A Kingdom of Masters
The stories of forests of Pench and Kanha were known atleast a hundred years ago, made famous by the English author Rudyard Kipling’s ‘Jungle Book’. Kipling has never visited any of these forests, but the setting of the story seems to have been inspired by these forests. He’s made numerous references to a place called ‘Seonee’, the modern day ‘Seoni’ (read as Shiv-ni) in Madhya Pradesh.
It is in these forests that the true masters of strategy and ambush hunting were born – the greatest of their line, the definitive killing machines and the progenitors. Hunting more than twice a week to feed hungry stomachs, raising cubs like no other tigresses in the world, Pench is the kingdom of masters of hunt – the greatest ever.
BadiMaa, the great mother
BadiMaa or BadiMada (Great Mother) was born before 1996 and was known to have cubs by 1999. Nothing is known about her origin but I think she was born in these very forests; tigresses follow natal philopatry (living and breeding in the area where they are born).
The first litter was sired by Charger (named on the lines of Charger from Bandhavgarh, and because of his temper); he was code named as T-1 by the forest department and was the most dominant tiger of that time; conspicuous by the absence of other males. He along with Badimaa became the cradle of tigers of Pench.
Kalapahad male (T-2) and Kankati were known tigers of this litter. T-2 was also known by the name Chota Male. Between 1999 and 2005, not much is known about BadiMaa or her litters.
Unlike Ranthambore, Bandhavgarh, Kanha and Corbett, the history of many other tiger reserves dates back to just one or two decades. We are robbed of some precious tiger information before the beginning of time.
The earliest known documentation of tigers from Pench was of BadiMaa who was featured in in BBC’s ‘Spy in the Jungle’ documentary. The secretive life of tigers was perhaps known for the first time, owing to the usage of Elephant ‘trunk cams’ and ‘log cams’ that tracked BadiMada and her cubs upclose, showcasing the very finer insights never ever seen before.
In October 2005, Charger (T-1) sired the second litter of BadiMaa, the family that featured in the documentary. Two of the cubs, Collarwali and BaghinNala went on to create the most prolific line of tigers of Pench, raising around 35 cubs, to adulthood, between them.
Charger (T-1) soon faced stiff challenge probably from his own son, the Kalapahad male or Chota male (T-2) from the first litter of BadiMaa. Nobody knows what happened to Charger. The Kalapahad male seemingly injured BadiMaa, his own mother while she was protecting her second litter, long before he mated with her to produce the third litter.
In May 2008, BadiMaa littered for the third time. Two of the cubs died much early, while the third cub was killed by an intruding male before he could complete a year. The fourth one, still surviving to this day, known as Langdi (because of a limp in her forelimbs though the handicap hasn’t hampered her hunting abilities) is equally responsible like her sisters – Collarwali and BaghinNala from the earlier litter, in promulgating her tribe.
The number of females were increasing and this attracted males from even outside the park. With more tigers than ever before, Pench turned into a hot bed of tiger warfare.
The intruding male of unknown foster that descended onto Pench and challenged Kalapahad’s (T2) rule was a tiger named BMW. He seemingly came from the Maharashtra side and was called BMW, owing to the stipes that resemble B-M-W on his left hind leg.
BMW started to establish his reign in the park after overthrowing Kalapahad male (T2).
At one end while the females were busy in increasing the tiger numbers, males were fighting it out for dominance over territory and females, on the other end. The aboriginal males of Pench (not from the line of BadiMaa and her descendants) seemed to have thinner and lighter stripes, with an almost absence of stripes on the forelimbs and locking stripe patterns on the belly areas. While the males that migrated to Pench seemed to have more darker and thicker stripe pattern, with a general absence of lock-stripe patterns. This was the case with Charger (T1), Raiyyakassa and Mystery male of Chorbahuli range.
