ADVENTURE & WILDLIFE
The Prince of Bandipur is no more
The tiger that was found dead in the Kundakere range of Bandipur National Park on Sunday has been identified as the big cat that brought down a gaur in a video that went viral on social media in 2013 .
Incidentally , the same tiger went by the monicker ‘ Prince ’ and was usually found in the tourism zone though its territory extended beyond it . Bandipur Tiger Reserve director T . Heeralal told The Hindu that the stripe pattern of the deceased tiger matched those of images of Prince in their photo database , and he too was at the fag end of his illustrious career having lorded over Bandipur .
In forest department and National Tiger Conservation Authority records , he is identified as T222 . Prince ’ s mother Gowri ( named by JLR ) was very popular too . She was not scared of people . Around a decade ago , she used to be regularly sighted by tourists in the tourism zone , near safari road sides , walking or resting , with her three cubs ( two females and one male ). Prince has inherited this trait from Gowri , say many forest officials . His Father late Agastya , who was the most famous male of this park in Karnataka and was considered the ‘ King of Bandipur ’.
Wildlife Enthusiasts witnessed the Prince ’ s aggression at age four and were sure that he would rule in the jungles of bandipur like his father before him . Even at the end of his life he was one of Bandipur ’ s most dominant males and roamed around freely in his area of 80 sq km ; whereas an average male tiger ’ s territory is 30 sq km . photo credit : Amith Bhavikatti
and wild animals , Prince of Bandipur was calm and has had no history of attacking humans , even when they were in his domain .
Prince at the time of his death was around 12 years and had ostensibly died of old age . The life span of a tiger in the wild ranges from 11 to 13 years though Machli , the lady of the lake , at Ranthambore , which died in August last year , lived for almost 18 years .
Meanwhile , the Wildlife Conservation Society ( WSC ), which has a database of individual tigers in the Bandipur-Nagarahole belt generated through camera trap methods over decades of research in the field , identified the dead tiger as BPT-222 , which was also known by tour guides as Raja and more recently as Prince .
Ullas Karanth , tiger specialist and director , Centre for Wildlife Studies , WCS-Asia , said BPT-222 was first photographed through camera trap methods in 2009 .
The video of 2013 shows the tiger not only taking on the gaur head-on , but also executing a neat kill illustrating the power of its jaws and the lethal grip over its prey besides its propensity to attack large prey animals unmindful of the dangers involved .
Giving details and history of the tiger gleamed from the CWS photo-database , Dr . Karanth said the individual was first photo captured in Bandi Kallare Road of the Hediyala range of Bandipur on January 16 , 2009 . Its image was captured 27 times over the years , the last being on February 4 , 2016 , before it was found dead on Sunday , Dr . Karanth said .
The bold prince was a crowd puller and was often compared to Bandhavgarh ’ s iconic tiger , Charger , known to attract tourists in throngs . But unlike Charger , who got his name because of a tendency to charge at vehicles source : various sources . from internet
20 Vol 2 | Issue 1 | Mar - May 2017