It was late afternoon. The elusive search for Teliya Female
and her cubs had finally come to an end. What came next was simply too good to
be true..!
The Teliya Female got her name from the Teliya dam and the lake
around which is her habitat.
It had been a while since the last sighting of the Teliya Female
and her four cubs. The cubs were over a year old and the mother was not to be
seen much with them as they had grown older and stronger and could fend for
themselves.
A glimpse of one of the cubs that very morning had
brightened our chances for the evening safari. We along with the driver and the
naturalist had decided to spend much of the time in the evening around the Teliya
dam area.
The safari began around half past two. We kept circling around
the Teliya dam area for over an hour looking for signs of movement. Finally, after all the scrambling around, we simply parked
the gypsy close to the water front where the last Cheetal call was heard and decided
to wait out the rest of the day. The afternoon sun was still shining bright but
the winter haze made the spotting extremely difficult. The metre tall dry grass
that grew around the water body and spread all across did not make it any easier
for us. Tigers dislike bright sun; they would rather prefer a shady place, like
a cosy bamboo thicket, to cool off rather than make themselves visible. All in
all, the Sun seemed to make everything and everyone around, hopeless.
We waited at the same spot for the next one hour for the
temperature to come down; all the time praying to the Sun God to show us some
mercy. We had just another vehicle to keep us company. The whole hour was spent
napping, evading flies, cutting the sun out with whatever one could grab and checking
our cameras for readiness. We just hoped that cooler temperatures would lure
the cats to the water front; a fine idea indeed!
Several Cheetal calls were heard close by, but there was
nothing to be excited about. The forest
played many such evil tricks on the in-frequent visitor and this surely was one
of those! But then again one never knows; there was still hope, the hope of
spotting the elusive tiger.
Suddenly our naturalist who was sitting in the front gave a
huge sigh of relief and whispered that magnanimous five letter word…….TIGER!!! We had been waiting to hear that for a long
long time.
There it was, one of the Teliya cubs making his/her way to
the water front with only a part of him/her visible in the tall dry grass that
lay ahead. The sighting was 100 to 150 metres away on the other side of the
bank. The weather seemed to have changed for the better.
It seems life had seeped back out of nowhere. We could sense
more movement in the grass far left of where we had spotted the first cub. I
tried to focus my camera on the spot in search of the other cubs. Was it really
happening! I could see one of the cubs crouching in the dry grass, with only an
ear visible. He was surely up to something... something fishy!
I guess it was time, time for the spectacle. The only thing one
could see next was the tiger lunging on to the fawn and crashing into the
water…..splash! God only knows from where the poor fawn found himself in water.
Was it running away from another Teliya sibling? Who knows!
There was complete
silence all round. There were no words to describe or feelings to share. Our
hearts were filled with joy and a sense of euphoria pervaded the area. The
entire episode was playing out in front of our eyes again and again till we
left Tadoba; for that matter, even now. I guess that it was absolutely
understandable. Our excitement knew no bounds; after all, we had got to witness
a miracle of sorts. It was a ‘once in a life time’ opportunity, so to say.
By this time the news had spread across the reserve and
other jeeps had begun to make a bee-line to catch a glimpse of the QUEEN!
We rounded off spotting all the four Teliya cubs. The rest
of the time was spent looking at those magnificent tigers go about doing their
own.
Let ‘Tadoba’ be synonymous with tiger forever! Let it be a beacon
light for the conservation efforts within the country.
Long live the Teliya cubs…Long live the QUEEN…..Long live
the KING!