Raja!

The Prince of Bandipur!

It has been almost 3 months that I had seen a Tiger at Bandipur Tiger Reserve. My last few visits to Bandipur from April’11 until June’11 have been dominated by Leopard sightings. For some reasons the tiger sightings at Bandipur during the recent summers wasn’t that great.

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On 30th July’11 (Saturday) I decided to visit Bandipur, however I was alerted by my close associates & naturalist that the sightings have been really dull most of July. It was quite understandable and I was aware that the Bandipur National Park, especially the forest area had received heavy rains for past few weeks. However I had made up my mind to visit and try my luck.

This time I had Pradeep who was driving the jeep; Pradeep is a young chap but has been in JLR for ages and knows the forest on his finger tips. We started our morning safari at 6:15am, after completing the formalities at Bandipur reception; we headed straight towards mulapura water hole. We were half the way when Pradeep noticed tiger pug marks and surprisingly there were also tiny pug marks, so it was quite evident that a tigress and her cubs had walked freely on the game track. I also admire the skills of spotting the pug marks by these drivers, who see it while in motion and stop to confirm. Most of them at JLR have done it time and again. Now to some extent even I have managed to pick up these skills. The pug marks were quite fresh and were leading in the opposite direction and not towards mulapura water hole.

So we decided to turn back and follow the pug marks, as we reached the bettada katte junction the pug marks disappeared. This junction has 5 routes, on the right leads to surle katte, on the left bettada katte and the 2 straight routes finally reach the Bandipur-Ooty highway & of course one goes via arali katte.

We decided to take the bettada katte route after driving up the hill for about 100 mts or more,  we noticed few more pug marks of another tigress with cubs however even these pug marks were in opposite direction leading to bettada katte junction, so we turned back again and drove to the junction. We weren’t sure which route to choose to track these tigers; it seemed as if all these cats had a meeting at this junction. Note sure where they disappeared from this point.

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However we finally agreed to take the arali katte route, as this area is the territory of a tigress that has lost one eye, reasons unknown. As we were approaching arali katte we heard a Bonnet Macau (Red faced monkeys) alarm calls. We were excited as we had already seen the pug marks and now with alarm calls I was almost sure that we were close to a Tigress. We patiently waited for a while; few other jeeps also joined us. Mean while I met Sanjay - Naturalist at Country Club, Bandipur; he too waited along with us. After a while few jeeps moved away, however our jeep & Sanjay’s jeep waited patiently. In the meantime we noticed that the monkeys were seen on a large bamboo tree and also the alarm calls had stopped. We weren’t sure what to do next; sometimes the alarm calls can also be a false one.

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We decided we will drive towards yere katte another water body; Sanjay’s jeep was ahead of us. As we approached the yere katte, I couldn’t believe my eyes, I spotted a huge male Tiger in the open; however his face was hid behind parthenium shrub. The tiger was on our right and I was seated as usual in the front seat next to Pradeep. My position wasn’t that great to shoot, I immediately rested my camera and lens on the roof top, by now the tiger started walking in our direction. I had an excellent angle to shoot so I fired few shots.

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Within minutes I realized that accidentally my shutter speed is 1/8000 sec, this was a serious error. My program setting knob had got changed to Tv mode (Shutter Speed mode), I had set my camera to Av mode that is aperture. About 15-20 images that I shot of the Tiger walking in our direction with superb eye contact all got heavily under-exposed. I was really put off; the only good thing was I realized the error quite fast. Later I had to shuffle between my other camera that is Canon 40D with 100-400mm lens and the 7D with 500mm, since the tiger was getting really close to our jeep.

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Now the tiger got so close hardly few feet away from our jeep & I somehow managed to click using both equipments. One image that I was eager to click was when this tiger was crossing the game track right in front of us. With on and off rains, the slushy water clogged track, greens surrounding, freshness of the forest, what a sight this was. Simply Beautiful! The majestic walk by this huge male tiger, not caring about human presence & the jeep in front, he seemed totally fearless.

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He then went and sniffed a dry tree trunk to check his scent marking; the forest was at its best with lush greens all over and to add a tiger in the open, you can’t ask for more. What a perfect setting for any wildlife photographer.

