The afternoon safari was an eye-opener of sorts. For hours and hours we sighted zilch! Except for the unnecessary addition to the forests - Deer, there was only a solitary jackal walking past us. No sign of the elusive lions, whose strength has been documen
ted at 411, yet. the gruelling heat and the parch climate were taking a toll on us poor wildlife enthusiasts, but still the lions wouldn't budge! Lazy creatures! I had strictly warned the guide to NOT show us ANYTHING BUT LIONS !!!
Trust me when the Minister said Gir has 1411 lions, he didn't really mean it and certainly didn't expect you to believe him. I mean, NOT A SINGLE LION could we see for all those hours we ground our backs to the rough journey! But then as providence would have it, and as the old adage goes, when you really want something the entire universe conspires to make it happen for you! Well, in this case it was not exactly the entire universe
, just a few smart forest officials ( i assume prodded by the tourism department) had generously placed, what they described themselves as - TRACKERS - all around the forest ! Now what these trackers do, our guide explained, is they TRACK ( how obvious from the name right? ), prides of lions or just the solitary ones (a rarity given the feline is the only family wala cat around), and supposedly mark their behaviour.
For us, it all meant, that these stick-wielding, foot-travelling, certainly not less than brave warriors, go deep inside the jungle and spot lions (and his lionesses) . And this is the first National Park where I actually saw these forest people, guides included using mobile phones ( in most of the others, you don't receive even the faintest glimmer of connectivity). Haven't they the faintest idea how harmful an effect the radiation would have on the poor animals? No wonder the Devlali Lions were so feeble.
Coming back to the topic, these guides and these trackers have constant mutually beneficial updates going on. And we ended up at one such tracker family. We could see
them sitting a few metres inside the forest thicket, hands busy rolling tobacco. I had to crouch down to actually even spot a tracker, let alone the pride of lions, which was supposedly entrenched further inside the forest. Even as I continued to decipher what the guide and the driver were muttering in chaste Gujarati, my nostrils, ever so alert like my other sensory organs when in a Jungle,
picked up a putrid, rotten smell. As the wind blew in our direction, the smell wafted towards us. On enquiry, I was told that the pride was treating itself to a deer it had killed and the odour was emanating from the dead carcass.
Not knowing what was happening around us for a while due to distinct language barriers, we
waited with gusto, braving the fetid smell. As the minutes crawled by, there formed a serpentine
queue of jeeps, all wanting to catch a glimpse of the pride. There were around 25 jeeps, if I may
hazard a rough guess. Then, a seemingly better equipped jeep passed by all of us right to the
head of the queue. We were told that it hadsome saab in it. So much for favouritism!
Then came the moment of the trip - the trackers actually carried out the half eaten carcass of the
deer right into the clearing at the edge of the thicket, in wide view of the surprised onlookers!
You do that in a normal, untouched by man, jungle environment? Didn't know that ! And behind
followed a few lionesses and their cubs. I was shocked and awed at the guts of the trackers to
actually deal in this casual manner with the lionesses. We were instructed to one by one watch
the (domesticated) lions and move ahead, like some darshan. The lion didn't come out though.
He was certainly least bothered to see what was happening as the trackers hadn't pulled out his
part of the deer. Smart, eh?
As soon as everyone had finished seeing this spectacle, they threw back the deer and the
lionesses pounced on it right away. What a sight! Two lionesses fighting over the dead deer! I
managed to capture a beautiful shot on my camera, but my able friend, Tanay, managed to get it
deleted (inadvertently of course). But yes, we had managed to see REAL lions (DOMESTICATED
real lions I mean).
Luckily we were carrying caps and wet cloth to protect us from the blazing sun, else we would have been roasted dry for the lions to later relish our innards! We did one more safari the next morning but ended up only with loud roars of two lions about to engage in a territorial fight ( Well that's what we were given to understand) ! I must confess, having seen tigers in the wild, lions were but a muted and inferior cousin of the royal panthera tigris. But, I would most certainly not leave a chance to visit Gir again, this time in the winter and with even more determination and prayers to not only spot a REAL LION but also Leopards, which the park is also famous for. Till then, Ao Jo !!!
