Panthera tigris tigris

ENDANGERED

Adegaon-Dewada, Tadoba Andhari National Park

We first saw him as he crossed the forest path about 500 meters ahead of us in the light fog of the morning. Our guide, Viraj Arvind Raut and driver Dheeraj Katkar immediately made a beeline to the spot. We realised there was a nullah (a dry watercourse) into which the tiger had stepped and was almost hidden from us by a curve in the bank.

He was hidden but he was watching us intently.

We waited.

Finally after watching us for a few minutes he stepped up on the opposite bank and sat down in a gap in the bamboo. We were the only ones there and had him all to ourselves for a good 45 minutes or more.

This was our meeting with the elusive C2 male in the Adegaon - Dewada range of the Tadoba-Andhari Tiger Reserve.

Tadoba Andhari Tiger Reserve

Every wildlife enthusiast, at some point, dreams of spotting a royal bengal tiger in the wild and there is no better place than in India with its numerous tiger sanctuaries of varying climes and terrain. Among all these there is one, almost at the heart of the nation, the jewel of Vidarbh, “Tadoba National Park and Tiger Reserve”. Also known as the "Tadoba Andhari Tiger Reserve" it is the oldest and largest National Park in the state of Maharashtra and one of 47 Project Tiger reserves existing in India.

Tadoba is a jungle where, early in the day, the sun follows one like a lodestar through the tangled heads of the trees and as the day progresses it burns with a blinding exquisiteness that makes us shield our eyes and bless our existence. The light is lustrous in the open spaces and seemed undistllled from heaven to earth seeming like a laser show at times as gem clear beams filter through the trees. The warmth of it settles over our faces like a silken mask and life is a golden joy. That is the thing about the seraph-light of this jungle; it can sweep down like the handloom of the gods one moment, pure and clear and long of line.

Tadoba lies in the Chandrapur district of Maharashtra state, once ruled by the Gond Kings in the vicinity of the Chimur Hills, and is approximately 150 km from the closest major city, Nagpur. The total area of the tiger reserve is 1,727 km², which includes the Tadoba National Park, created in the year 1955. The Andhari Wildlife Sanctuary was formed in the year 1986 and was amalgamated with the park in 1995 to establish the present Tadoba Andhari Tiger Reserve. The word 'Tadoba' is derived from the name of God "Tadoba" or "Taru," venerated by the local adivasi (tribal) people of this region and "Andhari" is derived from the name of the river Andhari flowing in this area. Legend holds that Taru was a village chief killed in a mythological encounter with a tiger. Taru was deified and a shrine now exists beneath a large tree on the banks of the Tadoba Lake. The temple is frequented by the adivasis between the months of December through January.

The park is open to visitors from October to June every season and remains closed every Tuesday. It is divided into three separate ranges - the Tadoba north range, Kolsa south range and the Moharli range sandwiched between the two. There are two lakes - Tadoba and Kolsa - and a river which are replenished by the monsoon every year sustaining the wildlife in the park. Rich in flora and fauna the vegetation is southern tropical dry deciduous and covers about 630 km². Teak and bamboo are prominent and the northern and western parts of the reserve are hilly and dense with deep valleys and a sprinkling of lush meadows. Home to some of central India’s best native woodland bird species, about 181 including endangered and water birds, the park also boasts leopards, sloth bear, the Indian bison (Gaur), Nilgai, Dhole, Striped Hyena, small Indian Civet, numerous Jungle Cats, Chital (Axis Deer), Sambhar, Barking Deer, Four-horned antelope, Marsh Crocodiles, a profusion of Langurs and Rhesus Macaques and a good measure of reptiles like the Indian Python, Cobra and numerous other species. Tadoba, unfortunately, also has a high rate of man tiger conflict. Several instances have also been reported of wildlife killing domestic livestock and there are villages still within the forest contrary to the efforts of the Forest department so we were told. Note it is man conflicting with nature and not the other way round.

As per the 2023 Phase IV survey, which involved monitoring of tigers and the prey on an annual basis at the tiger reserve level, Tadoba-Andhari Tiger Reserve has recorded 44 male and 47 female tigers, while the gender of two individuals could not be identified. Also as per the census in 2023, apart from the tigers, 151 leopards were estimated in Tadoba & the surrounding buffer areas. A booming population supported by the incredible and diverse biodiversity making the reserve a paradise for tiger enthusiasts who have the choice of some of the best forest tracks in the country.

