[gd1418]

Very good. You get 10/10.

Now the heavily cropped version. The lens was a limitation and the distance was too much.

Originally Posted by BUXX

^^ tiger is under the tree !

[harjeev]

Originally Posted by gd1418

Very good. You get 10/10.

Now the heavily cropped version. The lens was a limitation and the distance was too much.

Attachment 1088821

Very Nice Shot GD sir, especially under the circumstances in which it was taken.
Koi Nahi, You still have 6-7 safari's to go. I'm sure that Ranthambore wouldn't disappoint you.
Any idea how the census concluded?

So the ill-famous Lalsot- Dausa stretch lives upto its expectation. I thought that they might have done something about it till now. Even 2 years back in 2011 it was the same.
Had it been rectified/ repaired i believe that you would have done the trip in 5 Hours

Cheers sir and keep updating this thread as and when you get the time.

[gd1418]

27th May, 2013

This is becoming a bit irritating & frustrating too..

I get Zone 3 again this evening and the results are the same. Star Male T 28 moves a couple of feet ahead and plonks himself behind the rocks of a natural bridge that connects to an island on the Rajbagh. We waited since 4:30 till 6:55 pm. Except for raising its head a number of times and roaring intermittently, he kept on sleeping. Posting two record shots as the distance was almost the same as that of yesterday.

Actual photograph



Cropped version



Maybe better luck tomorrow...

[gd1418]

28th May, 2013

Finally - Eye contact & face-to-face

Tigress T 19 at Nalghati, Zone 2 today morning.

[sach.sri]

beautiful picture - waiting for a full detailed report to come out with great anticipation. Hopefully you will get to see T-41 with her cubs also

[gd1418]

Thank you. Detailed travelogue after return.

Originally Posted by sach.sri

beautiful picture - waiting for a full detailed report to come out with great anticipation.

Unfortunately not. The forest authorities didn't know that T 41 had given birth. It was only a tourist who saw the cub first and reported.

The forest authorities, in their supreme wisdom, have sealed that area. No vehicles or tourists are being currently allowed.

Originally Posted by sach.sri

Hopefully you will get to see T-41 with her cubs also

[gd1418]

The Roar of the Tiger

On 28th evening while returning back, saw a few jeeps with tourists standing in silence. And then heard a roar that reverbrated from the hills.

This was T 25 or Zalim Singh of Zone 5. Let this clip explain:

Taken by my wife and I too am in the frame..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=05stfhug6uo

[llamrei]

Great video! Gurudutt, we are waiting for the full report. You may also restate some of the gyan you had on tips for summer safaris.

[gd1418]

Prologue

After a very disappointing 2010 in Ranthambhore, I decided to return in 2011 and the experience made me come back again twice in the summers of 2012. I was hearing various reports from Ranthambhore, quite a few good and some very bad. The reigning queen of the Lakes - T 17 or Sundari moved away from the Lakes with her cubs to the periphery of the forest to avoid having a confrontation with Star Male T 28 who intruded in her territory thus posing a grave danger to her three cubs. This proved to be too bad for her as one day she vanished without a trace. A massive manhunt, ooops....! Tigresshunt was launched, but to no avail. It is now presumed dead.

Another beautiful and huge female T 37, many a times mistaken for a male due to her size, died mysteriously that later was diagnosed as a cardiac arrest. I had thought this affected humans only..

So, to have a feel of the ground reality I planned a trip again this year. Please read on....
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

26th May, 2013

A couple of weeks ago called up Guddu Bhai of the Jungle View Resort to find about the safari situation and the availability of the Gypsy. I hate going into the jungle in the Canter. The Canter carries 20 people at one go and if any animal comes in the front of the vehicle then all those sitting on the back pile upon the people sitting in the front & vice versa.

My initial plans were to go on the 15th but Guddu Bhai informed that no seats were available for that period and the safari bookings too were full. I had to postpone my dates. After all the necessary formalities were completed, left in the morning at 4:15 am along with wife.