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By now I recognized this tiger; he is Agastya’s son (one of the oldest male tigers of Bandipur ~ aged 15-16 years old). This guy could be aged about 5 years; I have seen him before as well at bettada katte. I consider him to be the most bold, handsome tigers and surely he is “The Prince of Bandipur” who will rule this forest.

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Later he crossed the game track & then disappeared in the bushes, after having seen him for over 20 minutes. We all wanted more; no wonder tigers are the most beautiful creations by God on Earth. Again this sighting was dream come true as I had the tiger at unbelievable close distance. I also believe that monsoons are the best seasons from photography point of view, and yet again it proved right this time.

Bandipur

Here are some more photos, just click on gallery: http://www.toehold.in/customtours/bandipur/

(Too many pics for 1 post so I'll split it into multiple posts)

Wild date with Prince, the Royal Bengal Tiger of Bandipur

I just came back from the wild jungles of Bandipur, Karnataka after a majestic sighting of Prince, the Royal Bengal Tiger of Bandipur. Its hard to put the experience in words but I'll try my best to narrate the story, the story of my magical moments spent in the jungle with Prince, the majestic Royal Bengal Indian Tiger.

The Majestic Sighting of the Prince of the Wild

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It was a good beautiful morning and as it was our 6th and last safari of the trip we were too curious to spot a wild cat today and specially, a Tiger. Even though we believed that we will see a Tiger today but deep inside there was a bit of a fear that we might not get a sitting even today as our last 5 safaris did not prove to be successful. We were all ready at 6:30AM to rush to the jungle and make our way into the wild. We loaded all our stuff into the jeep and got rolling with our fellow riders. It was a good cold morning but with clear skies as it had rained the day before.

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Sunrise shot at Bandipur Tiger Reserve


After a 10mins drive from the resort, we got ourselves registered at the Forest office and then we got into the Jungle to hunt for our subjects - of course expecting to see a Tiger today :)

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Bandipur Forest office

It was a cold start and after about 20mins into the jungle, we heard a predator call and our adrenaline was running high. We stopped the engines of our jeep and started waiting for the predator to appear.

The place was a perfect setting for the Tiger, Leopard sitting with a Waterhole in our front and deep Jungle all over - our expectation was high and wait was soon turning into anxiety. We spotted our first sitting of the day, a Kingfisher !!

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Our first sitting of the day, Kingfisher

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Sambar deer ..

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A pair of peacock

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A pair of peacock

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As we stayed there for a while, one of the peacock was teaching the other on how to dance. It was a good show of the talent.. a teacher teaching and the student learning the art of dancing...

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As we were  waiting for about 10mins, our driver got a call from another fellow colleague, that they have seen a Tiger somewhere in the jungle and asked us to come over to that place. It was a tough call for us to make as there was a chance at this place 'coz of the "call" we heard but were not sure and the other jeep location was too far for us to make it in time. So collectively we took a decision to drive anyway to the other place where the tiger had been spotted few minutes back.

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One of the water bodies at Bandipur Forest


So, our driver drove madly to reach the place where tiger was last seen and in about 15mins, we could make it to the place. We met the folks who spotted the Tiger and they re-assured us of the presence of Tiger in the vicinity. We also saw some pictures take by those folks and started hoping for  luck to see the majestic Tiger today. And the wait started ... we moved around for some time and then halted at a dry waterhole, expecting the tiger/leopard to appear from somewhere and make our day. So, it was a looooooooong wait with lot of anxiety, restlessness and hope that we WILL see the majestic animal.

The wait was getting long and long but we did not loose the hope. We waited at that spot for almost about 80~90mins expecting the sighting but no luck and suddenly my friend spotted the tiger in the bushes that appeared for close to 3~4 seconds, looked at the waterhole and then moved back into the bushes.

We saw the beautiful, majestic Predator in its full glory for those moments before it moved back in. It was pretty hard to take any good shots in that small window, but this is what I could manage to get.

It seemed like it gave us a signal that I'm around and follow me now ..

