[Engine_Roars]

I think I peed a little. Damn, you got guts to enter that house alone, at night. I have always been fascinated with these animals but I don't see myself doing what you did. I envy you for the experiences you have there at your man cave.

[Thermodynamics]

Bone chilling, Phew !

I read your post two times yesterday night. Once before sleep, woke up at 1:30 AM and read once again. You got the knack of Kenneth Anderson, thanks for writing here.

[i20ian]

Unbelievable!! Still remember staying at your property and looking at that abandoned house from our balcony. It takes guts to stay there at night. I still cherish memories of waking up in the middle of night hearing elephant trumpets, sitting on the balcony gazing at the stars and listening to a mottled wood owl hooting in the stillness of moonlit night. Truly out of the world experience.

[BeantownThinker]

Originally Posted by Jungle Retreat

... and there was a collective gasp as her photos filled the screen…

Bloody hell!

Your narration had me riveted. The last few photos sent a chill down my spine.

But. What blew my mind is the time stamp on those photos! She was just seconds behind you. Stalking you.

You, sir, have cojones made out of adamantium.

[Dieselritzer]

I have lost count of the number of people to whom i have forwarded this thread. Post 57, my friend, is staying with me for ages! You truly are a blessed man. I think your dedication towards nature and wild life got you back safely. Seriously man, you are so awesome. You should write more.

Can't thank you enough !!

[jaisha8]

Whew!! Don't know why I am sweating. That was a close encounter Anil.
I see, you never carry anything to save yourself or scare any animal that is about to attack you.
In this case, you almost surrendered to the wild beast, "Do whatever you want"?
I assume the tigress did not attack you just forced you out of there because that could be because you were in her territory.
Fantastic.

[fordday]

Man, what a thread it is!!

I don't know how I missed it in all my TBHP life.

Anil, you are seriously a writer who can catch on hold on to his reader's attention. And born for the wild.

I had to finish the thread in one go. Even if it meant stealing time from work.

I am going to reread it again. This is simply unputdownable.

[//M]

The time stamp on the photographs sent me chills down the spine. Whoa what an experience it would have been !

I am still trying to pick up my jaw from the floor, really awestruck after reading your experience and on seeing the photographs. I am reminded of couple of my fascinating experiences with the wild at Churna Forest in Satpura. Those experiences were, obviously, nowhere close to what you have encountered. I have ogled at those pictures twice while typing this reply by scrolling back to the post.

Thanks for sharing this gripping tale !

[vijayols]

Anil a hair raising experience to say the least.We are blessed to relive the experience through your words and pictures.

Talk about handling a pressure cooker situation and getting away with it simply amazing.

[rdst_1]

Your writing style is uncannily similar to the writing of Jim Corbett in 'Maneaters of Kumaon', a book I have read many times. The way you describe the whole setup makes it very easy to understand the surroundings and that is what makes it such a riveting read. Your posts don't even have the need of a single photo as we can relive the whole scene through your words.

[srishiva]

Man, what an experience. I had already wondered what the heck going through your initial posts. Now this is way beyond that. What an hair raising experience ! Hope you put on a Iron Man like suit when venturing out to give us more of such things

[JRW]

Dear all, thank you for your kind words.

However, behaviour of this tiger is interesting. I guess / hope it is due to playful curiosity on its part that it followed you. Any insight on what could have caused it to follow you instead of running off.

I assume the tigress did not attack you just forced you out of there because that could be because you were in her territory.

The behaviour was most unusual especially since the Tigress in question was Snow white. I have seen her many times on foot during my walks around our farm and I am sure she has seen me many, many more times. But this was the only instance where she wanted me out of there. So I had to "talk to her" to understand why she reacted that way, and so the next day I started early and I found a tall tree that gave me ample cover and I sat up there to see if I'd get any clues on why she reacted that way the night before. I was expecting to hear the mating sounds when Tigers mate - well, they are very noisy, but what I heard surprised me. 2 hours into the wait, at 1 pm peak noon, I heard the chuffing call - Snow white was with cubs!

We have started seeing the cubs regularly in and around the farm and also on the Thirunelli road, there are 3 cubs and they are all of 4 to 5 months old now. This incident happened in December and they were just a month or so old then and I didn't realize that she had cubs, which is exactly why she drove me away. She is perhaps the boldest Tigress I have ever known. I, along with our guests, have seen her multiple times from our room it self, and so I am not surprised with her taking her 5 month old cubs for long walks through our property and through the main road.

