Tadoba field director who witnessed tigers' interaction with bikers recollects chilling experience

Two forest department staff from Tadoba Tiger Reserve riding on a motorcycle became the object of curiosity for two eager tiger cubs near Jamni Village and what unfolded in the next four to five minutes was nothing less than an ‘edge of the seat’ thriller. A two-minute video of the incident from December has now become viral.

While both the rider and pillion did not even receive as much a scratch in this encounter, there is no denying that this spine-chilling and pulse racing tete-a- tete with two tigers will ever be forgotten by them or their boss, Mukul Trivedi, Field Director of Tadoba Tiger Reserve who incidentally happened to be right there witnessing the entire sequence and all the while asking and signalling the duo to remain as stationary as possible. 

Speaking to DNA, Trivedi said that incident occurred during the last week of December while he was carrying out an inspection of the forest in his vehicle, and came across two male sub-adult cubs of Chotti Tara who is also known as Jamni tigress and they were sitting. Suddenly we saw two of our staff coming on a motorcycle from opposite direction and seeing the tigers they stopped.

“Both the cubs are around two years old and have been used to seeing humans around them when they were growing up with Chotti Tara who was extremely popular with tourists. The young cubs are always known to be extremely curious and hence seeing these two men riding a bike and suddenly stopping one approached them from the front while the other from behind,” said Trivedi adding that he kept instructing the duo on the bike to not make any sudden movement and stay calm and since his vehicle was at a distance any quick move by his vehicle too could have made matters worse.

 Infact as is evident in the video, the duo stood their ground, however on few occasions when one of the cubs who kept retreating back into the grasses would emerge out as soon as the rider Shriram who is a permanent labourer started the engine and moved the bike slightly. In fact, in the end, the tiger not only came back but got very close to them.

Meanwhile twice the rider pushed the bike a little ahead and the starting the engine got the tiger even more curious and made it come back to the duo. 

"At the same time, we could not move our vehicles towards the bikers to intervene, first we thought that the cubs seeing the men standing still move away on their own and secondly as out of fear of a vehicle approaching them suddenly the tigers could have attacked in provocation. However our worry increased as the tiger from behind began getting too close to the pillion and started sniffing him but as soon as we got some space we moved our vehicle in between the tiger and the staff who within seconds dropped their motorcycles on the ground and jumped in the Special Tiger Protection Force (STPF) vehicle,” informed Trivedi.      

 The Field Director of Tadoba was quick to add that while the video was getting everyone's attention, the fact is that for the forest staff who patrol the forest round the clock on foot as well as on motorcycles coming across tigers or other wildlife is very common.

Sarosh Lodhi, Founder of Conservation Lenses & Wildlife (ClaW)- an independent group of wildlife lovers and photographers said that the video also highlights the fact that it's never the case that a tiger simply on seeing a human being attacks and kills it. 

A wildlife conservationist who did not wish to be named said that this incident also shows the changing behaviour of tigers. “A tiger’s normal reaction on seeing humans is that it will move away trying to avoid it. But look at these two-year-old tigers who are so used to seeing humans in form of tourists right from being few months old and hence their behaviour towards humans has evidently changed. The move by the staff in standing still as well as by the field director in handling the situation is sure to praise,” he said.