Bandhavgarh: With the Rajbehra Tigress

After a good rest on Wednesday afternoon, we returned with fresh hopes to Tala on Thursday morning. Having obtained the stamp of routes A and C on our entry form from the forest authority; we discussed our chances of seeing the resident tigers on that route with our guide. Kankati hadn’t returned from her journey to the Fort and the male seemed to have followed her there. So now we were left with Kankati’s sister

who was now the resident Rajbehra tigress. Far from the bold cub who stared curiously at the jeeps last year, she had now grown into an elusive tigress, we were told. She no longer was seen at the Rajbehra dam, where she spent most of her childhood summer days, but was now spending her time in the densely wooded part of the forest behind the dam. This wasn’t great news to us, but it was heartening to hear that she was doing well and had lost the slightly bulimic look that she wore last summer.

We proceeded on the route A and as we approached the Rajbehra meadow, we found the patrolling elephants walking through the tall elephant grass patch in the meadow. They had spotted a tiger in the grass and were preparing to conduct the customary Tiger Show. But the tiger had other plans, it seemed. For what seemed like ages, the elephants groped their way into the dense grass, struggling to locate the tiger and all the while we were speculating which tiger it could be that was making the elephants run out of breath in vain. Could it have been Bokha, the dominant male of Rajbehra? But he was known to be in the Magadhi range for the past few days. Had he moved in to Tala that morning? Or was this the tigress we were seeking?

Suddenly, we heard a furious snort and a growl from the grass patch and we knew the elephants had finally stumbled on the tiger. The ferocious roar made our knees go weak, but it had hardly any effect on the elephants. But if we thought this was the end of the search, the tiger was to prove us wrong. Just when the mahouts were thinking of going back to get the VIP guests on to the elephants’ backs to show them the tiger, it had gone missing again. Right under the elephants’ trunks. Another eon passed before he/she was found again. This time the mahouts seemed confident that that the tiger will remain found until they got the guests into the grass patch. But the tiger had had enough. Up it got and walked out of the grass into the dense woods beyond until we gave up squinting into the oblivion.

But we were giving in to disappointment too soon, our guide reminded us. After a quick conference with another driver, he decided to check at the Nilgai Tiraha, guessing that the tiger may cross our path there. Swiftly he drove to the intersection to find, amidst great excitement, people watching a tiger sitting in a bamboo cluster panting furiously. Looking at her from a distance of 10 feet, we were overjoyed to see it was the Rajbehra girl whom I was yearning to meet. She looked plump now, her skin glowing radiantly with good health. So delighted was I to see her go back to her rotund beautiful self that we knew from January 2010, that I almost didn’t notice the poor girl’s obvious exhaustion caused by the surging heat. Gradually though, she seemed to recover, as her panting grew slower and she opened her eyes to observe the world around her.

I couldn’t help grinning with sadistic delight at the thought that she quite calmly accepted our presence and looked at us with quiet, indifferent eyes while the very same tigress had sent the mahouts and the VIP guests on a wild goose chase. Had Shakespeare lived to see this incident, he may very well have dubbed his innovative phrase, “a wild tigress chase”.

After she had rested enough, it was time to resume her walk. Engines growled with anticipatory pleasure as we held on to our seats tightly – the tigress walked gently in the wooden patch next to the road; the dappled light accentuated her beautiful frame and gave her a golden sheen making her look believably unworldly and ethereally real.

As we finally parted ways, a wave of contentment passed through our hearts imparting an emotion similar to the one you feel after a refreshing shower under a roaring waterfall.