Children’s Day: A travel tale by Ananya Ayyappan, our youngest writer ever!

If you ask me what’s my favourite kind of vacation, I will always say it's a wildlife safari trip. I have always loved going on trips to many forests in India with my parents. This August, in the middle of monsoon, we decided to experience the beauty of Tadoba forest and try our luck once again.

Tadoba-Andhari Tiger Reserve( TATR) located near Nagpur is a popular forest for tiger spotting in Maharashtra. This was our fifth trip to Tadoba, but the first one in monsoon.


The forest looked absolutely magical with greenery all around. I was thankful to have experienced this, however, we had no luck with tiger sighting on our first three safaris. But nature had something special saved for the last day.



On the last day, morning safari at Kolara buffer gate, we got to see a pack of wild dogs and pug marks of a tigress with cubs, but missed sighting them. I was so disappointed. Once we returned to Svasara, our lodge where we stayed, we got the news about a tigress and two, three-month-old cubs sighting at Belara gate. Fortunately, we had a safari at the same gate in the afternoon.


We started our afternoon safari with hopes to see them. We searched for them for half an hour but had no luck. We took a new route and saw a dead piglet on the road. Our driver said it might have been killed under a jeep by mistake. But the guide said it might have been killed by the tigress.



We could feel the presence of the tigress and kept searching. We went into a by-lane and then found her deep inside the bushes. I was wondering why she was panting so much. Then the guide said because she probably just made the hunt. After that, a few other jeeps came and watched her rest. Then she stood up and to our surprise she had another piglet in her mouth.

Also read: Children's Day: Kid-friendly wildlife experiences in India

She walked for a while, saw the jeeps and as if she changed her mind, she dropped the piglet. “Why did she do that?” I wondered. We then finally realised she was going to get her cubs from where she had hidden them. But, of course, it was so well-hidden that we couldn’t find their hiding spot. But just as we were heading back, we saw her coming out of the bushes with her cubs behind her.



It was then that we understood that she was getting her cubs towards the kill (the piglet). She then proceeded to feed the piglet to her small cubs. We watched them eat and play with their mother for a long time. It was an indescribable feeling to watch this tiger family in their natural habitat.

By then it was getting dark and it was time to head back. Suddenly the mother got up and went deep inside the jungle. And we saw that she was happily enjoying eating the mother wild boar. She had killed the whole family of wild boar and her two piglets!

Also read: Wild tales from Tadoba-Andhari National Park in Maharashtra

While it was a day of success for the tigress and her cubs, it was a tragedy for the mother wild boar and her piglet, but now I realise that this is a circle of life. What I experienced was a once in a lifetime moment and I hope that we preserve forest and mother nature for this generation and next so that they could also witness what I saw at Tadoba this August.



Author’s bio: Ananya Ayyappan is studying in 5th standard at St Gregorios High School in Chembur, Mumbai. She is 10 years old and loves bharatnatyam, taekwondo and nature photography.