Khairi: The Tigress who was a mamma’s girl

 


As he removed chains from her body, she roared and cuddled into his arms. On 5th October 1974 was the day when a female tiger cub was presented to Field Director Saroj Raj Chaudhary of Simplipal Tiger Reserve. He named her “KHAIRI”.


It was a chilly evening of 3rd a October 1974 when tribes in Simplipal, Odisha were returning from honey collection from the forests. They reached Khairi river when they saw a mother tigress with 3 cubs. The mother tigress wanted to protect her cubs, so she wanted to attack the tribesmen but they started beating drums which scared her. She managed to take two of her cubs leaving behind the third one. 

The tribesmen noticed that she was weak and was unable to walk properly. They took her with them. But they did not want to keep her so after two days they took her to a forest Bungalow of field director Saroj Raj Chaudhary. They narrated the entire incident to him and he named her Khairi after the river where she was found.


Saroj’s cousin sister Nihar instantly fell in love for little Khairi. They both developed a bond of a mother and daughter. Nihar started taking care of her. She used to feed her with her own hands, take her for a walk, play with her, and the naughty lahiri used to sleep her in her mother’s arms. They both became inseparable and it so happened that Khairi used to eat from her hands only. No one else could feed her and she used to refuse food from any other human being. 

One day Saroj Raj Took her to Simplipal forest. Somehow she smelled something and instantly ran into the jungle. For some days she was untraceable but when Nihar came to see Khairi – she immediately came out of the jungle and out of love pounced on her mother. Nihar recognises her that she was Khairi only.

 Nihar told Saroj Raj that Khairi is growing up and she needs a mate. Saroj tried to send Khairi into the jungle for her to mate with other tigers but every time she failed because She never knew the ways of the jungle and male tigers used to refuse her. She fought with the male tigers and came back bruised and she then never used to go back to the wild. All she wanted Nihar her mother to be with her.



Khairi was a pampered daughter of the family. Now she was a celebrity as news spread far and wide. Even the former PM Indira Gandhi came to see her. A lot of foreign and Indian tourists used to visit the bungalow to see Khairi. She was now a photographer’s delight. Khairi became friendly with Saroj Raj Chaudhry’s dog Blackie, a deer and a cat who used to live in the forest bungalow.

But, on 28th March 1981 a stray dog with rabies entered the forest Bungalow. Khairi killed him but before that the dog gave her a bite transferring rabies in Khairi. Her health started deteriorating day by day and one day Saroj Raj Chaudhary has to give her tranquilisers overdose to let her slee forever. This was very painful for the family but something had to be done to relieve her of her pains.



Saroj Raj Chaudhary introduces pug mark based tiger census concept in India. This was done after he learnt so many things about tiger behaviour because of Khairi. Later he was awarded with Padma Bhushan.

Comments

  1. Bhole Baba Ki Jai!
    Beautiful story about Khairi. God comes to us in many forms. Hari Bol 🙏🏼😊

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