Tiger Directory

[Pckts]

ON THE TIGER TRAIL :-
Many rains have fallen between my old life and now. Those days I spent many wonderful nights sleeping under the open sky gazing the star lines in the sky in the midst of INDIAN mixed forests in central India.
These wonderful thick forest lands in the Satpura range produced one of the finest woods of the world known fondly as ‘C P Teak.’ Our British rulers made best use of the forests of India transporting the logs to UK and making best quality furniture, which are even now fetching very high value. These logs from Teak trees were seasoned nicely and had the wonderful quality of nil distortion even after fifty to hundred years.

In our Madhya Pradesh we have places named as Timberni , a small town with Railway station , from where all the wood was loaded in Railway wagons to transport to Bombay port . Timberni refers to wood (Timber).
Similarly there are places cities, called Kath Godam and Silvassa( means wood in Portuguese).
The Satpura Hilly ranges not only have the finest jungles for Wood but are abundant in wildlife, flora and fauna.

Satpura Tiger reserve , is now a protected forest which is full of different quality trees, and wild life. It has a strength of 47 tigers and hundreds of Panthers , Sloth Bears, Bisons(Gaur), Sambars and chitals.
Over 315 types of birds are seen here as well as small animals like wild dogs , wild bores, flying squirrels, Malabar squirrels, ducks and eagles. Serpent eagle and fish eagles are in plenty.

There is a special recovery project underway for regeneration of ‘Barasingha ‘(A specie from Deer Family )which is an endangered specie. The population is slowly growing , which is a welcome sign. There were only 17 brought here from Kanha , they have grown to 47 , a very encouraging sign.

The jungle area which is close to Madhai is very big and of varied nature , mountainous , rocky and little flats. It’s full of animals named above and many panthers which are seen often. However, tigers are not many here because there is one Huge tiger which has marked its territory in these areas.
While enquiringly we were told the tiger is big one and known to be very furious type. He loves to kill and has killed six Sloth bears in this area. Apart from that he kills Bisons and Sambars at will for his kill.
We were told he is known by a name Called ‘ RAVAN’ in this area. That name speaks for all about him.
Since then we were curious to have a look at this amazing animal.
During this trip to Madhai , we were indeed keen to see this Ravan who has terrorised the locals and animal for last few years.
Saturday as we set out on the trail of this tiger , we were very optimistic that we would have sighting of Ravan.
We were in the forest by four and on way tracking , looking at the animals along the road side. Around 4:45 we found pug marks of a big tiger on the soft sandy road . The pug marks looked fresh and were clean and smooth. Our tracker felt the marks were fresh and of the same day. He felt they looked max two hours old. We followed the marks , but after fifty meters they turned in to left side forest. Our jeep entered the rocky area , and we crossed a water pond , went on the other side and we were near the side of mountains. I was lucky to see a Sloth Bear drinking water , who quickly disappeared on the hill side after getting disturbed by our jeep presence.
We returned to main track where we had lost the trail. After about 500 meters we saw pug marks of the Tiger once again. They were fresh and suggesting The Ravan (Tiger), had moved away from the rocky hilly area to the Tawa reservoir Basin , which has dried this year completely. This has happened first time after the Tawa dam was filled up.

We turned our Jipsy around and stopped the engine. The silence of the forest is so enthralling, so absorbing we were trying to hear and get any sign from the surrounding.
As the Tiger had passed this area only a few minutes before there was total silence in forest. You could hear even a tweak of a branch and crackle of a dry leaf.
Our forest guide Narayan and the driver Vishnu were really super trackers . We all held our breath , our eyes open and ears super tuned to hear any signal that might come from the forest.
It was almost after fifteen minutes we got the call we were waiting for. Call of a Monkey and followed by a call of Sambar. These typical calls were a sure confirmation that the Tiger was moving to our left . Rough guess was that the tiger was moving towards the dried reservoir some one Km away.

Our guides were excited, we were asked to hold what ever we could , and were traveling at full speed on the bumpy forest track. Jumping to one to two feet in the air. Rolling from left to right.

We had to travel about two km to right of the direction of the call and cross the dried lake . Our heart was beating fast soon we were near the bottom of Lake and crossing the lake to other side. Now we were on other side , climbing up on the forest track and behind the trees.
Keeping a strong lookout on the left where a very narrow water bed parted two sides. On each side of the water body there was a green belt of lawn , which was there due to the wetness in Land .

Suddenly there was a whistle, a sign to the driver to stop and there we were shown the tiger walking on that green patch. The excitement which started on spotting pug marks were now at its extreme. Through the screen of trees we were all looking at the magnificent, lord of the jungle in it’s true style. That he is king of jungle can be seen in every stride. He is truly the Lord of the jungle .
He walked some two hundred meters from left to right then took a left turn and was now up on the bank and behind the trees. He was moving through the forest bushes and could be seen until he decided to take some rest.

We had seen him for quite a while and now the news had spread out and many jeeps carrying tourists were now gathering around us. We moved in the direction he was moving and observed he was resting under a Jamun tree.

After fifteen minutes he again moved ahead to a water hole where he filled up His stomach with water. While seeing him walk we could see he was contented and had his meals before drinking water. There was a peacock so close to him but he was not bothered nor the peacock. The animals get a message that the lord of jungle is having full stomach and they are therefore safe. A large old bison was grazing on our side of water body he was also Undisturbed.

I always am surprised how a human being generally tries to accumulate wealth unlimited and ends up in storing it of no use to him or his family. I am asking those few who store wealth in crores but can’t use it or enjoy it in their lifetime?
This was indeed an example of how one should be satisfied when the daily needs are met with.

Next half an hour there were about ten jeeps looking at the tiger resting. While there was squabble amongst the tourist trying to get good view of the lord the tiger decided to move further , cross the road and move ahead.

So we also moved back as sun decided to set and we feeling very lucky to have had an exciting encounter with the lord of jungle , returned to our resort Denwa Backwater resort by 7 pm.

After getting fresh we were given a surprise by the resort , a special dinner laid for us near swimming pool. This was because we had met the lord of the jungle Ravan and that we were involved in the tracking of the Tiger.

The sighting of a tiger In Satpura tiger reserve is a rare occasion, but when this happens the thrill it gives is much different than seeing a tiger in Kanha or Ranthambore where the flat forest and high population offers easy access to the Tiger in its habitat.

Veena Naik
Bharati Naik
Chetan Naik

Picture courtesy Chetan naik

*This image is copyright of its original author

*This image is copyright of its original author

Prayut Mandal He was my first sighting of a Tiger and the first sighting in the park that season of 2016, March. He's beyond 8ft. Recorded Him spray and rub cheeks on a Kullu tree. I'll never forget that moment. Then next day He killed a male gaur by Himself. The in a couple of days crossed over to the buffer and killed many cattle.

Dileep Balkrishna Naik Yes he is really strong. Has killed six bears in a year. Bison is his favourite meal.


Dileep Balkrishna Naik After seeing him at close dist I feel he is close to ten now.

I think this male was introduced from Panna but I'm not positive on that. Reply