Date with tigers/sambhars

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This summer we planned to combine our holidays with a visit to our parents & brothers in Delhi.

For long I had been wanting to visit Corbett National Park primarily to witness a freely roaming tigers , deer and other animals of wild in their natural habitat rather than in cages.

It is such a sham and shame to see animals restrained , put to exhibition and do tamasha shows for public. Have ever noticed look of resignation on animal’s faces. Going thro motions with nonchalance.

All of us must have seen them at their natural best on Animal planets or such progammes on idiot box, but seeing them live is a different experience altogether.

So Corbett we decide and since it is summer time, going to hillside is a good idea and as luck would have it, club mahindra (of which we are members since 2008) had properties in naikuchiatal(near nainital) and binsar(never heard of before booking executive at club mahinera , sounded to us).we checked about binsar on net and realized that it would be a nice way to prepare for our dream visit to Gangotri by road.

So we started from pune and landed at delhi by afternoon (though scheduled to land by noon). After circling over airport for over 30 min. we hardly had any appetite left for sumptuous lunch waiting for us at brother’s place. To savour delhi food we had had light breakfast in the morning stayed off snacks available on flight.finally we cleaned all the dishes in the evening by which time we were feeling human again.

Most of our evening went in deliberating the best way to travel to Corbett from delhi. We checked with taxi services and zeroed on one suggested by my nephew(who thinks he is an expert on negotiations). But by night the plan had changed. Mercifully the nephew realized taxi service is going to create a big dent on our not so deep pocket and decided to lend us his santro.

So we started at 6.30 am next morning from delhi via ghaziabad- hapur-muradabad route. we had done a great deal of exploration on net on delhi-corbett route and had learnt about the best place to stop for break fast. It was close to 10am by the time we crossed ……… we stopped at the first dhaba that came our way only to realize it was not most hygienic place to eat, so we marched on . there were signages all along the routes for dhabas . finally we stopped at a nice looking highway motel spread over an acre of land with petrol bunk and clean public utility spaces and a clean looking dhaba to boot. There were pictures of the owner with film stars all around the place(looks like unit of “Kaal” stopped by to check on the food). we now looked forward to treat of cispy parathas with butter and pickle. we tried all kinds, paneer, oninion, allu, gobhi and mix as well but were not impressed with taste(wife makes better ones at home). Any how tummy was full after gulping down parathas with coffee . and to take care of our taste buds we had ice creams(our favorite dish, and any kind does for us).

Our plan of reaching Corbett by lunch time was foiled by a small jam just before Moradabad city. Work on flyover connecting highway to bypass for traffic going further to kashipur/Rampur and beyond , is ongoing and traffic has to take the road along the flyover. This road was in pathetic condition with a foot deep ditches all the way for atleast 1 kms. I was worried about my nephews car which took quite a few hits on the exhaust pipe. After this ordeal our journey was smooth (except half a km patch at UP & utarkhand border at kashipur). Any how we made to Corbett hideway(our abode for next 3 days) by 3.30pm. our sigh of relief on arriving at the day’s destination soon turned into cry of exasperation as we realized that I left car keys inside the vehicle. However my previous such experiences came handy as I could open the door with the help of a measuring scale in no time. Wife dear sniggering looks by then had changed to one of pride on hubby dears’ skills.

Checking in was smooth and quick and we were given 1 bedroom cottage facing a hillock and koshi river flowing (only the expression dear, as the water level was almost zilch at places due to summer) along side. Quite a setup, any how. Kids wasted no time in jumping into swimming pool. I tried to coax wifey dear to join but was vetoed (not for the first time). After the swim we had planned to laze around but soon were joining some other kids playing cricket in the back lawns. A few other families also joined in the fun and before we realized , it was dark. It was then we thought of our idea of visiting Corbett and soon were discussing best ways & places to sight tigers. We zeroed on elephant safari for next day. Since we had to get up early again(best time to sight animals, as human activity during day time and sun forces them to wander deep into the woods), we retired to bed early.

So this was the day we all were waiting so eagerly for, we start from resort on jeep and reach jhirna gate at 7.30am. there we get onto the elephant Mahut was a friendly guy, who told us that elephant we were riding was a female named “Mala”. So we get into the wilds. For some distance it is like any green neighbourhood in Poona. But as we go further it gets denser and we can see more elephants foot marks . we also sight herds of deer but as we near them or train our cameras on them, they make a run to get away from us. We follow a trek which was a little up & down, and it was almost half hour into wilds and there is no signs of the any tiger or any of his ilk. So mahut decided to take us to a water body with a hope that big cat might go there to wet their parched throat. No luck there as well. Animals felt thirsty or not we sure did and after taking a swig we took u turn. On our return we had a kind of resigned look on our faces and eyes were not roving as much as well. Though kids tried to cheer us up by pointing out a peacock here a deer there but our dream of sighting king of jungle was not be fulfilled that day. Once out of woods we were dejected but not completely lost. We consoled ourselves by promising ourselves to try again the next day. We were ok until we reached resort where there were talks of tiger sighting by a group. It was everywhere . on a board in reception lounge, recreation hall or in restaurants. This steeled our resolve of being the ones to be centre of discussion the next day.
So next day we tried jeep safari in kalagarh area. This time we started earlier at 5.30 am. But we had not prepared ourselves for the chill in the air . we were feeling cold but anticipation kept our spirits up. The track was uphill and we sighted wild pigs, deers, barking deers and sambhars on our way to jungle. we were sure this time around we are on a better trail. We kept checking on the river side taking detour from main track, but no luck still. We went all the way inside going deeper & deeper until sun started hurting on our backs. We lost hopes and returned. Again claims of sighting greeted us on notice boards and in discussions on our return to resort. Next day we were supposed to start for nainital and by evening we were regretting the choice of jungle routes and cursing our luck. It was a desperate time and for a moment we considered going for a drive on the roads as some local person suggested that tigers wandering out on to the roads in the dark of nights. But better sense prevailed and we stayed back going to sleep little downcast.

However we got up early the next day too and as we love to walk we deided to go to temple behind our resort. It was 5.30 in the morning and as we got down onto kuchha track on the backside of our resorts, we noticed some footmarks. It looked like pugmarks (we could certainly identify ones, having seen them on sign boards all around the resort) but we thought we were imagining and we kept walking towards bridge over river. And as soon as we reached over bridge we noticed a big striped animal on the bank of the river drinking water. For a moment or two we were in zombie. On returning to our senses we felt numb & dumb. Then we got behind bars looking at the majestic cat lazily walking into the jungle. we cursed ourselves for not bringing our camera along. But who would imagine in their wildest dream such fortune when we had lost all the hopes. Our day was made, our prayers returned, our wishes fulfilled and in our excitement we forgot all about temple and returned back to resort. This was our day and we went around bragging about our good fortune. Later when we though about it we felt little ashamed as until that moment we were discussing about presence of tigers in Corbett being a hype, to keep people coming there. Now we can assure one & all that Corbett is the best place to see the Rajahs of jungle in all its majesty.

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