A Wilderness Photologue: Kanha and Bandhavgarh

ExtremeTorque · 7th June 2010, 17:45

T-bhp has quite a few photographers - kalyan verma's and Jayanth sharma's in the making. I just envy you, redrage! BTW, i've never been to kanha or bandhavgadh and i plan to make it ASAP, after seeing your snaps and the plethora of wildlife you listed down here in this log. 5* stuff!

gd1418 · 8th June 2010, 11:43

Dilip, awesome pictures. I'm speechless....

jaysmokesleaves · 8th June 2010, 12:36

Sorry to interrupt into your thread Redrage. I was in Kanha in the last week of May and want to relate an incident.

We were a bunch of 4 in a gysy on the 330 pm jungle safari. We were on our way back and were on a mountain stretch leading downhill. On the left was a steep drop and the mountain lay on the right. We were headed downwards.
Just after a hairpin bend we spot a male tiger walking uphill on the road marking his territory. The driver stops and reverses uphill. The tiger continues to walk uphill towards up, marking here and there. We also had a spectacular sight on him romancing a tree while marking it. He even climbed it and was at vertical 90* on the tree for over 5 minutes in a trance of his own.
All this was happening for 20 mins.
Then he got off and started walking towards us. The gypsy could not go uphill any further and at one point the franctic driver almost had one tire into the drop on the left and we would all have gone downhill if it wasnt for my friend who spotted. In the meantime we were on the hairpin bend aan the entire bunch of gypsy's had come up behind us and the single road was completely jammed to the last inch with no one reversing and no possibility of that happening due to all the excited people and the guides desperate to show them the tiger.
In the meantime our gypsy stalled and refused to start. The tiger was within 15 feet of the gypsy, heading straight towards us. The driver was sweating profusely in agony and our guide jumped from the front seat to behind the gypsy and jumped off it saying"main to peeche forest ki gaadi mein jaa raha hoon" The tiger was now within 10 feet of us and the guide had jumped off behind the gypsy and was geting ready to escape and thatts when the reality of it all struck us.Such is the mersmerising power of a tiger in front of you.
None of us knew what to do. 2 men and 2 women in a gypsy with a scared driver and an absconding guide.
Fortunately, the tiger came within 5 feet of the gypsy and then climbed up the rock slope. Our driver had the good sense to glide down the road in neutral with our guide hiding behind the gypsy and then jumped in as we cleared the tiger.
Later the gypsy started and we made our way back after having our closest and hairiest tiger sighting of our lives. It still gives us goosebumps.
Agreed the tigers in Kanha are quite humanized due to the constant human presence. But they are still utterly wild and theres no telling when one of them would be in a bad mood and decide to express this foul mood on the tourists.

Worse still, there are no checks by the forest dept to check the condition of the vehicles used. Ours had 4 completely bald tires and was driving in RESERVE fuel when it stalled. There is no protection for any of the vehicles and no guns with blank bullets either. Maybe the dangers and the reality of the pathetic situation will come to light only after some tourist gets attacked or killed.
And there isnt much to say about the forest guides either.

And the lesser said about Bandhavgarh forest guides the better. They are a big bunch of goofy locals who honestly dont know much and care less.

We thoroughly enjoyed the experience of being in the forest but they need to start training the guides to TALK about all the other wildlife and the forest than just get to the TIGER POINT. Else, eventually they will only succeed in killing their own livelihood because the Tiger will be GONE.

Cheers,

Jay

ExtremeTorque · 8th June 2010, 12:56

Quote:

Originally Posted by jaysmokesleaves

I was in Kanha in the last week of May and want to relate an incident.

Cheers,

Jay

Though extremely scary

, quite an experience i would say! 5 feet from the striped one and all i can think of is the sweet lord. And i thought the guides carry guns with blanks in them which create bang enough to reverbrate throughout the jungle...

rjstyles69 · 8th June 2010, 13:34

jay can relate to what you chaps went thru pal. During one of my visits to the Kabini JLR in Karnataka, we went through an almost similar situation. Was surrounded by a herd of elephants, they never cared much and werent bothered about our presence there. But I had my heart in my mouth when one of them came right behind us and trumpeted really loud, I literally dropped my camera.

jaysmokesleaves · 8th June 2010, 13:54

@ET > trust me, at that time none of us was thinking of the sweet lord... Each one of us was thinking - Action plan = Die hard!!
We are tourists. We read about on forums , google etc and see videos on youtube etc. Thats all fine. But when your guide, who goes into the forest everyday, and sees a Tiger upclose, decides to take off, thats when the reality of the situation hits you.