Are tigers put off by elephant urine?

I have not seen Tigers react to Elephant urine, but I have seen Elephants react very vividly to the Scats or sprays of Tigers. The bigger bulls don't really bother much, but it is the lone younger bulls and the herd with calves that react strongly to the Tiger's presence.

I still cherish memories of waking up in the middle of night hearing elephant trumpets, sitting on the balcony gazing at the stars and listening to a mottled wood owl hooting in the stillness of moonlit night. Truly out of the world experience.

You are so right!
When we bought this property 12 years or so back from the resident farmer, though it was surrounded by jungle, it was devoid of life - because the animals were unwelcome guests in the farm land. It was a conscious decision to develop just the 1 acre which was close to the road and leave the remaining 9 acres as is. It took a good 2 years for the first elephant sighting inside the farm, but these days we have daily elephant, gaur deer sightings. What is more, it is not uncommon to see Snow white, we do see her at least 3 times in a month and the resident Dhole pack come in at least 4 to 5 times every month. But with these 2 patrolling the area, the resident Leopard has moved on, I haven't seen the pug-marks in a long time.
But yes, it is certainly getting wilder, which is what we all want!

I see, you never carry anything to save yourself or scare any animal that is about to attack you. In this case, you almost surrendered to the wild beast, "Do whatever you want"?

Hope you put on a Iron Man like suit when venturing out to give us more of such things

I think your dedication towards nature and wild life got you back safely.

I agree, I believe that if we don't harm nature, nature will protect you. I also believe that nature knows if you are out to harm her or not. I fully respect nature and I am under no illusions here, so far she has been kind to me and maybe one day all that would change and I may not come back. But if that happens, it won't be because of a blood-thirsty animal, it'd be because of a stupid human (me).

I am also extremely careful when I walk in the wilderness and I don't take anything for granted. I might have walked the same path so many times before, but the beauty with the wilderness is, it is constantly changing, so you have to weigh every step you take, make sure there are no elephants hidden behind the bush or the direction of the wind is in your favour etc. But yes, no matter how careful we are, animals would generally know that you are there and more often than not, they would slink away without you even realizing that you were not alone..

But. What blew my mind is the time stamp on those photos! She was just seconds behind you. Stalking you.

The time stamp on the photographs sent me chills down the spine. Whoa what an experience it would have been !

That is so very true. In the end it ended up as a fascinating set of photos, but at that point of time, all I wanted to do then was to move out from there because I was explicitly told so, and the only way out of there was to follow the path which was right in front of the camera. I went to Wayanad last week and we got an excellent photo of Snow white with her 3 cubs! These camera traps are great, it shows the hidden world to us, that too without disturbing the animals in any way. Well, Elephants don't like these cameras and they do break it whenever they get a chance, but apart from the elephants, I have not seen any other animal reacting to the camera.


Here is an example of the elephant reaching out for the camera to break it...

Once again, thank you all for your kind words, I think I am just lucky to be able to spend some time in the wilderness - just me and the wild...

[mallumowgli]

Originally Posted by Jungle Retreat

I was expecting to hear the mating sounds when Tigers mate - well, they are very noisy, but what I heard surprised me. 2 hours into the wait, at 1 pm peak noon, I heard the chuffing call - Snow white was with cubs!

Congratulations! You have become an uncle

Your earlier experience was goosebumps stuff. Was waiting for you to come up with the explanation - and that turned out to be a happy one. The tiger not attacking you was quite a luck.

And lovely writing style too - seemed like an episode from Kenneth Anderson's book

[sudev]

Wow.

Do not know how I missed this. Thanks to Samurai for posting on another social site where it caught my eye.

Tigers are silent. About thirty five years back we had gone stayed couple of nights inside Corbett at one of the lesser know sites. It was barely evening and we were looking towards the river when agitated forest guard came and told us that a tiger had just walked behind the huts on the other side. We only saw his pug marks superimposed on our footmarks when we walked towards river after parking our car. His path had been perpendicular to our and barely thirty forty feet away!

Need to read more of your experiences.

[ant_vas]

Wow Just Wow! Man you are too brave! First you camp in an abandoned house without doors and then when the tigress signals you to move, you boldly walk and her few seconds behind you!

I have read a lot many travelogues here on team-bhp but yours is Encounter of a Different Kind.

Now i eagerly looking forward to read about your adventure this last weekend