Frontline – July 05, 2019

FRONTLINE. JULY5, 2019 58

WILDLIFE

TIGER

fight club

Cannibalismamongtigersis a naturalphenomenon

linkedtofactorssuchassocialorganisationand

territoriality,andunlikewhatsomewouldliketo

believe,it is anoccasionalbehaviourandposesno

threattothetigerpopulation.

BYRAKESHSHUKLA

OURelephantwasinchingforward

throughthedenseundergrowthofa sal

forest intheKanha Tiger Reserve in

search ofa residenttigerthathadre-

portedlykilled a subadultmale.Thema-

houtproddedtheelephant gentlywitha

guiderandmadeit followtherepeated

muffledgrowlsof thetiger.Wecameout

intoa smallclearingandfound,toour

suddenfright,a full-grownfeline sitting

closetothebadly mutilatedbody ofthe

subadultit hadkilleda fewhoursback.

The tiger withflattenedears snarled

menacingly attheelephanta fewtimes,

baring hislongblood-stainedcanines.

This,however,didnotimpressthepachy-

derm,oneofthemostexperiencedat

Kanha, whokeptbobbing hisheadand

swinginghistrunkleisurely. Thetiger,its

mouth coveredwithbloodthathaddried

up,continuedto growlwhilethemahout

positionedtheelephantsothatwecould

takea closerlookatthekilled tiger

throughfieldglasses.

Thesubadulthaddeepcanine punc-

turemarks onthevisiblesideof thehead

andneck.Themutilated bodyhaddeep

clawmarks onthethoracicandabdom-

inalregion.Thetigerhadalsotakena few

bitesofftheleftlowerthigh,exposing the

bone. Whilemost ofthebody ofthe

subadultwasintactanduneaten,tech-

nically speaking, thetigerhadcannibal-

ised itpartially. It was a handsome

subadultthathadseparatedfromhis

motheraround sixmonthsbacktolive

independently.Fate, however, impelled

himtorunintothisdominantresident

tiger, probablytoemphasisetheaxiom

thatit is onlythefittestandfastestthat

survivein thewild.

DEATHANDTHEAFTERMATH

Itis heartening thatinsucha rapidly

developingpopulous country,anddes-

pitetheabsenceofa stronggreenideo-

logy or ecopolitics, tiger conservation

enjoysconsiderable support fromthe

StateandCentralgovernments.Though

tigerconservationfacesa widerangeof

challengesandleavesnoscope forcom-

placency,Project Tiger,nowrechristened

theNational TigerConservationAuthor-

ity,is stillregardedasoneofthemost

ambitious andsuccessfulconservation

projectsintheworld.Thestrongestin-

dicatorto measureIndiansuccessis that

it supportsaround 70 percentofthe

R.B.

PATHAK

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