A Spectacular Royal Romance

As far as love stories go — the tales of the
regal feline inhabitants of Ranthambore National Park
continue to be a blockbuster

Text Navin M Raheja

The month of May was coming to its last days, when the tourists in Zone 4 , Goolarkui area of Ranthambore Tiger Reserve, were in for a photographer’s delight – capturing on camera the mating of T25 (Zalim) and T19 (Krishna) tigers. My niece Sriroopa and Nachiketa Bajaj were also amongst the first lucky witnesses.

Oblivious of the presence of the host of Gypsies, the mating continued - to be captured on more and more cameras. The news spread like wildfire and in the next 3 days it was perhaps the most widely circulated photograph on the internet, facebook and twitter. While more and more tourists craved to capture these rare scenes, this also caught the attention of the close by territorial male tiger – T28.

I have been witness to many clashes between T25 and T28. They have already fought a number of times over T 17, the elder sister, which has since become extinct from the prime areas of Rajbagh and Malik Talao. I have seen both the tigers getting injured in these fights, but invariably T28, despite sustaining injuries, always had an edge and managed to snatch the female from T25.

It is a different story that T28 was always unlucky and both T17 and T19 continued to be unfaithful. On the intervening night of 1^st June, T28 reached the mating pair. There was a short fight in which T25 yielded and T19 meekly accompanied T28 back to home territory. And tourists of Zone 3 then had a royal spectacle of their lovemaking in Royal Chhatris of Ranthambore Kindom.

While this phenomenon left a delighted lot of wildlife photographers, it also spawned several questions that needed to be analyzed and answered.  

1.       While it is believed that tigers mate between November and April, then why and how was this happening in the months of May end and June?

2.       Why were two male tigers mating with one female? (It is a general perception that one male tiger keeps territorial dominance over 2-4 females).

3.       Why didn’t T17 bring or keep her cubs in her original home territorial area of Rajbagh and Malik Talao which falls under Zone 3 and partly Zone 2 of Ranthambore Tiger Reserve?

4.       It is believed that T17 who was not bearing cubs for over 3 years had her last litter from T25 as she always kept the cubs in his territory and never brought them to her home territory which was dominated by T28 as he would have killed these cubs from T25.

In his famous book ‘Maneaters of Kumaon’ the legendary Jim Corbett also mentions that November to March is the mating season for Tigers. (Please refer to the story of ‘Thak Maneater’)

I had been under the same impression and overpowered with various readings and theories on tiger behavior, till the time when on 13^th June 2002, my car was charged and mock attacked by two mating tigers in the Rohini Padao area of Corbett Tiger Reserve.

My subsequent research brought my focus on the latest studies by the Wildlife Institute of India and that of Rajesh Gopal, Member Secretary, NTA in Pench Tiger Reserve between March 2008 and December 2011 -  in which it was established that although tigers can mate at any time, breeding is more frequent during November to April.

On an average tigers give birth to 2-3 cubs every 2-2 ½ years and sometimes even in 3-4 years. If all the cubs die, second litter maybe produced within five months also. Gestation is usually 104 – 106 days and births can occur in a cave, a rocky crevice or in dense vegetation.

This episode of Ranthambore Tiger Reserve between 31^st May and 3^rd June has established that extended mating can happen when more than one male tiger is mating with a female. The matter and actual conception though is still unclear and may become clear only after four months or so.

While generally it is believed and also observed that one male tiger may mate with multiple females in the same forest, but in Ranthambore Tiger Reserve this phenomenon works to the contrary due to the skewed ratio of females and males.

The male tigers here do not go for fatal encounters and have accepted the unusual norm of the female competing for divergent DNA.

My busy schedule and commitments as CMD of Raheja Developers kept me away and I could not take time out to reach Ranthambore, but young wildlifers of our family - my niece Sriroopa Raheja Bajaj and Nachiketa Bajaj - kept on sending striking photographs of these mating tigers.

But my close wildlifer friend M D Parashar, was even luckier to photograph a rare sequence of T28 and T19 mating in the royal ruins as if enacting the reincarnations of the lost love stories of the long forgotten Royal families that are still sung in the folklores of Rajasthan.

Navin M Raheja, Chairman and Managing Director, Raheja Developers Limited, is a wildlife enthusiast and a passionate photographer. In the past 35 years, he has made several contributions in the field of conservation at various levels. A former member of Project Tiger’s Steering Committee, under the Ministry of Environment and Forests, he worked persistently to ensure that the big cats survive in India. He is also Chairman, Wildlife Conservation Society of India. One with a holistic vision, Raheja believes that development and protection of environment can happen simultaneously.

 (For more stories and films on wildlife which has run on National Geographic Channel, Doordarshan National channel and Doordarshan (India), please log on to www.raheja.com.)