It's very interesting to note that, when a male tiger delineates his area by urinating on the surroundings he allows only females to venture but fights tooth and nail with another male trying to intrude his domain, to protect it! And here comes the peculiar statistics! If one tiger proclaims around 100 to 300 acres of the jungle as his domain, as of now there is not enough forest cover to accommodate prevalent male tiger population! The forest which once was covering 33% of land in India, has now been reduced to mere 13%. Is the growing human population responsible, if so, what's the solution? Would there be a political will to curtail the cancerous growth of human population??!!

Sighting full-grown tiger was a feast to the eyes while watching the games of the tiger cubs was enormously entertaining. Junabai has made Madnapur as her home and has three cubs.[ Cubs are not given the names, till they mature, i.e.are two years of age.] These ones are hardly 8 months old. Absolute pranksters. Oblivious of the prying human eyes, or maybe they just ignored us, they were having a gala time while prancing in the water. They mockingly fought, jumped on each other, chased, maybe playing hide and seek, they were doing everything that normal human twins would do in the respective age!
Moharli Dewda gate is the most popular gate of Tadoba as it is juxtaposed to the highway, so is easily accessible. The number of vehicles allowed too is quite handsome. And that makes it 'Tiger Funfair for the tourists'. I just abhorred the crowds, their unruly behaviour and their callousness towards decorum that the jungle normally demands. They were behaving as if they were on the beaches of Goa! It was exactly how tourism should not be! But I would just forget and forgive them as the most memorable moment in the lives of everybody who was in our jeep was enacted on the stage that was just a few metres away.

Lara the tigress with enchanting grace was sighted near the waterhole of Dewada. She must be actress beyond compare. She had a huge audience but she cared two hoots for it. Though the waterhole was just a few metres away from her, she did not move an inch for more than two hours, kept her suitors waiting for aeons and then as if in trance got up, went straight to the waterhole in her leisurely gait, had a nice dip in the cool waters and then ventured out to search for her cubs. We were far behind in the queue so could not see her vividly. I don't know how our driver manipulated, of course, he did not break any rule nor was he hostile towards any of our co-revellers, but somehow in minutes, we, who were the last ones became the first in the queue. And Lara for our feat honoured us with her most exotic appearance.

She lingered around our jeep at a distance of merely few metres, examined us from top to bottom, passed by the side, just next to Pradnya, then retraced back to vanish in the jungles to search for her cubs.

On seeing the tigress from such close quarters my daughter Saana burst out in tears as she could not believe her own eyes. A full-grown tigress of real wilds, in flesh and blood, had just passed by her! 
It's difficult to keep chronology so I am just jotting down the narrative as it suits. 
On the penultimate day of our camping, we decided to visit the jungles from a totally different gate. Kolara gate And the gamble paid. As soon as we entered, there was a call. Two cubs were sighted sitting on the earthen dam. Both females, totally in the playful mood. How we Indians behave in extreme, unusual environs tells largely about our character as citizens. In short, we are useless, horrible citizens! A family with a kid in arms was in the jeep just behind our's. The kid started howling so the head of the family was requested to retrace back. He started arguing with the guide and the driver, 'It's just a child!' The guide said, 'Whatever! When the tiger cubs are in the vicinity you have to keep mum, period.' He just did not budge so we all have to reprimand him,' That's tiger cub, no less. Do as told.' He got the message so retraced back without uttering another word. At such places, it's very foolish to carry babes in the arms!

Another group from Mumbai was over smart. One of the two cubs had come so near to their jeep that she was almost in attacking position. But these fools were busy in taking selfies with her. Our guide literally had to shout at the driver of their jeep to reverse to avoid the catastrophe. They complied but the cub was not in a mood to give up. She advanced towards the jeep bit angrily. God knows maybe good sense prevailed upon her and grudgingly she went back. Mature adults may be less dangerous but as cubs are immature, they are most unpredictable. Fortunately for them, the mother tigress was not around otherwise the scenario would have been completely different! 
As Paresh has already put down, 10 campers, 4 days, travel of more than 600 kilometres,11 tigers, 2 leopards[ misfortune of our jeep, we could not sight them] Cobra, Civet, Rusty-spotted Cat, Monitor Lizard, Spotted Deer, Gaurs, Serpent Eagle and other countless exotic birds new friends and bountiful of memories. What more one wants!