Farewell, supermom

She was the first tigress in India to be fitted with a radio collar in 2008 earning her the name Collarwali It turned out to be one of the many titles that the tigress came to be associated with in her extraordinary lifetime Mataram supermom Queen of Pench were the others Her glorious 17year reign came to an end on January 15 when she died of multiple organ failure due to intestine blockage As animal lovers mourn the loss wildlife photographers remember for midday one of the most photographed tigresses in the worldlsquoAh her gait She walked like she owned the parkrsquoOmveer Choudhary is a naturalist from Rajasthan who moved to Pench in 2008 He wasnrsquot aware of her legendary status until then ldquoI was zapped the first time I saw her She was majestic Her gait set her apart from the rest She walked like she owned the parkrdquo recollects Choudhary who conducts guided tours and has tracked the tigress for 12 years She has rarely disappointed visitors he adds Bold and fearless she would come close to tourist vehicles sending visitors into a tizzy of nervous excitement Choudhary remembers the time when he had taken a lsquodifficultrsquo tourist on a safari in Pench ldquoSome people can be hard to please Although we spotted a tiger 300 metres away the lady wasnrsquot impressed The distance was too much she felt We continued to move around the jungle hoping for a closer view At that moment I thought to myself lsquoOnly if Collarwali was aroundrsquordquo Sure enough he says the tigress emerged out of the wilderness almost on cue ldquoAnd being herself kept inching towards the jeep to a point where she stopped and looked at the lady who was frozen with fear After that she said lsquoIrsquom done letrsquos get out of herersquordquo he laughs On January 15 when Choudhary received the news of her passing on he said he was heartbroken And he wasnrsquot alone ldquoI couldnrsquot stop crying I received calls from people all the way from Germany and France They were asking what happened to herrdquo Choudhary says her fame has meant that tourists would visit Pench just for a glimpse She was a muse to photographers and naturalists some of whom would only frequent those parts known to be her terrain ldquoBeing fiercely independent she encouraged her cubs to do the same by leaving them alone in areas with abundant preyrdquo Choudhary spotted her a day before her death sprawled on the grasslands In the videos that went viral the tigress is last seen drinking water and walking along a stream ldquoShe looked her usual self It often happens that when tigers attack prey soggy clump of undigested fur or hairballs get accumulated and dislodging them from the intestine can get difficultrdquo The average age of a tiger is about 12 years Choudhary says Langdi a cousin of Collarwali who had made several attempts in the past to run over the latterrsquos territory has now taken overOmveer ChoudharylsquoShe knew where to invest her energy never strayed farrsquoIt was Collarwali who put Pench on the global map believes Saurabh Thakekar wildlife expert and cofounder of BookMySafaricom What was most striking about the tigress according to him was the manner in which she held on to her territory till her last breath ldquoTigers have a tough life They have to fight to establish their territory and then defend it As they age they are often pushed out of their territory and forced to survive on the outskirts of the forest or in the buffer area I have seen a lot of males unable to retain their holdrdquo No tiger was able to dislodge Collarwali for 16 years While she was certainly an alpha she was also smart and calculative thinks Thakekar which explains her sway over the prime location in Pench for over a decade ldquoShe knew where to invest her energy and therefore had mapped her area well She wouldnrsquot travel too far because there was always the danger of another taking over the spacerdquo Thakekar says every tigerrsquos stripes pattern is unique much like a personrsquos fingerprints While the orange and black stripes allow them to camouflage in jungles and grasslands the white areas break up the pattern akin to sunlight streaming in through leaves ldquoInterestingly she had a lot more white on her body than others It was stark and glowing and made her look enchantingly beautifulrdquo Over the years Collarwali gave birth to 29 cubs out of which 25 survived In December 2018 she delivered the last of her four cubs making officials believe that this could be a record ldquoTypically the cubs stay with the mother for 20 to 24 months But most often they are killed or die before that because of intruder males She raised almost all her cubs to adulthood which is phenomenal We can all vouch that she was a very caring motherrdquoSaurabh ThakekalsquoShe raised five cubs simultaneously to sub adulthood rare in the wildrsquoMihir Mahajan entrepreneur and founder of Beyond Life a wildlife and adventure travel organisation first spotted Collarwali on a hot summer afternoon a decade ago ldquoShe was sitting in an ancient nullah crisscrossing the Seoni grasslands a beautiful patch of meadows water bodies and woodlands spread across the mildly undulating terrain of Kiplingrsquos enchanted landrdquo he remembers She was flanked by five little cubs ldquoThis was hitherto unseen in the wild and only a tigress in the pink of her health and at the zenith of her prime supplemented by ample water and prey base can give birth to five cubs at a time and see them reach subadulthoodrdquo Mahajan considers himself fortunate to have had a glimpse of her with her ldquofamous fiverdquo in 2011 ldquoShe later went on to give birth to five more litters making it a staggering eight litters totalling an astounding 29 cubs The grand matriarch had well and truly spawned one of the worldrsquos greatest tiger conservation storiesrdquo he saysMihir MahajanAccording to reports in 2008 when Panna Tiger Reserve in Madhya Pradesh became tigerless it was one of the female cubs of Collarwali that was sent to revive the big cat population As somebody who has spent a large part of his life documenting wildlife Mahajan says the alarm calls from potential prey alerting their fellow animals to the location of the predator is one of the most thrilling experiences ldquoTake that a notch up when it comes to tigers Itrsquos amazing how vocal they are The call of the tiger when it hits you at the physiological level is hard to ignore Itrsquos the deepest sound in the junglerdquoHis most vivid memory of Collarwali is of her sashaying down the road skirting Malkundam and marking her kingdom ldquoTill the very end she remained a darling of the tourists Like her life her death was poetic too as she chose to sleep in her most cherished area in the gorgeous meadows skirting the placid waters of the Pench backwaters and breathe her lastrdquo