Tigers of Central India

[Pckts]

Shakir Hussain‎ 

Mysterious Dewdoh Cub,,,

Female Cub of the most elusive Tiger family from Tadoba...
But sad to see she has lost her right eye...

*This image is copyright of its original author

‎Sanjeev Siva‎ 
The King of Aces.

It was the last game drive, and we would be reaching the gate in another ten minutes. I packed the cameras, and was having a banter with the guide, Banvari, the forest officer, Kamlesh who accompanied us and my friend, Ramudu sir.

6:35 PM, the sun set and the light was fading too fast. I was telling Ramudu ji, how good this trip had been in terms of some excellent photos we were able to make. Pench is an exquisite haven for photography just like most Sal forests.

Even our stay outside the Pench Karmajhiri gate is so rustic, far away from creature comforts and human annoyance.

The gypsy was slowly locomoting towards the gate, and I was already drooling about some coffee with pakodas. Suddenly, the guide screamed, 'sir, tiger, tiger'.

I jumped over the seat to look around. Standing at a couple of feet away from us is the big male. Adrenaline kicked in, and my heart started to thump, in excitement.

Fear kicked in slowly, as he started to amble towards us, with a hooked tail. He too should have been taken down by surprise, seeing us. He was unsure and I, particularly was scared, after all, he's a huge fella.

We stood our ground and kept calm. He then lowered the tail, and started to walk by our gypsy. Picking my camera, with my hands still shivering and my heart still pounding, I managed to click a few photos.

This is one such, the closest, when he walked parallel to our gypsy, clicked at 70mm focal length.

I still feel the jitters when I think of the incident, probably because, we weren't expecting to see a tiger then, and he's given the perfect surprise. And yes, he's the King of Aces, the most dominant of all, Raiyakassa.

A very low light shot of Raiyakassa male | Karmajhiri, Pench TR.
 

*This image is copyright of its original author

Ram Kumar Yadav Kanha
Munna from this morning

*This image is copyright of its original author

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