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Panthera tigris tigris

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Tipeshwar Wildlife Sanctuary, Maharashtra

This is a tale in two parts where I will try to showcase some incredible moments from my recent trip to Tipeshwar. This first part revolves around a few minutes of incredible action when the tigress, Archi, chased some wild dogs away to keep her cubs safe. The second part will showcase the incredible bond Archi has with her cubs and the breathtaking experience of watching an apex predator, in her prime, exhibit love, tenderness and care.

If you spend enough time in the forests, eventually, you will see an apex predator exhibit its fearsome skills and there is no better place than in central India with its numerous tiger sanctuaries of varying climes and terrain. This was one such thrilling event that unfolded, unexpectedly, before our eyes - the chase of some Dhole by a tigress to ensure the safety of her cubs. But first the backdrop and habitat of this incredible scene.

The central Indian landscape is, perhaps, the most biologically diverse part of the Indian subcontinent because it is the gateway connecting the genetically diverse tigers of the colder North with those of the tropical South. Though all Indian Tigers are classified under the same taxonomy, they exhibit different traits including physicality, when compared across the vast expanse of the subcontinent. For example, broadly speaking, as per Bergmann’s rule, the larger individuals of the species are generally found in the colder climate (or towards the poles) and the smaller individuals found in the warmer climate (towards the equator).

This landscape of central India, with a multitude of fertile rivers flowing across it, makes the land highly arable and therefore very attractive to humans as well. The human population in the region has well and truly exploded, effectively reducing the tiger-scapes to mere patches with almost no connectivity. The corridors that used to be vast swathes of inviolate spaces are now human dominated landscapes. And by the 1990s, much of the tiger population in India was wiped from almost all the wildlife reserves due to this exponential increase in human settlements inside and on the fringes of the forests. This unhindered intrusion has fragmented the vast forests that once dominated the landscape and has, in turn, led to the breakdown of the corridors connecting these forested areas.

One such fragment is the isolated Tipeshwar Wildlife Sanctuary, a national park in the Yavatmal area along the state borders of Telangana and Maharashtra. It lies in the Pandarkawada district of Yavatmal and stretches over an area of 148.63 km² sprawling among the Patanbori and Parwa ranges of the Pandarkawad Forest Division. The sanctuary is a compact patch of dense forest cover with hilly undulating territory and various types of vegetation that varies with the altitude. It derives its name from the "‘Goddess Tipai” who is enshrined in a tiny temple on the hillside near the Tipeshwar Village within the sanctuary area just about 2kms from the Tipeshwar Forest Guest House.

And this is the habitat in which I experienced one of my most thrilling encounters with a tiger in its prime.

Tipeshwar Wildlife Sanctuary

Tipeshwar Wildlife Sanctuary has emerged as a successful tiger-cradle in the Eastern Vidarbha Landscape (one of the prominent Tiger Conservation Landscapes of India) and has demonstrated the potential to populate nearby tiger reserves like the Kawal Sanctuary in Telangana. However, like almost all other tiger reserves in India, Tipeshwar too, is plagued by the usual suspects – it is surrounded by densely populated and human dominated landscape with all the associated baggage that unhindered human activity brings - poaching, cattle grazing, trespassing etc., development – illegal mining, highway expansion etc., forest and prey-base degradation, human-tiger conflict etc. There are also a number of villages within the sanctuary area and their inhabitants are dependent on the forest for their livelihood.

But that said Tipeshwar has gone from being a sink, collecting surplus tigers from the larger sanctuaries, to becoming a source, generating increasing tiger numbers with village relocation playing a particularly important part. The three villages in the sanctuary - Tipeshwar, Pitapingri and Maregaon - mostly dominated by the Kolam tribe were relocated, I think, in 2014-15.

Five tribes occupy the Tipeshwar forest region viz., Pardhan, Gond, Kolam, Navbuddha & Kunbi, of which the former three are said to be aboriginal. The total populations of these tribes range from a few hundred to thousand and are seemingly vanishing; these tribes are stricken with poverty with a high mortality rate in infants, and a high incidence of sickle cell disease. Albeit in the recent years the increase in tourism has improved their condition to some degree.

The inviolate spaces created for the tigers through this village relocation exercise and additional measures such as the introduction of prey like sambar has helped the increase in the population of tigers.

The Tipeshwar Sanctuary is also home to a number of rivers like Purna, Krishna, Bhima and Tapti which irrigate the sanctuary. This abundance of water gives the region the moniker - the Green Oasis of Maharashtra. The sanctuary area is primarily composed of basalt from some ancient lava eruptions and boasts immense diversity in both flora & fauna.

It is home to some 25 species of mammals, about 182 species of birds, 22 species of amphibians and numerous reptiles like the Indian Cobra, Indian Rock Python, Russel’s Viper & Checkered Keelback. And of these multitude of reptiles 6 are scarce species. Bengal Tigers, Leopard Cats, Sloth Bears, Indian leopards, Gaur, Dhole, Hyena, Chital, Black Buck, Sambar, Jackal, Wild boar, Peacock, Monkey, Nilgai & Wild Cats are some of the species seen in this sanctuary.

The Sanctuary is a compact patch of dense forest cover. The major forest type here is the ‘Southern Tropical Dry Deciduous Forest’ and Teak forms up to 60% of the forest composition. And as is the norm with central Indian forests one can also see the Achar (Cordia myxa), the Mahua (Madhuca longifolia), the Lendia (Lagerstroemia parviflora), Bhirra Tiwas (Ougeinia oojeinense) and several other types. Also, approximately 15% of this park consists of the Red Sandalwood (Pterocarpus santalinus), the costliest of all the sandalwoods in India.

