Advertisement
Published: April 4th 2009
Edit Blog Post
Photo 1
Pug markk of a tiger 19th. March : Early morning I, Mr. Ghosh, Nirankar and Oliver climbed into our4w Maruti-Suzuki. Mohit drove us to the other bank of Ramganga River. After crossing the bridge, we hit a dirt track. Not too far from the bridge, I saw tiger pug marks on my side of the vehicle, beautifully imprinted. They looked quite fresh; although Nirankar, our guide said it was a male, 7-8 years old but he couldn't tell how long ago these were made. I tried to guess recalling all I have read in all of Jim Corbett's book. But armchair naturalist is no match for a properly trained safari guide. At that moment, I decided to do a 4 week course in a practical safari training school in Kruger Park, South Africa some times this year. On we drove, saw little game, but only birds. It was later that Oliver very kindly compiled a list of birds that I watched. A few amongst them included Crested serpent eagle, grey-hooded warbler, green magpie, Ashy drongo, red headed vulture, pallas's fish eagle, stork-billed and pied kingfisher, Indian roller, green bee eater, Lapwing, dove, flycatcher, bulbul, babbler, jungle fowl, wagtail, heron, and hopoe. Later, we had "chai" at
Photo 2
..he was sleeping near the spotted deer he had killed forest ranger-guard bungalow. We returned to observation point, a beautiful spot on the bank of Ramganga river, situated at a height and commanding extensive view in all direction. An elephant was taking bath in the river. We expected a tiger to come for drink but for two hours nothing happened. So we drove towards the lodge.
We had hardly drove a mile when we heard the alarm call of deer on our right. We stopped he jeep, listened and looked intently, scanning every bush, shrub and grass for the where about of the tiger. I switched on my video camera to record alarm call while whispering about the importance of these alarm calls when I saw the tiger about 100 yards away, crossing the road. I just moved the camera a fraction to the left and videoed him . Had my camera been switched off, there was no way I could have filmed him, He was only visible for less than 5 seconds. This was our third sighting, the earlier one was in the morning. On hearing the alarm call of barking deer, we had stopped the car to investigate when the tiger crossed the road, no more than
Photo 3
Hey...!!! what is going on there ? about 200 yards from us. This time, he was only visible for less than 3 seconds and we were unable to photograph him.
So, three tiger sightings in two days. It made Mr. Ghosh quip that one sighting of tiger compensated for one disappointing visit to Corbett !
Afternoon game drive was uneventful. So we followed our usual routine of hot shower, sun downer and dinner. Then we hit the pillow.
20th. March. An early morning game drive was very rewarding. Sun was just rising above the hills and the valley was shrouded in mist when we stumbled on a pair of wild boars. Further on, we watched a herd of spotted deer- no less than 150 in number- who were watching their back. I should have known. About 500 yards from the herd, we saw a dead spotted deer, obviously killed by a tiger. We waited for over two hours for tiger to come and remove the kill but I think he was just sleeping next to it though we did not see him. That he was lying nearby, I was pretty sure. For, two spotted deers cautiously approached the scene but from about 15
yards from the dead deer, they turned and ran away in panic.Grass were too tall to reveal the dead deer. They couldn't have seen the body. Obviously what they saw was a glimpse of sleeping tiger on the ground. They needn't have feared, for the tiger had secured his breakfast and lunch all in one and they are not known to kill wantonly or for pleasure.
During the morning game drive we came across a jackal who had killed a small spotted deer and was gorging on it. Nearby were a herd of wild elephants. To my dismay, I saw two tame elephants mounted by four guests each, approaching the jackal. They approached far too near for the jackal's comfort, so he picked his breakfast and moved away, to be persued by these over enthusiastic, camera weilding visitors. It was totally wrong thing to do. When we enter a game park or a forest, we enter a world of wild animals. In that world, their laws and rules apply. We are the intruders. We must respect their laws and rules. We must be discreet and as little intrusive as possible. It was amply demontrated soon afterwards when these safari
Inside Corbett
Spotted deer who lost one of their own to the tiger for his early morning breakfast. elephants came too close to their wild cousins. The wild ones displayed their displeasure by repeated loud trumpeting.
In the afternoon, we checked out and planned to continue game drive on way to Tiger lodge where I was to spend two nights. We arrived at the Tiger lodge around 5 PM after an uneventful drive through breathtaking scenery.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.073s; Tpl: 0.01s; cc: 9; qc: 49; dbt: 0.0465s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb