A brilliant capture of a young tiger prince, named Sultan, by my young friend Sudhir Bharadwaj, who recently went on a trip to the Tadoba Wildlife Sanctuary , near Nagpur, in Central India.
He and his group were very lucky to actually see many tigers in action , even crossing a stream. A special thing was to see four tiger cubs, reported to be 3 to 4 months in age, feasting on a deer, possibly killed for them by their mother.
What an introduction for the kids ; a vicious killing, a grand meal, and a semi siesta in the grass disturbed, by the sounds of a jeep, slowly advancing amidst a curtain of dust, as their eldest sibling, Sultan, settles down to be the family watchdog, peering with sharp eyes, alert, on a sunny afternoon....
(photo by Sudhir Bharadwaj)
bounding
around the periphery,
alert,
checking for
a sense of danger
and an outsider's tread.
The four little ones,
now
out into the world,
playfully shove each other
as
they tear and chew
around the carcass
of the
carotid-less deer....
The sound of an engine,
rubber on grass
and gravel,
a throw-up of dust.
The man with the Zoom
waits
for it to settle.
Some little ones have gone.
Their eldest,
Sultan,
lies alert,
eyes bright,
camouflaged in the leaves,
not knowing
that the Zoomwalla
can still see
the quiver
in his nostrils
and the light in his eyes......
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