At least 70 pc of Sariska’s current tiger population, which had dwindled due to poaching and official apathy, owes its existence to ST2
For the first time in India, a memorial is being built for a legendary tigress, which was instrumental in re-populating the Sariska Tiger Reserve in Rajasthan after it lost all its big cats in 2004.
It is believed that at least 70 per cent of Sariska’s current tiger population from 2010 onwards – it holds 43 tigers now – owes its existence to the tigress, named ST2, in one way or the other.
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Tribute to ‘Queen Mother’
No wonder, she has been officially named Rajmata or the Queen Mother.
Elaborating on the state government’s decision to honour ST2, Sariska’s conservator of forests Sangram Singh Katiyar said: “It is the best tribute we can pay to this legendary tigress.
“It is primarily because of her that Sariska has regained its lost glory,” he added. “We have already prepared a model of the memorial, and it will be ready very soon.’’
Dubious record
It was in 2004 that Sariska attained the dubious distinction of becoming the first tiger reserve in the country to lose all its tigers, mainly to poaching and official apathy. The decision to translocate tigers to Sariska from Ranthambore, also in Rajasthan, was taken by the government headed by then prime minister Manmohan Singh.
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In June 2008, a male tiger, ST1, was brought to Sariska by a helicopter. A few days later, tigress ST2, also from Ranthambore, was placed inside Sariska.
The translocation of the two tigers, however, did not generate the desired results.
A tragedy
For a long time, even after a few more tigers from Ranthambore were dispatched to Sariska, the females did not give birth to cubs.
For a large number of Sariska watchers, environmentalists, wildlife experts, and forest officials associated with the translocation, it was a time of intense agony and spiralling doubts about the viability of the experiment itself.
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Several theories were floated, one of these being that a savvy predator like a tigress would not produce babies in a place she deemed unsafe for the cubs.
And then, like the proverbial bolt from the blue, tragedy struck in 2011 when ST1 – the first tiger to be translocated to Sariska – was killed by villagers. But tigress ST2 was destined for celebrityhood.
ST2 broke the jinx
In 2012, she broke the jinx that had enveloped Sariska and gave birth to two female cubs – later named ST7 and ST8.
In 2015, she produced a second litter, giving birth to ST 13, a male, and ST14, a female. It was ST2’s second litter that did the magic for Sariska and gave it back much of its lost glory. Here is how things unfolded from this point.
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ST14, the third female cub of ST2, produced three litters at different times.
Legacy lives on
Her first consisted of two females (ST18, 19) in 2020-21. Two years later, two more females (ST26, 27) joined the growing clan. Then, ST2 gave birth to three cubs who are now sub-adults but are unnamed. During this period, ST2’s two daughters – ST19 and 27 – brought four more cubs to Sariska.
In fact, her male child from the second litter – ST13 – also played an important role in reversing Sariska’s fortunes. He is believed to have sired 13 cubs in eight years.
ST2 passed away in 2024, but her legacy lives on. And the name she has been officially honoured with also does justice to her contribution to Sariska: Rajmata, the Queen Mother.
