For wildlife enthusiasts, Machli needs no introduction. She is the tigress who has been ruling the wilderness of the Ranthambore National Park for the last two decades, literally. Often referred to as the Queen, she is the mother to nearly 50 per cent of the tiger population of Ranthambore National Park and Sariska. Not reason enough to earn the crown? Hear this--she is the most photographed tigress in the world. And there's more--by turning 20 this year, she has earned the honour of being the world's oldest tigress in the wild.
Being the star tourist attraction of Ranthambore for years, Machli suddenly disappeared in the year 2014. Although she was suspected to be dead initially, sometime later she was found in the non-tourist zone of Ranthambore. This was mainly because the younger tigers started taking over her older territory and pushing her away.
Although she continues staying in the non-tourist zone, tourists caught a glimpse of her in April this year. One needs to be lucky enough to see the Queen, but the experience is totally worth it.
According to reports, RN Mehrotra, the state's former chief wildlife warden suggests that the reason behind Machli's long life is due to her 'untiger-like' behaviour. In order to learn more about the tigress, we spoke to Anurag Sharma, owner of Tigerwalah.com and an ex-banker who quit his well-settled corporate job to pursue his interest in wildlife and tigers.
"For the first three years that I visited Ranthambore, I didn't see a single tiger. And then, I saw Machli and her cubs in 2006. She was the first tiger I ever saw in the wilderness." The moment we asked him about Machli, Sharma said, "Machli is from a different planet. I would say God created tigers, and then He created Machli."
Machli lost her canines in a fight with a crocodile and is not able to hunt that well. If reports are to be believed, she is given baits and meat leftovers by forest officials for food. But Anurag Sharma has something more to suggest as well. According to him, although Machli has two trackers dedicated to her and is specially looked after by the forest department, the tigress has her own way of hunting as well. Machli now hunts smaller animals like spotted deer, and does that by using her body weight to break the backbone of the animal and then killing it eventually. She is also, almost always, on the lookout for an opportunity to snatch food from leopards in her area.
Sharma is a Ranthambore regular for more than a decade now and has seen Machli at least 30 to 40 times over time. When we asked him to share a memorable experience with the tigress, he recalled an incident that brings one of Machli's intelligent hunting techniques to the fore. He recalls, "Once I saw Machli killing a big Sambhar deer. But being old enough, she didn't have enough strength to drag away the kill. Machli, very intelligently, pulled the kill to a stream which automatically carried it away to the other side. That way, she also managed to remove the scent from her kill so that no other tiger could know about it."
We believe it's skills like these that have kept Machli alive for such a long time. However, we want to wish her a longer life ahead--long live Machli!
