Inside Maharashtra’s most mysterious tiger reserve

Added: 2026-05-27

[00:00:02]Welcome to episode 4 of Whispers of the Jungle with OK, Ojas, and Krupa.

[00:00:08]Inside Maharashtra's most mysterious tiger reserve.

[00:00:14]When people think of tiger reserves in Maharashtra, what is the first place that generally comes in our mind?

[00:00:21]Tadoba?

[00:00:22]Yes, you are absolutely right.

[00:00:25]It comes in my mind, too.

[00:00:27]But, little did I know hidden deep in the rugged Sahyadri mountains, there's a tiger comeback story happening right now.

[00:00:37]And this is not just about one tiger.

[00:00:40]This is politics, conservation, relocation missions, mountains, jungles, dominant males, and tigresses traveling 900 km.

[00:00:52]Today, we're talking about Sahyadri Tiger Reserve and the rise of legends like Senapati, Subedar, Bajee, Tara, Chanda, and Hirkani.

[00:01:06]So, where exactly is Sahyadri Tiger Reserve?

[00:01:10]So, the Sahyadri Tiger Reserve is located in the western part of Maharashtra, which is the completely opposite direction of where Tadoba is.

[00:01:18]And it is spread across multiple districts like Satara, Sangli, Kolhapur, and Ratnagiri.

[00:01:26]It is predominantly very dense.

[00:01:29]So, expect a lot of rainfall, a lot of waterfalls, making this landscape be one of the toughest landscapes for tigers.

[00:01:41]So, wait. Is Sahyadri Tiger Reserve the same as Chandoli National Park?

[00:01:47]You are right, and you are partially wrong as well.

[00:01:50]Sahyadri Tiger Reserve is a larger protected tiger reserve which includes Chandoli National Park and Koyna Wildlife Sanctuary.

[00:02:00]So, the Chandoli National Park is located towards the southern part of the reserve and the Koyna Wildlife Sanctuary is located towards the northern part.

[00:02:08]Both together form what we know today as the core of the Sahyadri Tiger Reserve.

[00:02:15]Okay. So, what next?

[00:02:18]Why were tigers brought back?

[00:02:21]Um historically, Sahyadris always had tigers.

[00:02:25]>> tigers.

[00:02:26]But, the population kept on declining due to the usual suspects, hunting, habitat pressure, fragmentation, and most importantly, the core issue with the Sahyadri Tiger Reserve was there was a low breeding population of these tigers.

[00:02:45]Um so, forest was there.

[00:02:47]Prey was there, but not enough breeding tigers?

[00:02:51]Exactly, you've hit the spot. So, let me explain.

[00:02:54]Sahyadri Tiger Reserve had occasional dispersing males, meaning males would venture out from their comfort zones and their known territories in order to establish their own broader territories, right? Every male, it's the nature of male tigers.

[00:03:12]But, while there were males, the park lacked a stable tigress population.

[00:03:19]So, in absence of tigresses, there are there is no breeding happening.

[00:03:25]Without females, there's no future tiger population.

[00:03:28]Which is why a lot of key institutions came together and sort of took up this mission, like the Maharashtra Forest Department, the Wildlife Institute of India, and I think big credit also goes to the on-field Sahyadri Tiger Reserve officials and conservation teams.

[00:03:48]Okay. So, now this is where it gets cinematic.

[00:03:52]Yes. So, let's start with I think one of the most important pieces of this entire rebuild project. Tigress Chanda.

[00:04:02]So, Chanda, who was brought in from the Tadoba Andhari Tiger Reserve, traveled over 900 km to the Sahyadris from Tadoba.

[00:04:12]And I think before they could release her into the wild, they did what what is generally called a soft release, where they acclimatize the tigress to the forest, track her behavior, see if, you know, her hormones and her stress levels are in order before the field director and the ground field team, they take the call that the that the tiger is ready to be released.

[00:04:44]So, they radio collared her and they started their monitoring.

[00:04:49]And just to add a small interesting point, why they specifically chose Chanda is Chanda is the daughter of the legendary tiger Chota Matka from Tadoba.

[00:05:02]So, now you see why they brought in this specific tigress because she had very strong genes. And while she was the daughter of Chota Matka, she was also the granddaughter of Wagdoh, who was during his time one of the largest tigers of Central India. So, just a fun fact. Oh, this is completely new for me.

[00:05:23]Yep. And uh then came Tara.

[00:05:26]Yes. So, some of a lot of us had some confusion who came first, but we know that Chanda came in first, followed by Tara. So, she was the second tigress which was introduced in the Sahyadri Tiger Reserve.

[00:05:41]It was another major step to foster a good breeding population in the reserve.

[00:05:47]And Tara just naturally settled very successfully in the Chandoli landscape, which is the lower part of the reserve again, as we had discussed earlier.

[00:05:57]And, you know, at this point Sahyadri had basically become Maharashtra's most ambitious wildlife reboot project, so to say.

[00:06:07]And after Chanda, the third tigress that was brought in was Hirkana.

[00:06:15]Amazing name, by the way. Haha. Yeah, and it is a beautiful name indeed.

[00:06:21]Uh interestingly, while Chanda and Tara were both brought in from Tadoba, Hirkana was brought in from Pench Tiger Reserve.

[00:06:31]And while Chanda and Tara had both started settled in in the Chandoli landscape area, Hirkana was released into the Koyna landscape, which is towards the northern part of the reserve, because even there the goal was to improve genetic diversity, right?

[00:06:51]And at that point, the resident male in that area was Bajirao, and we'll get to the males just shortly.

[00:06:58]And the best part about Hirkana's release was when she was brought into the Sahyadris, she was transported by boat into the core forest area. So, that was the one note specifically for Hirkana.