There is also a wide variety of herbs and grasses including Kunda, Kadmod, Guhar, Wide, Gokru, etc. Over 250 species of Bamboo serve to make the sanctuary a repository of economical, medicinal, aromatic, and ornamental plant varieties. Bamboo groves dominate the undergrowth within the Teak dominated areas.

This is not a reserve where one will say I saw a bengal tiger, here one will say I saw Talab Wali, I saw the dominant Star Male, I saw beautiful Archi with her cubs, I saw the gorgeous “4” Mark & the shy yet fearsome Zanjeer who is known to charge if disturbed. And this is also where one can see the fearsome packs of Dhole hunting down anything that exhibits weakness including the cubs of these apex predators.

This then was the habitat and backdrop of the thrilling sequence of the tigress, Archie, chasing away a pack of lawless and ruthless wild dogs.

The term 'Dhole' has an ancient Asiatic origin meaning “reckless” or “daring”, and boy does it suit their unbridled, courageous personalities. They are also known as the Asian wild dog, Asiatic wild dog, Indian wild dog, whistling dog, red dog, and mountain wolf is a canid native to Central, South, East Asia, and Southeast Asia. A highly social animal, it lives in large clans without rigid dominance hierarchies and containing multiple breeding females. Such clans usually comprises of 5 to 12 individuals but sometimes much more, groups of over 40 have been known. It is a diurnal pack hunter which preferentially targets medium- and large-sized ungulates. In these tropical forests, the dhole competes with the tiger and the leopard, targeting somewhat different prey species, but still with a substantial dietary overlap. These deft hunters can ferociously take down prey eight times their own weight and dominant males are often seen fighting tigers and leopards.

Read more: Dhole.

These next few images of the wild dogs were taken almost 30/40 minutes after the chase happened and some of the pack returned to the waterhole.

Archi & her chase of the Dhole

I stated in my blog last week, on the ‘4’ Mark tigress, that a single matriarch, believed to be still alive, is said to have given birth to the Pilkhan and the Talab Wali (colloquial for “tigress of the lake”) tigresses. These two tigresses and in some cases their offspring, being extremely prolific breeders, have spawned and increased the tiger numbers in the sanctuary to 25 within a span of 6 years. This number, however, does not take into account the offspring from the matriarch as not much is known about her.

The Pilkhan female and Talab Wali female are the oldest tigers (apart from the matriarch), and both have been courted by the dominant Star male, the indomitable king of Tipeshwar who, I think, is 9 years old and has been king here awhile. In addition to being the dominant tiger, he has proved to be a doting father as well with no recorded scuffles with any of the other males who, incidentally, are his own offspring.

Our interest today, the tigress Archi, was born in July 2016 in a litter of three when the Talab Wali female mated with the dominant Star male. She is named, I am told, after the lead protagonist in a popular Marathi film - Sairat - released in 2016. There is also a beautiful and bold ‘A’ on her right cheek. I suppose this coincidence has given her the name.

Talab wali gave birth to her second litter in 2016 (not much is known about her first litter). There were two females, Smiley and Archi, and one male, Neo. As Archi entered adulthood, she was seen courting Jack (from the second litter of the Pilkhan tigress). One this trip we had the good fortune to see Archie with her cubs and also witness this fantastic chase as she tried to keep her 7/8 month old cubs safe.

We had come downhill from the TIpeshwar forest guest house for about 3kms towards the hamlet of Thanegaon when we saw a forest guard, Mr. Dhurve, parked in his vehicle at a waterhole. We stopped to talk with him to exchange notes when our driver suddenly whispered “sher“. We looked up to see Archi step out from the bushes to our front and right just beyond the waterhole from us. She was looking up into the dense jungles uphill and seemed a little on edge. At the time I put it down to the fact that her cubs were secreted a few hundred meters behind us on the banks of a dry nullah and that was what put her on edge. But I was soon proved wrong.

She had come to the waterhole to quench her thirst and cool off for a bit. She made her way to the hole and crouched down for a long satisfying drink.

She kept a wary eye out and even paused, water dripping from her muzzle, to look at us looking at her in awe.

After quenching her thirst she gracefully padded to the other end of the waterhole, still looking at us every now and then, and gently lowered herself into the water. She was here barely a minute or two when she spotted the dhole too close for comfort and gave chase. I had been photographing her from the time she’d reached the waterhole till this moment and was still focused on her when I saw her twitch. She’d been looking in the direction of the dhole and when I saw her twitch, I went into burst mode, hoping that whatever followed would remain in focus as I tracked. Thankfully, it did, till the time she disappeared in the dense foliage. The entire event lasted but a few seconds and was so abrupt that most people there only caught a glimpse.

Archi did not return to the waterhole for the remainder of the time we stayed there but I am told she returned again for a drink much later before disappearing into the bushes at which time we were still with her cubs. Anyway, after the chase, and after waiting a fair amount of time during which we saw the wild dogs return to the waterhole, we made our way a few hundred meters back to the nullah where her cubs were and were treated to another spectacle with her male cub. But that is a story for the second part.

I am thankful to my friends, Samar, Tirtho, Saugat & Sarvesh, who know the best drivers & trackers. I am also grateful to the Forest Department, Mr. Dhurve, who is a forest guard I think, and was why we had stopped at the waterhole to begin with, and the entire team led by RFO Vivek Yewatkar for their help and insights. The RFO is seen here in the center with his entire team.

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And now onto the video and photo gallery of this beautiful tigress as she first came to the waterhole to quench her thirst. And then as she took off from an almost prone position chasing after the Dhole. The video is in three parts:

Part 1: The actual sequence as it happened.

Part 2: The sequence when slowed by 50%.

Part 3: A frame a second clip showing the actual motion of the tigress and how she exploded into action.

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These following few are as she exploded out of the water.

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