My Mother

My last two posts raised the question about fence and last week Lakshmi killed Pancham in Tala village. Infact it was not tigers fault. What was the need for him to move in to that direction when he knew the presence of three tigers in the field and whole village watching this drama.
Normally I sleep with my mobile phone off but on 11th evening probably i forgot to turn it off. On 12th morning at 0413, Omhari my youngest brother called, to say Bai had a blood vomit you start soon. He was crying. I knew its all over for her. I rang back to him asking her condition. This time call was received by younger brother Devendra saying we have just come back from hospital and it is all over. Come soon.
I went to Hariom's room to tell him this news. He knew it by then.
She spent her last day happily talking with family and friends and was busy till 10PM. Had a glass of milk before going to bed. At 4 AM she called Omhari saying she is feeling sick and may vomit. By the time he comes to her room she already vomit blood. He supported her, she vomit 2-3 times again in succession.
We all are shattered by her death.
We were not expecting her to die so early.
Only sickness she had was her kneee problem and some blood pressure.
Yes she was over weight but at the age of 80 we couldn't do any thing to her weight.
We know that she had a very lonely life after my fathers death in 1974. She never let us feel poor even when we were very poor. We all miss her.
If the beleifs are true then she is united with her beloved Husband.

Chainlink Fencing.

All of a sudden all the supporters of chainlink fencing has gone quite. Till few months back there were so many supporters of this chainlink fencing.

Anyway all these chainlink supporters did not do any good to the Wildlife, neither to prey and not to predator.

I was looking for this picture and this morning I got it.

A big herd of Spotted Deer grazing outside of the park. Certainly these deers were left outside at the time of fence erection. Tigers do go out but not for deer. Their favorite meal outside is cattle.

This morning I was told by a deputy Ranger that B2 and Mirchhani female and cubs were on cattle kill. They killed a buffalo and a bullock. It will be interesting to know the number of cattle kills per month done by these tigers.

Do you know that Leopard population in Tala zone is as good as Tigers and they survive 100% on wildlife. Think about the day, like Tigers, they start coming outside in search of prey ???

Enjoy seeing these Spotted Deers outside of Tala Zone.

Chainlink Fencing and Tigers of Bandhavgarh

There is no proper research is being done on usefulness of Chain link Fencing around the parks.

Forest department officials claim is that it stops cattle entering the park. I say what harm it makes when that provides prey base for Carnivores.

I oppose it for two reasons.

It blocks corridor for Tigers and other wildlife.

It let young Tigers to stay with their mother or in their mothers territory more than what they should. i.e. Pyari's 4 cubs from her last litter stayed for 3 1/2 years in their mothers territory and diminished the prey base in Chakradhara meadow area.

Chakradhara female left her area with her present three cubs in Jan 2010 and came back during monsoon for few weeks and left again around Janmashtami.

She is not back since but now her territory is being taken over by Vijaya aka Kankati. In last 40 days Vijaya is seen at Sitamandap junction, Barua Naala, Jamunia, Near Tala entrance Gate, behind M P Tourism in river, Chorbehra, Dhobiakhol, main road Siddhbaba, Dudwa Fireline, entire chakradhara, Badi Gufa, KHIDKI and Ghodademon road.

This use to be the territory of Pyari and Laxmi both. Now Vijaya is pushing Laxmi more towards Judwani, Ketkiya - Bhitri area.

Other thing what she will do is that she will deminish the remaining prey of the area.

Laxmi's cubs have already started chasing fawns. So soon they will start hunting for themselves and most of the new fawns will be gone.

What use to happen before??

Before Tigers from Chakradhara use to go out prey on deers and cattle out of the park.

Now fencing stops them from going outside and deers outside of park are disappearing fast.

I dont understand that why we dont work according to Govt rules laid out for wildlife conservation. Pay Cattle compensation. We were paying them before and paying them today then whats the need of erecting a fence.

People were living happily with Tigers and even with more tigers in Raj period. Only our political system changed their mentality and made them more lazy. Now for each and every thing farmers looks at subsidy. They dont want to do any improvement work without subsidy either it is buying a tractor or digging a well.

Laxmi injured her leg in this Chain link fence. Another male tiger was seen and photographed with a wire struck in his pad.