Leisurely driving and taking three pit stops enroute, reached the resort at 10:20. Six hours and 360 odd kms.

My favourite room, where I always stay, was ready and the AC had been switched on sometime earlier, so it was cool. The outside temperature was, according to an app on my mobile, 44 C. I wondered what it would be around 3 pm when I would enter the forest.

Settled down, had a breakfast of Butter Toast & Jam with tea & coffee, set up my camera gear and we both had a shut eye before lunch was served at 2 pm. The jeep was supposed to come by 3 pm but came around 3:20. That was ok since in that heat no animal would move anywhere and rather would be resting under shade or in the water.

It was a sharing jeep and I had booked three seats - two for wife and I and one for my camera gear. I had specifically asked for the middle berth and had also wanted a specific guide who came albeit, for an extra cost. Guide Rajkumar would be with me for all of my 5 safaris. Last year his elder brother escorted me.

Before I continue further, I would like to list out a few points about Tiger-spotting and the precautions to be taken while going on a safari in the months of summer.

These suggestions are compiled by my well wisher & dear friend Mr. Koshy Koshy who goes by the name llamrei here on TBHP.

Tigers are much easier to spot and photograph during the peak summer, closer to the Park closing dates, the better. The flip side is, be prepared to face 48 degree sun in an open Gypsy.

Summer heat can be made less harsh by taking a few precautions.

1. Take a gamcha or thin towel preferably not white. In fact buy several before you leave. The more earthy the colour the better. Wrap it around your face and neck to protect from harsh sunlight. Another advantage of wrapping your face including the nose is that the moisture from your breath saves your lips and skin getting dry and parched.

2. Use long sleeved shirt made of thin material. Short sleeved T shirts, etc exposes your hands which get sun burnt and dry. You lose more water also.

3. Make sure you have a wide-brimmed hat with a chin strap.

4. Use the highest SPF sun block on exposed parts.

5. Drink a lot of water. Before, during and after the trip.

6. Get hold of an ice box. Carry from home, beg, borrow steal or snatch. This one item is going to make all the difference in a Summer safari in RTR!

7. The best drink out there on a safari is lemonade with sugar and salt. If your resort doesn’t provide, buy lemons from the market and make it yourself. Carry with you.

8. Carry ORS with you. Several packets. Especially if your children are also braving the safaris.

9. Go easy on alcohol in the evenings. It dehydrates you.

10. Eat a lot of salads, especially Khira, Kakri and raw onions. Green Chilies are also good to prevent heat stroke.

11. Keep one gamcha wet and put it in the fridge before you leave for safari. The pleasure of wiping your face and head with the cold towel on return in incomparable!

12. There is no need to wear a hiking boots or costly footwear on a safari. You are not allowed to get out. Even a sandal would do if you are comfortable with it. I take a light sports shoe with terry towel socks.
Most drivers and guides feel bad if they are not able to show you a tiger. No need to push them further. It frustrates them. I had a very bad companion once who after the first unsuccessful safari harassed the driver and guise so much, they got paranoid and drove like mad people from one place to another. The most tiring safari in my life.

Please tell the guide and driver in advance if you are a serious photographer. They are mostly used to people who just want to have a look at a tiger. If they know you are serious, then they will go the extra mile to get you a good angle and vantage point.

Switch off the AC at least an hour before starting on Safari in May

Tigers do not know the Zone demarcation. So they are likely to wander into Zones where they are not supposed to be.

Chocolates melt and mess up your pocket. Skip them! Keep some energy bars or similar QRF (Quick Refreshing Food) with you on safari.

I shall add what I do in addition to the above:

Just before the safari, and specially during the afternoon safari, I carry a 500ml bottle of water with me. With that I wet the gamcha and then barring the eye & forehead, cover my face & neck with it. It works like a desert cooler..

As it starts getting dry, I pour water again on the cloth and wrap it.

to be continued.../-

[sach.sri]

Originally Posted by gd1418

Prologue

Tigers are much easier to spot and photograph during the peak summer, closer to the Park closing dates, the better. The flip side is, be prepared to face 48 degree sun in an open Gypsy.