I had opened my Gerber which has a 7" blade that can shred a paper in mid air, but i wonder what match that is for a pissed off Tiger's fury.. you think one would have a chance, if the Tiger decides to play hard.
And then the guide tells us on the way back.. that we should "all duck into our seats". So why did he escape from the front seat, which is the most covered portion of the gypsy.
What should one say to him. Maybe, use the Gerber on him and leave him for the Tiger.

KRRaj · 8th June 2010, 14:01

Thats one real scary incident. Did anyone of you take a snap of the approaching tiger or were all too scared by the tiger?

One doubt, are the Gypsies open? Cos if they are closed type, then there shouldn't be any danger from the animals right? Does not apply to Elephants though

SPARKled · 8th June 2010, 15:54

@jaysmokesleaves: Wow!! that was brilliant experience. I too had a similar experience in Kanha in 2007 Dec when our Gypsy refused to start and Kaunda the dominant male tiger of the Kisli decided to walk towards us. 20-15-10 feet..He stops looks at us and seeing that his way is blocked gives us a snarl and takes a right and walks into the forest. By this time I had stopped clicking photos and a chill had already run down my spine and my clothes were totally wet with sweat in an ambient temperature of 10 degree Celcius. What an awesome experience that, still excites and gives me goosebumps every time I remember it.

redrage · 8th June 2010, 17:02

Thats one heck of an experience Jay. I don't know why the guide did run off? I had the same experience when the tiger walked towards us and as i mentioned he was about 5 feet from my face when i clicked the snap. U can see it in my Kanha story (Kisli male). Tigers generally perceive humans as a threat and they try to ignore/keep away. Our gypsy anchored on the road when he walked towards us and this huge 10 year old male just gave a glance and walked away. Very rarely have tigers attacked tourists in B&K. only one or 2 incidents where there was some provocation.

jaysmokesleaves · 8th June 2010, 19:16

Iv heard too from many including my buddy who is a wildlife biologist that the Tigers in Kisli dont usually attack and are fairly humanized. But I would love to maintain that the Tiger is a wild animal capable of causing extreme damage if at all he decides to change his "gentleman of the forest" mood. Another thought in my mind at the time was that he was marking his territory at the time of the encounter, so there are many reasons to doubt his probable otherwise good mood.

Here's 2 pics just before I pulled out my Gerber. Notice the chap staring at us, he was well within 10ft of the Gypsy and closing. The shaky pics for obvious reasons. At this point the guide was hiding behind the gypsy ready to bolt. The driver had stopped cranking the ignition, was sweating profusely was was slowly rolling his window up. Ive got the whole thing on video too which was rolling through the whole encounter.
Next time, I will go armed with an axe too, hidden in my bag or a sharper slightly weapon. On hindsight, I dont think im overreacting.Trust me guys... for all the fun we had, the gypsy's are horribly unsafe with zero protection.

CAN ANYONE HERE GAUGE HIS MOOD FROM THE PICS???
THE SON OF A GUN

A Wilderness Photologue: Kanha and Bandhavgarh-img_4328.jpg

A Wilderness Photologue: Kanha and Bandhavgarh-img_4329.jpg

ExtremeTorque · 8th June 2010, 19:54

Quote:

Originally Posted by jaysmokesleaves

Maybe, use the Gerber on him and leave him for the Tiger.

with this one! All i can say is phew a close-hair raising-photographic call.

ExtremeTorque · 8th June 2010, 19:59

Quote:

Originally Posted by jaysmokesleaves

CAN ANYONE HERE GAUGE HIS MOOD FROM THE PICS???
THE SON OF A GUN
Attachment 363631

Attachment 363632

Mood of the big guy? He looks like in the mood for a man-65 (ala chicken-65).
Jay, i am just wondering how those tourists feel in the masai mara, with a pack of Lion's around. I've always seen (thanks to NGC) they use open jeeps for the safari's. Also wondering if they carry guns, with blanks?
BTW, what camera were you using?

KRRaj · 8th June 2010, 20:19

Hi Jay,

Please post the videos.

C300 · 9th June 2010, 05:54

Thats one scary experience Jay. Did you register any complaint against the guide?

srikanthpotluri · 16th June 2010, 18:27

awesome bigcat pictures.