[00:07:15]So, let's get to the ruling males of the landscape. Now, this feels like Game of Thrones.

[00:07:24]Yes, it only gets better now.

[00:07:27]So, three dominant males, three territories, one mountain kingdom.

[00:07:35]Senapati.

[00:07:37]Senapati was the first tiger, also coded his code name was STR T1 meaning tiger one.

[00:07:46]As the name states, literally means a commander or a general.

[00:07:52]And Senapati was one of the earliest established males in the STR region.

[00:07:59]This is such a dominating tiger name.

[00:08:02]Absolutely. And he was indeed the first tiger who was who successfully established his own territory and occupied one of the biggest regions in within the reserve.

[00:08:11]So, yeah.

[00:08:12]After Senapati, there was tiger T2 who was named Subedar.

[00:08:17]And he was he made his dominant area towards the Chandoli side, towards the southern part of the area.

[00:08:25]Again, he commanded a vast territory.

[00:08:28]And well, Subedar sounds less like a tiger and more like a Marathi army chief name, right?

[00:08:37]And the third tiger who was STR T3 named Baji, he was more dominant in the Koyna landscape, the same area where Hirkani was released.

[00:08:50]And that's why the idea was to release Hirkani in Baji's area so that they could mate and establish a breeding in a successful tiger population towards that part of the reserve.

[00:09:02]And compared to Senapati and Subedar, Baji was slightly younger in age.

[00:09:10]So, basically nobody casually walks into Baji's area. Yes, he was extremely dominant in his area. But, you can say he was always playing second fiddle to Senapati and Subedar. They were more dominant in nature and more commanding.

[00:09:24]In fact, Senapati they even tried to battle Subedar to claim territories.

[00:09:28]Both Baji and Subedar, they tried to battle Senapati, but none of them could claim what was Senapati's, you can say the biggest territory of the region. So, yeah.

[00:09:44]So, in general, tigers are extremely territorial in nature. Males defend huge ranges, huge territories, and females establish smaller territories within those broader territories of the males.

[00:09:59]And there's a section which overlaps between the males and the female. That's where a bulk of this breeding happens.

[00:10:07]So, this is basically wildlife geopolitics. Exactly.

[00:10:12]So, to just summarize the way how these males are placed, Senapati and Subedar occupy the Chandoli side of the reserve, and Bajirao occupies by and large the Koyna side.

[00:10:25]Hirkini, as of now, is likely in Bajirao's landscape towards the northern part of the region.

[00:10:34]Every tiger in Sahyadri currently sounds like a Maratha warrior. Yep, that is true.

[00:10:44]So, let's talk about the landscape itself of the Sahyadri Tiger Reserve.

[00:10:49]It has dramatically steep valleys, cliffs, dense forests, heavy monsoons as I had mentioned earlier, and foggy mountains. This is typically after rains and also towards December-Jan in the winters.

[00:11:04]This is not your open safari-style tiger reserve. Yep, true.

[00:11:11]Tigers here are harder to track and photograph.

[00:11:14]And I think this also makes the sightings extremely rare and often unforgettable.

[00:11:21]Um let's not forget all the other wildlife that's at their disposal.

[00:11:26]Uh Sahyadri's not just about tigers. It has a thriving leopard population, gaurs, sambars, barking deer, mouse deer, wild dogs, or dholes, and giant squirrels.

[00:11:42]And gaurs are basically tanks with horns. Yes, and I think Sahyadri has a very big population of gaurs.

[00:11:53]And the more healthy prey is always the key for a tiger comeback.

[00:12:01]And along with all these animals, Sahyadris also have a lot lot of local plants, medicinal plants, local fruit plants.

[00:12:16]They all sort of add to the beauty of the landscape.

[00:12:21]And that's what makes this place such a biodiversity rich, and it's it's become essentially a hotspot.

[00:12:31]Ah, I understood.

[00:12:33]So, how do we get there from Mumbai?

[00:12:38]So, by road you would probably go from Mumbai to Satara and Karad, and then that'll take you down from Chandoli.

[00:12:46]You'll have to cross the infamous Lonavala-Pune Expressway, where we've all been stuck at some point in our life.

[00:12:53]But roughly, it should take around 8 to 9 hours of driving time.

[00:12:57]And honestly, the drive through the ghats itself feels so serene and beautiful.

[00:13:03]Correct.

[00:13:05]And as always, you must get your safaris booked in advance. The forest gets extremely beautiful after the monsoon, which of course makes sightings even more hard in a landscape which is anyway hard to spot tigers.

[00:13:19]But the forest and just the dense nature of the trees and the landscape is mesmerizing.

[00:13:30]So, what's happening now?

[00:13:32]So, as per whatever I've pulled together using my resources, the latest developments seem to be very promising.

[00:13:41]The tigresses are settling in successfully. Their collars have been removed after they were they all got adapted to the landscape.

[00:13:51]And also the camera traps found out identified new territorial males.

[00:13:57]Some of these have never been recorded till date.

[00:14:01]That just makes this entire geopolitical tiger situation make even more interesting.

[00:14:08]So, this is the story still unfolding right now? Yes, it is.

[00:14:14]So, Sahyadri isn't just another tiger reserve.

[00:14:17]It's a second chance.

[00:14:20]And maybe one of India's most underrated wildlife stories.

[00:14:25]Correct.

[00:14:27]So, the real question is in 10 years could Sahyadri become Maharashtra's next great tiger landscape?

[00:14:37]>> [snorts] >> We shall find out in the years and the months to come.

[00:14:43]And which tiger becomes the true king of the Sahyadris?

[00:14:47]Guess we'll find out soon.

[00:14:53]If you like what you're seeing and if you like uh whatever we've been putting across, please do give us a like, subscribe to our channel, and share this with others who would be keen to know more about the Indian forests.

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