Queen Maya extends her Tadoba dominance

Nagpur: It is not only male tigers who fight for territory. On Sunday, Tadoba’s queen Maya (T-15) again showed her dominance over the territory by ousting 3.5-year-old Roma from her area.
Roma and Bijli are sisters born to the once-dominating tigress Chhoti Tara of Jamni. Most of Chhoti Tara’s territory has now been captured by Roma and Bijli, while the mother has been pushed to the park’s fringes. Both tigresses have two four-month-old cubs.

“During the afternoon safari on Sunday, Roma was moving towards Jamunbodi from Chital Road. Maya too was in the same area and on seeing Roma she stalked her. At Jamunbodi, a fight erupted between the two,” said Dutch national Jozef Van Koppen, who was enjoying the safari.
“It was an incredible sight as these magnificent creatures displayed their power and grace. But ultimately the experienced Maya forced young Roma to leave the spot,” said Koppen.
Actress Sada Sayed, who too witnessed the fight, said, “I’m literally thrilled. Maya is my favourite and she always throws up surprises. She never shows fear, takes care of her cubs by at times even mating with multiple male tigers, and on Sunday she fought with Roma to protect her territory. Her intention was not to harm her rival.”
“Roma and Bijli have occupied the territory of their mother. Now, the two must be trying to expand it further,” says Ranjit Mondol, one of the stakeholders.
“Maya and Roma have overlapping domains but the former is not ready to give up her territory, which has good prey base, grasslands, and water bodies. Earlier, I had witnessed a similar fight between Chhoti Tara and Maya,” he added.
Wildlifer Nikhil Abhyankar, who was accompanying the actress, said, “It has been more than a decade since Maya inherited the legacy and territory of Pandharpaoni and meadows there. Many tigers have come and tried to establish their territory and gone, but Maya holds the ground as if saying I’m the boss.”
Wildlife biologists say this is common among tigers, who are very protective about their territories. Earlier, similar fights have been witnessed in high tiger density parks like Corbett, Kanha, and Ranthambore. The best part is that such incidents are being documented now with the spurt in tiger tourism. “The fight between Maya and Roma shows tiger dynamics, how big cats are forced to live in shrinking habitats,” they said.
In Tadoba, earlier supermom Madhuri, who was born in 2008 and ruled the park till 2015, was pushed out to the buffer area by her own daughters; Sonam, Lara, and Geeta. In buffer too, she raised tigresses like Chhoti Madhu, and Sharmili, and in 2018 was further pushed out to the Mamla area. In 2022, she was sighted in the Durgapur coal mining area, and in 2023, the tigress was located 30km away from Tadoba.