The Beautiful - Choti Thara (Tigress Name)

"The Beautiful Choti Tara of Tadoba Tiger Reserve"

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This image was taken on the second day in Tadoba.
The first day, Choti Tara (Name given to the Tigress) was too lazy to even show her face. She was lying under the tree, not bothered about people. We waited for about an hour just to have a glimpse of this beautiful tigress and only few flies managed to bothered her a bit.

This tigress carries a radio collar around her neck for monitoring purpose. I really hope it doesn't bother her much.
As the first day ended, it was a satisfying day for the team as we left contended that our tour has started off on a positive note.

2nd Day: Team woke up by 4 got fresh and reached Khuthvanda Gate by 5:30 am. After showing our id proofs we entered the forest sharp 6:00am.

To start with an Owl and then Sambhar Deer's the forest wind welcomed us to the world of pure bliss. The entire team was in search of Maya (Another Tigress with her cubs in this Zone) but there were no signs of her even after looking for her for about 2.5 hrs.

Suddenly, we saw an another safari was following some animal and our guide was very quick to identify and signaled us its a Tiger. As we reached little close we realized that it was Choti Tara who is on the morning walk marking her territory.

Choti Tara known for her bold nature was not bothered about us she carried on doing her work scratching and scent marking. The golden sunlight seemed like it is welcoming this beautiful lady and dry forest was giving a beautiful background for us to capture few images.

Couple of times she came so close (approx 5 feet away from me) that I could not even compose my image. I used Canon 100-400mm IS2 lens. We followed her for couple of minutes before she just disappeared in the woods.

I will be posting few more images of Choti Tara and the story of Tadoba will be continued in my following posts.....
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