Pushpraj, a young Tiger trying to have a territory in his own fathers Kingdom.

Morning was cooler than previous two mornings and sky was mostly clear.  February is always a busy month in parks due to grey weather in Europe. This is the time when everyone, if could afford, would like to go out of Britain or Europe. There was hardly any Tiger sighting since last two days due to rain. Yesterday afternoon when a Tigress was sighted on Rampur road every vehicle, barred one or two, in Tala zone was there to catch a glimpse. She was behind the bushes munching a Sambhar.

We did not see any activity of any Tiger in Chakradhara and Rajbehra meadow so we decided to move on to Banbehi. A herd of Gaur was browsing near Bathan. We followed them for half an hour. Two female with collar were there in this herd.

We were driving slowly on Andhiyari Jhhiriya road when suddenly we saw a Tiger walking along the road. He was not at all concerned with our presence or with Spotted Deer. He was sniffing the ground and tree trunk but did not tried to spray. This shows that he is not comfortable in this area.
Few deer gave alarm calls and this diverted his attention. He tried to stalk them but failed as once the cover is blown away it's blown away for good. Every animal knew his presence now and he knew this well too so at last he decided to keep on moving in the forest.

Bandhavgarh National Park.

Criticizing the park authorities is not my aim but I just wants to put here on record that how our system works now. Orders are passed from top to bottom and by the time it reaches to working staff the whole aim of that work is lost. Person who is controlling the labour has got his own idea of working. See this newly made waterhole this October. Forest guard knows only one language of the earth work that it should be measurable so he put the edges straight upright. Now how the animals will come for a drink is not his headache. Most of the time it happens because of lack of supervision in field.
Similar thing happens at the time of fire line cutting. Fire lines are decreasing in numbers and getting narrower and narrower. Fire line is a very important tool and it should be used widely. 

Shashi aka Bamera was out yesterday and he was out till this afternoon. There is nothing new or wrong for a Tiger to be out of the park but when they make cattle kill constantly then it becomes a worry. 

Whole of this country agreed with that demand that Tiger population should be double by 2020. No one provided any answers of few questions related to this tiger population growth. Do we have enough space to accommodate that many Tiger? Even if we have space do we have enough prey base for these Tigers? Look at the condition of our major National Parks Kanha and Bandhavgarh in M.P. 

Kanha Tiger population is always questionable since last 5-6 years and prey base density in Bandhavgarh is always low. If you dont agree with this point then please tell me that why most of the Tigers in Tala zone does cattle kills regularly? 

This picture was taken yesterday when Shashi killed a cattle in that house last night in village Sarai. Chain link fence has proved useless to stop the Tiger from going out of the park. In my opinion Chain link fence should be removed immediately. It blocks corridor. Govt is spending so much money in protecting the corridor then why we are blocking them from using the corridor. There is a faint chance but it's possible that Tigers can move in to Sanjay National Park naturally through this thin corridor. I just heard that Pench is willing to spare 5000 Spotted Deer. This opportunity should be grabbed by Bandhavgarh. This will solve some problem here. 

Wildlife Protection Act needs to be re written completely. It's written with lots of sentiments. That law hardly gives any chance to do any research work in the field or do some proper habitat management. As far as I know people are very scared of cutting a tree from grassland or doing something else.

Most of the small grassland meadows are taken over by Bamboo or Ghriya / Bhirra / Choroxylon swietenia. Many open places I knew in Bandhavgarh are taken over by these. These should be removed to provide more space to herbivores. 

Shashi aka Bamera the dominant male of Bandhavgarh enjoying his freedom.

Shashi is enjoying his life. Somebody mentioned that he is inside the park and making kill but this morning we got the news that he is well outside of the park in village Sarai on a cattle kill sitting in lentil field. Forest department was there to get him back in safety of the park.

 And for this whole operation hats off to park staff.

Wakeeta's cub killed by a Tiger.

Wakeeta has the most poor territory in Tala Range of Bandhavgarh National Park. Only meadow she have is Lakhumar which is of no use for any animal to graze so that doesn't help her to find the prey. She survives mainly on cattle. Often she is reported to be in Matri ji's Bada on a cattle kill. She lost her two cubs in Nov 13 and death of cause was Starvation. When she kills a prey out side of the park she leaps over the fence but her cubs can't leap over so they remain hungry for days. One of the cub was even put in a small enclosure to be fed but he died later.
Cub was killed behind Amanala camp near the fence. When I was looking at my pictures I found that this cub tried to defend himself but he was too young to fight with an adult / sub adult tiger.