7th June 2010, 17:45	#61
ExtremeTorque BHPian Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: Hyderabad Posts: 379 Thanked: 20 Times	T-bhp has quite a few photographers - kalyan verma's and Jayanth sharma's in the making. I just envy you, redrage! BTW, i've never been to kanha or bandhavgadh and i plan to make it ASAP, after seeing your snaps and the plethora of wildlife you listed down here in this log. 5* stuff!
	() Thanks

8th June 2010, 11:43	#62
gd1418 Senior - BHPian Join Date: May 2006 Location: Gurgaon Posts: 3,578 Thanked: 728 Times View My Garage	Dilip, awesome pictures. I'm speechless....
	() Thanks

8th June 2010, 12:36	#63
jaysmokesleaves Senior - BHPian Join Date: Dec 2007 Location: Mostly Mumbai Posts: 1,702 Thanked: 1,452 Times	My Kanha episode Sorry to interrupt into your thread Redrage. I was in Kanha in the last week of May and want to relate an incident. We were a bunch of 4 in a gysy on the 330 pm jungle safari. We were on our way back and were on a mountain stretch leading downhill. On the left was a steep drop and the mountain lay on the right. We were headed downwards. Just after a hairpin bend we spot a male tiger walking uphill on the road marking his territory. The driver stops and reverses uphill. The tiger continues to walk uphill towards up, marking here and there. We also had a spectacular sight on him romancing a tree while marking it. He even climbed it and was at vertical 90* on the tree for over 5 minutes in a trance of his own. All this was happening for 20 mins. Then he got off and started walking towards us. The gypsy could not go uphill any further and at one point the franctic driver almost had one tire into the drop on the left and we would all have gone downhill if it wasnt for my friend who spotted. In the meantime we were on the hairpin bend aan the entire bunch of gypsy's had come up behind us and the single road was completely jammed to the last inch with no one reversing and no possibility of that happening due to all the excited people and the guides desperate to show them the tiger. In the meantime our gypsy stalled and refused to start. The tiger was within 15 feet of the gypsy, heading straight towards us. The driver was sweating profusely in agony and our guide jumped from the front seat to behind the gypsy and jumped off it saying"main to peeche forest ki gaadi mein jaa raha hoon" The tiger was now within 10 feet of us and the guide had jumped off behind the gypsy and was geting ready to escape and thatts when the reality of it all struck us.Such is the mersmerising power of a tiger in front of you. None of us knew what to do. 2 men and 2 women in a gypsy with a scared driver and an absconding guide. Fortunately, the tiger came within 5 feet of the gypsy and then climbed up the rock slope. Our driver had the good sense to glide down the road in neutral with our guide hiding behind the gypsy and then jumped in as we cleared the tiger. Later the gypsy started and we made our way back after having our closest and hairiest tiger sighting of our lives. It still gives us goosebumps. Agreed the tigers in Kanha are quite humanized due to the constant human presence. But they are still utterly wild and theres no telling when one of them would be in a bad mood and decide to express this foul mood on the tourists. Worse still, there are no checks by the forest dept to check the condition of the vehicles used. Ours had 4 completely bald tires and was driving in RESERVE fuel when it stalled. There is no protection for any of the vehicles and no guns with blank bullets either. Maybe the dangers and the reality of the pathetic situation will come to light only after some tourist gets attacked or killed. And there isnt much to say about the forest guides either. And the lesser said about Bandhavgarh forest guides the better. They are a big bunch of goofy locals who honestly dont know much and care less. We thoroughly enjoyed the experience of being in the forest but they need to start training the guides to TALK about all the other wildlife and the forest than just get to the TIGER POINT. Else, eventually they will only succeed in killing their own livelihood because the Tiger will be GONE. Cheers, Jay Last edited by jaysmokesleaves : 8th June 2010 at 12:39.
	() Thanks

8th June 2010, 13:34	#65
rjstyles69 Senior - BHPian Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: Bengalooru.. Posts: 4,343 Thanked: 842 Times View My Garage	jay can relate to what you chaps went thru pal. During one of my visits to the Kabini JLR in Karnataka, we went through an almost similar situation. Was surrounded by a herd of elephants, they never cared much and werent bothered about our presence there. But I had my heart in my mouth when one of them came right behind us and trumpeted really loud, I literally dropped my camera.
	() Thanks