Collarwali and Baghin Nullah, the masters of the game
Collarwali (T-15) and Baghin Nullah or BaghinNala were born in October 2005. Both belonged to the second litter of the tigress known as BadiMada or Badi Maa (Big Mother) and Charger of Pench (T1). Once the tigers grew to subadulthood, Collarwali was collared (and hence the name) for long term telemetry studies to understand tiger dispersal patterns.
Even as a cub, Collarwali showed exceptional hunting skills, a trait that would make her one of the greatest tigers ever in the wild. A tiger is known to be successful in just 1 out of 10 hunts, but Collarwali is known to have been successful in 1 out of just 3 hunts.
She was the first one to venture away from the family. Females become independent at a much earlier age, and they tend to mark territories and carve a territory for themselves out of their mother’s.
Since she was collared, her territories and natal areas of her cubs were known. BadiMaa, her mother’s territory was around 22 sq. Km ranging from Sita Ghat in the North to Kalapahad in the South and Golpahad in the West to Jodamunara in the East. Collarwali grabbed a major chunk of this territory, the more fertile one with a bigger prey-base. Baghin Nullah (or BaghinNala) female was pushed to the south-east side of the park beyond Jodamunara. She made her territory around the Baghin Nullah area (from which she derives her name) close to Turiya.
Collarwali delivered her 1st litter in May 2008, from Kalapahad male (T2) around the Kalapahad area, one of the prey abundant areas. The cubs perished soon to pneumonia. Same time, BaghinNala female also delivered her first litter, from an unknown male.
Collarwali delivered her 2nd litter in October 2008 that consisted of 3 males and 1 female. A new male was trying to establish his territory. From the very unique stripe patterns, I believe him to be a male born in Pench, and of Charger (T1) lineage. He was a rather small tiger with a big head and was hence initially called ‘Bade Muh wala male’. He also came to be known as Sula, after the famous wine brand as he had a wine-glass shaped marking on his body.
Collarwali’s second litter was under threat from this male that was trying to mate with her. She had to leave her cubs for days together to keep this new male away from her cubs. This was exactly the same strategy that her mother BadiMaa had engaged to keep Collarwali and her siblings safe from Kalapahad (T2) male years ago.
Around the same time, BadiMaa was also raising her 3rd litter, whose territory was then shrunk to Bijamatta, Kalapahad, Piyorthadi and Jodamunara areas; Only Langdi survived this litter.
The era of Raiyyakassa (aka T-30 aka Sula), so named from the area where he was probably born and BMW has started. BMW was more robust with strong shoulder lines while Raiyyakassa had a small build (but he eventually grew into one of the biggest tigers). Raiyyakassa also proved to be a formidable opponent. He soon took charge of a territory right from the northern extreme of the park – Karmajhiri and Raiyyakassa area till southern extreme – Piyorthadi, ousting BMW to the eastern portion of the park beyond Jodamunara. There was a considerable overlap on the eastern and southern side. BMW was happy with his share of females, BadiMaa and Baghin Nullah while Raiyyakassa mated with Collarwali for the longest period, delivering more litters and cubs than any other pair, ever.
Baghin Nullah littered for the second time in December 2009, with three cubs – 1 male and 2 females, fathered by BMW. BadiMaa delivered her fourth litter in September 2010, fathered by BMW. The male and the female grew up in the south side of the park, around the Piyorthadi area.
Collarwali delivered her 3rd litter in October 2010; after she mated with Raiyyakassa to deliver a whopping 5 cubs – 4 females and 1 male; something that was never heard of in wild. Bearing 5 cubs is a feat that can be achieved by only a tigress in the prime of her health with access to the best prey. The 4 females and 1 male from that litter separated in Jan 2012. One of the females of this litter known as Pahad-Dev or Patdev is still active in one area of the park, with a new litter as of Dec 2019. Another female of this Collarwali’s litter was shifted to Panna in Jan 2014.
