The Tipai Leopard
Panthera pardus fusca
VULNERABLE
Tipeshwar Wildlife Sanctuary
My love for the jungles and its inhabitants started when I was about knee high and perched on my grandfathers lap as he taught me jungle lore and narrated the exploits of Jim Corbett. Over the years that love has gradually grown and I reach out for the greens and the peace of the jungles. I first knew the leopard in Rudraprayag as Carpet Sahib tracked and finally brought it down. From then to now I have seen many leopards in many places but none as relaxed as the one we saw in Tipeshwar just below the Tipai Mata mandir. He did keep a wary eye on me as you will see through the course of the video.
“Those who have never seen a leopard under favourable conditions in his natural surroundings can have no conception of the grace of movement, and beauty of colouring, of this the most gracefuL and the most beautiful of all animales in our Indian jungles.”
Tipai Mata Mandir, Tipeshwar Wildlife Sanctuary
The central Indian landscape is, perhaps, the most biologically diverse part of the Indian subcontinent because it is the gateway connecting the genetically diverse tigers of the colder North with those of the tropical South. Though all Indian Tigers are classified under the same taxonomy, they exhibit different traits including physicality, when compared across the vast expanse of the subcontinent. For example, broadly speaking, as per Bergmann’s rule, the larger individuals of the species are generally found in the colder climate (or towards the poles) and the smaller individuals found in the warmer climate (towards the equator).
This landscape, with a multitude of fertile rivers flowing across it, is highly arable and therefore very attractive to humans as well. The human population in the region has well and truly exploded, effectively reducing the wild-scapes to mere patches with almost no connectivity. The corridors that used to be vast swathes of inviolate spaces are now human dominated landscapes. And by the 1990s, much of the tiger population in India was wiped from almost all the wildlife reserves due to this exponential increase in human settlements inside and on the fringes of the forests. This unhindered intrusion has fragmented the vast forests that once dominated the landscape and has, in turn, led to the breakdown of the corridors connecting these forested areas.
One such fragment is the isolated Tipeshwar Wildlife Sanctuary, a national park in the Yavatmal area along the state borders of Telangana and Maharashtra. It lies in the Pandarkawada district of Yavatmal and stretches over an area of 148.63 km² sprawling among the Patanbori and Parwa ranges of the Pandarkawad Forest Division. The sanctuary is a compact patch of dense forest cover with hilly undulating territory and various types of vegetation that varies with the altitude. It derives its name from the "‘Goddess Tipai” who is enshrined in a tiny temple on the hillside near the Tipeshwar Village within the sanctuary area just about 2 kms from the Tipeshwar Forest Guest House.
And this is the habitat in which I documented this relaxed encounter with one of the most elusive and elegant species stalking these mesmerising forests - the leopard.
For more: Video & Film
Tipai Mata Mandir and the Leopard - Tipeshwar Wildlife Sanctuary
Tipeshwar Wildlife Sanctuary has emerged as a successful tiger-cradle in the Eastern Vidarbha Landscape (one of the prominent Tiger Conservation Landscapes of India) and has demonstrated the potential to populate nearby tiger reserves like the Kawal Sanctuary in Telangana. However, like almost all other tiger reserves in India, Tipeshwar too, is plagued by the usual suspects – it is surrounded by densely populated and human dominated landscape with all the associated baggage that unhindered human activity brings - poaching, cattle grazing, trespassing etc., development – illegal mining, highway expansion etc., forest and prey-base degradation, human-tiger conflict etc. There are also a number of villages within the sanctuary area and their inhabitants are dependent on the forest for their livelihood.
But that said Tipeshwar has gone from being a sink, collecting surplus tigers from the larger sanctuaries, to becoming a source, generating increasing tiger numbers with village relocation playing a particularly important part. The three villages in the sanctuary - Tipeshwar, Pitapingri and Maregaon - mostly dominated by the Kolam tribe were relocated, I think, in 2014-15.
Five tribes occupy the Tipeshwar forest region viz., Pardhan, Gond, Kolam, Navbuddha & Kunbi, of which the former three are said to be aboriginal. The total populations of these tribes range from a few hundred to thousand and are seemingly vanishing; these tribes are stricken with poverty with a high mortality rate in infants, and a high incidence of sickle cell disease. Albeit in the recent years the increase in tourism has improved their condition to some degree.
The inviolate spaces created for the tigers through this village relocation exercise and additional measures such as the introduction of prey like sambar has helped the increase in the population of tigers.
The elusive Indian leopard (Panthera pardus fusca), a ghost of the forests, is often hailed as its most elegant dweller. Its gleaming rosettes catch the sunlight as it prowls through the brush or stalks down a tree. Shy, bashful and elusive, spotting - leave alone photographing - a leopard in the wild demands numerous hours spent searching the forests and more often than not one returns unsuccessful. The very lifestyle of a leopard has it living on the run from the larger predators like the royal bengal tigers and intelligent, vicious pack hunters like the dhole in India.
Our trip to the now lush forests of Tipeshwar was planned on an spontaneous urge to spend time as a family in the forest. We arrived at Ajinder Singh’s Tiger Tales Eco Resort on 7 June and started on a good note as soon as we entered the forests. We spent time with the young male cub from the 5th litter of the legendary Talabwali female - Teer or Arrowhead as he is also known. He was born in February 2023 and named “Teer“ for the distinct arrow mark on his forehead. An arrow is called teer in Hindi.
A brief note about Ajinder’s beautiful Tiger Tales Eco Resort. He has spent the last 12 years in and around the sanctuary documenting its magnificent tigers and the illustrious lineages very like and also unlike those in neighbouring Tadoba. Why do I say like and unlike - “like” because both Tipeshwar and Tadoba are home to beautiful resident tigresses who are mating with the strongest males in the forest and birthing equally strong cubs maintaining the bloodlines. Unlike because Tipeshwar is not as bloody as Tadoba when it comes to the battles for supremacy. You can read about some of the Tadoba lineages here and - because no discussion of Tadoba can be without Maya - here. I also have a separate section on the tigers of Central and South India where I talk about more lineages across various forests of central and south India.
The Tiger has always been a subject of curiosity to humans, even mysticism - worshipped by the ethnic Gond tribes who reminisce legendary tales of tigers around their campfires. Ajinder Singh’s resort is an homage to these tales some of which he too has witnessed, over the years, as they were enacted in the precincts of the jungle. These tales form a major part of his visual documentation of the resident tigers and is the inspiration for his esoteric association with Tipeshwar Wildlife Sanctuary with the resort the apogee. He has also created an excellent chart illustrating the various lineages over the last decade or so.
It was about 7am on the morning of 8th June, we were slowly making our way to where we had seen Teer the previous evening, when we got word of this leopard lazing in a tree just below the Tipai Mata Mandir. The footage above and the photos below are from the time we spent with this leopard as it relaxed and moved from branch to branch trying to find a comfortable perch.
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