The era of Charger and B2

It has been years since I started wandering across the jungles trailing the king. I have explored almost all of the national parks in India. Call it my luck or my perseverance, the tiger has never disappointed me. I always got more than what I expected. I can recollect numerous interesting incidents of the elusive cat hidden in different layers of my memory, memories of a tiger preying on smaller creatures, a tigress teaching hunting to her cubs, tiger cubs playing under the sun, a complete pride feasting on large mammals and even tiger running. Every incident has a special place in my heart but one incident, most magnificent of all, was the fight between two tigers fighting for the territory. Roaring, hollering and finally one of them surrendering to the stronger cat, it was a commendable moment indeed.
It was the year of 2005. Bandhavgarh has become a sanctum for all wildlife lovers, thanks to the charm of first, charger and then, his son B2. Charger, the most enthusiastic and aggressive member of the cat family in Bandhavgarh, used to charge towards the tourists. The sight of a fully grown tiger running towards you in a throttling speed and with aggression in his eyes can make the strongest hearts to ponder over their plans to take the safari. Charger, with all his perceived hostility and aggression, seldom harmed anyone in his entire life. He was undoubtedly the king of Bandhavgarh who marked and controlled a large territory and like an efficient ruler ceased every threat coming from outside or developing inside. The tiger lived a royal life and died in 2001. There was never a vacuum of a charming tiger in Bandhavgarh as the place of Charger was immediately taken over by his son, B2, the strongest and mighty cat at that time who later became the most photographed tiger in the world. While Charger put Bandhavgarh on the map of jungle safari in India, B2 became its brand ambassador.
B2 inherited most of the qualities from his father except that he was friendly with the guests. He was a born ruler just like his father and never lacked the ability to protect the empire he inherited. A tiger never stand the presence of another tiger within its territory and puts a strong resistance by fighting the intruder. B2 had his share of fights and needless to say that he never lost.
The incident which I mentioned in the start of this article was one of such rarer fights between two tigers. In one of our wild India tours, we were fortunate enough to spot B2 locking horns with Kalwa, another tiger in Bandhavgarh. It was merely a two minutes fight and within this timeframe B2 easily established its superiority. The most interesting thing I witnessed was the kindness B2 showed to Kalwa after thrashing him down. Even though B2 had won, he still allowed kalwa to roam free within his territory, but under his rule.