Skip to main content

Cheetah Cubs Born in Boma , Do They Have Conservation Value ?

When Aasha gave birth to three cubs in one of the enclosures  of  Kuno national park - there was good news and bad news. The good news is that this is the second litter of cheetah on Indian soil after Siyaya, another Namibia cheetah, gave birth to four cubs in March 2023 and that the animal seems to have acclimatized further in India conditions. Birth in captivity will also enhance their chances of survival. The three newborns  from Aasha have also increased the number of cheetahs in India.  The bad news is that like Siyaya's cubs, they too are born within the confines of a boma and would not get the environmental conditions required to survive in the wild. They would also be reared up by Aasha in the enclosure -safe from predators like leopards. But what does this mean? Kuno Awaits Cheetah Birth in Open Forest Cheetahs were translocated to India with a purpose. The Cheetah action plan envisages saving, conserving and developing India's grasslands .The reason for choosing cheet

Frame By Frame: Tigers Fight In Kanha National Park

 

Tigers Fight In Kanha National Park

Kanha National Park reverberated with the roars of two fighting tigers. They stood tall on their hind legs and charged each other aggressively blowing the dust from the dry forest ground . Their deadly paws opened as the tigers pounced upon each other roaring loudly exposing their deadly canines .They apparently fought for a female. She later moved away from the sparring stripes and they too calmed down. As the roars echoed through the jungle, other wild animals were frightened. Such fights  are major causes of tiger deaths in the wild. 

The Epic Fight


Tigers Fight In Kanha National Park

It happened on April 27 mornings in the Mukki zone of Kanha tiger reserve. Some tourists shot the epic battle on their   mobile phones. The two tigers -Neel Nalla Male and Bhoin Dabra fought ferociously.  The tigress known as Jhila Lime was believed to be the reason behind the big fight.  In India's tiger reserves, local guides and  drivers   give amusing names to the  big cats   . And these names are based on either the appearance of the  tigers or  after the names of their territories or some other reason.  As many as 3 skirmishes, each few seconds long, were recorded after the fight between Neel Nalla male and Bhoin Dabra male .  


Kanha has always been a paradise for wildlife photography.  Most of the time  such duals   take tourists by surprise and many of them are not ready to shoot. By the time they take out their equipment, they realize the fight is over. Field director of the park SK Singh said, “  The tigers fight most of the time for  domination of their territory. This ( April 27 clash ) could have happened for the female tigress present on the spot”.  He said that there were 10 to 11  big cats in the Mukki zone which is full of prey like spotted deer, wild boar, Neel Gai  and sambhar among others. There are four safari zones (Kanha, Kisli, Mukki and Sarahi) in which tourists can undertake their safari drives. Mukki is located towards Balaghat district of  the Central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh .

Fight Without Any Result 


Tigers Fight In Kanha National Park

As they wrestled thrice without any outcome , the female was seen emerging out from the woods. Neela Nalla male turned  back his head towards her and saw the tigress crossing the pathway meant for the four wheelers.  Wildlife tourists were amazed to witness the fight, especially the paws as tigers slapped each other. A tiger's paw can reach the size of 8 x 8 inches (20 x 20 cm). It is estimated that the force of a tiger's paw swipe is around 10,000 lbs of force. Equipped with sharp claws at the tip of the paws, a tiger swipe is one of the main weapons. 


There are over 110 tigers in Kanha National Park spread over 1,945 square kilometers of core and buffer areas, besides 500 square kilometers of revenue area as tiger reserve. Kanha is one of the  tiger reserves of India where  tiger sighting is almost assured. Recently, the park was in the news for the wrong reasons . It was in headlines for the spread of Left wing ultras or naxalites in the national park. The Maoists  have also  killed staff members of the park, issuing a threat to the park workers.

