Tiger play

Its Monsoon time, the time when the heavens open up over the Indian subcontinent and lets loose a barrage of water. It’s the time when nature is at her best and worst. Creating and destroying with such intensity that when the monsoons are over, the very landscape on which she practised her art is transformed beyond recognition. To us city dwelling humans its is often a period where we face the fury of nature, with floods, powercuts and damaged telecommunication links, but to nature it is creativity at its most intense. I have often in the past had the chance to be stuck in some pristine semi forested area during a monsoon storm, and I could swear even the animals prefer to lie low and take shelter, however in the brief periods between these monsoon showers and during the less intense ones, nature is teeming with life…with so much variety that it is hard not to get overexcited just being a part of it.
If this is the case with living in a semi urban area, I could imagine what it is like in a full fledged natural forest. I can only imagine what my brother, the Tiger Man, will be experiencing. After a few months back at Dehra Dun, where he has completed the formalities of a PhD registration, the Tiger man has headed back to work on his beasts of interest.
Although Kanha National park, where he works is a lot of grassland, its forests are not too far from my imagination. As usual there will be the scary beasts of prey, overgrown pathways thick with undergrowth stimulated by the rainfall, ticks and leeches, thorns and mosquitoes, but this time there will also be thunder, lightning, and the incessant rainfall, all adding to the wonderfully scary and exciting atmosphere on which the Tiger man thrives! Kanha is a part of the region where Rudyard Kipling’s “Jungle Book” is based on and if you lack in imagination, all it takes is to remember the wild creatures of this beloved film.
The last time he came back from the forest, my brother was excited. He had just seen an amazing sight. A fight between two of the characters that are part of the Jungle Bookstory – Shere Khan, the tiger and Ka- the python. No this is no story, he visualised this in real life….and not just that, he was able to document it on film. He mentions that such events are a rare occurrence in nature and having the chance to capture it in photographs are even rarer.It seems even the local tribals in their entire lives in the forest had never observed such a thing. In Jungle book, if I remember correctly, Ka the python is too cunning to fall victim to Shere Khan, but not in real life. The battle ended in victory to the tiger, or tigress in this case, and the vanquished, badly bruised but still alive python was dragged by the tigress and given to her cubs to play with.
I’m no tiger expert like my brother is, but I’ve had my days with the domestic cat and i`ve observed such behaviour in them. Often a mother cat will catch a lizard or a frog and give it to her kittens to play with, and I’ve watched as the kittens would play with it like humans play football till all life has ebbed out of the hapless victim. Some would call it sadistic behaviour, but I guess it is nature’s way of providing experience and perhaps a bit of entertainment for the cuddly cubs.
Another interesting behaviour documented by the tiger man was that of a Jackal following a tiger! Jackals normally hunt singly or in pairs, but they are mostly known to be scavengers, feeding on the leftovers of prey from greater predators such as the tiger. An interesting fact about Jackals is that like (some, not all!) humans, they mate for life i.e. they stick with a single partner throughout their life. They are also known to hunt their own prey, including reptiles such as snakes…perhaps this one was just following Shere khan to discover where he could find a python for lunch!(he`s more likely to end up as lunch for the python!)...oops I almost missed the link....in the jungle book,Shere Khan has a wily henchman (or should i say hench-jackal?)named Tabaqui for company too...strange!
Now, look at this photo! It is quite one thing to follow an tiger riding an elephant (as is my brother’s everyday job) and I think it would be really exciting…but reverse the scenario and ooh...I can already feel the chill down my spine ! the last thing I want is for the spotter (hunter) to become the spotted (hunted)…but that’s the way nature sometimes works…when will we ever discover all her secrets!
So that’s it this time from the Tiger man’s enviable life. As I mentioned he`s headed to the forests to take on the might of the monsoon and gather vital monsoonal observations and tiger statistics. I wish him all the best in his endeavours, as I’m sure do all of you. Hopefully there will be more photos when he returns to quench the cravings of us urban folks!