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The first sight of the majestic cat, Prince

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Prince saw that the waterhole was dry and moved on forward through the bushes

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Prince saw that the waterhole was dry and moved on forward through the bushes

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This sighting left us in surprise and wanting for more. After the magical moments, we were all in a flux that whether we should wait there or move around expecting the Tiger to appear from somewhere else. We took a collective decision to move a bit further and told the driver to slowly move ahead. The jeep started rolling at a slow speed and everybody was trying hard to spot the tiger in the bushes to just get a glimpse of it. But I guess, the tiger was too deep into the bushes for us to spot him.

After about 10mins of wandering, our wait paid off and here we see the Majestic Prince of Bandipur in its full Glory coming out of the bushes into the open without giving any attention to us or even bothered about the few jeeps and many people looking at him and shooting with the cameras.

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Prince is the bold male Tiger of around 9yrs and have been known for his bold acts in the jungle. 

We learnt and saw the pictures of him killing another male tiger just few days back because of territorial fight. It was really a shocking realization on how the predators fight for their territory and can kill their fellow mates.

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Prince came out in the open from the bushes and started walking towards the next waterhole

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Majestic Prince of Bandipur

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Majestic Prince of Bandipur

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Majestic Prince of Bandipur

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Majestic Prince of Bandipur


So the majestic Prince started strolling alongside the mud tracks and then slowly walked forward passing through the trees and bushes for almost about 400mtrs giving us great opportunity to make great shots of him. Even though there were almost 12~14 vehicles now following him, he did not even budge to showed any signs of him noticing us. It was a great sight to see him walk freely and without any fear of humans in the vicinity.

From a photographers point of view, it was a little challenging shooting the cat as the angle of the vehicle wasn't too appropriate for a great shot, but really you can't expect more during a safari. We had to be prepared to shoot in any condition so we all (about 8people in a jeep) started shooting with out bazooka lenses getting whatever best we can get out of this sighting.

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Majestic Prince of Bandipur crossing the mud track

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Majestic Prince of Bandipur crossing the mud track

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Prince, walking towards the other side of the mud track

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Majestic Prince of Bandipur 

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Majestic Prince of Bandipur

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Majestic Prince sniffing the tree, I guess looking for a place to spray


After a good walk it stopped to spray one of the trees and then moved forward after the act !

So why do Tigers spray on trees or rocks ? 

They do this for various reasons:

• • To mark the boundaries of their home ranges. The urine sends a clear signal that another tiger is in the locality and gives a visitor the opportunity to avoid conflict. A tiger coming across a scent mark  may sniff, leap back and snarl. One test carried out in captivity also showed the same reaction to human urine.
    
  • Females scent mark more frequently during oestrus and the chemical signals within the urine attract a mate. The male will, in turn, usually scent mark where the female has sprayed.
    

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Prince, spraying the tree - marking his presence that this is his territory !!

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After spraying the tree, he moved on further in hunt of the waterhole or I shall say the pool :)

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Walking down the forest

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At this moment, Prince was almost about 100 meters away from us

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Our jeep kept on moving further so that we can get the maximum shots and good viewing angles 

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The majestic walk

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Majestic Prince of Bandipur

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Closeup shot of the Majestic Prince of Bandipur

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At this moment, Prince was almost about 40~50meters from our vehicle and I was able to get these head on shots

It was a great feeling to see the Tiger so close

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Majestic Prince of Bandipur walking towards us

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Majestic Prince of Bandipur on a stroll

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At this spot, Prince decided to cross the mud track again and go on to the other side as the waterbody was on that side of the mud track. This was behind our jeep and was almost about 50-60meters only !! Wow what a feeling it was...

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 Prince, walking towards the water body 

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At this point, Prince stopped for few seconds and gave us a great pose!! Thanks.


Suddenly one of the jeep's behind Prince go too close to him and he really got pissed off and gave a real scare to them before moving on.

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 Prince, the great !

Prince then crossed the road and while he was crossing the road, one of the jeeps got too close. By observing this it stopped and looked back at the folks in that Jeep, gave them a deep scare and then moved on toward the water hole.

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 Prince, walking towards the water body 

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 Prince, walking towards the water body 

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 Prince, walking towards the water body 

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 Prince, walking towards the water body 

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 Prince, walking towards the water body 

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 Prince, sniffing the tree

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 Prince, walking towards the water body 

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 Prince, walking towards the water body - what an appearance !!

