Ten Days in Tadoba - Part 2

Ten Days in Tadoba

Part 2: Maya!

Tigress, Goddess, Superstar

Maya is Tadoba’s superstar. She could not be more Bollywood if she had a team of dancers prancing and singing behind her wherever she went. When the jeeps are lined up along the forest road and people are hanging out to snap her with their phones, she walks calmly by just a few metres away; quiet, confident and aloof. When she feels like it, she will lie down and allow people to admire her dangerous beauty. When she cares to, she will bring out her cubs and show them off to her adoring public. To some people, Maya is a rock star. To others, Maya is a goddess.

Maya escapes the afternoon heat. 

There was excitement at Tiger Trails Jungle Lodge when we returned after our third tigerless day in a row. A Forest Guard had told Lohu, who had told Bonay who told me, that Maya had killed a sambar  (a large deer - see Part 4 in a couple of weeks) at last light and she was camped out with it and her cubs at one of her favourite water holes. A good sighting was virtually guaranteed for tomorrow. 

The following morning I was up and jumping before the Lodge staff. They peered blearily out of the Lodge doors at a quarter to five o’clock to see me walking about with all my kit in a pile. Panic spread quickly. Having a guest who did not need a wake-up call and who appeared before anyone was around was unusual to say the least, and hot water, masala chai, coffee and biscuits started to appear. 

Lohu was to drive for a German family that morning, so I was given a rather inexperienced young man who quickly worked up through the gears as we left the Lodge. After a short wait at the Park gate we were allowed in with a Tourist Guide on board and took off. And I do mean took off. This young man was obviously destined for the air force as a fighter pilot, or dreamed so. As we turned onto the black-top road in the Park he managed to get up to 80kph. It was impossible to keep hold of my camera gear and I was in danger of being thrown out of the vehicle whenever we hit one of the frequent bumps or pot holes. We were leaving a boiling wake of dust twenty feet high as I suggested (shouted) that we should SLOW THE ****! DOWN and get there in one piece. He took the eloquent Anglo-Saxon hint, but we did get to the waterhole quite early and set up in a prime spot amongst about ten other jeeps.

Then Maya walked out of the long grass with her three cubs just as another 30 jeeps arrived with an escort of lumbering buses and minivans full of waving, chattering gesticulating people and excited Guides all bedecked in incongruous camouflage gear. The whole horrid circus came to a shuddering halt, several bumpers bumped and a thick wall of dust rolled over us and across the water towards the three tigers. They stopped, blinked the dust out of their eyes and continued walking down to the water’s edge. After the dust had cleared I could see the three large cubs playing together while their lovely mother approached the water and gently reversed in, lowering her back end in gradually as if entering a very hot bath. Each cub approached their mother in turn, paying obeisance and receiving her welcome in what looked like a ceremony orchestrated for the adoring crowd. One of the cubs carried a sambar leg around like a trophy. The tigers were a long way off, so I took a few snaps then just enjoyed renewing my acquaintance with the most wonderful predator on the planet through my binoculars.

Maya lies down in the cool water, having reversed gently in.

Cub No1 comes forward to pay homage to their mother, rubbing heads and snuggling, before making way for Cub No2.

Cub No2 is greeted by their mother, rubbing foreheads together before going to lie down and make way for Cub No3.

Cub No3 is more playful, batting their mother on the head before going to lie down with the siblings

Next to my jeep was a group in a similar vehicle. Three men and two women crowded in to the back. The oldest of the women, who I took to be wife to one and mother and mother-in-law to the other two respectively, was talking excitedly to her family in Hindi. Then I realised that she had switched to English.

“Oh Maya, Maya, Maya. You are so beautiful. Oh wonderful Memsahib Maya, you are a wonderful mother. You love your children so much, don’t you?” She crooned. Why she spoke to the tiger in English; I have no idea.

On the other side of us a man was taking pictures. He was using a mobile phone with the tiny lens pressed up to one eye piece of his binoculars. That struck me as optimistic, but not as stupid as some of the cammo-clad men who had entry-level DSLR cameras on the back of 600mm and 900mm lenses and were using them hand-held as if they were machine guns. They reminded me of nothing so much as the images of Middle Eastern gun-toting militia men in the back of pick-up trucks that you see on the TV news. I don't suppose their images were any better than the man with the Samsung: holding a super-long lens still even on a tripod or bean bag takes practice.

I loved the huge enthusiasm that the crowd showed. An Indian crowd is not just a collection of people, it is a thing in and of itself. This crowd was there to worship Maya and they joined together in doing so. Even the National Park Tourist Guides and Drivers, for whom tiger sightings are everyday, talked about her and referred to her as a superstar. As soon as she appeared they were telling stories about her and preening like proud parents at the first public performance of an especially talented off-spring.

A long shot of two playful cubs.

We had to leave Maya at 09.45am to fly back to the gate for 10 and then back to the Lodge for the middle of the day. We were allowed back in to the Park at 3pm and went straight back up to the waterhole where we got pole position in the shade of a small tree. The jeep was ramped up at about 30 degrees facing up a small slope that I could look over if I stood up on the back bench seat. But to do so meant I was in full sun. Which is where I was when I saw the tiger.

It had been an hour or more since we had arrived and everyone around me was chatting amongst themselves, sitting in the shade and idly wafting the flies away. The flies didn’t like me, so I was not bothered by them. (I think they were Nationalist RSS flies with the big shorts and long memories when it comes to Brits). I was watching my front, expecting to see a tiger when, like a remote controlled toy, Maya swam into sight on the surface of the waterhole. No one else had seen her and she had swum out from a small island that shielded her from the view of most of the onlookers.

“Oh look,” I said in my best laconic-Englishman-abroad voice, “there’s a tiger swimming in the lake.” Trying to sound as if I was only pointing it out as a matter of the slightest interest.

There was a moment of silence in my jeep and the jeeps to either side. Even the local Gond Marathi-speakers all knew the English word “tiger”. Then everyone was shouting, “Maya! Maya! Maya!” and scrabbling to their feet, wobbling the vehicle and getting in the bloody way.

Maya, surrounded by rambunctious cubs, who used her as a bridge, lilo and floatation aid.

As Maya swum to shore, she was followed by her three cubs swimming in line like huge, stripy ducklings. They all clambered out and went into the long grass. In the morning, they had chewed the legs off the sambar carcase. Now they pulled the front legs, spine and ribcage out of the grass and into view, chewing at it and licking the meat off the bones with rough tongues.

Maya, with a deliciously chewy bit of deer, happy to share with her cubs.

Two of the cubs peer over the bank of the lake, making all the deer on the other side panic. Hugely satisfying!

One of the cubs, practicing stalking.

The celebrity family, lying in the evening sunlight.

Some people left at that point – amazingly from my point of view – so I asked our driver to get us into some of the vacant places which had a slightly better angle. It was a terrific sight. I gloried in it right up until the German family told me about the dholes.

That changed everything.

The next instalment of Ten Days in Tadoba will be out soon!