𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗦𝗶𝗲𝗴𝗲 𝗼𝗳 𝗦𝘂𝗹𝘁𝗮𝗻𝗽𝘂𝗿
The sun might have never set in Rajbagh on one end of Ranthambore; one of the strongly contested territories in the history. The seat of high power was always retained by the lineage of Sr. Machli and her daughter Machli (T-16) with balance swaying in favour of one daughter over the other, over generations.
But the most dramatic of tiger warfare and takeover happened elsewhere; with the course of future getting changed by the introduction of a chaotic element by demi-gods (read that as humans). That territory is Sultanpur and the history is much akin to Paris’ abduction of Helen of Sparta (known better as Helen of Troy) that eventually led to the Trojan war.
By late 00s, the territory of Sultanpur fell into the hands of T-13, who came to be known as Sultanpur female. T-13 defeated and ousted her mother, T-14, the erstwhile queen of Sultanpur. Both T-14 and T-16 were born to Sr. Machli. The territory of Sultanpur was ruled by a dominant male, T-12 aka Guda male. Guda male mated with Sultanpur female giving birth to T-38 and Noor (T-39) in 2009. T-38 male undertook a long-distance migration to Kuno in M.P. traversing the perilous ravines and gorges of Chambal, and surprisingly returning after 10 years to Ranthambore. While Noor was still in search of a territory, in July 2010, T-12 aka Guda male, the 7-year-old dominant and resident tiger was translocated to Sariska (in a bid to repopulate the reserve where the tigers were all poached by mid 00s).
This set into motion a series of events which catapulted an otherwise never-would-happen scenario. Guda male’s (T-12) mate, Sultanpur female (T-13) was forced to leave the territory, to save her litter from Ustad (T-24) who made inroads in the absence of T-12 male. Noor (T-39) quickly captured her mother’s vacant territory.
Generally regarded as one of the most beautiful tigresses ever, with Kohl rimmed eyes, stripes broken into a beady pattern around her neck (hence another name, Mala, for necklace) and a shimmering orangish coat, Noor soon would become the cynosure of her suitors, marking her ascent much akin to Helen of Troy; she is also the consort of the most dominant tigers.
Ustad and Noor ruled for a while, sharing two litters between them, before T-24 went on to become the alleged and infamous man-eater of Ranthambore, with 4 human kills attributed to him. He was removed from the wild, and the once again vacant throne was occupied by another dominant tiger, Aurangzeb (T-57, also known as Shiva, owing to the trident mark on his cheek). Aurangzeb was swept off his feet just the way King Menelaus of Sparta was, by Helen. His love for Noor can be understood by the fact that he raised her cubs (Kalua, T-88 and Dholya, T-89) from Ustad as his own.
Noor then mated with Aurangzeb to deliver her third (and probably the final) litter comprising three females, Noori (T-105), T-106, Sultana (T-107). T-106 captured a major chunk of her mother’s territory (the Sultanpur area) and reduced Noor’s territory substantially; and would have went on to become the new Sultanpur female, if not for the demi-god intervention, again. She was translocated to Mukundara Hills TR in December 2018. Frequent fights with the other daughters ensued that Noor was left without a territory while Sultana captured the Sultanpur area.
Kumbha (T-34 and brother of Ustad), a dominant tiger was enthralled by Noor’s grace while she was moving on the fringes of his territory, much like King Paris of Troy was headover heels in love with Helen. Kumbha was the king of Kundal, where he ruled for close to a decade, with his queen, Laadli (T-8) raising four litters between them, three of the males from these litters being dominant kings elsewhere, to this day.
This forced Aurangzeb to go in search of Noor and wage a war against Kumbha. Like the inglorious Trojan war where Paris was fatally wounded, Kumbha was fatally wounded by Aurangzeb, who then claimed back his precious Helen, Noor. An almost dying Kumbha was treated by the forest department; however, this fight ensured that Kumbha had to forgo his kingdom.
Subsequently, Rocky (T-58) defeated his own brother, Aurangzeb (T-57) and took over the entire Kundal kingdom, possibly having the largest territory of any tiger hailing from Ranthambore. This also lay bare the throne of Sultanpur yet again, which was then taken over by Badal aka Hades (T-101); son of Hamir (T-33) and Malika (T-9), who also mated with Noor, and her daughters Noori and Sultana. While Noor lives on, on the overlapping territories of her daughters, Noori seems to have captured the Sultanpur throne, from Sultana, as of this day (keeping the throne within their genetic line).
For more than a decade, the act of the demi-gods led to the descent and ascent of 4 queens and 3 kings in what could be termed as the siege of the throne of Sultanpur. It was a culmination of an uneducated human act that precipitated into turf wars, the fights for dominance and produced the most beautiful queen of her times, the Helen of Ranthambore, Noor.