We all moved towards the waterhole area expecting him to be coming there and giving us some amazing opportunity to shoot good pictures and you know what, we were obliged. After few moments, Prince appeared from the bushes and sat into the muddy water to him himself off that scorching heat.

It was a great moment and a great opportunity for all of us in the jeep to photograph him cooling himself or even just to see the majestic Royal Bengal Tiger from so close (130~150 meters). Prince stayed there for almost about 8~9 minutes giving us enough time to click pictures. Even though we had good time, but I guess no one ever stopped clicking (listen to the shutter sounds in the video attached). I almost took about 400+ shots in about 25mins of the sighting.

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 Prince, walking towards the water body 

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 Prince, at the water body 

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So Prince came and sat into the water to himself off the scorching heat of Bandipur.

While the cat was sitting in the water, we all were so excited seeing this scene and started shooting all the great pictures we could. The sound of shutters was great click, click, click, click ...... 

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 Prince, at the water body 

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 Prince, at the water body 

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 Prince, at the water body 

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 Prince, at the water body 

At this place, Prince sat for some 7-8 minutes before vanishing into the bushes again

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 Prince, cooling off at the waterbody

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 Prince, drinking water - and humans need the RO water to drink !!

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 Prince, started getting up and we thought probably it will go off into the bushes now.. but it obliged and sat again for few moments

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 Prince, the great sighting

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Yawning Prince

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After sometime Prince got up and bid adieu to us .. 

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Some of the final shots I could get ..

After about sitting there for 8-9 minutes, Prince got up and then vanished into the bushes leaving all of us wanting for more and more.. as usual :) but I guess that was it.

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And the Final shot... good bye Prince


It was almost 09:30AM and we had to vacate the jungle by that time. So we drove out of the jungle, fully satisfied or I should say happily overwhelmed with the wonderful sighting. The trip back to resort was full of stories and how we all were amazed by the sighting. It was fun and excellent moments captured through our lenses and in the end all returned happy.

Thanks to the entire staff of JLR and more importantly our driver Kiran, to cooperate with us and being patient all through our 6 safaris with him. He was a nice guy and very knowledgeable about the species in the jungle with a good sense of spotting the animals. Our naturalist, spotter "Basvanraj" was also very good and helped spotting a lot of animals and birds which we could have easily missed.

Thanks to the wonderful Prince and our luck to spot the great tiger and cooperating with us while we take all those shots !! Wonderful ! Majestic ! Charming ! and above all Thrilling experience ! Long live Indian Tigers....

Some Tips for those who would want to visit Bandipur for Tiger spotting and photography

• Stay at Jungle Lodges only if you would like to do Jeep Safari. If you stay with other resorts, you might not get a chance to visit the jungle as its primarily for JLR guests. The public safari is only in canters and you might not want to be scrambled up in the crowd
• When in a safari vehicle, please do not scream or talk loud as that might divert the animals
• Cooperate with other fellow riders while shooting as everybody wants to take good shots and blocking someone for yourself is not a good idea. Rather when done, give space to others.
• Carry at least 2 bodies, 1-Dx as that will give you good range and 2-Fx as you might have to shoot in low light conditions and that will help you
• Carry a long range telephoto lens along 400~600mm with a short range say 70~200 lens (preferably a fast lens with f/2.8 aperture)
• Carry a lot of fast speed (UHS Class 1 or Extreme Pro Class 10) memory cards with you - you don't want to miss a shot if you get a good sighting
• Carry a monopod - it might help you to stabilize your shots. A tripod may not be helpful in these tight jeeps/canters.
• Carry a rain cover as you never can predict a rain in these areas and specially during monsoon months. We got trapped in one such thunderstorm and heavy rain during our trip
• Carry a dust cover as the jungles sometimes can be really dusty
• Be prepared with your gear every time as you might get a sighting for as little as few seconds
  

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Thanks for reading my blog. Please feel free to leave a comment on the blog and give me a like on my Facebook page if you like to .. thanks again !!


