Kay Hassall Tiwari’s account of a blind tiger cub in Bandhavgarh is a retrospective story about a young animal struggling to keep up with its mother, Sita. Tiwari says she and her husband witnessed the events in 1994. The cub’s blindness was suspected from its behavior, but her account describes no veterinary examination; it also leaves the cause of the cub’s later death unknown.
Who tells the story, and when did it happen?
In “Sita and the blind tiger cub of Bandhavgarh,” published by Scroll.in on August 17, 2025, Kay Hassall Tiwari recounts events she says she witnessed with her husband, Satyendra, in Bandhavgarh in 1994. Scroll describes Tiwari as a long-time resident of Tala village. The story is her retrospective account; the specific events it describes are not independently corroborated by another source identified here.
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Tiwari recalls that Sita, a well-known tigress in the Tala area, was moving with a litter. In November, one cub approached the couple’s vehicle. When they stopped the engine, it turned away; when they restarted it, the cub came toward them again. Tiwari later understood this behavior as a clue that the cub relied on sound. She writes that its eyes looked clear and normal, so they initially doubted it was blind. As she put it, “At that time we did not give this behaviour much thought.”
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In Tiwari’s telling, the first indication was the cub’s response to the vehicle engine, not an examination or confirmed diagnosis. The cub’s clear-looking eyes did not rule out blindness, but the account does not establish what caused the condition or describe how it was medically assessed. It is therefore most accurate to say that Tiwari came to believe the cub was blind based on its behavior.
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Why did the cub keep losing contact with Sita?
Tiwari says the cub was prone to becoming separated from its mother. She recounts seeing it approach chital that were giving alarm calls. Later, she heard that it had wandered into a house in Garhpuri. Elephants were sent to retrieve it, but the cub eventually returned to Sita.
According to the account, park authorities monitored and fed the cub. Its sibling sometimes took the food, while Kuttapan, whom Tiwari describes as the head mahavat, was able to approach and feed it. These details suggest the practical difficulty of helping a vulnerable cub while it remained with its mother, but Tiwari does not provide an official record of how authorities assessed or managed that dilemma.
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What happened to the cub?
In early December, Tiwari says she and Satyendra found the cub injured and crying near Chakradhara meadow. She recounts Sita charging their vehicle three times. They left, believing the tigress should be left with her cub. Tiwari says the cub died that night.
The account does not establish why it died. Tiwari raises two possibilities: the injuries may have been too severe, or the cub may have choked on food left by the forest department. Neither explanation is presented as a confirmed cause.
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How did Sita respond afterward?
Tiwari reports that the forest department removed the cub’s body and that Sita returned to the meadow and called for five days. She says the tigress later took her surviving cub deeper into the forest and became less tolerant of jeeps. These are Tiwari’s observations and interpretation, rather than independently verified findings.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.What the account can—and cannot—tell us
- It offers a personal account: Tiwari presents herself as a witness to encounters with the cub and Sita in 1994.
- It suggests how blindness came to be suspected: The cub’s behavior around engine noise prompted Tiwari’s interpretation, but no veterinary diagnosis is described.
- It leaves key causes unresolved: The story does not establish why the cub was blind or what caused its death.
- It describes a difficult wildlife-management situation: Monitoring and feeding took place while the cub remained connected to its mother, but no formal decision record is provided.
Tiwari also refers to tourism rules and elephant use affecting sightings in 1994–95. Her account does not include a formal policy document or dated official record that independently confirms that context, so it should be read as part of her recollection rather than a verified policy chronology.
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