It's raining tigers in summer.

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It’s raining Tigers in Summer!

- Hector Dsouza

The guides and forest rangers affectionately call him 'Langda Munna’ (lame Munna) after a forest guide who is also lame and named 'Munna.' Seems pretty indecent, but it's all taken in the right spirit in Kiplings forest. The story goes when this male tiger was two years old, it hurt his paw while on a hunting expedition, resulting in a limp for a couple of years. When we spotted Munna from a hand shaking distance on our recent visit, the limp wasn't visible. The name stuck on, though.

A variety of reasons brought me to the Kanha National Park in central Madhya Pradesh this June. Summer is the best time to visit the park when the meadows are bereft of grass, trees are bare, and animals ranging from the harmless spotted deer to the shy and unassuming leopard are in search of aqua to quench their thirst. Action swims around the waterhole where you find jackals roaming aimlessly with bigger predators soaking in mud filled waters. Animals shed their inhibition and come out in the open with even the over zealous and protective tigers crisscrossing into each others territories. This is what Pramod and Eric had mentioned to me on my previous visits to the park; like elephants I rarely forget! Hari and Jennifer were also visiting the park, thought I’d hitch a ride with them, something they heartily accepted. I also had to hand over solar lanterns to the national park, this was a constant thought at the back of my mind. Kanha had given me much, it was time to return the favor. There wasn't a better time to do it, than the month of June. Without further deliberations, I packed my bag and left.

While we had eleven sightings of the tiger, two of the discreet and rarely spotted leopard, couple of wild dog herds which included three scavenging on a carcass, numerous sightings of the Indian wild ox, spotted deer, four horned antelopes, jackals, jungle fowl, an amazing variety of birds including the EagleOwl, pied hornbills, jungle owlet, kingfishers and countless pheasants, all in the space of three days; this story is about the Munna tiger - five years old and father of three cubs.

Spread out over 950 square kilometers Kanha is situated in Banjor and Halon valleys of the Mandla and Balaghat district in Madhya Pradesh. Boasting of varied topography. Sal and Crocodile bark tree dominates the semi deciduous forest with abundant rainfall making it an ideal ground for a variety of predators and prey. At the last census there were close to 110 tigers and 82 leopards, the results of the current census are being awaited with bated breath. With less than 1400 tigers remaining in India's forest, the figures of Kanha, India's last bastion and best preserved reserve assumes significance because a downfall in the numbers would indicate all is not well with 'Panthera Tigris.' According to Eric my friend and mentor who has been in Kanha for over thirty years, there is some good news. 22 cubs have been born this winter, the downside is less than fifty percent make it to adulthood. Killing by dominant male tigers and other wild beasts, shrinking of forests, man-animal conflicts, and the fight for territory among male tigers are the reasons why survival is such a daunting task. Poaching by poachers with deep pockets and hunting tribal doesn't help either. Eric remains cautiously optimistic and hopes numbers remain constant or increase.

On our first morning inside the park we found jeeps huddled together on the dirt track alongside the Kanha meadows. A tiger had been sighted at Futatal but was now lying low. As is the norm when a predator decides to walk, the jungle wakes up with langurs letting out alarm calls at regular intervals from treetops, down below muntjacs and sambhar join in as well. Besides supplementing their diets by regularly feeding them with fruits and seed, they are also the first to spot predators and warn others on the ground below. It's not for nothing macaques and langurs are friends of herbivores. There is no specific reason for a tiger wanting to lie low; it could either be boredom, a full stomach or simply wanting to take a break and fall into slumber. Remember it's the lord of the jungle! Once it begins to walk it does so with renewed vigor, on this occasion it could be getting ready to hunt or to mark its territory. The meadows stretched for over a kilometer resembling a golden carpet swaying in the wind. We waited patiently. Our resourceful driver detected some movement and let his outstretched arm pointing at a particular spot do the talking. After countless moments I was able to spot the graceful creature standing tall above the grass and striding across. I was aided to great measure by the binoculars, until we lost track and it disappeared into the deep recess of the forest. Munna - the tiger we just saw made a lasting first impression on me.