I have seen many different Tigers walking along the fence in Bandhavgarh.

I wonder how many NGO's are supporting Chain link fencing?? Do they know the result of their act??

Just day before yesterday I was told by a NGO man that Lodges who run NGO does work only to keep a good relationship with park authorities so their lodge could run smoothly.

Aims looks far far away from wildlife.

Just think on this. With number of vehicles in each park in the country the poaching should have been stopped. Did it??

And they are still getting / demanding more vehicles.

Sick Tigers or Tourists

Last month I saw a foreigner women crying at the gate because she saw injured B2. This thing made so much fuss that forest department has to put all the elephants of Hardia to track him. We saw him and minutely scrutinised those photographs for his wound and our view was that wounds are not so serious.

Once we were talking to a very experienced vet from Britain who works mainly with cats, all big and small, and after seeing our cats her comment was that until a cat is eating no need to worry about their wound. This works with all cats.

B2s wounds were dry and healing. None of his wounds were weeping and none had any maggots but even than poor fellow got tranquilised and later given an antibiotic. Now Mahavat says he runs for miles after seeing an elephant. Good old B2.

I am so thankfull to all those women who saw Vijaya or Kankati and did not see her wound otherwise they would have cried more than for their h....... death.

Her injuries were far more serious than B2. Now they are almost healed and even she is pushing the Laxmi ,Limpy Lady.

Cats have amazing power to recover. Most important thing for them is constant supply of food. An old and injured Tiger dies only when he is unable to find the food for himself. Charger survived on scraps in his last lag of wild life. If he was not found that day by villagers he would have died of starvation and dehydration.

So Vijaya or Kankati is doing well in Chakradhara. In search of food she has to make rounds and rounds of her teritory around Chakradhara. She did made few attempts to come on main road but failed to grab any substantial food.

She has pushed Laxmi in such a small area of Judwani Jamunia that next few months will be very important for both of them to retain their teritory.

Tigers of Bandhavgarh.

Since last 40 days I am visiting park in the morning and as well in afternoon. Lots of tiger sightings. Few photographable and few simply superb.

I need to talk about different matters today, hope I remember them all.

First driving by different drivers in the park.

This year there are many new drivers are seen in the park. One of them I know was digging well on my land last year and this year he is driving. My driver tells me that there are ten more drivers like him. So what they know about the park and its animals.

Their total aim is to show the Tiger to their client from as close as possible to earn a better tip.

This is very good for other pro photographers because by this way drivers and guides comes in habit of driving it to close, even for photographers, and kills all the chances of photographing behaviour.

Same thing happened today. We saw B2 and we were asking the guide and driver to move on to give him some space to come on road so everyone gets a better chance of photography but Indian Tourists were happy by driving parallal to him. Little they knew that this Tiger dont look at vehicle but changes his course. And he did that.

Forest authorities never been able to control these drivers and guides.

Tourists needs to know What is a good picture?? A tiger walking parallal to jeep in woods or a tiger walking towards jeep from a distance??

Who will teach them?? Guides and Drivers can do this but they get carried away by the greed of Tips.

Thats why many times we dont see much of a behaviour of an animal in presence of jeeps.

Every one is talking about Kalua and Pyari chakradhara female with her 3 cubs missing from Tala zone. No one so far has found the right reason of them leaving the park area. All these people who are getting worried about Kalua and Pyari and cubs has to see the park again with wide open eyes. How much prey base is there in their area??

Is it suffiecient to hold a tiger??

I think if they will see the park again they will know the answer. They left the park only because of Food.

Things will g even worse in next few months.

Female cub from Rajbehra has found the chakradhara. She is becoming a mature tigress and she is pushing Laxmi out of Chorbehra.

Laxmi cant hunt independently / frequently and new female, known as Vijaya or Kankati is killing the remaining prey base from Chakradhara.

In Chakradhara I did not see more than 50 Spotted Deer yesterday. Which is not enough for a tigress. In search of food she is moving in surrounding areas of Chakradhara.

Similar things are happening in other areas of the park.

We need to keep an eye on this. How is prey base in Bandhavgarh?? Is it suffiecient for Carnivores to survive??