Felids Interactions - Intraspecific Conflicts

[Pckts]

Ameya Gole
The death of the Grand Matriarch of Kisli

On 13th january evening we embarked upon our safari from khatia gate of kanha to goto our assigned zone of sarhi,we moved through the serene kisli zone and decided to take the Karaighati route to go to Sarhi.Karaighati had recent sightings of Sangam male tiger and he had been feasting on a kill in the slopes of karaighati in the previous evening.Karaighati was unusually silent .We moved through the winding roads of this amazing ghat and were eager to listen to any alarm calls.As we were nearly to the top we saw a gypsy standing and they were desperately trying to connect their call.We reached near the gypsy to hear the horrible and never heard words coming from the guides mouth " aage tiger maraa pada hain road ke kinare".These words still put shivers in my body.Suddenly the whole enthusiasm of the safari ran dry and we were in a state of trance trying to find the tiger.As we reached ahead we saw dragging marks across the road.Something had been dragged from the hill slopes to the bush across the road.We glanced inside the bush to realize a faint figure of orange and black.My heart skipped a beat when my brain finally registered it was a dead tiger or tigress.Our guide nearly had tears in his eyes as he spoke with utmost regret "sirji 15 saal ki naukri main aisa kabhi dekha nahi,bura lagta hain jab aisa hota hain,itna khoobsurat jaanwar aur aisi halat.Lagta hain sub adult cub hoga.Par ye jungle ka usool hain".This heart wrenching words put a feeling of sadness in me too,its a feeling of emptiness when you slowly realize tiger who we feel is the apex animal of the jungle has a life filled with threats for his survival.With a stunned feeling and a complete loss of words i took this photograph as one of the memories i would never want to visit again.The mutilated body of the tiger lied in the carpet of dry twigs and leaf motionless.The abdominal cavity had been complete eaten away and all you could see were the four limbs and a head which was resting in the shadows of the bamboo.
We realized that this was a death of a tiger/tigress during a territorial fight but the cannibalism extent was rare (not unheard of ) and gruesome. With a heavy heart we left the scene and kept guessing what would have happened on the fateful night when a male tiger would have fought this tiger who lay breathless in the bamboo shadows.I kept wondering through out the safari that the silent Karaighati now, must have thundered and trembled with the roars of the tigers fighting .Karaighati was completely at peace as it mourned the loss of its beloved animal. 
After the safari we came to know through a post of Mr Vijayrajan that the the dead tiger was actually T-83 Budbudi female the grand matriarch of Kisli .Oh how i remember the heart wrenching feeling that echoed through my body.The feeling of how Kisli had lost its most important tigress and not a subadult put me into a state of shock and despair.She was apparently killed by Sangam Male T56 and maybe the kill he was eating ,when people saw him on the hill slope of Karighati was him venturing into cannibalism.Reasons why he must have killed this beautiful tigress will remain a mystery as we have still so much to learn about the secret lives of tigers 
Budbudi female ruled the lakes of kisli ,the ghats of Karaighati and the tar road of khatia to Kisli. I remembered seeing her giving a flehman response when we saw her just besides the tar road .She was a brave tigress who unfortunately had to save her cubs from loads of male tigers who were in Kisli .Most of the tiger fathers are not around after the tigress gives birth to the cubs.Till the adulthood of cubs the tigress keeps them safe ,hunts for them,false mates with males etc to just to keep the cubs safe.
She had given birth to and raised tigers like sandukhol female ,Bajrang male,Bheema male etc who still rule parts of Kanha tiger reserve.Her legacy will live on through the tigers she gave to Kanha.She was a mate of Dhamangaon male,Karaighati Male,Kankatta Male ,Sangam Male (the tiger who killed her). Kisli has lost its adorned jewel,a great mother ,a great companion,a great hunter and a beautiful tigress that we as tourist would have loved to lay our eyes on .Cheers to tigress budbudi!! her death is a symbol of how tough the life of a tigress is in the jungles of india and also the fact that we have so much to learn about these beautiful creatures. 
Long live Budbudi in our memories and in the ghats of Karaighati.The grand matriarch of Kisli....

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