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Your wildlife experience in India
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Poor Pckts at least survived and return alive in US... he is a our hero ....I wanted to warn him to not visit India during month of May but decided not to scare him too much in advance...
 (05-19-2017, 09:36 AM)Wolverine Wrote:(05-16-2017, 09:19 AM)sanjay Wrote: After reading your post, I can guess Africa is more tourist friendly and wildlife their is amazing, You as a tourist (from a third country) feel more comfortable in Africa. I certainly don't favor Africa to India when it comes to safari, the forest and Serengeti are completely different. When it comes to overcrowding, India is a different planet,in Tanzania/Zanzibar the density is nothing compared to New Delhi/Nagpur, at least in the areas I was in. It is hot there, that's for sure but I'm in palm desert, Arizona and Nevada regularly, I'm accustomed to the heat. It's actually cool in the morning and cools down quite a bit in the late afternoon. We did have some crazy lightning storms and rain a couple of nights though.
I suggest the best months for safari in India for non-Indians are February and March. There is wide spread belief that winter (December-January) is best season because temperatures are very pleasant (24-25 C), but its true only for general cultural tourism - Taj Mahal, Jaupur, Udaupur etc not for safaris, the problem is that winter time in the jungles there is still a lot lush vegetation from the autumn rains and visibility is not too high. From another hand summer - April and May visibility is better, but temperaures are horrible (for non-Indians). So the golden middle time for safari tourism in India I think is period 1 February - 30 March, vegetation is less, forests are drying out and in the same time temperatures are still affordable - 34-36 C.
Yes, I agree that Tanzania is the world wildlife super power as US are world political super power. Yes, I agree that population density in India is 10 times higher than in Africa. But that could change in the future. According UN projections the population of India which currently is 1,3 billion will stabilize and stop growing at around 1,6-1,7 billion. In same time population growth in Africa is absolutely horrible and out of control and current population of Africa of 1,2 billion will increase to 4 billion people at the turn of this century. In Ngorngoro Conservation Aria already live 65 000 Masai people and if not relocated from there they will increase to quarter of million after 50 years. That mean that after few decades ecosystem of Ngorngoro-Serengeti will be destroyed. The Western countries and UN should press government of Tanzania and help financially to relocate the Masai from NCA before is not too late. 
India's populationis expected to be expanding beyond China's by 2025, because in a democratic republic govt. can't force 1family-1child.
However, latest projections indicated that the awareness campaigns are bearing fruit & it is getting arrested & start falling by 2050 to stabilize at ~1.5 billion. The population started soaring in the 1950s and saw the highest decadal growth of 24.8 per cent in the 1960s and 24.7 per cent in the 1970s. Since the 1980s, decadal growth has been falling and the 1990s saw a significant fall. The 2011 census confirmed that the fall is picking up pace. For the first time since the early 1900s, the first decade of the new millennium saw fewer people added to India’s population than in the previous decade. Incidentally, the fertility rate in urban India is 1.8, close to the European Union’s 1.6. True, the urban population is less than a third of the total, but a third is still about 400 million people. 11 large states with fertility rate at replacement level or below it  *This image is copyright of its original author Source: Sample Registration Survey (SRS) 2013 conducted by the Registrar General of India The nine small states and seven even smaller federally administered territories, for which data wasn’t available, are also estimated to have below the replacement level fertility. Together, the 11 states and the smaller states and territories account for almost half the population (48.7%). Even of the remaining nine states, only the two most underdeveloped have a fertility rate of more than three children per woman. PS: Also the population is very densely packed & most of the growth is concentrated in the more fertile & industrialized areas like..say, Nagpur (you can see it in map & how much darker certain districts are than their peers..)  *This image is copyright of its original author
