Book Review | The Magnificent Queen of Tadoba-Andhari
A journalist-turned-conservationist recounts the trials and tribulations of Maya, the fierce and beautiful tigress
Every major national park and tiger reserve in the country has its own star cast of tigers and tigresses, whether it be the long-lived Macchli and the notorious Ustad from Ranthambore, Avni, the alleged man-eating tigress, and so on, many of which have featured in National Geographic documentaries. Here, Anant Sonawane, communications officer from Melghat-Andhari Tiger Reserve, since 2021 — recounts the life story of yet another tiger queen — Maya — from Tadoba, who has also been featured by National Geographic. Tadoba-Andhari has become quite a ‘happening place’ for easy tiger sightings.
In short episodic chapters backed up by lovely photographs he recounts the trials and tribulations of this magnificent tigress — from spunky cub and bewildered adolescent to reigning queen. Maya is orphaned early and must learn to hunt on her own, and then teach her cubs how to do so. Her biggest concern and worry is to keep her litters safe — especially from males who may not be their fathers and who will kill them without hesitation. Sadly, she loses most of her litters, one even to a pack of wild dogs.
And so she must fight, use cunning and strategy, to keep them away — mating with several of these marauders (like Matkasur and Tula) in the hope they will stick around long enough to accord protection to her cubs. While she enjoys time with her cubs, playing with them, patiently teaching them the finer points of hunting, there is always the underlying tension that some rogue male may turn up and destroy her happy family at any moment. There are also puzzling aspects to her behaviour — cossetting a chital fawn and letting it go unharmed, for example (this has photographic backing!).
She is also surprisingly tolerant of the cavalcade of as many as forty Gypsies, (more than the Prime Minister’s cavalcade) crammed with excited tourists closely following her and her family down the jungle tracks, even as Sonawane claims, ‘posing’ for the cameras and just gets on with her life — mating, hunting, playing with her cubs et al. — much like the way lions, cheetahs and leopards do in the tourist-infested grasslands of Africa. You get lulled into believing she is just a big, benign puddytat, who wants to become a star, until a flash goes off in her face! Also good to remember, she has killed three people — a woodcutter, a labourer and even a forest guard, because they surprised her or came too close.
What is surprising is that Sonwane is also so tolerant of this tourist crowding — though he is the communications officer of the reserve and perhaps could not be critical of such a policy. Indian tourists are not known to be the most, quiet or disciplined, and with 40 Gypsies vying for the best view, all it would take is one to bump against another and a tourist to fall off… and the tiger or tigress to pounce, and the equation changes entirely. True tourism brings in revenue but this kind of mass voyeurism raises doubts about responsibility. Normally tigers avoid humans (with good reason) but here Queen Maya holds court and has a huge fan following!
Neatly laid out, the book is eminently readable — though in places the editing could have been tighter. And it raises the question — are we changing, or have we, changed the behaviour of tigers in such places?
Maya
By Anant Sonawane
HarperCollins
pp. 190; Rs 699/-