The Colossus of Kanha
An inimitable flamboyance essayed in his strut, whilst the rays of the sun swept the forest floor, and the carpet of leaves welcomed the canny tyrant. He is a living legend encumbered by the fabled spirit and lineage, ruthless power and the immensity of the Kanha tigerdom. A seasoned warrior with a disquieting past, a raging inferno and an indomitable vanquisher, Umarpani controlled much of Mukki territory of Kanha like no other.
Monikered The Ghost of Mukki for his elusive ways, at the zenith of his reign, he systematically eliminated feuding tigers.
Umarpani’s days of ascendancy were challenged for the first time, by an intruding male, Kingfisher. Playing a king’s gambit, Umarpani led Kingfisher to dominate parts of his own territory, assessing the weaknesses of Kingfisher. In early 2015, Umarpani and Kingfisher were parallel-walking (possibly an intimidation tactic by exposure of maximum profile, employed by many territorial species, including Great Whites which indulge in parallel swimming) before they engaged in a brutish brawl. The first punch was delivered by Kingfisher, but Umarpani stood taller than Kingfisher. For a fleeting moment, Umarpani seemed to dominate the fight, throwing a volley of punches at Kingfisher, who was then thrown off his feet by Kingfisher, whilst parrying the punches. He started dominating the fight by mauling and throwing blows onto the still-standing and what appeared to be a defensive kingfisher. Both Umarpani and Kingfisher realized that they are equivalents, at the moment atleast. Umarpani jumped onto his feet and both still growling and showing dissent parallel-walked after this battle of tooth and claw – an indication of withdrawal from the battle and not losing the dominant status.
The fights continued for a while before Umarpani obliterated Kingfisher, who was found dead in late 2016 with injury marks to shoulder and neck.
By the end of 2016, another tiger, Bheema, aptly named after the mightiest of Pandavas from Mahabharata was venturing into the deeper territories of Umarpani. An overlap of territories of Bheema and Chota-Munna, the half-brother of Umarpani, ensued battles between them. By the mid of 2016, Chota-Munna, in all supposition, hatched a plan to finish Bheema who was proving to be a thorn in his paw. After a skirmish, a frail Bheema was thrown out (or moved out) of his territory into that of Umarpani. By the end of 2016, Bheema was found in a severely mauled state, in Umarpani’s territory, who likely delivered the final nail in the coffin.
After eliminating the competition, the duel of dominance was reduced to the two behemoth half-brothers.
The face-off between Umarpani and Chota Munna started as early as 2017. Chota Munna was the younger of the two and lacked the confidence and the battle-quality of Umarpani, but he tormented Umarpani like no other, relentlessly blockading the supreme sovereignty of Umarpani.
The earliest of these confrontations saw no one emerge as the clear winner. Tigers being solitary hunters cannot afford to injure themselves in a confrontation, which could spell a death knell. And no one at that juncture knew it better than Umarpani and Chota Munna, the battle-hardened warriors.
By the mid of 2017, in one of the bouts, these tigers fought like gladiators injuring themselves badly. Umarpani as witnessed came out of the fight, bleeding, fatigued and gasping for breath. It was perhaps the first of the bloodiest dogfights that made Umarpani realize that Chota Munna was a tiger of similar calibre.
Owing to the unforthcoming lives of tigers, the knowledge of every skirmish remains mysterious. Even more mysteriously, Chota Munna disappeared from the circuit, by the end of 2018. The stars seemed to shine brightly on Umarpani’s side and the Fab Four have then reduced to one sovereign king. It seemed peace reposed upon the bloodiest battle ground of Kanha, but not for long; newer threats were in pipeline for Umarpani.
An incredibly young and strong MV-2, son of Kingfisher, was ousted by Umarpani in the mid of 2018, prior to Chota Munna’s disappearance. Umarpani lurched upon a resting MV-2, circling the resting tiger, while MV-2 meekly submitted to Umarpani’s dominion. MV-2 moved out of the territory when he was later translocated to a different park (where he met his unfortunate end).
Early 2019, Umarpani was challenged by Baisanghat male; but nothing could stop the belligerent Umarpani, though he was injured in the fight. With age not on his side, Umarpani’s ultimate nemesis could be Baisanghat male, though Umarpani continues to rule to this date.
Early 2020, Umarpani was challenged by Jamun Tola male (in a hostile bid for Umarpani’s mate, Dhawajhandi tigress), a fight that probably ended in an interim truce. Jamun Tola male was constantly at loggerheads with Chota Munna, and conspicuous of his absence, he made inroads to steal Chota Munna’s mate, not knowing that Umarpani was already incharge.
The sly Dhawajhandi, the mate of Umarpani, made her first move – she tried to flee the scene and then nuzzle Jamun Tola which instigated Umarpani. Jamun Tola, with his focus broken and who was in between the two tigers, was further pushed towards a resting Umarpani. Without a delay, Umarpani unleashed himself onto Jamun Tola with roars and blows. A fallen Jamun Tola bit into the forelimb of Umarpani who did the same to Jamun Tola as well. The blood-stained Earth stood as the mute testimony to the hegemonic battle of the goliaths. The tigers, led by Dhawajhandi vanished into the thickets, with occasional roars for a while. It seemed that Jamun Tola relinquished his efforts of the hostile takeover, from the war veteran - Umarpani, as he was not seen much in the territory. The throne and the kingdom were still Umarpani’s.
Many days later, Umarpani then had to face the wrath of Garhi male (who was earlier ousted by Baisanghat male). Like a younger Umarpani would deliver the blows, Garhi seemed to stand taller and appeared more confident than the aging Umarpani. The air was filled with the reverberating roars and both the tigers seemed to hold the ground. The skirmish ended with both flanking the other and parallel-walking into the thickets.
Umarpani employed a distinctive style in fights. Though he was a brute, and was stronger than most of his opponents, he would allow the opponents to make their first move, and employ a combinatorics of tactics - reach for the Achilles heel or use his bulk to push-down the opponents and launch a volley of blows, filling the air with resounding roars, that could even shudder the best of the tigers.
No wonder, to this date, Umarpani still seems to hold his throne, though not looking unassailable like he was, in his heydays. However, he stood like the Colossus of Kanha, for years, waging down all the fights by dominants and aggressors of tigers of Mukki. No other tiger fought half the battles Umarpani had to, on an empire on which the sun never set. A true gladiator in the colosseum, Umarpani fought with not just tooth and claw, but with a strategy, emerging triumphant or atleast having never lost a battle.