Gabbar Battle-scarred Survivor

By 2010, the Tadoba-Andhari Tiger Reserve (TATR) had become a tiger conservation success story. Good protection, management and local support combined to turn TATR into one of Maharashtra’s finest parks. An increase in tigers, also brought tourists and photographers flocking to the park. And scientists were not far behind.

 

- Dr. Bilal Habib and Dr. Parag Nigam

Up to this point, there were few studies on tiger ecology from this area and in 2012 this prompted the Maharashtra Forest Department and the National Tiger Conservation Authority to plan on a long-term monitoring project for tigers and co-predators in collaboration with the Wildlife Institute of India. One of the objectives was to study movement patterns and space utilisation by adult tigers in what was increasingly becoming a crowded tiger landscape. We planned for five tigers to be radio collared.

On October 17, 2014, Chhoti Tara, the first tigress was collared in TATR,Maharashtra. Two days later we collared a male known by several names – Leopard Face, Sher Khan and Gabbar. His lineage was a mystery. He had challenged another adult male in the area and after their skirmish, his opponent was named ‘Amitabh’ and he, as Bollywood movie buffs would agree, had to be ‘Gabbar’. He was a bold cat taken to walking alongside tourist vehicles for considerable distances.

Though we often saw him in the area around the Tadoba lake, Gabbar’s territory ranged over a vast area (approximately 120 – 140 sq. km.) extending into the buffer which made it difficult to track him. On the day he was collared, tourists saw him walking from Chital road towards the Tadoba range office near the Tadoba lake. At this point, he changed course and began moving in the direction of Vasant bandara via Bhave bandara. This is where he was darted, after which he sprinted quite a distance into the bamboo thickets and we were only able to locate him after several tense moments of intensive search.

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