For a general tourist, I believe that this statement is only partially true and to a large extent depends on the kind of terrain your park has and what routes are open to the general tourists to wander onto.

Let me explain why -

If the park where you are going has a topography like Sariska or R'bhore - the advantage of summers is nullified because there are too many: places up in the mountains or in the nullahs where the tigers go to rest.

Water availability is also not restricted to some few points where the animal will come to quench its thirst so that also does not help.

Also - because of high temperatures the window when the animal will move and give us a possibility of sightings is again very limited - either very early in the morning or late in the evening. In both these cases - the general tourists are in a hurry to either get in or get out because of the timings and so again not too good for possibilities of sightings.


If you get a sighting of the Tiger - and it is not of him sitting in a pool then the sighting will most probably be a very short one and the tiger will not walk on the track - like it does in the winters.

Also, with this statement doing rounds - about better sightings and photographs in summers - the advantage of being one of few people in the jungle is also lost as lot and lot of people make a beeline to the jungle during summers now. Resorts are full and so are the safaris.


All in all - I think we should take this sentiment with a pinch of salt
Does this mean that I will not go to a jungle in the summers - I absolutely will, because summers are also vacations time.

signing off here, too much of a lecture for now ........

to be continued.../-

Not fair! You start the TL and paste no pics! Pls give us some pics.

[gd1418]

Continuing further, here is the photograph of what I do while undertaking safari in summers.



The National Parks in North India were closed for tourists for 24 hours starting from 10 am on 25th May till 10 am on 26th May. Water-hole census was being conducted which is an annual event and is done on a full Moon day. 25th May was Budh Poornima. Apart from the forest authorities 326 volunteers took part in this exercise.

Loaded my equipments etc., in the jeep and off we went. Entered the gate after making entries and the road ahead was desolate. It normally is brimming with pilgrims walking to the Ganesh temple or on bicycles or M/cycles or private cars.



Ours was Zone 3, one of the most sought after that includes the Rajbagh Lake which was the earlier exclusive domain of T 17. She went missing some weeks ago leaving behind her 13 month old three cubs and never to be seen again. Presumed dead. Her timid & docile sister T 19 came over and occupied the place and has shown aggression since then.

We first decided to take a round of the zone and then come back and stake-out at Rajbagh. Our anticipation was by evening some action should happen.

We saw some fauna while exploring the zone.

Green Honey-bee Eater



Crocodile basking in the Sun



Black-winged Stilt



Eurasian Thick-knee



Black Drongo on Cheetal's back



Herd of Cheetals grazing peacefully



A tourist Jeep



We waited here, listening intently to any sound or an alarm call. Nothing stirred. We had got the information that T 19 was seen at Naalghati in Zone 2 in the morning by a census team and Star Male T 28 was residing in Rajbagh. Looked closely at the herd of deer for any unusual behaviour but none was visible.



Suddenly our guide Rajkumar perked up and asked us to be very very silent and exclaimed - "Tiger roaring". And sure enough we heard it loud & clear. It was the Star Male T 28 pining for T 19. He roared again and then again. Rajkumar suggested that we should go to the other side of Rajbagh Lake and wait near the island as he was bound to emerge. We raced and found that already a few jeeps & a canter were parked. We got a very vantage point and a clear view of the 1000 year old dilapidated palace, inside which T 28 was supposed to be resting & roaring.

In one of the jeeps there was a female photographer who had a 600mm lens and through that she managed to see where T 28 was lying down and pointed out to others.

I kicked myself in the butt - while I had taken everything that was required, forgot my binoculars.

My 70~200mm was fixed on D800 and the 300mm was fixed on D300. The D300 being a DX camera, gave me a distance of 450mm with the 300mm lens. But that was inadequate. I couldn't see a thing. I took out my 1.4 teleconverter and installed. Now the virtual distance got increased to 630mm. But you cannot compare the virtual 630mm to a true 600mm. I could barely manage to see the Tiger. These two photographs shall give you an idea about what I'm talking.

