Tiny Paws Shall Follow Bigger Ones!

It was time for our evening safari, the last one for this trip. It was a buffer zone safari through the Agarzari gate. As we got onto the jeep, we weren’t really hopeful of sighting any tigers. All the buffer zone safaris we’ve done till date have disappointed us. We first went to a pond that was a tigress’s territory. We waited for 15 minutes for her to show up. But she didn’t. We left the pond and went to a big lake where a tigress named Choti Madhu had been spotted during the morning safari that day. We waited for another 15 minutes, but were disappointed.

So we returned back to the pond, but were yet again let down. We sighted an Indian Paradise Flycatcher, White-Throated Thrush and the usual Sambar deer. We then returned back to the big lake, Tigress Choti Madhu’s territory. We waited and waited. It was getting very hot and there was no breeze either. The sun was set just above the horizon. I was getting pretty tired at that point. I just wanted to go back to our room and sleep. An Indian gaur was grazing barely a few meters away from our jeep. Me and my dad had given up hope. The guide is just playing around with us, we thought. There’s no chance we’d spot a tiger here in the buffer zone. My dad was recording a Thrush singing her melodious songs under the setting sun. I was sitting with my head down, drained from the drive under the blazing afternoon sun.

The guide suddenly stood upright and pointed at the tall grass across the lake. A tiger was seen lapping at the water. We were surprised how the jeep that was waiting closer to the tiger didn’t spot it. We rushed backwards, and parked by the lake- there was no obstacle in our way blocking our sight from this spot. It was Choti Madhu, Madhu’s 8-year-old daughter. We then realized her belly looked too big compared to a normal tigress…she was pregnant!

She drank water to her heart's content, slowly got up and walked into the water. She swam a little and then got onto the land again. Our driver swiftly took action and drove us back onto the main trail. She walked towards where we were waiting, through the tall golden grass. She climbed onto the trail and stopped at a tree and smelt it. And then turned around, lifted her tail up and marked the tree. This is known as scent marking. Some tigers also scratch the tree trunks with their sharp paw nails as a sign of their ruling in that area.

She did the same for about 6-7 trees and kept getting closer to us as she did so. She then slowly crossed over to the other side and disappeared somewhere between the dense trees. But then she reappeared again. She continued to walk slowly between the trees, and stopped once in a while to mark a tree or two. We were absolutely captivated by her, lost in her world. Our guide brought us back to reality, saying we had to leave right away before the gate closed. We left half-hearted, not willing to leave her behind as this was our last safari for this trip, and maybe the last safari for a while where we’d spot a tiger like this in the absolute wild.

This trip by far is the best trip we’ve had. I would’ve loved to stay there for a few more days. How I wish we would visit all these tigers again sometime soon. We were tested for our patience throughout all the safaris. Out of the 5 safaris we did, we didn’t sight any tigers on one safari, on two safaris we spotted tigers easily, but on the other two we had to wait for almost 3 hours just to catch sight of these big cats in the last 15 minutes of the safari. Patience is surely rewarded well. As we rightly quoted- T for Tadoba, T for Tigers!!