The train journey was made eventful with the occasional halts at stations and eating the patent delicacies of that station all with caution due to the numerous flies buzzing around. We had a night train from CST which was to reach Jabalpur in the afternoon where we were to join a group of other co-travellers. Our vehicle was 
already waiting outside the station and we set forth on our way to one of India's best maintained Tiger Reserve. It took us hours on end, ever 
increasing due to the palpability and excitement of getting to see a tiger, to reach Mogli resorts at Bandhavgarh. The air had become increasingly cooler and the moment we got down from the jeep I felt a shiver run down my spine. I was surrounded by a sudden chill, the sensation heightened due to the fact that we had conveniently kept the windows of our jeep shut. I and Tanay, my would be roomie for the 2 days we were to stay here, directly went to our rooms and shut all the possible crevices the air could sneak in through, and rested ourselves in our own beds. Dinner was served sometime alter and all we cared for was the morning safari. For once food wasn't everything !!!
The night slid past stealthily even as I was just soothing my body after the hectic travel. It was pitch dark when I woke up at 4.10 a.m. Whoa! Not joking. I genuinely got up at 4.10, of course the credit going to the ever so diligent alarms. My main task of both the mornings was confined to waking Tanay up, much to his displeasure. Anyways, we were ready and raring to go, fully wrapped under layers of clothes, gloves, socks, et al. Having assembled at the main hall by 4.50 a.m. we had a our early morning fix of caffeine and set forth for our jeeps. The hotel had provided us with warm blankets to protect us from the chilly breeze who was expected to come all daggers out at us. I took the back seat, (like I had any choice ) alongwith Tanay
. The jeep manouvered itself under the black early morning sky and reached the park gates. I guess if I am not mistaken we were only the 2nd or 3rd jeep that day followed by the other members of our group in another jeep. The wait was stealing our sanity having teamed up with the ever-so-present chill and the dark surroundings. We couldn't even step out due to the cold. After an hour or so, the gates were thrown open, much in the same gaiety any palace gates are opened. All the jeeps, which had increased to around 20 odd raced as if their lives depended on getting ahead of everyone, the logic being that the first one generally get to the see the animals who tend to hide due to the increasing din.
Our jeep was nonchalantly moving ahead adn we had already spotted the omnipresent deer, who after sometime get you nauseated due to their sheer numbers. Our jeep was passing a small clearing o
n our left and had almost crossed when suddenly someone (Tanay claims it was him), spotted two black ears in the grass. The two ears revealed the cutest tiger cub and the first ever cub I had seen from such close distance. As we moved the jeep in reverse and other jeeps joined us like crows joining other crows when they spot some foodstuff on the road, the cub visibly scared, ran away from us, into the thicket at the end of the clearing. This backward run helped us to spot the cub's ( who had been now established - God alone would know how - as a 'she' ) brother. The female cub cu
ddled into her brother and they went inside the thicket. After much patience on our part, they came out again, possibly emboldened by our gentlemanliness, and played there for a while. 
suddenly we were informed that there was one more cub in the thicket, although too lazy to get up this early. I managed to capture a few video shots too and the morning safari was half spent in watching this Troika mesmerise us with their sheer charmingly cute nature.
The other half was spent in hopelessly wandering in search of the cubs' mother who seemed to have courageously left her cubs alone was roaming around the park. The sights and sounds of Nature, the playing of the sun rays with the jungle foliage, the ever so expanse of green, trees of every size and shape, stretching the entire vertical horizon, the one-branch-to-the-other hopping langurs, the always grazing spotted deer and the lovely pairs of the sambhar deer, the smell of fresh forest air mixed with the heightened emotions trying to spot a tiger at every turn of the road, at every nukkad and at every water hole. It spoke of brilliance, of divi
nity in its living form, holding our souls captive, and ensuring that they were cleansed of the muck that had accumulated in the sin-cities . The environment had temporarily transferred us into a world where except for the the safari, nothing ran with watches constantly hammering out time to it. This was Bandhavgarh, an erstwhile hunting ground of the kings and queens of medieval India.
The cubs played a saviour to our evening safari too, with them being our onl
y sightings of the elusive panthera tigris . On our way back outside the park, we were lucky to witness a lesser adjucant stork, killing a live snake. we were obediently informed by the guide that we were supposedly lucky to have got to see this phenomenon and he too was observing it first time ever! The lengths these guides can go to make us feel like the Maharajas !!! Just as we were crossing a path engulfed by huge trees on either sides, a sudden flash of black passed in front of our eyes, the driver sped the car, and almost everyone ducked. Later we realised that it was a jump gone wrong. A langur was trying to jump from one tree to the other and he had evidently misjudged the thickness of the branch-would-be, only to have realised that it was sort of a creeper, but already in m
id-air he had to choice but to hang on, and the branch, true to its elemental properties, swooped down, the monkey and people in our car at a whiskers distance from each other, only to rebound back and help the monkey carry on its aimless journeys.
The second morning safari was dull and devoid of any tagdaa sightings. We roamed the forest for every whiff of the striped beast but to no avail. the other had till then managed to spot boka, an almost adult male at photography point. That place is generally open for alighting from the jeep to click photographs, but that day boka decided he would rest there and so gave these people an awesome darshan. Afternoons were spent in catching a quick wink and getting ready to leave even before we had arrived. The fourth safari was to be o
ur last during this visit and the cubs had again valiantly come to our rescue with theirs being the only sighting. But one golden streak in the solemn clouds of tiger darkness was the healthy discussions we had with our guide. He spoke, spoke and spoke a little more, only to end up speaking further till he wanted to speak all that he had to speak. Tanay was efficiently egging him to speak more! One incident that that guide narrated made an ever lasting impact on our minds. He spoke at length as he had witnessed it. He spoke how another guide had been rewarded with foreign grants due to his sheer courage and determination. He spoke of how a tigress had been wounded a few years ago on the highway, hit by a speeding truck. Hurt and in agony, she limped back to the forest where her cubs were. the next day morning, a few jeeps spotte her cubs. All alone and cute. Th
ey congregated around them, the jeeps ever increasing. The were ignorantly clicking away photographs, when suddenly the wounded tigress came from behind, crossed the road, and jumped into one of the jeeps. She began mauling the tourists. Everyone else fled. But the guide I mentioned earlier felt that he should save his guests and picked up a wooden bark and began hitting her from behind. She jumped back and pinned him to the forest floor. Luckily for the guide, her jaw was broken and she couldn't do much damage. She walked away leaving the guide bleeding. Next day she was reported DEAD!!!
The Jungle lore continues and the more you hear of it, the more you seem to want of it. That's the magic of Bandhavgarh!!!
already waiting outside the station and we set forth on our way to one of India's best maintained Tiger Reserve. It took us hours on end, ever 
increasing due to the palpability and excitement of getting to see a tiger, to reach Mogli resorts at Bandhavgarh. The air had become increasingly cooler and the moment we got down from the jeep I felt a shiver run down my spine. I was surrounded by a sudden chill, the sensation heightened due to the fact that we had conveniently kept the windows of our jeep shut. I and Tanay, my would be roomie for the 2 days we were to stay here, directly went to our rooms and shut all the possible crevices the air could sneak in through, and rested ourselves in our own beds. Dinner was served sometime alter and all we cared for was the morning safari. For once food wasn't everything !!!The night slid past stealthily even as I was just soothing my body after the hectic travel. It was pitch dark when I woke up at 4.10 a.m. Whoa! Not joking. I genuinely got up at 4.10, of course the credit going to the ever so diligent alarms. My main task of both the mornings was confined to waking Tanay up, much to his displeasure. Anyways, we were ready and raring to go, fully wrapped under layers of clothes, gloves, socks, et al. Having assembled at the main hall by 4.50 a.m. we had a our early morning fix of caffeine and set forth for our jeeps. The hotel had provided us with warm blankets to protect us from the chilly breeze who was expected to come all daggers out at us. I took the back seat, (like I had any choice ) alongwith Tanay
. The jeep manouvered itself under the black early morning sky and reached the park gates. I guess if I am not mistaken we were only the 2nd or 3rd jeep that day followed by the other members of our group in another jeep. The wait was stealing our sanity having teamed up with the ever-so-present chill and the dark surroundings. We couldn't even step out due to the cold. After an hour or so, the gates were thrown open, much in the same gaiety any palace gates are opened. All the jeeps, which had increased to around 20 odd raced as if their lives depended on getting ahead of everyone, the logic being that the first one generally get to the see the animals who tend to hide due to the increasing din.Our jeep was nonchalantly moving ahead adn we had already spotted the omnipresent deer, who after sometime get you nauseated due to their sheer numbers. Our jeep was passing a small clearing o
n our left and had almost crossed when suddenly someone (Tanay claims it was him), spotted two black ears in the grass. The two ears revealed the cutest tiger cub and the first ever cub I had seen from such close distance. As we moved the jeep in reverse and other jeeps joined us like crows joining other crows when they spot some foodstuff on the road, the cub visibly scared, ran away from us, into the thicket at the end of the clearing. This backward run helped us to spot the cub's ( who had been now established - God alone would know how - as a 'she' ) brother. The female cub cu
ddled into her brother and they went inside the thicket. After much patience on our part, they came out again, possibly emboldened by our gentlemanliness, and played there for a while. 
