day 2- second trip to the forest Spotting the tiger from a few feet distance was one great experience. I could feel my hand shivering with excitement while trying to click a snap of the tigress. We were all so disappointed that the sight only lasted for 10 mins. Having spotted the tiger, our aim was to spot a Leopard. We all thanked our guide Vasanth and promised him a handsome reward if he could also help us spot a Leopard.
All the tourist entering the park are given some basic instructions. No one is allowed to alight from the vehicle under any circumstances, no littering, no honking, smoking or drinking within the forest premises. We were all pretty upset with the Indica guy for scaring away the Tigress, we all gave a piece of our mind to the driver of the Indica and the guide accompanying the group.
Vasanth was one of the senior guides and had extensive knowledge about the tiger reserve, the best possible places where once could spot a tiger and was equally passionate about wildlife conservation. While waiting to spot the Tiger, Vasanth had many stories and funny incidents to share with us .
He told us about an incident where the tigress once entered the village right next to the reserve in search of prey and took away a young calf, an encounter with a sloth bear which was high on Mahua. how once he got a rescue 2 young cubs that fell into a ditch and many such incidents. Well, these incidents certainly sent a chill down my spine.
It was afternoon as the animal calls intensified and so did our hunger pangs. It was soon 11am and was time for us to make a quick exit to avoid being fined Rs250. We had a good lunch and caught some good sleep. We were up and ready by 2:00 pm, got the tickets in and were the first one’s in the queue.
This was our third and final trip as we planned to start early the next day to Hyderabad. We again chose Vasanth as our guide and off we went. Our first stop was again the same watering hole where we spotted the tigress in the morning.
We waited patiently for about an hour for the tiger to show up. Seeing us waiting and expecting some action other vehicles also slowly started queuing up close to the watering hole. Soon there were around 20 vehicles parked on both sides of the watering hole.There was almost a traffic jam on a narrow path with lots of vehicles, full of bawling infants and their equally loud parents, trying to take vantage positions to see the tiger. It was such a chaotic scene and that too in the middle of a forest! We soon realized that with this kind of commotion the tiger would never dare venture out to have a dip. We decided to try our luck elsewhere and made a quick exit to the next watering hole.
Near one of the watering holes we saw broken beer bottles, waste paper litter and rubbish strewn on the forest floor. It’s sad that people have no respect for the environment and wildlife.
The heat was unbearable with the temperature around 47 degrees and it was tough to have the AC on all the time while waiting for any animal to show up. We explored few places where there were very few safari vehicles, we managed to spot some rare bird species, a monitor lizard, a herd of wild boars. We narrowly missed sighting a leopard, a group that we earlier met were lucky enough to spot it crossing the road and managed some brilliant shots on their cams.
With no luck spotting a tiger, Vasanth told us the best bet is again to back to the same watering hole and wait for the tiger to show up. We soon reached the spot and now saw very few vehicles parked. It was 6pm and we still had an hour to go. Vasanth had this strong intuition that the tiger would definitely make an appearance before we leave the reserve. It was 6 30pm, we now only had 30 min of our last trip inside the reserve. Vasanth asked us to be patient and wait till 6 55 pm to make an exit. In the next few mins the animal calls intensified, It was an amazing piece of luck., we saw the tiger emerge from a bamboo thicket on to the trail. It went right into the watering hole and lay there for some good 15 mins. It finally got up and strode majestically across the trail to the other side and vanished as swiftly as he had emerged earlier. Our day was made. We were lucky enough that we were able to spot the tiger in each one of our trips to the forest. |