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23Sep2022

The Unabashed King of Sundarbans….

In the dark dense swampy forest of mysterious mangroves, there lives a giant tiger called Big Boss. His growls, elegance and charms are ineffable, you have to see this hulk of a tiger, to believe what an ocean of charisma and splendor he is. I happen to be a great tiger enthusiast so chancing upon such a hulk in the Sundarbans is what I crave for whenever I get a chance to visit these mysterious mangroves. For the first time this epitome of grandiosity emerged in front of me in a misty morning like a ghost…. And you have to believe me… he was stunning in one word, may be stunning still is just an understatement for I can never fully justify in words how flamboyant he is… yes I can just feel it and his charisma is etched in my mind’s eye which will remain intact till my last breath.

No one knows, what lies deep within these mangroves… the visitors see what this forest wants them to show. Still I would say this forest  has always been rather kind to me as I am lucky to have experienced the forest like no other.  In this context it is worth mentioning that identifying Big Boss, was a very challenging job. Yes we all saw a tiger frequenting the tourism area of this forest but to be sure if it was the same Big boss was quite a hard nut to crack. Before I started visiting Sundarbans frequently, I wouldn’t say people didn’t get to spot his majesty but yes the rate of success was pretty low, people had this notion that all the Sundarban tigers they saw within the tourism area on different occasions were Big Boss only. The matter gained so much intensity that one researcher even claimed that Big Boss had moved out of the tourism zone and he had evidences to prove that. … So you see…during my initial days of Sundarban tours, I used to hear the name of Big Boss quite often. I wasn’t bothered about that at all… for me it was important to find out a way to make the sighting of Sundarban tigers easier. As laborious as it was fun too… I mean… don’t you feel elated when you crack the nut finally? Yes I did it… I found out not only the identity of Big Boss but also the key to increase the number of sightings in these mysterious mangroves.

Let me now tell you how I found out that it was Big Boss who reigns the tourism area of this forest. I am still thankful that in the year 2015 I got hold of an old picture of this big male tiger, clicked by Dr. Pradeep Vyas (former Field Director of STR, later became PCCF of WB) in the year 2012 thereby I immediately compared the markings and bamm! The conclusion was simple this is one and only, our Big Boss who has been frequenting the tourism area of this forest.

Now what more can I say about Big Boss apart from the fact that he is undeniably courageous… I have seen him swimming across the river during heavy down pour, I have seen him battling with the fierce river to make his way valiantly, his indescribable fierce attitude was further elucidated during the time of filming with BBC… this charismatic tiger just sat in front of our boat and gave us ample opportunity to record his behavior. You must be thinking what is so special about this right? But folks let me tell you whether it’s a tiger or any other animal everyone is scared of a big boat and avoids swimming when it rains cats and dogs… but not our Bigg Boss he is brazened to the core, afterall he is The most famous Sundarban Tiger.

I still remember one of our encounters, pretty close to my heart… it was a dull winter afternoon, we were looking for pugmarks desperately... the situation was tense as we really wanted to spot a tiger any how… all our concentration was channeled into finding a tiger… time was passing at a fast pace and we were exasperated but tiger was nowhere to be seen. My heart hung and as the sadness deepened… we suddenly heard the growl from the other end of the jungle, my heart skipped a beat… the growl of the tiger that terrifies most people, made me jovial again, it gave me the vigor to be on my path for I knew success wasn’t far away… as we moved to the other side gradually we could see a silhouette…. Which slowly and steadily turned into a full grown adult male… a better and a closer view confirmed that he was indeed our very own Big Boss. The intensity of his growls, made the other denizens run helter-skelter… he was on his patrol duty but the animals were rather tensed as groups of otters, all panic stricken, ran out of the forest. The place was alive with the alarm calls from deer and otter but it was just a matter of a few minutes as when, he finally came out, there was pin drop silence in the forest. The silence was indeed deafening… but our big male was on the move… he swam across the river then got up on the shore of the other side and vanished into the thickets. We were just star struck… such is the glory of the Sundarban tigers.

It’s not just about me….Big Boss, till date, has never failed to capture the hearts of tourists and naturalists from across the globe, he is a pretty much loved  tiger. This big male with its splendor and grandeur has been able to keep the photographers all hooked. He has played a major role in boosting the tourism in Sundarbans. He is confident; he is valorous and definitely not shy of tourism boats. This Incredibly handsome tiger is the most photographed one in this forest. It was during early 2017 when he was filmed by the BBC Natural History team. He has made the studying of Sundarban tigers easier owing to which people now know a lot about the behavior of swamp tigers. I have had a few pretty elaborate chances of beholding the charisma of this enigmatic tiger and it yielded some very lovely photographs clicked by me but now at the fag-end of his life the king of the swamp has lost a part of his territory but his undaunted spirit is commendable. His potential threat, the upcoming prince of the Sundarbans who has started to walk in his shoes, is emerging as the next generation super star to boost the tourism in Sundarbans by several notches and to win the hearts of people from every nook and corner of the world… but to me, Big Boss will always remain the unabashed king of Sundarbans. 

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