ON THE TIGER TRAIL

ON THE TIGER TRAIL

Patel , a short stocky man in his mid-thirties, turned up in the forest department's green fatigues , much before sunrise , on a pleasant morning  at 5 am sharp. He turned out to be a knowledgeable  and experienced forest ranger. As we jumped onto his eight seater bottle green jeep, aptly dressed for a tryst with Collarwalli, deep into the forest, I sported a smile, satisfied that JIm Corbet would have approved. After some quick paper work and casual but firm scrutiny by the forest guards, we quickly made ground. We sighted the Pench river far off. Patel stared  into the horizon ,deep in thought and in a in a voice that  reflected a sense of  gratitude  , informed me that the Pench river , a tributary of the Kanhan river , flows through the Chhindwara district of Madhya Pradesh  and provides drinking water to the thirsty inhabitants of Nagpur city in Maharashtra, courtesy two dams. Nature, I noticed, pays scant respect to manmade divisions of land and people. The Pench river flows, hemmed in by the districts of Chhindwara and Seona in MP and cuts through a tropical dry deciduous forest   from north to south dividing the  forest into almost equal western and eastern halves.  

Patel is one of the efficient and dedicated team of officials, including a couple of IFS officers, who administrator this forest. 

A forest boasting of the Pench Tiger reserve. Home to about 33 tigers on the MP side and, possibly, another 32 on the Maharashtra side of the reserve. Collarwalli was the famed one among them.

Accompanying us along with Patel was Suman and Raju, two guides. Suman, a frail looking girl in her teens, was under training as a guide. She was the second of the four siblings who studied up to the 12 Th standard and applied for the job of a forest guide. Her eagerness to learn, arising out of her confidence in her ability to understand the forest, showed up the moment she climbed on to the jeep. Her family lived around this forest for generations. Surely, that gives her the right to feel confident!  She is an example of how this nation is learning to balance between modernity and tradition. Familiarity, skill sets and an opportunity to combine this with contemporary socioeconomic realities.

 
Raised to the status of national park in 1983, this tiger reserve seems to a success story. And for the tigers too! 

The cold breeze hit us as the jeep sped into the forest, along dirt tracks, breaking the silence and disturbing the various spotted dear and peacocks that stopped on their tracks and watched us. The spotted dear, were gracing in groups. Females outnumbered males in all the groups. As I looked at them through the binocs, I felt that few of them did show their disapproval upon this intrusion.  The peacocks had shed their feather post the mating season and generally looked disinterested. Their purple neck a sticking contrast to the green all around. 

Raju quickly spotted some pug marks and signalled for Patel to stop. While we leaned over to have a look at the marks, Patel became interested and drew our attention to the cry of the black mouthed Langur, usually called an alarm signal. It meant a tiger was somewhere nearby. Some of the deers, at a distance, lifted their heads and after due consideration for the signal, quickly moved away.
Here I am, I muttered under my breath, by appointment to your majesty. May I have an audience please!   Not a sound from any of us. Even the wind seemed to stand still. Minutes ticked by. Our eyes darted 180 degrees. Searching for those powerful set of muscles and glaring pair of eyes to suddenly appear before us. Nothing happened.  Raju nodded at Patel's signal  and both of them shrugged and decided to move on. 
These forests are not dense and had had low level grass between medium sized trees. Majority of these trees were teak. Occasionally, one could see the ghost tree ! Raju pointed at one and explained that these trees which looked somewhat  white , turned completely white under a moon light and seemed to look like a women draped in a white sari. Hence the name.  After few more false alarms on the way, we soon reached a clearing with a couple of concrete structure. Manned by more guards. We had travelled for more than two hours and it was time for some refreshments.  

We soon resumed our journey as Suman introduced us to some species of wild life which she referred from a book. She spotted a vulture and added that these birds feed on stale flesh. Raju smilingly admonished her   for a possible untruth a he informed that they feed on left over of tiger meal and it need not be stale.. She stood her ground but admitted that she had been told both versions. 

We came across a gentleman whose name I cannot recall but he happened to be India's ace shooter. He was on another jeep with a similar set of forest personnel. They informed us that they had sighted a tiger a few km away. We sped in that direction. We soon heard, by now our good old friend and ancestor I must add , the black mouth monkey giving out its alarm signal. There were pug marks too near a watering hole. Well, she seemed to remain elusive. Another let down!

Collarwali is one of tigress in the Pench reserve and the most famous. She is the daughter of another famous tigress made famous through a BBC documentary " the spy in the jungle"  Collerwali was collared and tracked. She is now 12 year old and had littered four times and fifth recently. Each resulted in 3 to four cubs, her second mating with another male resulting in 5 cubs and thereby she delivered 22 cubs in all so far. A world record.

About five to six hours on the trail of the Pench Tiger and we return without a glimpse. Disappointed but glad to have wandered around the great animal’s habitat. I have a feeling that one of those 33 majestic animals may have spotted us , watched us from behind the bushes and turned back to whatever it was doing before we interrupted.  Until next time your majesty.