Meanwhile Raiyyakassa’s dominion remained unchallenged and he still owned a vast territory unlike that of any other male. He dominated the territory by regularly patrolling it and keeping the mighty BMW out of his way, and by not allowing any other male to take over.
Baghin Nullah too littered for the third time in November 2011 to two males and one female in the Junewani area.
BadiMaa delivered her fifth and last litter in March 2012, fathered by BMW. Unfortunately, BadiMaa succumbed to a snake bite in May 2012. It is believed that out of the 19 cubs that she delivered, 12 reached subadulthood, a feat that would later be broken by her own daughter. BadiMaa spawned Pench into a tiger cradle and she will be remembered as the great grand matriarch.
Collarwali delivered her 4th litter in May 2012. 3 cubs were born - 1 male and 2 females. One of the female cubs died in April 2013, around the Bijamatta area.
Baghin Nullah subsequently delivered 4 cubs in August 2013 for the 4th time and 4 cubs for the 5th and last time in September 2015. Unfortunately, BaghinNala died in March 2016, along with her three cubs due to poisoning of a water hole by the locals. The lone surviving cub was translocated to Kanha National Park.
Collarwali also littered subsequently in October 2013, the 5th litter consisting of 3 males. Tourism increased and the tigers were easily tracked. One of the males was named Chotu and another was named Chota Charger, on account of his mock charging attitude. Chota Charger died in the mid 2016s. The 6th litter was in March 2015 and consisted of 2 males and 2 females. The 2 females known as C1 and C2 remained in the mother’s territory for a long time before they vanished eventually. Then came the 7th litter with 4 cubs in December 2016 and finally the current 8th litter comprising of 3 cubs in around April 2018.
Collarwali had given birth to a total of 26 cubs, of which atleast 22 cubs survived infancy, raising them to subadult stage. Raiyyakassa and Collarwali alone had sired 19 tigers in 6 litters unlike any other tiger mates.
BMW was ousted out of his territory by an unknown male, probably one of his own sons. He was reported to have been sighted in the buffer areas, but nothing more is known about one of the great contributors of Pench. Raiyyakassa too faced a formidable opponent in the form of BMW’s son from previous litter (perhaps of Baghin Nullah). This male was documented for the first time in Bijamatta area in March 2015 had the same robust build as BMW and had been seen on and off.
Before the closing of the park for monsoons, in June 2018, Raiyyakassa was seen bleeding and with a cut on his nose. It seemed that his reign was almost over, overthrown by this new male (Challenger). I was worried that the ageing Raiyyakassa would be killed in the monsoons, but he was seen once the park reopened in October 2018.
However, the last nail in the coffin to Raiyyakassa’s supremacy happened in mid-October 2018, when Challenger fought off Raiyyakassa. Raiyyakassa was exiled from his territory and he seemed to have taken recluse, by crossing over to the other side of Pench river, into Maharashtra where he was sighted on and off.
As I write this article, the news is that Raiyyakassa has re-entered Pench, into Langdi and Collarwali territory. Challenger hadn’t been seen but it would be interesting to see how Langdi’s subadult cubs (3 males) who are on the verge of separation and giving a hard time for Collarwali, would tolerate Raiyyakassa.
Collarwali had the best hunting strike rate, to feed more hungry stomachs at regular intervals. This coupled with her premeditated absence from the cubs, forcing them to survive off their own, and leaving them around 16-20 months (most tigresses raise the cubs for around 24 months) to fend on their own, added to the very robust builds that she inherited from her mother and passed on to the next generations, made her the greatest mother, the tiger world had seen.
Photographed is Collarwali, on a cold winter morning. It is interesting to note that she hasn’t made a kill in over 5 days and on top, she’s injured. Despite that, notice the sturdiness of this tiger built like a male – the skull and the shoulder-lines, and no wonder did she deliver a record 8 litters, raising most of them through subadulthood.
Disclaimer – A lot of information has been collected from various sources, accounts and personal stories. There always is room for discrepancy; please help me correct, if any.