A tryst with tigers 

Lt-Gen Baljit Singh (retd) visits Kanha National Park and Tiger Reserve where
the magnificent beast roams free in its natural habitat

AT the turn of the 20th century when shikar was the acme of field sport in India, it became the cherished dream of all practitioners to indulge in the sport at the Banjar Valley Reserve located in the Satpura Range of the Central Provinces. This river valley was teeming with deer (chital, barasingha, barking deer, sambar), antelope (black buck, blue bull), carnivore (tiger, leopard), and the gaur. There was every chance of acquiring a trophy-sized game head or skin. This was during the years between 1880 and 1914.

At present if one looks at the centre of the map of India, a place named Mandla shows up in Madhya Pradesh, where the Banjar Valley Reserve used to be. Post-1953, it became the Kanha National Park. In 1972, it was among first nine Tiger Reserves of India.

To my generation of wildlife enthusiasts, it was not surprising when in 1962-63 George Schaller chose the Kanha National Park for his path-breaking research on the population dynamics of the tiger and his prey. The book, based on this research, The Deer And The Tiger, was published in 1964 that became the instant bible of all field biologists.

We read Schaller’s book in 1965 and were fired by the idea of a holiday at the Kanha National Park. An indulgent Forest Officer promised elephant rides and also arranged a bullock cart to carry us from the railhead at Mandla to the Kisli Forest Rest House in the national park. However, the 1965 Indo-Pak war dashed this dream holiday to smithereens.

Thirty-three years later, I again got a chance to visit the national park when I was offered a paid ‘holiday’ to deliver a lecture and chair a panel discussion at the very Kisli Forest Rest House. On offer were also three jeep rides through the core area of the Kanha during this trip.

Our only glimpse of the tiger manifested in less than an hour’s jeep ride. It was a magnificent male, in the prime of youth, sunning itself sitting on a rock in the midst of a stand of sal trees.

I made a note of the markings over its face, particularly the one above each eyebrow. Schaller had discovered that this pattern varies with each animal. That is how he had come to recognise each individual and developed an ID album on some 25 tigers. He had named all 25 tigers as well. However, I had no luck to witness Schaller’s conclusion in play, as we never had another tiger encounter.

Among the deer, the barasingha (swamp deer) are the prima donnas of Kahna. They are the only true barasinghas of India carrying 12 tines on the rack of antlers over the head though the Kashmir hangul and even the sambar are often mistakenly called the barasingha. Kanha is home to the world’s only surviving (approx 400) barasinghas or swamp deer.

There were large congregations of deer species, providing comfort to a significant observation of Schaller "It takes about two barking deer per week to fuel a breading tigress. If prey intake falls below that threshold, tigresses stop having cubs."

The last jeep ride almost exclusively belonged to the avian species. The racket-tailed drongos and the yellow-footed green pigeons vide for attention. But the show was stolen by the all-male parties of peacocks, by far the best specimens that I have ever seen. The peacocks are the nature’s foolproof alarm system for the jungle’s denizens against the prowling tiger. So it is not unusual for the tiger and the leopard to make a meal of the peacock, opportunity permitting.

We also sighted a lone gaur bull on the fringe of the lake that finds mention in mythological tales, the Shravan Tal. The lake had a stone plaque with an appropriate narration of the epic legend.

As we wound up the assignment, there was the tragic news of three tigers having fallen prey to poachers in the Melghat Tiger Reserve in Maharashtra, while one collared male was missing from Ranthambhor reserve. This news again brought forth our anguish on the declining numbers of this magnificent beast. When will we stop killing and speak up against the traditional Chinese medicine, which is steadily pushing the tiger and many more mammals to extinction?

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