The Immortal Queen…
I sat in the bench of the boardwalk watching the waves
I lived thousand years watching the world change.
I experience so much things and written my life in chapter
I have experience pain, death, loss and rebirth.
I have experience how the world divided and some reunited.
Empire rise and empire fallen, architecture buildings in ruins and rebuilding stronger.
Every walks of life and sea coming back to life.
Yes, I have seen it all where I can tell my tales but yet nobody knows yet who I am.
For I am shadow and spirit, immortal queen seen it all.
- "My Immortality" by Jessica J Sanchez -
Collarwali aka Mataram, erstwhile queen mother of Pench National Park, bearer of a spate of progeny that carry forward the great legacy of Pench’s tigers today across a landscape larger than many other tiger landscapes in India, has brought unbounded joy over years by giving birth to 29 tiger cubs, during her lifetime. A celebrity since birth, after her mother was chosen for the famous BBC documentary ‘Spy in the Jungle’, there was no turning back for her and her contribution to the tiger population of Pench is unmatched anywhere with over eighty percent of the park having origins either directly from her or her mother, Badi Mada.
Sometimes, in this world of big cats, we consider ourselves blessed fortunate to have known, seen and observed some famous cats, whose legacy shall live despite them moving on. Mataram is one such legend, who stays at the top of our list that comprises of Machli of Ranthambhore, Rajbehra & Bamera of Bandhavgarh, Waghdoh & Shivaji of Tadoba and Munna of Kanha.
Such was a prolific legacy she created, particularly with her associations with Rayyakassa & BMW males, that today, the landscape across the Satpuda hills from the east of Pench to deep landscape of Pench Tiger Reserve that spreads across Saleghat, Chorbauli and Sillari thrives with a healthy population, with a strong gene-pool. Finally, this contribution when seen in the light of Pench being bordered by the Greater Tadoba landscape to the south and the Kanha landscape to the north, creates a contiguous (although fractured) landscape that allows genetic exchange, resulting in keeping the Central India tiger population healthy.
She breathed her last on a Saturday walking weakly into the meadow that was her fiefdom for years. She was known to come and lie here, whenever she needed help. At sixteen years, this tigress - destined for stardom, left this world leaving a deep impression in the minds of people of who cherished and worshipped her as an Immortal Queen, who mortality doesn’t mean anything, anymore. For her legacy, lives on and on…
06 May 2017, Pench Tiger Reserve, Khawasa, Madhya Pradesh