 (05-20-2017, 09:47 AM)Wolverine Wrote: I suggest the best months for safari in India for non-Indians are February and March. There is wide spread belief that winter (December-January) is best season because temperatures are very pleasant (24-25 C), but its true only for general cultural tourism - Taj Mahal, Jaupur, Udaupur etc not for safaris, the problem is that winter time in the jungles there is still a lot lush vegetation from the autumn rains and visibility is not too high. From another hand summer - April and May visibility is better, but temperaures are horrible (for non-Indians). So the golden middle time for safari tourism in India I think is period 1 February - 30 March, vegetation is less, forests are drying out and in the same time temperatures are still affordable - 34-36 C. Masai are not allowed inside the Serengeti and are sparsely spread out when traveling through Tanzania on the way to the Serengeti, there is vast open plains, the masai take up very little space. Same with Ngorongoro, they aren't allowed inside the crater other than to graze their cattle then they must leave and the surrounding Ngorongoro Reserve has massive space and few Masai. The Masai are one of 5 tribes in tanzania and they are only the 3rd largest I believe, with in these tribes are over 100 different dialects, the Masai will not be the reason for any local extinction or deforestation in Tanzania, that is for sure. For the best time to go on safari's in India, I was told early/middle April. For the same reasons you mentioned above, it's too lush during the rains and what happens is that the forest now harbors unseen watering holes and there is no need for animals to congregate out in the open and in the month's of may/june it's very hot but actually it's the better time to go for sightings since the forest is bare and the watering holes are desired pieces of land. But it's not that bad, since you go on safari early morning then come back then go late afternoon, you only really deal with the extreme heat for a couple of hours. Usually the best sightings happen earlier in the morning or late afternoon once the tigers and other animals make their way to the water. They usually sleep during the heat of the day, so you will usually have a slow down on calls during the mid afternoon hours.
Yes, of course the best season for safari in India should be the culmination of dry season but only if you can tolerate such a heat. For the majority of Europeans, Canadians etc. such temperatures are untollerable, you are lucky being from US South.
Concerning Tanzania. Yes, you are right that Masai people don't habitat Serengeti national park and Ngorngoro crater itself, nobody said this, the problem is that tens of thousands Masai people reside inside the Ngorongoro Conservation Aria (NCA) - that mean the huge protected aria and lands AROUND the Ngorngoro crater and they increase in alarming rate. In this this scholarly article is writhen they currently they are even 87 851 Masai in NCA, page 395: "Data from Ngorongoro Conservation Area Authority (NCAA) shows an increase of human population from 26,743 in 1988 to 87,851 in 2012, which is about 5,6% increase per annum." http://www.academicjournals.org/journal/IJBC/article-full-text-pdf/D5BC90D54910
More Sangam Male Images
 *This image is copyright of its original author  *This image is copyright of its original author  *This image is copyright of its original author
A great video done by my friend who was also my contact in India.
About 1/2 of the video was taken on our safari and the other half was taken when he was in Ranth and Nagzira.
June this year, my cousin Pushan Bhattacharya & his friend visited Kanha Tiger Reserve. I finally met up with him & got their clicks.
During evening safari in Kisli zone, he sighted (T-67) Dhamangaon Male.  *This image is copyright of its original author ..& then noticed (T-83)Budbudi female in nearby bushes.  *This image is copyright of its original author They had a prolonged sighting of the two mating...  *This image is copyright of its original author  *This image is copyright of its original author  *This image is copyright of its original author Followed by a half-hearted stalk by Dhamangaon until Budbudi came over & blew it... Dhamangaon has relocated to Sarhi Zone this monsoon, & is currently rivalled by Ronda male & Sangam male (whom @Pckts sighted). The mating probably failed to produce cubs, as Budbudi was never pregnant... (10-24-2017, 09:06 AM)Rishi Wrote: June this year, my cousin Pushan Bhattacharya & his friend visited Kanha Tiger Reserve. I finally met up with him & got their clicks. He's a fairly modest sized Tiger, he's going to have a tough time with the Sangam Male and Ronda.
He's long & tall, but lean..& young (4-5 years, mating with Budbudi could have failed coz he'd barely reached sexual maturity).
He seems larger than Kankatta here with Budbudi...  *This image is copyright of its original author  *This image is copyright of its original author Minh Ha rants that Budbudi is presently the largest female of Kanha, often mistaken for male by guides from afar.
I’m not sure about that, just going off the video he seems smaller in body dimension and mass compared to the sangam male I saw. Less mass could be due to mating though, food isn’t a priority during that time. I’d also put the link 8 female up against budbudi no problem.
I’ll post a video of the sangam male tomorrow so we can compare. Did your cousin see any other males? |
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