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Posted 15th April 2015 by Amit Pahuja

“Maybe once I get some decent Tiger images, I’ll quit bugging you to go on these jungle visits all the time”
The urge to visit the jungles was getting too unbearable after a long….4 months

The last time I went there, I got some good images of this guy.

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But this had eluded me for a long time….

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I somehow made the booking online for 3 days 2 nights at JLR,Bandipur and spent the next one week trying to convince my wife to join me.She was unrelenting, and as the days went by my panic increased and thus I tried the first line.
She was in Bangalore on office work for 2 weeks and I somehow managed to convince her finally to join me. Phew !!!
So we were to spend a long weekend at JLR Bandipur on 17th 18th and 19th Dec 2011….We were last there in Dec 2009.
This time she was to take the Volvo ( Bangalore-Ooty Volvo would drop you right in front of JLR), and i was to drive from Calicut.Usually I take the Calicut-Nilambur-Gudalur-Mudumalai_Bandipur  route. But  since there was some tension going on between Kerala and Tamilnadu over the Mullaperiyar dam issue , I did not want to take any risk and chose the Calicut-Kalpetta-Gundlupet-Bandipur route.
The ghat roads were in a bad shape , and 4-5 hour traffic jams on the ghats were happening every day. So I left home at  5 :30 am  hoping to cross the ghats before the rush starts.Luckily for me there was no traffic and i managed to cross Sultan Bathery by 7 30. Stopped at a small eatery for some nice hot coffee and Appams and egg roast. Got news from Reshma that her bus had not yet crossed Bangalore city limits.
So with lots of time to kill, i decided to visit Muthanga Wildlife Sanctuary in Wayanad. It was filled with tourists, and they were being crammed into jeeps for a One hour ride. I had never visited Muthanga before. So I went to the office and asked how much would it cost if i were to hire a jeep for myself.
At Rs. 650 including all charges I thought it was a good deal. So I boarded the jeep. My company for the ride was Vivek, the driver and Madhav, the guide.
Frankly I did not enjoy the drive at all. The guys were good company with a lot of information and anecdotes , but the forest was depressing.I will not go much into detail, but I did see some elephants and spotted deer and the Malabar giant squirrel.
After the safari I headed off to Gundlupet.Reshma asked  me to pick her up at the Coffee day there. I had some nice coffee and samoosas, and then dozed off in my car for an hour.I was refreshed by the time Reshma reached, and we drove on towards JLR.
While checking in, we were very happy to see the familiar face of  Mr.Nataraj, one of the naturalists at JLR  in the office.After exchanging pleasantries, we were shown to our room for the weekend. It was the special cottage,called Hoopoe. Nice, clean and big with a small balcony, and away from the road.
Freshened up and went for lunch.I was not very hungry because of all the eating I did. But the lunch was great. Simple delicious food, excellent courteous staff.
Rested a bit and soon it was time for our evening safari.
Our driver for the evening was Kiran.  There were 8 people with us in the jeep excluding the driver. Two of them were 2 young guys from Australia( Adit and Pranav) who had just completed their 12th std and were out to see India.

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Our evening safari yielded the usual suspects… Chital, Gaur etc.Unbelievably, one of the guys fell asleep during the safari. The Aussie duo were busy clicking .

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We came across a group of Dholes ( wild dogs) midway through the safari, but they were far away  running on the jeep tracks.
Perhaps they were on a hunt ??!!!
Anyways opportunity ruined, and the non-photography crowd in the jeep didn’t want to stick around for the Dholes. We returned back to JLR. I was not too disappointed…I was thrilled to be in the Jungle.
Members of an online community Indianaturewatch, of which I also am a part of were there in Bandipur.
Eminent Surgeon and Photographer Dr.Ajit Huilgol and his son Vikram(An ace photographer himself), Suganthi and Rana Belur( makers of the battle of bandipur,search youtube),Saravanan Sundaram( I guess he loves the jungles, shuffling his time between the corporate jungle and the real one), Basavanna of JLR, Anshu Rao and his family and Sabir Chowdhury and his family.
It was great meeting  all of them there.
Had a drink and then an early dinner and hit the sack…wanted to be fresh for the morning Safari.
Sunday morning we were up and ready before dawn broke.Infact we were ready even before the JLR staff were awake !!!
We were with Kiran again. With us were Basavanna, Rana and Suganthi, and the Aussie duo.
The early morning ride to get to the jungle was amazing. It was freezing, travelling on the highway in an open jeep at 6 15 AM…
At the forest office there was information that a Tigress ( Gowri) was spotted around 5 45 am at a particular zone,and there were high chances that we might get to see her.
Without wasting much time we zoomed towards that area.Saw some gaur along the way…
Its magical to be in the jungle in the morning in winter.Though the slight mist and the low light were not ideal for handheld photography, the setting was simply awesome.
Basavanna and Kiran scouted for pugmarks, and there were so many going in different directions that it was all very confusing….

