Lions and tigers and bears, oh my

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For those of you on this list who haven’t heard, I just got back from a month long trip to India. The first 2.5 weeks I was with an organized tour with the Sierra Club, a conservation/environmental organization. I’ve wanted to go on one of their trips for a while, but had no idea that I wanted to go to India until I read the brochure for the trip. India rivals Africa for wildlife viewing. India has over 1 billion of the 6 billion people on earth packed into a country one third the size of the US. If current population trends continue, by about the year 2030 India will overtake China as the most populated country in the world.

On our safari trips to several different national parks, we saw wild elephants, rhinos, tigers, jackals, monkeys…the list goes on. We didn’t go to the park with the very rare Asiatic lions, although India is the only country in the world with lions, tigers, and bears. We also got to see a good deal of Indian culture and architectural treasures including the Taj Mahal.

The tour focused on north central and northeastern parts of India. We traveled on planes, trains, buses, jeeps, rickshaws, and elephants! The elephants can get much closer to the tigers than the jeeps can. Since the elephants are too big to eat and not a threat to the tigers, the elephants with the tourists on their backs are pretty much ignored by the tigers.

The last 2 weeks I spent doing some independent travel. I spent a couple days checking out the shops and bazaars of New Delhi and a week in the state of Goa on the west coast. The beaches of Goa are a hot spot for European travelers.

February and March are a good time to go to India since it is part of the “cool” season where the daytime temperatures are in the low 90s. Not a lot of people visit during the other 2 seasons…hot and monsoon.

I’ll be sending out about a dozen of these emails with a couple dozen or so of my photos in each.

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Comments

[EricaRidley]

Looks awesome!
Next time, take me with you!! =)

[Jessika]

Mama Monkey
Great pictures!!! The one of the mama and baby monkey is really unique. From a distance, her stomach looked a little strange but up close I can see the baby hanging on to her. Then there's the rhino with a little bird perched on its back. I love it! It must have been extremely wonderful to be out in the wild with them, especially that close up and personal. I would have been so scared of getting attacked by the tigers, even with a huge elephant being between us. BUT I'd still do it. I wouldn't let fear kill the experience. Kudos to you, Todd!!! Can't wait to hear more...