Sensing Munna would take a particular path, we reversed our jeeps and followed the instructions of the ranger, driving all the way to Badrinath heights where Munna reportedly 'resides' with the female lactating tigress and three cubs. Situated on top of a small hill Badrinath gets it's name from the pilgrim centre in Garhwal, enjoys an excellent location and has an uninterrupted view of the adjoining forest besides giving well deserved protection to the tigress and its cubs from unwanted predators. The story goes Munna and the tigress drove away a pair of Leopards the original inhabitants of this spectacular rocky spur. A dozen vehicles gathered at this spot waiting to spot the action The buzz going around was Munna was lying in the waterhole while the female tigress was half way up between the ridge and the waterhole. We strained our eyes and stretched our necks desperately trying to catch a glimpse of the tiger, now hidden by tall grass, rocks and dirt. Half an hour later Munna rose from the waterhole & walked along the length of the ridge. I didn't need the binoculars, he was about 100 meters away from us. Measuring all of ten feet from head to the tip of the tail, it reminded me of the Bachelor Tiger in Jim Corbett’s epic - The Temple Tigers, and disappeared yet again into the thick foliage of the never ending forest. The tigress stepped out of the grass onto the barren patches, and began climbing effortlessly to the spot where her cubs lay. Two magnificent sightings in the space of an hour seemed to suggest we had not seen the last of Munna.

Is tracking of tigers in the forest difficult? They say when you've seen one, you’ve missed ten. The best chance of spotting is either when it crosses or walks on a dirt track- normally used by jeeps. Once it leaves the path it’s next to impossible because the striped golden coat blends effortlessly with the forest, making them invisible. What gives them away at times are their pointed white ears, aiming skywards. While pugmarks are reliable, unless you are among the first few vehicles on a morning safari, the marks are recent and you have loads of luck and tons of patience there's no way the predator will come your way. Contrary to popular belief tigers are shy and at the slightest hint of noise from a moving vehicle will immediately take evasive action and head for the undergrowth, until the danger has passed. On a previous safari, two years ago, we were on our jungle ride and decided to turn back, without much success. Within a few minutes we discovered fresh pugmarks over the tyre marks left by our vehicle. It was quite obvious the tigress had been watching us and entered the road only after our vehicle had left.

Inspired by our findings we proceeded for our last safari with satisfaction at having seen so much diversity and a wish to see more. Jennifer and Hari wanted to see a bear, we found footfalls but were yet to come across one. We drove for about a couple of hours into the deep forest, past the highest watchtower and found a group of elephants huddled together on the dirt part with mahouts (trainers) in tow. They asked us to get moving, we knew the big cat had been spotted. We reluctantly moved forward and stopped, the ranger pointed to a male cub sleeping on the grass, the surrounding tall grass made spotting difficult. We managed a brief view of the male in deep slumber, sleeping on his with feet pointing towards the sky, all signs pointing to a full stomach. Munna was nowhere to be found. After thirty minutes of driving on Bison Road that bisects the meadow, our ranger signaled the driver to halt. About hundred meters upfront stood the male tiger we had been searching for. It was Munna out for his morning territory marking walk. We lost him again after carefully watching him for a couple of minutes.

If we were lucky we’d be able to spot him at closer range, it would however require us to drive to a spot from where he would step out of the forest and re-enter the meadows. Only a few rangers, experienced drivers and resourceful guides are able to guess correctly. With Pramod, Rahim and the ranger we had plenty of experience at our end. The territory of a tiger varies from 40 -80 square kilometers, hence guessing is not the job of the ordinary, we drove for about twenty minutes and stopped at Shelar Heights closed to a culvert and hoped Munna would cross. Another ten minutes of waiting, we noticed movement half a kilometer away. Munna was dead on track, though a herd of Indian Wild Ox came in its way. Wary of each other, the Indian Ox is capable of attacking and killing a tiger, though the tiger feasts on older ones who are slow and sluggish in movement. Both give each other a miss, unless it’s absolutely necessary. Munna changed direction, avoiding the herd and started walking across the meadow in our direction. We hurriedly moved our gypsy to a more vantage location. Right enough, we spotted Munna walking towards us, unaffected by the attention we were showering on him. He strode gracefully the coat of yellow and black stripes glistening in the morning sun, the eyes focused on the path ahead, jaws parted as he breathed heavily and walked past us onto the next meadow.

We watched him for the next five minutes, this time it was his rear body as he effortlessly glided once again into the forest, not before turning to face us one last time and bid us farewell. Our tryst with Munna was over, true to its reputation Kanha had once again provided us much more than we expected.

Though there was no limp when he walked, the name Langda Munna remains. In a similar vein I hope the tiger stays on and does not vanish. The road to perdition is staring at us, I hope it gives the the Indian tiger and the National Parks a well deserved miss.

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