THE YOUNGEST BENGAL TIGER CUBS (2004)During our stay in Bandhavgarh we had the great fortune to discover four tiny, three-week old tiger cubs. This was all the more remarkable as 29 jeep loads of tourists had already been in to see their mother (Sita's granddaughter, Chakradhara) without spotting a single cub! |
Written by Elliott Neep
Copyright © Elliott Neep Wildlife Photography
(ENWP)
Early in the morning, soon after entering the park we'd spotted the Chakradhara tigress walking through her meadows of pampas grass. It was still so early that it was too dark for any but the most outrageous motion-blur photography. The sun was still below the horizon and the tigress was nothing more than a dark shape moving through the long grass. It wasn't long before we were joined by many more jeeps and upon spotting the massing frenzy of metal, she halted her journey towards us. She turned aside and carried on through the treeline, appearing and disappearing from view with an accompaniment of "oohs 'n' aarrrs" from the tourist laden jeeps.
Digpal explained that she was likely to have her new litter stashed safely on the hillside of the fort. Park officials had heard meowing and calls from an area close to the old Bandhavgarh Fort gate. She was therefore likely to be returning to them and needed to cross the road that we were on. She had now moved to end of the treeline and, with the sunlight now shining, could easily be seen slinking between trees. As the photographic opportunity would be marred by dust and jeeps I asked Digpal to keep back from the frenzy so we could get a good view of the whole spectacle.
The jeeps jostled for their
views of the tigress but to a great extent she
remained hidden from view. A long and frenetic
game of 'cat and mouse' ensued with the jeeps
racing up and down to catch glimpses of her stripes.
After half an hour the racing stopped and a rare
silence fell over the scene. She had eluded the
jeeps and had apparently disappeared. The clock
ticked by and both drivers and guides scratched
their heads in confusion. Suddenly, she burst
out of the bushes a good way down from the jeeps
and made her run for freedom. She darted across
the road and entered the tall pampas grass of
Chakradhara meadow and was now invisible.
For us, the viewing was over so we continued along our appointed route to Bathan. There we waited for a while for news of any tiger sightings. Then the call came through that the elephants had found the same Chakradhara tigress lying in the long grass of the meadow that we had just left. The grass was so thick that we decided not to go immediately but to continue our own search for a tiger without the crowds.
Our search was largely
uneventful apart from a good sighting of a jungle
cat up in the hills around Sukhi Patia. We drove
on to Chakradhara to see what the situation was
like - was the tigress in the open or well covered?
As it happened our original estimate was right.
She was barely visible in the long grass. We'd
arrived very late and all but the last stragglers
in the park had been in to see her. The last before
us was a Cox & Kings guide. He said "...there's
no point, you can't see her, let alone photograph
her. You might as well save your money!"
The problem was that we had already prepaid our
elephant through the camp so we though we'd might
as well use it. Good job considering what we eventually
witnessed!
While we were gazing at
her through the long grass we noticed the tigress
licking what we thought was her paw. Then it moved
and we were suddenly aware that we were looking
at a tiny tiger cub nuzzling close up to its mothers
head. The cub then crawled over its mothers flank
and suckled. The mahout could not believe his
eyes and nearly dropped his radio in his excitement
for they are the youngest cubs that even they
had ever seen. Their heads were no larger than
a tennis ball, without teeth, and with blue eyes.
After hearing them mewing, Jacq was in floods
of tears and I had a major lump in my throat.
I thought "They are just so innocent, so
precious, yet so vulnerable". The mahouts
had seen the tigress three weeks earlier, heavily
pregnant. Nobody could believe that she would
hide her precious cubs in an open meadow. Over
the next two days she remained in the meadow and
suckled a further all four cubs in full view of
mounted tourists!
Our guide, Digpal, explained that
the tigress and cubs will now be protected and
monitored by the mahouts and tourists will not
be allowed to see them again. You can imagine
our dismay when we drove past the following day
to discover the 'Tiger Show' in full swing. We
were so disgusted at this apparent exploitation
that we drove on and left the park. With a bitter
taste in our mouths we discussed what had happened
to the 'protection and monitoring'? Our host,
Dhruv Singh added another dimension to the discussion
by saying "If she wasn't happy there then
she would move the cubs." This did ease our
feelings and maybe it was a case of our
western sensitivities blurring our objectives to
observe nature.
Our feelings aside, the true reason the tigress and cubs were shown to the tourists was altogether more disturbing. It was revealed to us that someone associated with the park, a guide or official, leaked information to the local press regarding the Chakradhara tigress. The press were told that this tigress had been killed. The forestry department upon receiving enquiries to qualify this information decided it would be best to show the tigress to prove the accusations were false. The Chakradhara tigress did not suffer the attention for much longer. The day after we photographed she disappeared with her cubs. She had moved the cubs to Sita's old hiding place, a cave on beneath the Bandhavgarh Fort. We met the mahouts in the following days who said they'd seen her carrying the cubs one-by-one across the tracks in the early hours of morning. I wish I could have seen that!