Bandhavgarh Season Round Up 2023-24

Wow!! What a brilliant season Bandhavgarh saw last year, retrospective memories for many of us from the park, the site of tigers near Sita mandap, coming out of the Kund, is “gold.”The pictures from those sightings have been worth admiring for years, but their value is known to very few. It has been a mixed bag of the season, with Khitauli leading the way, Tala and Panpatta at different times made it very interesting, and Magdhi was a disappointment. The loss of Kajri to another park as she got relocated, and the absence of the Mighty Mahaman were disappointments amongst the good. Overall, as I mentioned in the round-up last year, the repair job is in its 2nd year, and in another year or so we should start to see the park in its full glory.

As always let me revisit the predictions made during the season round-up last year (2023-24) and assess what we got right and wrong.

1. Exciting with new litters, Dhabhadol, Chakradhara Sr, and Dhamokar female already in the news not seen but known, I suspect we will see Dotty’s new litter, expect litters from Bufferwali, Durrah female, Banbehi, one of the Dotty sub-adults, Khatiwar female etc. Overall, before the season closes, we should see at least 10-12 new cubs.

2. Territory wars will heat up, for once Mahaman will be challenged by black tail, Chota bheem by D1 & Pujari, and Dotty & Dhabhadol by her dotty sub-adults. This season will decide the new hierarchy and dominant rulers. Extremely critical for the growth of the park.

3. Bajrang will dominate Tala, he will extend his territory beyond the current Siddhbaba, Chakradhara, and Bhitri to cover the Banbehi, Rampur, Damnar and parts of Sehra this season.

4. This year we will see the females start to establish their territories, be it Kajri, Dotty, Dotty sub-adults, Durrah or Tara, they will Before the end of the season have noticeably clear demarcated regions, a few surprises may come by for Dotty, Tara & Dhabhadol.

5. Quiet start to both Tala and Magdhi until December, before sightings become regular, I do think Khitauli will fare better but overall, a slow start to the season. Dhamonkar and Panpatta will get remarkably busy from oct and will keep the shutter running. As it gets to the busy side of the season, it will heat up with a lot of action from the reserve.

• Tala regained a lot of its lost glory this season, with the Chakradhara cubs lighting up Siddbaba every other day morning or evening, Bajrang made the area his mainstay, often moving around between Siddhbaba, chakradhara, ghorademon, sita mandap & barwan naala. He was the reason the entire area just started to get open to sighting, the Siddha baba female was active and showed herself ever so often. The best news for the zone came in from the Chakradhara female, she had her litter who were quite bold and were often seen in an out-of-sita mandap and Bhitri. Elsewhere in the park, an occasional sighting of Banbehi and Kajri litter was seen. Dotty now is firm on her Tala territory, she has taken over the Andhari jhiriya region and is very active in the first half of the season, towards the summer she had retreated deep into the forest, and the hills.

• Magdhi has seen a big drop this season, pretty much having an off-season after carrying the park across for several years. The occasional dotty sub-adults showed up, sometimes bufferwali and her new litter but largely it was quiet. Dhabhadol female showed up early and then disappeared completely towards the end of the season, 2 males, one in Dhabhadol male sub-adult and the new Jobhi male were sighted occasionally. All in all, a low-key season for Magdhi.

• Khitauli continued with its Dream season again, the males in D1, Chota Bheem, DM, and Pujari kept showing off every day, taking turns to keep all guessing. The females in Khatiwar, Tara, Durrah, and Raa all kept the action going on cubs and sightings. Occasionally the earlier litters of Tara, Raa showed up around the waterholes. Khitauli was buzzing with sightings this year, all through the winter and summer. The elephants were seen early in winter, but overtime moved to the buffer or Magdhi for the season. Action in Khitauli is heating up and we see this zone being a rocking one next season.

• Panpatta was a surprise star this year, we did predict a lot of action, but the zone grows on you over time, Arjuna Dwar, Birhauli and other parts of the park are very beautiful. I rate this zone very high in terms of beauty and call it second to the Tala zone, if one does get a tiger sighting, invariably a good photographer can take great pictures. The Panihai and Birhauli tigress are established and do expect a lot to happen in this zone in the next 3-5 years. There may be short-term challenges as there is no established male, but once done it will be very active.

• Dhamonkar had a quiet season, with animals moving from core zones to the buffer. Nothing significant to call out for the season.

The “transition” of Bandhavgarh continues, and the results are getting stronger every year, what is critical is we need some strong on-field administration, as the frequent changes to park leadership are showing up on ground-level governance. While the guards and field officers are holding the fort and keeping up the good work, there is still a need to get holistic management in place. The animals are making a strong rebound and in 2-3 years we will see the park in full glory.

1. Khitauli will see some “bloody” territory battles. Too many large males and new guard with DM and D1 are inevitable. Pujari may still hold on to his piece of land but do expect Chota bheem to be pushed into the buffer soon.

2. I am eager to see another Dotty litter, however, seems delayed, it will be interesting as the old spotty area needs some action, cub action. Otherwise, you can expect new litters from Dotty sub-adults, Sidd Baba female. Perhaps 8-10 new cubs this season. The cub action will be very interesting in Magdhi apart from the other zones.

3. Panpatta will be a rising star, and we will see a lot of action from this zone. I am urging people to at least make one drive if not more to this beautiful zone. There is stress to get there and into the core zone, but well worth it if one sees a tiger.

4. Park administration if not fixed, will lead to more challenges in tiger deaths, man-animal conflict and a rise in poaching. The core zone dynamics will play out into the buffer and the risks to the tigers are ever-increasing now. It needs solid field execution in Bandhavgarh now or else expect bad news more than a few times this season.

5. There is a shift in weather and seasons are overlapping each other, sightings in the expected seasons may not be as they used to be, and historically lower months will see more sightings, summers which used to be filled with sightings are getting lesser sightings, they are getting hotter and rains in summer are disrupting the plans.

Winters are turning out to be better seasons for the year now. So do try and make a trip in a non-regular sighting month and you will see better opportunities. Expect a lot of action from Dec-Jan, Mar-April.

The mantra this year is to “explore new areas in the zone, experience a new season, month. Overall challenge yourself to do something different.” The season will be a good one, can be better with some amazing sightings.

This is my 10th year of writing for Tigerwalah, and I have enjoyed writing this annual round-up every year.

I hope you enjoyed reading it as well. The Transition is “on” …keep the faith.