Our meeting with Maya 🐅 – The Queen of Tadoba… 👑😊

Today is International Tiger Day!!! 🐯🐅🐯

The population of tigers in India has nearly tripled from 1,411 in 2006 to 3,682 in 2022. It is one of the world’s most successful wildlife conservation & regeneration efforts.

One of the key protagonists of this success story was Maya – the Queen of Tadoba – one of India’s largest Tiger reserves. With 5 litters in 8 yrs from 2014 to 2022, Maya (T-12 for Tadoba forest officials) has been one of the main regenerators of the Tiger population of Tadoba.

2015 was when we ‘met’ Maya.

She approached our convoy from the left. Confidently & fearlessly walking towards us. Crossed the path between Gypsy no 1 and Gypsy No 2 of the convoy (we were in Gypsy No 1) and walked beside the road for a good kilometre or so alongside us, on the right. It was almost like she was posing, for us ‘simps’ / ‘stupid humans’ to bask in her glory!!! 🐯😌🐯

Here are some glimpses from that ‘meeting’ 🙂