This is not a reserve where one will say I saw a bengal tiger, here one will say I saw the Telia Sisters, I saw the huge Wagdoh & Matkasur, I saw the enchantress Maya, I saw the gorgeous Choti Tara. Tadoba today has probably the highest Sighting Rating Index (SRI) for the tigers in the country with SRI defined as the number of successful sighting safaris vs the total number of safaris undertaken in the last 28 days.

This was not my first visit to Tadoba and neither will it be the last. Read about my other intimate encounters with tigers including those from Tadoba.

Tiger

This time however, thanks to Himanshu Bagde, our experience in chilly November 2023 was in the Dewada - Adegaon - Agarzari Range which plays host to a number of huge males and females. There are 6 gates into the core and 12 gates into the buffer zone of this tiger paradise. We took the Adegaon - Dewada gate in the buffer. The buffer zone is the area surrounding or adjoining the Core Zone where conservation takes place along with some limited human activity.

In Tadoba, both the core and the buffer zones have excellent sightings due to the rich and bountiful wildlife species of approximately 62 mammals, 291 birds, 9 amphibians, 34 Reptile Species, and 174 species of butterflies. The highlight for most being the 115 tigers and the 151 leopards and yes the elusive black leopard is also amongst them. This time too we had an extremely good run of luck and were spotting on average two tigers every safari with some tigers spotted multiple times. Our final haul was 3 huge males in their prime and 3 females of which two, I am told, had cubs.

I have had numerous conversations with people who think the Core is where all the tigers are seen and the Buffer basically means only deer and no tigers. Unfortunately that is not true as only about 20% of the entire forest is open for tourism. The Buffer is the area of forest which is used to satisfy the needs of the humans living in the villages fringing the forest and who depend on the forest for some needs like firewood & medicinal plants. The Buffer eases pressure on the Core zone and better the Buffer, better the jungle. The Tadoba buffer has about 70 tigers as compared to the core which I think has 65. These borders and terminology are just for the Forest Department to aid in their management and has nothing to do with the presence of tigers. For the tigers and other animals these borders do not exist and the only territories are those marked by them or an intruding male. Therefore it doesn’t really matter if one does safaris into the core or buffer as one will only see the tiger if the tiger wishes to be seen. But that said, the tiger will most certainly see you whether you see the tiger or not. On the map here the dotted lines indicate the tourism zone.

But I digress. Our run of luck started as soon as we crossed the Tadoba-Padmapur Checkpost from Chandrapur and this was even before we reached our lovely homestay with Hans Dalal. We spotted a Sloth Bear (Melursus ursinus) foraging next to the road. Unfortunately all the cameras were packed at the time and all we could do was watch the bear as it foraged about 25 feet from us. After almost 20 minutes with the bear we decided to make it to the homestay and lunch.

All our safaris, bar one into Moharli, were in the Adegaon-Dewada Range and were exceptionally well handled by Viraj Raut and Dheeraj Katkar. The Adegaon-Dewada Buffer range is teeming with wild boar, sambhar and chital and is prime hunting ground for the numerous tigers who have made it their home. Six vehicles are allowed each morning and evening for the safari from this gate. In one of the hardy gypsies, we made our way into the jungle and the farther we ventured, the wilder it got and more animals and birds came out of their roosts to start their day after the night’s rest. Dominated by the dense clumps of Bamboo, Teakwood, Crocodile Bark (ain) and Coromandel Ebony (tendu) trees, interspersed with Vetiver (khus) grasses, the vegetation of Tadoba is of a diverse blend of tropical and subtropical dry-broadleaf and dry-deciduous trees and thus a motley mix of charms even in the driest of the seasons.

But behind the glitz and the glamour is an unsettling chaos, not just between the tigers, but between humans and animals. These forests have been home to some of the biggest tigers, the largest number of tigers born every year and also the highest number of human-tiger conflicts. These prime territories are encircled by many ranges, each with its unique habitat supporting a different prey-base on which tigers subsist, and only the best of the tigers ruling these territories pass on their genes, a fabulous example of Darwins natural selection is always happening at Tadoba.

In most parts of India, Chital and Sambhar are the most preferred prey. The chital tip the scales at 60-70 kgs while the sambhar at 300-400 kgs; therefore, a sambhar can serve up a few good meals and is usually preferred by tigers and especially more so by tigresses with cubs. But these deer prefer grasslands to dense forests, which are generally not frequently seen in a setting like Tadoba. As an outcome of this, in the Kolsa range to the south-east of Tadoba, the tigresses, who generally weigh around 120-140 Kgs, have adapted to hunt the formidable Indian Gaur. A gaur could weigh up to 1500 kgs and can last, even for a family of five, many days.

