Goodbye Munna : Tiger Iconic at Kanha

Munna Imprisoned!

Munna is an epitome of the tiger. His resilience, stamina, sagacity and the spirit of survival is insuperable.  

Munna - Mary & Andrew

The cage was a dreadful sight for us or for any tiger lover. The crowd comprising police and forest officials made evident the sad event about to take place. We were shunned by the officials and we could not witness the capture. But the saddest part was his translocation to Bhopal a faraway land. We expected him to be immortalized here!

The contingency had arrived because of the death of a young girl in her teens. Upon inspection, no pug marks were seen in the vicinity as per some mahouts. Actually, event details are not known accurately to me. But the teen was deep in the forest and could have been a victim of rape or could have been killed by another animal as the goats she was herding could have attracted the killer. 

Anyway, it is unlikely Munna could have done this because even in old age he was still able to kill cattle frequently. He was thus drawing the ire of villagers by becoming a cattle lifter. He could have been poisoned or killed by an irate local. But with locals, no one dares to take a chance, and so the sad incarceration of a majestic and iconic carnivore.      

He is still living, seventeen years plus but now far removed from his home at Bhopal conservancy. Born and brought up in Kanha National Park there was no tiger like this amazing big cat in the World. 

Munna With Bison Kill - Image Gopal Desai 

Red Eye - Paul Fear

I must have seen him earlier on my frequent visits to Kanha National Park as a naturalist but my first memorable meeting was in 2009. He had killed a bison and was fiercely protecting it from the crow nuisance. The place was near Schaller's hide at Kanha and some lucky tourists had seen him making the kill. 

As a freelance naturalist, I was frequently encountering this magnificent beast and learned to track him with ease. He was one tiger that I had seen very often more than others as a naturalist. The study was revealing but the most awe-inspiring was his controlled aggression and sagacity rarely seen in dominant tigers. Another feature was his tolerance for humans whom he knew were not part of his food chain.       

Though he moved from one area to another all were within his dominance. I had seen him tackle red eye whom he managed to subdue using his posture and roars. Red Eye equally huge never ever came close to him, for Munna was more than a match in his prime.  

The iconic tiger made careers of many naturalists in Kanha and brought into prominence the forest guides as well. For us, the awe had turned into an extreme fondness for this mighty predator who made many holidaymakers fulfill their lifetime desire of seeing and photographing this amazing tiger in the wild. 

Munna now far away from Kanha still lives in the park through his genes as he must have made a record of siring many young in his phenomenally extended rule. 

The last I saw him was in the summer of 2016 or was it 2017? I do not remember. He had emerged from the forests after spending time at a waterhole in the canopy. He came to sit beside us, in fact too near for comfort and we had to reverse. He kept on roaring at the top of his voice incessantly probably to attract a tigress that frequented the area. He could share meals with her...a practice which he often did in old age. This he repeated the next day as well continuously roaring on both occasions he was a figure of extreme sadness.

                                                         Aging Munna Video

T2 or Kariaghati Tiger the big beast proved to be his nemesis. He had given way to a larger, younger, and fitter T2 but kept dodging him throughout to escape injuries. After one or two confrontations between the two...the story continued with Munna cleverly avoiding him all the time. The fate of aggressive T2 is not known for more than a year. Both the big cats had moved into the buffer in the vicinity of Courtyard House Resort.   

Munna is in incarceration...if looked after well may live longer than he would have in the wild. Let us hope for the best in conservation history and see a record being made.
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Uday works as a Naturalist at Kanha National Park. He loves to blog on wildlife conservation and tiger safaris. Uday writes content for websites and for search engine optimization.
He can be contacted at: pateluday90@hotmail.com
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