It Could Have Been Fatal 


Tigers Fight In Kanha National Park

There are occasions when such fights resulted in tiger death.  In August 2020, a male tiger went missing in Panna tiger reserve after a deadly clash between two tigers identified as P123 and P431. The then field director of the park   KS Bhadoria later said, “Mating with the tigress (T6) was, perhaps, the reason behind the fight “.  One of the forest   guards remembers hearing the loud roars in the night while he was posted inside a  patrolling camp of the jungle. Later the body of P123 was found floating in Ken river. The fight took place right on the bank of the river .After the clash, the tiger was seriously injured and was missing. Next morning when the field staff reached the spot, they could not locate one of the injured tigers. Later  his body was found floating in the river. 


 Tigers of both sexes detect each other’s presence by mainly odour that they detect and can identify individually, explains tiger expert Valmik Thapar . “A tigress in oestrus or her reproductive cycle will be detected by the nearby male tiger who will follow her scent and find her”, he writes in  ‘The Sex Life of Tigers, Ramthambhore Tales’. He explains, “ Sometimes, when the territories of two males overlap, one of the males will either retreat or both will fight till one of them submits and runs away or is seriously injured. Where tiger density is high, there is a greater chance of such battles over the sexual rights on a female.”

Source: Still Frames from the Video  

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Tiger Corridor : Now Satpuda Melghat National Parks Connectivity At Risk

Much- hyped wildlife friendly NH7 passing   through the famous Kanha -Pench forest corridor and named after the two famous national parks should have 11.81 kms long under passes to let the wildlife have a safe passage. Instead the National Highways Authority of India (NHA) overlooked the rules and constructed only 4.41 km long underpasses compromising their dimensions.  Similarly in NH6, only 2.95 km of mitigation work was done against a schedule 8 kms length. Not everybody knows this truth.  Now NHAI seems to be completely violating the Wildlife (Protection) act 1973 while constructing a road patch on NH46 ( Hoshangabad -Betul). This is a functional tiger corridor connecting Melghat and Satpura tiger reserves. Now the connectivity is also as threatened as the tiger itself.  No Lessons Learnt From NH6 Kanha- Pench Corridor The reduced length of structures in  MH6  and NH7  -connecting East with the West and  North with the South  respectively -for safety of the wildlife could be achiev

Cheetah Cubs Born in Boma , Do They Have Conservation Value ?

When Aasha gave birth to three cubs in one of the enclosures  of  Kuno national park - there was good news and bad news. The good news is that this is the second litter of cheetah on Indian soil after Siyaya, another Namibia cheetah, gave birth to four cubs in March 2023 and that the animal seems to have acclimatized further in India conditions. Birth in captivity will also enhance their chances of survival. The three newborns  from Aasha have also increased the number of cheetahs in India.  The bad news is that like Siyaya's cubs, they too are born within the confines of a boma and would not get the environmental conditions required to survive in the wild. They would also be reared up by Aasha in the enclosure -safe from predators like leopards. But what does this mean? Kuno Awaits Cheetah Birth in Open Forest Cheetahs were translocated to India with a purpose. The Cheetah action plan envisages saving, conserving and developing India's grasslands .The reason for choosing cheet

Fertility Stories Immortalise Collarwali Tigress of Pench Tiger Reserve

  She was a superstar of Pench tiger reserve . The tigress that livedmore than 16 years and delivered a record number of 29  cubs in8 litters died on January 15 evening. Collarwali, as she was fondly referred toafter a radio collar was put around her neck in 2008, was darling of wildlifetourists who would visit the tiger reserve. They would remember the tigress forher ‘catwalks’ on the pathways of the national park giving them ample opportunitiesto click pictures. She would make easy wildlife photography. Collarwali was immortalizedafter scores of national and international documentaries were made on her. The Departmentof Post in India issued a special cover envelope of Collarwali  on World Sparrow Day in 2015 Besides, NewZealand and Canada too issued personalized stamps on the tigress in the sameyear. The park director said she died because of old age complicationsin her intestine.  Apall of gloom descended over Pench while her funeral was performed on January 16. RIP Collarwali Offic