The actual original photograph of T 28 - spot the Tiger



After cropping heavily



Sitting here under the cool shade of the Banyan Tree and very near the water, this lazy fellow was intermittently roaring. Given below are a series of photographs that is what I could best manage. These are all record shots.



Drinking Water





Looking at all the commotion he caused



Gets up and comes forward - we all get very excited







Stops, looks at us with disdain



Sitting down..



Sits down and watches as if mocking us...



He let out another roar and then silence prevailed. It appeared as if he would now not move and wait for the tourists to go away. As it is the clock read 6:45 pm and by 7 we had to be out of the gate. Slowly all the vehicles started moving out and we too followed suit.

Thus ended our first safari and a very fruitful one too. We had a sighting.

Tomorrow morning it would be another day and another zone. Returned back to our room, hot & tired. Had a cool bath and then dinner. Worked on my computer for a while and downloaded all the pictures from the camera memory cards. We were awake since 3 am in the morning and had driven for 6 hours. Tired went off to a deep slumber dreaming about the next day...!

to be continued.../-

[llamrei]

Great post, Gurudutt! I am enjoying every post and every click of yours, especially since I was there between your two trips. Salim Ali posted yesterday an image of T19 and T28 mating at Rajbagh Lake!

[gd1418]

27th May, 2013

Yesterday evening while coming out, we got to know that there wasn't any sighting of the Big Cat in any of the other zones except zone 3 where we saw T 28.

Today morning I was wondering what zone would we get. The jeep came at 6 am and it was going to be zone 5. The ruling King of this zone was T 25 or Zalim Singh. He was usually found cooling himself at the Tambhakhan waterhole or the Goolar Kui water hole. Reached the Goolar Kui and stopped there for a while trying to listen to some jungle sounds.

A pair of Sambars were grazing peacefully near the water body, thus indicating that Tiger was not nearby.

Spotted this Blue-backed Commom Kingfisher waiting patiently for the fish to come up.



Moved further ahead and drew a blank at Tambakhan. Waited here too for a while with no result.

However this jungle Hare was playing 'statue' and was so still and merged with the surrounding, that it took me a while to spot.



Moved on and took a round of the zone thoroughly. Deep inside saw this skittish bird. While I am not an avian photographer, I sometimes try to shoot one. But this bird wouldn't sit still at one place. Somehow managed a record shot.

Asian Paradise Fly-catcher



Waited in vain at several spots but without any result. Returned and on the way back at the intersection to zone 4 saw a Canter going out in a hurry. The "jungle-telecom" informed that T 24 was near Singhdwaar. We too followed behind.

Exited the zone and reached Singhdwaar. I was expecting a chaos. But all was calm. The guard manning Singhdwaar said that 15 minutes ago T 24 crossed over to Zone 2 from Zone 1 behind him. He was the only one to spot. Nobody else saw. Unfortunately, there were no sightings in other zones as well.

We came back to our room and waited for the afternoon safari.

EVENING

The jeep came at 3:30 and random allotment method gave us Zone 3 again. Not bad, since T 28 hadn't moved out so would be at Rajbagh. Since he didn't stir yesterday, we anticipated that today he might.

We took a round of the zone, went up to Malik Talao, saw some Cormorants, Grey Herons etc., and reached the backside of Rajbagh lake behind the palace. Waited there as we assumed that T 19, for whom the T 28 was pining & roaring yesterday, might walk-in from here. While waiting, the heat overpowered me and I dozed off, only to be awakened by a distant roar.

The roar was coming from the palace side. T 28 was roaring again. Raced towards the front of Rajbagh and the scene was the same as that of yesterday evening. Some jeeps were parked. I thought the fellow was again under the Banyan tree as yesterday and scanned the area closely. I had not forgotten my binoculars this time.

Nothing was to be seen. But what were the guides from other jeeps pointing to? How could they see and I not? Actually T 28 wasn't there where I thought.