suddenly we were informed that there was one more cub in the thicket, although too lazy to get up this early. I managed to capture a few video shots too and the morning safari was half spent in watching this Troika mesmerise us with their sheer charmingly cute nature.
The other half was spent in hopelessly wandering in search of the cubs' mother who seemed to have courageously left her cubs alone was roaming around the park. The sights and sounds of Nature, the playing of the sun rays with the jungle foliage, the ever so expanse of green, trees of every size and shape, stretching the entire vertical horizon, the one-branch-to-the-other hopping langurs, the always grazing spotted deer and the lovely pairs of the sambhar deer, the smell of fresh forest air mixed with the heightened emotions trying to spot a tiger at every turn of the road, at every nukkad and at every water hole. It spoke of brilliance, of divi
nity in its living form, holding our souls captive, and ensuring that they were cleansed of the muck that had accumulated in the sin-cities . The environment had temporarily transferred us into a world where except for the the safari, nothing ran with watches constantly hammering out time to it. This was Bandhavgarh, an erstwhile hunting ground of the kings and queens of medieval India.The cubs played a saviour to our evening safari too, with them being our onl
y sightings of the elusive panthera tigris . On our way back outside the park, we were lucky to witness a lesser adjucant stork, killing a live snake. we were obediently informed by the guide that we were supposedly lucky to have got to see this phenomenon and he too was observing it first time ever! The lengths these guides can go to make us feel like the Maharajas !!! Just as we were crossing a path engulfed by huge trees on either sides, a sudden flash of black passed in front of our eyes, the driver sped the car, and almost everyone ducked. Later we realised that it was a jump gone wrong. A langur was trying to jump from one tree to the other and he had evidently misjudged the thickness of the branch-would-be, only to have realised that it was sort of a creeper, but already in m
id-air he had to choice but to hang on, and the branch, true to its elemental properties, swooped down, the monkey and people in our car at a whiskers distance from each other, only to rebound back and help the monkey carry on its aimless journeys.The second morning safari was dull and devoid of any tagdaa sightings. We roamed the forest for every whiff of the striped beast but to no avail. the other had till then managed to spot boka, an almost adult male at photography point. That place is generally open for alighting from the jeep to click photographs, but that day boka decided he would rest there and so gave these people an awesome darshan. Afternoons were spent in catching a quick wink and getting ready to leave even before we had arrived. The fourth safari was to be o
ur last during this visit and the cubs had again valiantly come to our rescue with theirs being the only sighting. But one golden streak in the solemn clouds of tiger darkness was the healthy discussions we had with our guide. He spoke, spoke and spoke a little more, only to end up speaking further till he wanted to speak all that he had to speak. Tanay was efficiently egging him to speak more! One incident that that guide narrated made an ever lasting impact on our minds. He spoke at length as he had witnessed it. He spoke how another guide had been rewarded with foreign grants due to his sheer courage and determination. He spoke of how a tigress had been wounded a few years ago on the highway, hit by a speeding truck. Hurt and in agony, she limped back to the forest where her cubs were. the next day morning, a few jeeps spotte her cubs. All alone and cute. Th
ey congregated around them, the jeeps ever increasing. The were ignorantly clicking away photographs, when suddenly the wounded tigress came from behind, crossed the road, and jumped into one of the jeeps. She began mauling the tourists. Everyone else fled. But the guide I mentioned earlier felt that he should save his guests and picked up a wooden bark and began hitting her from behind. She jumped back and pinned him to the forest floor. Luckily for the guide, her jaw was broken and she couldn't do much damage. She walked away leaving the guide bleeding. Next day she was reported DEAD!!!
The Jungle lore continues and the more you hear of it, the more you seem to want of it. That's the magic of Bandhavgarh!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment