Tuesday, November 24, 2015

10 Famous Royal Bengal Tigers of the Indian Wilds

India is famous for its diverse culture and spirituality, palaces and forts, mountains and forests and of course, the Royal Bengal Tigers that roar across the Indian wilds. Indian tigers have enthralled and inspired writers, photographers, film crews, wildlife biologists, naturalists and conservationists all over the world for centuries. Rampant hunting, habitat loss and other factors have brought down the tiger numbers in India to only 2,226 as per the census reports of 2014. Still, these predators continue to be the torch bearers of wildlife conservation in India. Even though tigers as a species have always fascinated us with their magnificent appearance, powerful presence and ferocious nature, some of them have managed to receive more attention than the rest of the lot. You may love or you may hate these tigers but you definitely cannot ignore them. Here is a list of India’s 10 most famous (and infamous) tigers:

10.The Champawat tigress, a ferocious man-eater: When it comes to mentioning India’s most famous tigers, the name of the Champawat tigress is unforgettable. A skilled man-eater, the tigress was guilty of 436 human deaths. She stalked and preyed on humans in Nepal and India during the early 18th and late 19th century. After devouring about 200 people in Nepal and failed attempts to kill her, she was driven out by Nepali forces. Her reign of terror, however, continued in the Kumaon district of India, her newly found territory. It is said that the villagers of the district would shut themselves up in their huts, halting all activities, in fear of being snatched away by the infamous tigress. People fled to neighbouring areas to save their lives.The ferocious cat was known for her boldness and fearlessness of humans and would break into rural homes in broad daylight. More than 200 humans lost their lives in India in the jaws of this tigress. The terror was so great that the British Government announced a huge bounty on the tiger’s head. Experienced hunters were no match for this cunning tigress and repeated attempts to bring her down failed miserably. It was under such dire circumstances that Jim Corbett, a famous hunter and conservationist, was able to hunt down this fierce tigress following her last victim’s (a 16 year old girl) bloody trails. Inspection of the feline’s corpse revealed that her upper and lower canine teeth were broken on the right side. The autopsy helped discover the reason behind her man-eating trait. The Champawat tigress’s inability to hunt for natural prey had forced her to hunt humans and cattle for her meals. 



9.The Man-Eaters of Chowgarh: If one man-eater is not enough, the ones of Chowgarh included a mother-son duo who were companions in crime. In the early 1920’s, an adult tigress and her sub-adult cub were rampaging the villages of Chowgarh in eastern Kumaon. Over a period of five years, the pair managed to hunt down 64 humans. The villagers in the area lived in constant fear of the tigers and there are tales which propagates that the number of human deaths in the jaws of these tigers was double the official figure of 64. Finally, in the late 1920’s Jim Corbett managed to hunt down and kill the tigress and her cub in separate hunting events The killing of the tigress was more difficult and success was achieved only after repeated failed attempts. An examination of the tigress revealed that she had broken claws and canines and worn out front teeth. Corbett assigned these deformities to the tigress’ man-eating behaviour.

8.Tigress Tara, Billy’s dream project: The tale of Tara is intriguing and adventurous. In the 1970’s, a time when India had just launched the Tiger Project and was experimenting with means and modes of conservation of its precious wild species, Billy Arjan Singh, a leading tiger conservationist carried out an experiment that was bewildering and controversial. The Grand Old Man of big cat conservation, whose immense efforts played a crucial role in saving India’s tigers, identified a flaw in India’s conservation machinery. He found that the wide separation of India’s tiger reserves hindered the movement of tigers which could lead to high inbreeding and resultant genetic defects. So, he tried out a daring experiment. With the permission of India’s Prime Minister, he travelled to England and adopted a female tiger cub named Jane from Twycross Zoo, in Leicestershire who wasn’t a pure Royal Bengal but shared genes with Siberian tigers. He renamed her Tara (star) and brought her up with immense love and affection in his home in the fringes of the Dudhwa National Park in India. Tara was never constricted and allowed as much freedom as possible and one day she lived up to Billy’s dreams and left for the wild. She mated with male tigers in Dudhwa and mothered successful litters in the subsequent years. During this whole period, Billy was put under a lot of pressure. His experiment was widely criticized as those against him complained that irreparable damage was done by introducing a genetic cocktail into the Indian forests. Many even held Tara responsible for all the man-eating incidents that occurred in Dudhwa and every time a man-eater was killed, Billy would fear it was his beloved Tara. However, luckily Tara continued to live well in the jungle and successfully established her lineage in the Dudhwa National Park. 


