Maya

The intimate story of a tigress who became a national icon In November 2023, Maya—one of the most beloved tigresses of Maharashtra’s Tadoba– Andhari reserve—vanished without a trace. Her disappearance made national headlines, and those who had followed her life at Tadoba for years were left stunned and full of concern for what might have become of her. Yet Maya’s legend had been years in the making. Born in 2010 and orphaned early, she grew into a tigress of striking composure. She hunted in the open, carried her kills past idling jeeps and often paused before cameras as if aware of the attention she drew from admiring humans. Her calm around people, hold over a vast and contested territory and fierce care for her cubs pushed Maya’s story far beyond Tadoba’s forest roads. In this deeply observed account, Anant Sonawane retraces that life—from Maya’s precarious beginnings to her rise as a matriarch who moved with quiet assurance under constant human watch. Clear-eyed and deeply attentive, Maya offers an intimate portrait of a wild tiger seen up close, yet never reduced to distortion or myth.