This then was the backdrop we drove into and this time the jungle welcomed us with open arms showing us, from close proximity, the amazing wildlife and apex predators it shelters and nourishes.

The Adegaon - Dewada - Agarzari range is home to a number of powerful male tigers - Paras, Taru and Shambhu who have made this range their home, Chota Dhadiyal who ranges from Dewada and Junona all the way up to the Tadoba range in the north, C1 and C2 who range between here and the Kolsa Range to the east. This trip we were able to see, from close proximity, Taru, Shambhu and C2.

From the earliest known times, the Tadoba range has been ruled by kings from different dynasties. Each set has been progressively deadlier, ambitious and prone to conflict than the previous. The Old Katezhari male, the Hilltop male & W-male/ Vasant Bhandara male of legend were followed by Saturn/ Namdev, Tyson, Gabbar & Narasimha. The next to arrive on the scene were Matkasur and Kali and these in due course were followed by Tala, Rudra, Mowgli, Chota Matka, and Balram (with overlapping reigns in a number of cases).

Yours truly with the true heroes of the safaris -
Viraj Raut (on the right), Dheeraj Katkar (in the middle)

Our time today is with the 4 year old C2 who was sired by the great Khali (T50), also known as the coal mines male, and Sharmili (T-59). Sharmili, so named for her timid nature, was Saturn/ Namdev’s daughter along with Kali/ Ginaji. She took over the Kolara Buffer whilst her brother Kali took out a decade old ruler - Narasimha - to take over the Alizanja/ Navegaon Buffer. Kali was then seen mating with Jharni (sired by Wagdoh and the Kori Female). Earlier this year, on the night of 6th June 2023, Sharmili (T-59), at 10 years old, was found dead near the Payli-Bhatli village in the Durgapur forest area of the Chandrapur Forest Division. Forest officials at the Transit Treatment Center in Chandrapur stated she died of old age and cardiac arrest. Forest officials of the Chandrapur Range had been monitoring the activities of a female tigress near the villages of Payli-Bhatli forest area over the past few days and they discovered the dead body of the female tigress on that Tuesday in Compartment No. 881, near the village.

Choti Madhu - Irai Backwaters, Tadoba Andhari Tiger Reserve - WildArtWorks — Choti Madhu - Swimming the Irai Backwaters near the erstwhile Pardi Ambhora village.

Khali, named by tourists after the famous wrestler of the same name for his excellent build, ruled the Agarzari Range and gained notoriety by pushing out the mighty but ageing Wagdoh and mating with Madhuri. The love story of Wagdoh and Madhuri is something out of a Bollywood movie but unlike Wagdoh, Khali was shy by nature and therefore wasn’t as well known as his famous rival. Madhuri’s fourth litter was sired by Khali in 2016 after he had pushed out Wagdoh leading to us Choti Madhu, featured in the photo here, spotted swimming the Irai Backwaters near the erstwhile Pardi Ambhora village to get to her cubs on the other bank. If popular tigresses like Maya, Choti Tara and Sonam are the face of the core of the Tadoba-Andhari Tiger Reserve, Madhuri is no less an Empress of the buffer zone and the super mom of Tadoba having delivered 19 cubs since 2010. Madhuri’s second litter, of four cubs sired by the mighty Wagdoh (T38) in 2011 - Sonam, Lara, Geeta & Mona - attained fame as the Telia Sisters.

Khali too, unfortunately, managed to survive only 10 years. In 2021 he was spotted seriously injured and limping in the Agarzari range and was taken for treatment by the forest department to the Gorewada Rescue Center in Nagpur. After fighting for his life for two months he finally succumbed to his injuries in July 2021.

The photos in the gallery below are while C2 was seated in the bamboo clump banking the nullah. Then from a little later as he stepped back into the bamboo only to emerge out on the track further up. As soon as he got up we had driven up the path to give him some space and hoped that he would step out onto the path and walk towards us. Fortunately that is exactly what he did and approached us head on for quite a while as we kept giving him space. Eventually he stepped behind some undergrowth and disappeared from view. We gave him some time and searched for a bit after but he was not to be seen. It is hard to explain how a tiger that size, mere meters from us, could disappear so quickly especially with so many cameras pointed at him.