7.Munna, the wild CAT of Kanha: Kanha National Park in India can boast of its lush green wilderness thriving with diverse species of wildlife and above it alL, Munna. He is the dominant male tiger of this park and you do not need to be a tiger expert to identify him because of the interesting pattern of his stripes on his forehead which seem to spell out the word ‘CAT’. Throughout the years, Munna fought several territorial battles with other ferocious males to establish and maintain his dominance. One such fight in his younger years injured him in the leg causing him to limp awkwardly for a while. It was during this time that he received his name Munna after a forest guard with the same name who also had a limp. Munna has a huge fan following and is known for his habit of following safari vehicles over long distances. Seems he does like the paparazzi and enjoys his celebrity status in the park. 

6.Collarwali, the Pench Princess: The ‘Queen of Pench’ or the ‘Pench Princess’, Collarwali is the beloved tigress of the Pench National Park in India which served as the settings for Rudyard Kipling’s ‘Jungle Book’. Born to a famous mother Barimada, the matriarchial female of Pench, Collarwali was filmed right from her childhood when BBC filmed a documentary called ‘Spy in the Jungle’ on Barimada and her four cubs (one of them our Pench Princess) using spy cameras. From her young days, Collarwali showed signs of an able tigress and was the first among her litter to establish a territory in Pench. She was collared by the Forest Department to track all her activities and hence was referred to as Collarwali which in Hindi means the ‘one with the collar’. Throughout the years she was monitored by park rangers and wildlife biologists which yielded significant data about tigers in the wild. As a novice mother, she lost her first litter to pneumonia but as she grew in experience over the years, she established her own lineage and successfully brought up 14 cubs and hopefully will bring up more in the years to come. 

5.The Bandhavgarh tiger dynasty: A dominant male tiger, Charger was the heroic ruler of Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve for quite a time! Charger received his name when he charged a safari elephant carrying tourists in the park. He was aggressive and ferocious with a roar that boomed across wide expanses of the jungle. A fight between him and his son B2 or Sundar marked the end to Charger’s era in Bandhavgarh. B2 inherited all the traits of his father and continued his legacy in the park. Sundar was known for his hatred of the noises created by motor vehicles by intruding vehicles in his territory. Once, he even pounced on a safari vehicle and blocked the road for almost an hour, halting all safari vehicles in the process. B2 also suffered nearly the same fate as his father and lost his kingdom to his equally able son Bamera in a territorial fight. He derived his name from the Bamera dam in the park where he was brought up. He was as physically strong and dominant as his ancestors and ruled with full force in Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve for quite some time. Now in his twilight years, Bamera has been shifted to an enclosure by forest officials for spending his last days in comfort. 


4.Gabbar, the Tiger King of Tadoba: Tadoba Andheri Tiger Reserve in India can boast of several famous tigers but none as well-known as Gabbar. Even though he is named after a notorious villain of an extremely popular Bollywood film ‘Sholay’, Gabbar is far from being a miscreant in the eyes of the people of India. In fact, Gabbar is the much loved hero of the people here and is contributing immensely to scientific research on tigers. He is also also known as ‘Leopard-faced’ because of the numerous small stripes on his face looking more like the spots on a leopard. This 185 kg tiger had been radio-collared by tiger researchers and have yielded valuable data on tiger behaviour, preying and mating over the years. In early 2015, Gabbar suffered nasty wounds on his face after a heavy territorial battle with another male tiger in his area. Tiger lovers across the country prayed for his recovery and fortunately he recovered from his wounds naturally without the need of any human intervention. 

