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| Courtesy:- Source unknown |
Pench Tiger Reserve, Madhya Pradesh…nestled
in the lower southern region of the Satpuda hills lining the Central India.
“Pench tiger reserve” got it’s name from the Pench river (tributary of Kanhan
river), meandering through the park from north to south. It is located in the
southern part of Madhya Pradesh, in the districts of Seoni and Chhindwara. This
national parks spans across an area of 758 SQ Kms, out of which a core area of
299 sq km (Indira Priyadarshini Pench National Park and the Mowgli Pench
Sanctuary) and the remaining 464 sq km of peripheral area marks the buffer
zone.
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| Courtsey:- marcopoloadventure.com |
Pench
Tiger Reserve and its neighbourhood (Kanha National Park) is the playground for
the plot of Rudyard Kipling's “The Jungle Book”. This is also the courtyard of
some of the eminent Tigers of central India. Dwelling among these forests were
two celebrity sisters who changed the fate of Pench forever. They together
mothered 37 cubs in total during their reign. One still lives, while the other
faded into oblivion due to cruel human activity. The story that I am about to
tell you is of deceased sister “Baghin nala’…the one, who’s death left many questions
unanswered.
Biography:
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| Courtesy:- bbc.co.uk/programmes |
She was born as one of the four from her mother’s (“Badi Mada” F1,
Queen of the Kharmajhiri Range) second litter in October 2005 and fathered by
“Charger” M1. Charger was the dominant, furious male of the zone, well known
for his aggression and fearlessness. She grew up with her sister, the famous “Collar
wali” tigress (BM5) and two brothers (BM7 and BM8) as celebrity cubs of BBC’s
wildlife documentary “Spy in the Jungle”, narrated by the renowned naturalist David
Attenborough himself. Her early days of life were documented vividly by trunk
cameras and elephant’s back.
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| Badi Mada (F1) carrying new born Baghin nala |
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| Trunk cam- A still from "Spy in the Jungle"- Baghin nala with siblings |
Filmed over a period of three years, it followed
her from birth to early adulthood. It beautifully captured the life of a
Tigress (Badi Mada) and the efforts that a mother tigress takes to raise her
off-springs in the wilderness. The feline emotions were vibrantly displayed in
the film through the eyes of the young cubs, including the “Baghin nala”.
She was a large
female with light coloration and prominent lip like markings adorning her right
and left flanks. Volatile by nature, she was unpredictable. Sometimes she would
walk for long distance alongside safari vehicles and pose majestically for her
admiring wildlife photography enthusiasts, while on occasions she would loudly announce
her discomfort and growl away the paparazzi. The two sisters lived on together harmoniously
for a long time and finally split up in 2008, just after her sister (BM5) was
collared. Soon after, Baghin took over the eastern territory of her mother’s
kingdom. She derived her name “baghin nullah wali”, as she marked her territory
at the “Baghin-Nullah” near the buffer zone of Turia Gate route. In the upcoming
years she dominated her terrain and mothered many cubs.
She had four
litters of cubs mostly from BMW, the resident male of the area.
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| Baghin nala with her cubs (BBC Earth Footage) |
First litter from an unknown male with 1 cub (2008)- BN1
Second litter
from BMW with three cubs (2009)- BN2(male),BN3(female) and BN4(female)
Third litter
from BMW with three cubs (2011)- BN5 (male), BN6(male) and BN7 (female)
Fourth litter
from BMW with four cubs (2013)- Not
named
Demise of the Queen:
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| Courtesy:- Save the Tiger Facebook page |
In the
evening of 28th March, 2016
Monu Dubey, a safari gypsy owner was
returning with some tourists. At around 6:20 PM on the outer road of Baghin nullah,
they saw some laborers trying to take pictures of a tigress lying still in the
bushes. On closer observation he found the tigress to be dead and immediately informed
the forest officials.
It was “Baghin nala”.
She was carrying four cubs as per
last sighting a few days ago. On the next morning, forest officials during a search
operation discovered two of her cubs lying dead just 50 meters from where the
carcass of “baghin nala” was found. The remaining two cubs were missing.
Post-mortem
report revealed the cause of death to be poisoning. The mother, cubs and a deer
(carcass found near the cubs) were all poisoned by the same source of water,
reports claimed.
Cause of the Tragedy:
During early
summer in 2016, construction work was being carried out on the outer road near baghin
nullah. Heavy machineries like JCBs and dumpers were deployed for the purpose.
It was the favorite spot of “Baghin nala” and especially when she was rearing
cubs. The forest official were aware of the fact but took no necessary
precaution. Tigers are shy creature and tend to stay away from humans. The increased
human activity in the area forced her to stray away into the unsafe zones of
the park.
The villagers
living in forest area often poison some water sources to catch a kill (generally
deers and other bush animals, not tigers). Unfortunately, the tigress along
with her cubs had possibly drunk water from one such source. The chance of
poaching was not suspected.
Shukla’s
Plea for Justice:
Aditya Shakalya, a 32
years old wildlife conservationist, initiated an online petition on change.org
titled “Murders at Camp 38: Seeking
Justice for the Murder of A Mother & Her Cubs” demanding an
independent, high-level investigating committee to look into “the high
frequency of unnatural tiger deaths in India”.
The online petition also
listed a number of tiger deaths in Pench since August 2015.
Shukla stated, “There
was a lot of movement of migrant workers inside the area where the tigress was
rearing her cubs. The workers were using heavy machinery such as tractors, JCB
and bulldozers. This is not permissible at all as tigers are very shy animals
and they don’t want to be put in public.”
He further added, “I and
a couple of locals had approached the forest department after we found that the
records were missing of the people who were deployed to work in the area, but were
not given any information. The construction equipments and the workers seem to
have vanished overnight…It is a serious matter, which needs to get proper
attention,”
Later, four people were
arrested for poising the water sources within Pench National Park limits.
As for the last
information of the cubs, one went missing and the other was found. The lone
survivor of the incident, the male cub was transferred to Kanha National Park
for rehabilitation.
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| Last Surviving cub of Baghin |
The heart
rendering tale of “Baghin nala” and her tragic death shock the nation. Wildlife
conservationists and enthusiasts all over the country took to protest against
the incident at Pench. Safari guides and tourists upheld entry into the park for
quite some time in a silent protest. Questions were asked, fingers were raised
and candlelight tributes were offered.
She was
revered and remembered.
“Baghin nala”
no more walks amidst the forest, but she will always be… “The Matriarch of
Pench”.
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| Pic. Courtesy:- Arpit Dubey |
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I DO NOT LAY CLAIM TO ANY OF THE PICTURES IN THIS ARTICLE, THEY RIGHTFULLY BELONG TO THE RESPECTIVE OWNERS. THEY HAVE BEEN COLLECTED FROM ONLINE PLATFORMS. IT IS ONLY FOR EDUCATIONAL AND AWARENESS PURPOSE. YOUR SUPPORT IS APPRECIATED
