B2 and Other Great Tiger Pics from India

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Ecology & Rewilding

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#1,587

04-23-2016, 08:11 PM

“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

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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.

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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 !!!