3.Machli, the Tigress Queen of Ranthambore: Responsible for boosting India’s tiger tourism, Machli is the most beloved tigress of the Indian wilds. According to a report, Machli has earned India tourism revenue worth 10 million USD per year! Machli proudly holds territory in the grand Ranthambore National Park of India where 60% of the present tiger population of this tiger reserve belongs to her lineage. 11 cubs (7 females and 4 males) have been reared by Machli. She is well-known for her intense motherly love for her cubs, fighting courageously against all odds including adult male tigers that threatened her cubs. She is also credited with winning over a battle with a 14 foot mugger crocodile. The majestic and powerful appearance of this tigress and her dominance over the Ranthambore National Park, is what invited so much attention towards Machli. She is also the most photographed tigress in the world and is part of numerous documentaries like the 50 minute documentary ‘Tiger Queen’ aired on National Geographic and Animal Planet, and her life story telecasted in BBC’s Natural World series. She is also the winner of the ‘Lifetime Achievement Award’ awarded by Travel Operators for Tigers for her immense contribution to India’s tourism industry. 


2.Ustad, the tiger who united India: He is literally the tiger that united India. Never before has there been a mass movement in India for the cause of a single tiger. So, who is this legendary Ustad? He is, or should we say, was, a dominant male tiger roaring across the glorious wilderness of the Ranthambore National Park. On May 8, 2015, Ustad was charged of man-eating and soon after tranquilized and removed from his territory to the Sajjangarh Biological Park without any notice or proper inspection. However, Ustad is not a tiger to be easily forgotten. Within a few days, people started to stream out on the streets from every corner of India with posters in their hands shouting slogans of ‘Je Suis Ustad’ and ‘Free Ustad’. Common people of all ages overcame all boundaries that divide India to stand for the cause of an animal: Ustad. The accusation was that Ustad had been deprived of his home and his family (his female mate Noor and her cubs) without any proper investigation into whether he was actually responsible for the death of RamPal Saini, the ill-fated forest guard who was killed on May 8. Ustad’s supporters believed he was innocent. Even though there was a prior case against Ustad for killing a man in 2012, there was no conclusive evidence that it was him that killed Ram Pal Saini and even if he did, he at least deserved a fair trial? The lobby that transferred the tiger, however, said that Ustad’s presence in his territory was against the safety of the tourists and also forest guards working in the region might be quite displeased with no action being taken against the loss of Rampal Saini. Still, like Machli, Ustad was also a much photographed and popular tiger and his absence created a void in Ranthambore which many could not accept. At present, Ustad continues to live on within the confines of his small area at the Sajjangarh Biological Park and the people of India keep praying for his freedom.



1.The Sunderbans tigers, present day man-eaters: The Sunderbans tiger is not a single individual but refers to the tigers living in the world’s largest mangrove forests in India and Bangladesh. Even though belonging to the same species as tigers found elsewhere in India, these magnificent beasts of the mangroves are a class of their own. They are famous all over the world as the man-eaters of Sunderbans as one in every 10 tigers of these forests is a man-eater. Every year about a hundred people are attacked by these tigers and very few survive to tell their stories. Villagers living around the tiger reserve cringe at the word ‘tiger’. Almost every home in these villages have lost a family or friend to these tigers. What makes the tigers of Sunderbans man-eaters, is still an enigma. It could be that the salty water drunk by the tigers here makes them more aggressive or the difficulty in hunting natural prey in the muddy grounds could make them consider humans as the alternative, easy prey base. Whatever be the reason, it cannot be doubted that no one is safe around these forests. Honey collectors and fishermen who need to venture near these inaccessible forests wear a human face mask at the back of their heads. Tigers are not known to attack from the front and this could trick the tigers to stop attacking the villagers. However, terrifying these tigers of Sunderbans may be, it cannot also be doubted that it is the presence of these wild beauties that has kept the ecosystem of the Sunderbans intact and the mangroves continue to protect the people from cyclones and high tides which are frequent in this area.





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