  

Vijya's cub killed by a Tiger in July.

It has become a great mystery. Which tiger was found dead in first week of July behind Forest Rest House in Tala?
In Jan 2014 an young male Tiger was sighted for three days in Hardiya area. After identifying this young male we found this was one of Vijya's male cub. So where was he living for all these days?
Some forest labour did tell us in Nov, Dec and in Jan itself that a male Tiger was seen by them in Chakradhara but because we never got hold of any photos so we could not confirm his identity.
Forest Deptt says and believes that the cub got killed was male and remaining female cub is living at Fort plateau.
If she is living at Fort plateau then some time she should have come down in Chakradhara meadow. By now she is about 28 months old, sexually matured, then why she is not looking for mate? 
Fort plateau alone can not feed a Tiger? There is not enough prey base. Tigers living in Chakradhara do visit Fort plateau for a day or two but comes down regularly. 
There are so many questions on this issue.
It's a minor mistake but it can be corrected. It looks like as forest deptt is not interested in Data records. I am told that now they recognize them as a Tiger. I agree with that too but minimum one should know about the male and female population ratio in the park.
Why Rajasthan Forest Deptt recognize it's each and every Tiger by No's and name? They are using Tourism as a Toll much better than any one else in the country.
Everyone accepts this theory that if you know an animal by name then you follow news about him and becomes more concerned when you don't get any news about him. As it use to happen here with B2 and Charger.
Here is a picture of this Tiger taken on 17th Dec 2012 while he was walking in Chakradhara meadow with his two other siblings and picture in the bottom was taken on 23rd Jan 2014 while he was crossing the road near Hardiya.
Anyway. This Tiger is well alive and kicking for his survival in his fathers territory where his two other cousins are also putting pressure on his father. Poor Shashi / Bamera is getting injured here and there by these youngsters. They are too many for him to fight.  

     

Second visit to our place of Mr Peter Th Mann.

Mr Peter visited Bandhavgarh last year with Nature Images Tour and stayed a week longer. At that time only he decided to visit the park again in 2014 so he was again with us for a week in January.
Sightings were poor in Jan due to several reasons. Apart from rain the Ghost Tiger also disturbed Tulsi and her cubs.
One day we found Tulsi and her cubs sitting out side of park boundary. Still don't know why these chain link fencing are put because they do not serve any purpose. If they are there to stop cattle from coming in then Tigers goes out and kill cattle. Man leap over the fence to take bamboo and Timber for their need. Many pugdandee's (Human trail) can be seen in and around Bhitri. So practically they don't serve any purpose. This picture of Tulsi and her cubs proves it. That day they killed a cow and a buffalo.

Later on next day when they were feeding on cattle, that was dragged in by the forest deptt, 4 labour walked in literally to see the tigers. Everybody was thinking, What is this happening in presence of tourist vehicles. Where we are? Is this a National Park? But there was no one to answer these questions and tourists left frustrated.

Jaya sighting was good. We were told that she was seen in this area around 4 PM.  We were returning home so we decided to wait for few minutes. No call or any other sign so we started moving and there she was walking towards us.

 

Peter ward and family arrived with seeing wet land all the way from Jabalpur to here. Rain and wildlife viewing doesn't go well together. In an overnight sightings goes down. They had two good sightings of Tigers in the park but even when ground were moist Sloth Bear were hiding. 
Weather was again not very good when Fiona Monks and Nicholas Smith were here. We had very foggy mornings. It was such a thick fog in Rajbehra that we couldn't see animals standing in meadows. Visibility was about 15-20 feet.
But the best thing happened when Peter th Mann saw a Tiger in Hardiya. Mr Anand from hyderabad was also there and they all were confused about the identity of this Tiger. We were not in the jungle that morning but in afternoon Mr Anand asked Kay about the ID of this Tiger and when we got pictures a surprise surprised us.
Negative results were shown after matching that picture with Wakeeta's cubs but when Kay checked it with Vijya's cub a doubt aroused, Is he the male cub of Vijya? But male cub was killed by a Tiger in July as it was confirmed By Mr Neil Gogote, Mr Gyanendra from Tiger Den and Mr A.K.Sharma retd S.D.O. B.T.R.
We sent the pictures to everyone we knew and got the same results.
Everyone said that both pictures are of same Tiger.

Mystery is not solved yet. Which was that Tiger who found dead on 4th July is the question. Was he living at Fort hill and thats why his sightings were minimal. Some people did saw a male Tiger in Ghodademon and Khidki area but we never got hold of any pictures from them so never know which male it was.