The fellow had moved a few feet from yesterday onto the bridge connecting Rajbagh to the island, and had plonked himself in the water. He was sleeping. Only when he moved his ears or raised its head that one could see.

And then he raised his head and we too spotted him. Whenever he raised his head, he roared. Well, we were not moving as we had a very good viewing point. Many more vehicles were coming in including that of the officials and slowly it was becoming a circus.

Again my lenses had a limitation and I took what best I could. Except for one picture the others are cropped. Here are the results:

T 28 Raises its head



Looks straight



Wish I had a 600mm or a 800mm. Very happily I shall accept donations and shall ever be grateful.

Looking in the direction from where T 19 might come



Roaring for her



Actual uncropped picture



Cropped version



We all waited and waited, but he wouldn't budge at all. After a frustrating wait, it was time to return. We came back to our room.

Sundari or T 17 was being missed badly. If she had been here she would certainly come as close as within 3 feet of the jeep and give an eye-full.

Would I have an eye-contact tomorrow with any Cat? Thinking about this went off to sleep.

to be continued.../-

[gd1418]

28th May, 2013 - Morning

Today the jeep came at 5:45 am and we entered the gate around 6:05. We had got Zone 2 and raced straight there so as to justify the phrase - "early bird catches the worm".

This zone has 4 Cats - T 22 (Tigress), her son T 24, his beau T 39 or Noor and Noor's sub-adult cub Sultan.

Also Krishna (T 19) had come over to this zone and was there for the last two days near the Nalghati area.

We first made a round of the zone checking out Phuta Kot, Pandu-deh, Gandhra, Guda area & Nalghati but found nothing. Came near the entry to Khemcha Kund and waited as the entry has been closed by the forest. T 24 is usually known to rest there. We hoped that he might come out. A few other jeeps too were waiting.



After some time decided to stake-out at Nalghati because T 19 had made a kill two days back and was intermittently coming to drink water.

We apparently were late. There was a traffic jam at Nalghati. Jeeps, canters etc., were choking the trail.

T 19 was sitting in the water cooling & drinking. Where my jeep was parked, I could see nothing. We slowly exhorted other jeep drivers to move ahead, give way and somehow reached a point from where I could see the Tigress.

The view was disturbed by branches, twigs & leaves. Inspite of that somehow managed to click a few.



Adjusted my position, climbed on the seat and then got a better view



My antics attracted her attention & she looked at me





Then moved a bit further but the view was marred by a jeep parked parallel to us.

Then some miracle happened. The jeep in front of me was at a vantage point and guide in that jeep invited me over seeing my predicament. I thanked my stars & hop, skipped & jumped into that jeep.

I wish my wife has taken my picture of what I did next. With grave risk to self, climbed on the A & B Pillars of the jeep and precariously balancing myself let go the shutter. Thankfully the guide & driver of the jeep sat still without shaking, or else I would have tumbled down straight into the water hole, shaking hands with T 19. My last hand-shake ever.

Face-to-face



Dozing



The green dots that mar the pictures above are not due to lens flares, but two leaves dangling that I just could not eliminate from the frame while composing.

All that commotion disturbed her siesta and she decided to get-up and go away



Tiger show over, it was also time to exit. But we thought of making one last try and took a detour towards Jogi Mahal. Tigers do come here frequently to rest underneath the Banyan Tree.

This is the second largest & oldest Banyan Tree in the world, the first being the one at Kolkata Botanical Gardens.



Found nothing and went towards the exit gate. WHile the formalities were being completed, witnessed some monkey business.

Mother & Child



Antics



Thus ended the morning safari and I was satisfied that I finally got some good pictures.

to be continued.../-

[Guderian]

Originally Posted by gd1418

28th May, 2013 - Morning

Great snaps and narrative Sheroo !

OT:
But I am sure the moment you plan an outing there is a collective groan from all the tigers - "Oh no ! Dawn patrol again...!"

Quite like Bageera in this snippet from The Jungle Book !

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PrQQZuLru9s