The mysterious jungles of central India can be surprising places, says Hakimuddin Saify. It\u2019s difficult to name my favourite location but if I had to choose one it would be the Tadoba-Andhari Tiger Reserve in Chandrapur district, which is Maharashtra\u2019s oldest and largest park. I try to visit about three or four times a year.<\/p>\n
One afternoon in January, I went on a safari ride with a work colleague through the Junona \u2018buffer\u2019 zone \u2013 an area of villages and forests. While passing the gates to the Dewada and Agarzari zones, we spotted a villager on his motorbike who was frantically waving at us and pointing to the dry bed of a stream.<\/p>\n
\u201cLook! Sloth bear!\u201d he said. Sloth bears<\/a> are unique amongst bears as insects tend to be their main food source but they can be dangerous when they feel threatened. We kept our distance and started to take photos of the shaggy mammal as it dug around bamboo <\/a>roots in search of termites \u2013 it took no notice of its enthusiastic audience.<\/p>\n Suddenly someone shouted \u201cTiger! tiger!\u201d From the bushes appeared a crouching big cat that was ready to launch its stealthy attack on the unsuspecting bear. The tiger took its victim by surprise and pierced its long canines into the bear\u2019s back.<\/p>\n At first the bear appeared stunned with what had just happened. Then the whole jungle seemed to come alive as it started to shriek and whimper. After quickly regaining its composure, the ursid got up from the ground. <\/p>\n Now on all fours, it turned and charged at the tiger. As the sloth bear took the lead, the feline retreated gradually. The angry bear kept up the pressure with vociferous loud calls and tried to attack the tiger with its long claws, before both animals disappeared inside the bushes.<\/p>\n Having lost our view of the dramatic action, we were left to listen to the sound of the bear as the fighters moved into the jungle.<\/p>\n Later, we found out that the tiger, known as Khali, was a dominant male of theregion. I\u2019m not sure what happened to the sloth bear but, being a tough animal, I\u2019d like to think it lived to see another day<\/p>\n Hakimuddin Saify\u00a0lives in India and is interested in wildlife, travel and digital photography<\/p>\n Top image \u00a9 Getty<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The mysterious jungles of central India can be surprising places, says Hakimuddin Saify. It\u2019s difficult to name my…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":469888,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[79,201],"class_list":{"0":"post-469887","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-science","9":"tag-wildlife"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/469887","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=469887"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/469887\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/469888"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=469887"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=469887"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=469887"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}