The photos are from three different cameras simultaneously operated at some point or the other by my wife, our guide and naturalist, our driver and myself and my 8 year old weilding the GoPro. It was an exciting time with all of us shooting at various focal lengths and capturing all the nuances, like the Flehmen response or grimace, of this magnificent tiger.

The gear used:

Canon 400D wearing the EF 600mm f/4L IS III
Canon 7D Mark ii wearing the EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS III
Canon 1Dx Mark ii wearing the EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II

And my 8 year old was wielding the GoPro Hero 7 Black.

Find all of these and the other stuff I use in my Kit Bag.

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The tiger is a truly majestic creature. He is the alpha animal in the jungle and for good reason. He moves with a fluid grace that no other animal can match. Padding silently, he can creep up on any creature and kill them with a single swipe of his outsized paws. Once those thorn shaped claws rip at you, it is all but over. He is phantom silent and melts into the bush like molten gold into a cast. When he finds a good ambush site, he lurks in the shadows. Then he waits for prey to pass, observing everything with glittering, feline eyes. When the target appears, he pounces with a coiled energy that is both fearsome and pitiless.

Understanding what animal calls mean can be hugely beneficial for a wildlife enthusiast, especially since the target subject is a lone master of disguise. When one is in a vast, dense jungle in India, and the tiger one hopes to document could be anywhere in that jungle, the only sense that can be relied on is hearing. Finding paw prints and signs of activity will show what happened on the night’s hunt, but once the animal vanishes into the tangled undergrowth the only way to track it is to stand and listen for a call. Not from the tiger itself, but an alarm call from potential prey alerting their fellow animals to the location of the predator. This is a phenomenon one has to experience, but first, what exactly is an alarm call?

Alarm calls are calls given by animals lower in the food chain, potential prey animals, when they detect the movement of an apex predator. Monkeys, deer and even birds give alarm calls. It is a very short, high pitched and high intensity call. When an apex predator, a tiger or a leopard, is spotted these alarm calls warn the herd that the predator is on the prowl. So when we hear these, we listen for the intensity, how far the call has come from and how reliable it is. What do I mean by reliable? One of the first and most useful vocal indicators are the Bandar Log - Hanuman Langurs, perched in the high branches able to see the predator from afar, who amazingly use a barking alarm call for leopards and a different call for tigers. Their call indicates that a predator is on the move and by finding the direction of their gaze the general direction of the predator can be gauged. Experienced guides can also determine, based on the intensity and tone of the call, whether the predator is a tiger or a leopard. Chital, favourite prey of tigers, quickly respond to the langurs call and begin a persistent barking of their own. And finally one of the most defined calls to listen for when tracking is given by sambar deer, who make a guttural squeak and stamp their feet when they spot the tiger. And when the tiger is out on the hunt this is an explosion of alarm calls from different animals that echoes through the jungle.

With that said hit play, close your eyes and listen to this recording from Tadoba from a few years back. It starts with a Langur hesitantly raising the alarm - maybe he has spotted those dreaded stripes whispering through the tall grass - the dappled light plays tricks. The call is then picked up by the chital and then almost a minute later, a sambhar! Now the tiger has definitely been spotted. The intensity grows, the chital, the sambhar call more fervently and then you hear it!

“One can hear a tiger roar from over a mile away!”

Tiger

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The last photo above illustrates the Flehmen Response (from German flehmen, to bare the upper teeth, to look spiteful), also called the flehmen position, flehmen reaction, flehmen grimace, flehming, or flehmening, is a behavior in which an animal curls back its upper lip exposing its front teeth, inhales with the nostrils usually closed, and then often holds this position for several seconds. It may be performed over a sight or substance of particular interest to the animal, or may be performed with the neck stretched and the head held high in the air. Flehmen is performed by a wide range of mammals, including ungulates and felids. The behavior facilitates the transfer of pheromones and other scents into the vomeronasal organ (VNO, or Jacobson's organ) located above the roof of the mouth via a duct which exits just behind the front teeth of the animal.

Note the still bleeding injuries on both forelimbs below. Nothing serious, and I am sure the tiger will recover without any issues, but these appear to be fairly recent and most likely the result of a hunt. The image below was the final photo as we moved up to give him space to walk. Unfortunately he walked a few meters and faded into the jungle to the left.

C2

W-mark Female

Isabelline Shrike/ Daurian Shrike