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Home Breakfast with Tigers in Bandhavgarh

Breakfast with Tigers in Bandhavgarh

Hit the query: "Best place to see a tiger in India," on any Internet search machine and Bandhavgarh will pop up. It's best explained statistically. Out of the 3500 tigers in the wild about 2500 of them are in India. And in India, the majority, which is about 900 live in the state of Madhya Pradesh. Within Madhya Pradesh, Bandhavgarh has one of the highest densities of tiger population. If someone says 24 Tigers in tourism zone of 105 sq kms, sounds unrealistic.  Put it another way: if you don't see a tiger in Bandhavgarh, never become a professional gambler. 

After umpteen number of visits into the park, one kind of knows what you will see and where, but it doesn't reduce the desire ever.

It was 6pm on 23^rd June. Eye balls were widening by the second in wait of the Jhurjhura female and her cubs.  Light was dropping, thus reducing the chances of getting good photographs.  I was eager as I had not seen these one year old cubs yet.  I looked at Raghu and he said, Sir, don't worry, tomorrow you will see them on the road.  I trust Raghu completely, so the thought of seeing them on the road next day early morning made me relax a bit.

June 24^th 2006, we were up at 0430hrs to get into Bandhavgarh National Park at 0530hrs.  We were the second Jeep at the gate eagerly waiting to enter and find out what luck had in store for us.   Route also favored us, we got Route C, thru the Chakradhara meadow, not stopping for Siddhbaba Tigeress and her 5 month old cubs and not stopping to see the Chakradhar Tigress with her 4 grown up about 2 year old cubs was quite a sacrifice we made for Jhurjhura Tigeress and her cubs.  

It takes about 20 minutes of driving to get to the area of this Tigress, but today it seemed like eternity.  Raghu was driving patiently, and confidently, not allowing any expressions to surface, I am sure he was equally eager to prove his point of last evening.  

Jhurjhura water-hole had dried up, so there was no way we could have seen them, we kept on moving, and suddenly we saw the pugmarks joining us on the track we were bang on.  The whole family had walked some time before us the same track, Raghu still unnerved, and cool, his eyes on the track following the pug marks and his ears reaching out into the woods to hear of any alarm calls from the denizens of the park, or the growl from the Royal family. It was 5.50. a.m. and there at last we had one Cub waiting for us right on the road in front of us. See Photo 1. 

My lens instantly came out, Raghu automatically slowed and stopped the vehicle in a manner that I have the best view.  Before I took my first shot he said, Sir, look on your left 10 metres from the road, I turned and could not believe, the Jhurjhura Tigress relaxing with her other cub.  I was confused who to click first.  All 3 looking at us.  Suddenly Shalini, whom I was telling tales of the big male Bokha in this territory, patted on my shoulder and whispered, Sharad, please look on to your right, I turned, and this was totally unexpected, a bonus, a reward for our sacrifice early morning.  Bokha, the big male of the area was about 10-12 metres away, sitting, and looking at us.  See Photo 2

To turn left, click the Tigress, or click the cub on the road in front of me, or click Bokha on my right, I was totally puzzled.  Raghu finally had a smile on his face, looked more relaxed, and sat back easy on his driving seat.  Now, I realized the importance of carrying at least 2 camera bodies, one I could have given to Raghu to click. Next time, for sure.

There were 2 more Jeeps that arrived in the meantime, and the male cub on the road now thought appropriate to get up, and go and sit next to her mother.  The other female cub also got up, was bolder, and did not mind the Jeeps around, she surprisingly decided to get up, come on the road, cross over and go towards Bokha.  This big male, I was seeing for the first time with his cubs.   He welcomed the female cub, and she sat close to him.  Now the mother was a bit worried about her cub, she got up, scratched her back few times, and moved towards Boka.  See Photo 3   

Big at heart Boka welcomed her as well, and she found a place close by to sit.  Now only the male cub was left on the other side, finally he as well decided to approach the road, and very cautiously cross over.  Looking directly into my lens, See Photo 4, he stopped for a few seconds, and without letting go of his eye contact he moved behind the tree and got close to the rest of the family.  This was a delicate moment, male cub going towards the big male, but Bokha surprised everyone and he welcomed him as well.  Licked him on the face, indirectly telling him, I am your father, so just chill.  See Photo 5.  

He also found place close by to sit closely to Boka.  Somehow the Tigress did not like such proximity of her male cub with Boka, the big male, one could read the expressions on her face that she was unhappy and tensed with her male cub close to Bokha.  She also did not like the 3 Jeeps at about 12-15 metres away.  See Photo 6 She decided to get up in a playful mood, and started to play with her male cub.  She moved into the thick bush with the young one.  The female cub was soon to follow.  Just behind the bush one could see the family play, but the photographs could not be taken. 