8th June 2010, 13:54	#66
jaysmokesleaves Senior - BHPian Join Date: Dec 2007 Location: Mostly Mumbai Posts: 1,702 Thanked: 1,452 Times	@ET > trust me, at that time none of us was thinking of the sweet lord... Each one of us was thinking - Action plan = Die hard!! We are tourists. We read about on forums , google etc and see videos on youtube etc. Thats all fine. But when your guide, who goes into the forest everyday, and sees a Tiger upclose, decides to take off, thats when the reality of the situation hits you. I had opened my Gerber which has a 7" blade that can shred a paper in mid air, but i wonder what match that is for a pissed off Tiger's fury.. you think one would have a chance, if the Tiger decides to play hard. And then the guide tells us on the way back.. that we should "all duck into our seats". So why did he escape from the front seat, which is the most covered portion of the gypsy. What should one say to him. Maybe, use the Gerber on him and leave him for the Tiger.
	() Thanks

8th June 2010, 14:01	#67
KRRaj BHPian Join Date: Sep 2009 Location: Bangalore Posts: 514 Thanked: 35 Times View My Garage	Thats one real scary incident. Did anyone of you take a snap of the approaching tiger or were all too scared by the tiger? One doubt, are the Gypsies open? Cos if they are closed type, then there shouldn't be any danger from the animals right? Does not apply to Elephants though
	() Thanks

8th June 2010, 15:54	#68
SPARKled Senior - BHPian Join Date: Aug 2009 Location: Navi Mumbai Posts: 1,110 Thanked: 656 Times	@jaysmokesleaves: Wow!! that was brilliant experience. I too had a similar experience in Kanha in 2007 Dec when our Gypsy refused to start and Kaunda the dominant male tiger of the Kisli decided to walk towards us. 20-15-10 feet..He stops looks at us and seeing that his way is blocked gives us a snarl and takes a right and walks into the forest. By this time I had stopped clicking photos and a chill had already run down my spine and my clothes were totally wet with sweat in an ambient temperature of 10 degree Celcius. What an awesome experience that, still excites and gives me goosebumps every time I remember it.
	() Thanks

8th June 2010, 17:02	#69
redrage BHPian Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: Bengaluru Posts: 553 Thanked: 106 Times	Thats one heck of an experience Jay. I don't know why the guide did run off? I had the same experience when the tiger walked towards us and as i mentioned he was about 5 feet from my face when i clicked the snap. U can see it in my Kanha story (Kisli male). Tigers generally perceive humans as a threat and they try to ignore/keep away. Our gypsy anchored on the road when he walked towards us and this huge 10 year old male just gave a glance and walked away. Very rarely have tigers attacked tourists in B&K. only one or 2 incidents where there was some provocation.
	() Thanks

8th June 2010, 19:16	#70
jaysmokesleaves Senior - BHPian Join Date: Dec 2007 Location: Mostly Mumbai Posts: 1,702 Thanked: 1,452 Times	Iv heard too from many including my buddy who is a wildlife biologist that the Tigers in Kisli dont usually attack and are fairly humanized. But I would love to maintain that the Tiger is a wild animal capable of causing extreme damage if at all he decides to change his "gentleman of the forest" mood. Another thought in my mind at the time was that he was marking his territory at the time of the encounter, so there are many reasons to doubt his probable otherwise good mood. Here's 2 pics just before I pulled out my Gerber. Notice the chap staring at us, he was well within 10ft of the Gypsy and closing. The shaky pics for obvious reasons. At this point the guide was hiding behind the gypsy ready to bolt. The driver had stopped cranking the ignition, was sweating profusely was was slowly rolling his window up. Ive got the whole thing on video too which was rolling through the whole encounter. Next time, I will go armed with an axe too, hidden in my bag or a sharper slightly weapon. On hindsight, I dont think im overreacting.Trust me guys... for all the fun we had, the gypsy's are horribly unsafe with zero protection. CAN ANYONE HERE GAUGE HIS MOOD FROM THE PICS??? THE SON OF A GUN Last edited by jaysmokesleaves : 8th June 2010 at 19:18.
	() Thanks

8th June 2010, 20:19	#73
KRRaj BHPian Join Date: Sep 2009 Location: Bangalore Posts: 514 Thanked: 35 Times View My Garage	Hi Jay, Please post the videos.
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9th June 2010, 05:54	#74
C300 BHPian Join Date: May 2009 Location: Pune, Melbourne Posts: 771 Thanked: 1,027 Times	Thats one scary experience Jay. Did you register any complaint against the guide?
	() Thanks

16th June 2010, 18:27	#75
srikanthpotluri BHPian Join Date: Nov 2009 Location: Bangalore Posts: 472 Thanked: 769 Times View My Garage	awesome bigcat pictures.
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