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Finally we moved on slowly, very alert.The light was becoming better and then suddenly there she was…..

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Gowri, the reigning queen of Bandipur was walking on the jeep tracks.She was just majestic.In my excitement I did my now patented “Spraying and Praying”. Got some shots in the camera. And then I settled down, nerves were calmed and carefully clicked some more images. The Hanuman langurs were going berserk on seeing the tigress.She at one point went into the bushes and let out some muted, but oh-so-menacing growls at the langurs. The hair on my neck stood up on its end.
We carefully tracked her till she disappeared into the bushes.Some excellent planning and driving by Basvanna and Kiran made us cross paths with the tigress again.

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This time there were 3 more jeeps with us and all of us soaked in the view. The tigress was nonchalant, she had 4 cubs waiting for her and she was not bothered by the jeeps.

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She quenched her thirst in the waterhole and went on her way….It was time for us to get out of the jungle and back to our rooms.

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What a morning !!!!
Had a hearty breakfast and did some birding around the campus and near The country club, with Mr.Natraj. It was a morning well spent.A  short walk yielded, the Red Munias, Green bee-eater and the Chestnut Headed Bee-eater, Peacocks, White cheeked Barbet, Coppersmith Barbet, Parrots, Scarlet Minivets, White backed vultures,Pacific swallows, and perhaps an Asian Paradise fly-catcher.
Surprisingly, the jungle safaris yielded very few birds.Only managed to spot a male streak throated woodpecker and this crested serpent eagle.

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We returned in time for a great lunch and some well deserved snooze.
Evening safari ( in Kiran’s jeep again)  yielded us the barking deer( muntjac) and a few elephants.( Incl. a couple of solitary tuskers).Reluctantly we got out of the jungle again.

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Back at JLR, Dr.Ajit showed me some of his images on his Ipad. The man is truly a gifted photographer. Had a light dinner and again tucked in early. I got up sometime in the night and opened the balcony. It was frrrrreeeezing !!!
Early next morning we were ready for our last safari with Kiran.It was considerably more foggy, and the light was low.Saw 2 barking deer together near a salt lick.

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Moved on from there and in a couple of minutes we saw THE TIGER.

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A huge handsome male….walking without a care in the world. He was just surveying his domain, sniffing around and scent marking a lot of trees.

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Clicked a few images, and wished I had another camera body and a wide-angle lens….The tiger soon went inside the bushes.Here is where the most brilliant piece of tracking was done Kiran. He reversed the jeep got on to the main highway and parked the jeep by the roadside and waited… Soon enough the tiger crossed the main road and went into the other side.We also went inside( different route and road) and waited for him. The jungle was reverberating with Chital alarm calls.We again came across the tiger, watched him strut his stuff, relax in the grass and pose for the camera. At one point he was about 10 ft near a herd of super alert chital….Clearly food was the last thing on his mind as he left them alone and continued his walk.

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We waited near a salt lick for him to return.He did not disappoint. He strolled down a meadow, licked some salt/mud for a few minutes, sprayed around some more, and went off on his way. At his closest he was about 20 feet away…A majestic animal, strong and proud.I lowered my camera and soaked in the moment.

*This image is copyright of its original author

*This image is copyright of its original author

This was nature, this was the jungle, this was what I had come to experience.Too often we are so obsessed about getting that awesome image that we forget to look at the bigger picture.The pure air, animals and birds roaming wild and free….
Checked out after a great breakfast…..I just cant wait to get back to the Jungle again !!!

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The urge has only gotten stronger