November 26, 2023

Sunday, 11:30 PM

Government Rest House,

Mul, District Chandrapur, 

Maharashtra, India

Today morning, we explored the buffer side of Tadoba-Andhari Tiger Reserve, having entered the reserve through the Somnath Safari Gate. This area does not see much tourist footfall but there is a female tiger with little cubs. And as I have said earlier, young tiger cubs are very hard to see because the mother of these cubs keep them very well protected, away from all kinds of prying eyes, humans’ or male tigers’ though the cubs are under no threat from human beings except a particularly vile variety, against which kind the forest departments all over have not only trained and deployed officials but have also pressed into service technological assistance readily available in this age and time of efficient and reliable automation.

So the female tiger with little cubs I was talking about before I veered into the dark alley of animal poachers is named Katrina because she has a pattern in the shape of the English letter “K”, which is also why she called “K-Mark” as well. She is very pretty tigress, and also very young. The present litter is her first, which might be the reason why I got to see the youngest tiger cubs I have ever seen, even younger than those of Baras I saw only a week or so ago. Baras’ cubs were about three to four months old, but Katrina’s three little ones are half their age at about one and half months old. The only difference is that I saw Baras’ cubs for a long time but I could only catch a fleeting glimpse of one of Katrina’s cubs. Even so, it was an amazing experience by all means. We had tracked K-Mark for a long time and finally managed to find her with one of her cubs. So the day was good. Today’s Vlog is now live.