Bokha, was left all by himself.  He looked around, saw us, and then decided to get up and move towards the family.  Before he could get there, Jhurjhura Tigress had enough time to cross over behind our Jeeps into the thick bush.   Finally we lost Bokha also in the bush.  We knew that he would come out after a while to join the family, but he decided to fool us by going further inside and sitting.  The signal was clear that he wanted us to clear off.  We respected his thinking, and realized that he had already given us 40 minutes of his precious time.  Jagat our Resident Naturalist, wittingly said, "Sir, Ab Dekh to Liya, Kya isko Ghar leke Jana Hai" (Now we have seen him enough, do you want to take him home?).  He had a smile on his face, and we decided to move on. 

Satisfaction written all over our face, we moved on.  Our stomach was full, as we had breakfast, it was quite like it though. Our minds were full, with the vivid pictures, my 1 GB card was full as well, and I had another 1GB card loaded. 

Now, we decided to move on towards Bathan, to register ourself, and find out about Tiger show, whether the forest department had located the Tigers by their Elephants.  Good news awaited us, we were told that Chakradhara Tigress with her 4 grown up cubs had been located.  Raghu, had another smile, I looked back, Krishna and Shalini, as well, could not believe their luck, after seeing 4 Tigers just now from the Jeep, we were off to see another 5 big Tigers from the Elephant back.

It took us about 25 minutes to get to the spot.  2 Elephants were waiting for us to get on top and get into the bush to spot the Tigers on a Sambar kill.  We got on, eager, impatient, Shalin a bit worried, as to how close will we see them.  But Krishna re assured her, and we moved about 100 meters into the tall grass touching our legs, thru the bamboo bush, and there we saw the first cub, he got up and moved across and went behind another bush, soon we realized he had gone and sat next to his mother. We got close but obviously we did not want to disturb them, so we moved on towards where the kill was.  Moved another 100 metres when we saw only half leg of a 300kg Sambar left.  The Big 5 had devoured the complete Sambar in a matter of few hours.  Not seeing any other cub, nearby, our Mahout decided to go a bit uphill, and he warned us to hold the Howdah tight, we did, and he managed his Elephant up the hill, but to no avail.  We came back, and, there we saw another big male cub sitting on the ground, in the open, as if waiting for us, and telling us, 'Where are you guys off to, come to me" See Photo 7 Photographed, and thanked him for his patience to wait for us.  And, we moved on.  7 Tigers for breakfast already, who wanted more.  We came back into our Jeep, relaxed, satiated, full, at ease, and thru for the day.   I knew this was my last Tiger sighting of these cubs with the mother.  The park would reopen in October, by then, these cubs would be on their own, the mother would have given birth to a new litter.  I pray that these grown up cubs find their new home. 

We told Raghu let us go back to the Tiger Den Resort.  He agreed.  We started our slow journey back thru the beautiful meadow of Chakradhara, where we saw lots of butterflies all around us, some on the ground.  I stopped and took a few shots of them as well. See Photo 8 Moved on. 

It was now, that Raghu tracked the pugmarks of Siddhbaba Tigress, she had crossed the road about couple of hours before us, he said, she must be near Churbhera waterhole with her cubs.  He asked, Sir Tiger Den Resort, or Tiger? We all said, Tiger!!  He expertly, and without any disturbance got us to Churbhera waterhole.  A small, man-made waterhole, about 10''X 10".  Some bush behind it, and finally the Siddhbaba Tigress sitting and cooling herself.  It was no 9.30a.m., month of June, obviously hot.  Just behind her were her 2 cubs, only about 4-5 months old, joyfully playing, totally ignorant of our presence.  But being behind bush, I could not photograph them but certainly feast for the eyes.  Tally of 10 Tigers in one safari.  Now, Raghu said, "Sir, in the evening if it does not rain, you will see this Tigress with her cubs in this waterhole".  I trusted everything he said, and left the spot to come back and the drama to unfold in the evening. 

We came out of the park, thinking, that it could not have been better.  God was kind, so were these magnificent predators today.

This was my last safari this season as the park would close on 30^th June, to reopen on 1^st October.  See you soon Tigers, the males, females and the cubs.  Who would survive the onslaught of the humans on the forest, which all cubs will move on to find new territory for themselves, some new cubs would be in the tourism zone,  a whole new picture in October of Bandhavgarh National Park.  I am eager..  aren't you??