Collarwali, the tigress who gave birth to 29 cubs, no more

Tigress T-15, popularly known as Collarwali, died due to old age at the Pench Tiger Reserve in Madhya Pradesh on Saturday. She was 17 years old and a proud mom of 29 cubs, whom she gave birth during her life time.

The tigress, who looked very weak due to old age, was last seen on January 14 by visitors on safari. The “super mom” died around 6 pm on Saturday in the Karmajhiri range of the Pench Tiger Reserve. According to experts, the average age of a tiger is about 12 years.

This female cub was radio-collared in March 2008. After that radio collar stopped functioning, she was again radio-collared in January 2010. The tigress later became famous as “Collarwali” or T15 tigress.

Collarwali had first given birth to three cubs in May 2008, but they could not survive. For the last time, the tigress delivered four cubs in December 2018, which took the number of her cubs to 29. Forest officials say that this number could be a record, they said. Besides, of the total number of 29 cubs, 25 have survived.

Also read: India saw record tiger deaths this year: Data

Collarwali had earned the rare distinction of being the most photographed tigress in India.

In a rare occurrence, Collarwali, born as one of the four cubs to famous tigress T-7 in September, 2005, had given birth to a litter of five cubs (four females and one male) on October 23, 2010.

Madhya Pradesh, with 526 big cats, had emerged as the “tiger state” of the country in 2018.

Many people attended the funeral of the tigress. People came with garlands and paid their last respects with folded hands.

The legendary tigress from Pench Tiger Reserve also popularly called Collarwali died due to old age, she had brought up 29 cubs in Pench during its lifetime. pic.twitter.com/U219RzykYi

— Anurag Dwary (@Anurag_Dwary) January 16, 2022

Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan paid tribute to the “Super Tigress Mom”. “Tribute to the ‘Super Tigress Mom’ Collarwali of @PenchMP, the pride of Madhya Pradesh and mother to 29 cubs, who played an important role in achieving the Tiger State status for MP. The forests of Madhya Pradesh will always resonate with the roar of the cubs of the ‘Queen’ of Pench Tiger Reserve,” the CM said in a tweet in Hindi.