TATR - 2010

Who knew we were going back to Tadoba? We had no idea; on the 1st of May 2010 I called Sabarish and reminded him it was our Tadoba anniversary. Wasim was also responded that he would join us if we went. Vishnu moved to Mumbai so there was no chance of him joining us. I wanted to take my Dad along this time. He was very keen to come along from the time I showed him the pictures. We decided to do the trip in the last week of May.

We tried the resorts close to the Tadoba entry gate located in Mohurli, but we realized all of them were booked and we had no place to stay. We tried different sources but all of them said there was no way of getting any accommodation. We had no choice but to book some accommodation at Chandrapur town some 40 kms away. We didn’t mind doing the distance but we wanted to go for sure. We got in touch with a guy by name Shailik Jogwe last time we were in Tadoba. Beware of him, he poses as a teacher and a wild life conserver but is more of a businessman. He gets cuts out of putting people up in the resorts at Mohurli and doesn’t rest till he gets you to hire his jeep. He may mislead you if you are new to the place. The best thing to do is to get in touch with me or Sabarish for any information about Tadoba. My mobile number is +919052301555. We have some contacts with some villagers, they are more decent and straight forward compared to Mr. Jogwe.

Sabarish roped in Emil and our old friend Jagadish for the trip. I borrowed my friend’s Innova and we had planned to leave evening on 28th May, Friday, reach on 29th Saturday and get back on Monday which means we would have Saturday evening, and the whole of Sunday for trips into the forest. We decided we would get three trips at least. The journey was smooth; I picked my father up from his office and headed towards Sabarish’s house to pick up the rest. Enclosed is a route map to TATR.

Once everyone was onboard the next thing was to figure out where to stop for dinner. We stopped at a Dhaba on the way and had some food. We had a decent meal and hit the road towards TATR. The road was nothing to write home about but was just about fine, Jagadish and me took turns driving. We reached Chandrapur at 5:30 AM, by the time we checked into the hotel it was 6:30 AM, we were hungry, some of us had some snacks from last night and hit the sack. We were to get up at about 10:30 AM get ready and hit the road towards TATR. We did just that. We reached the Mohurli gate at about 12:00 noon. There was already a huge line, there were new restrictions for entry. The authorities decided to allow only 20 vehicles per trip and most parts of the park were cordoned off. People entering from one gate had a specific path they could take into the forest. I waited in queue for two hours but was not able to get a ticket. We had to buy off someone elses for 1300 rupees. Never the less we made the entry at 3:00 PM.

We learnt from the guide who was with us that water hole # 2 was the place to wait. There were some sightings there in the last couple of days. We took his advice and waited there. We were in for a treat!! Within 20 mins we saw tigress arrive, later a tiger arrived. The female was calm and composed, she took a dip in the water crossed the road and sat in a brush to cool down. The male was bothered seeing all the crowd around. He peeked out of the brush, snarled at the people and then gingerly dipped into the pool. He got up later and walked away into the forest. But what a sight! It was like a dream! Emil and my father were really elated with the sight.

The male was very ferocious. He was not at all happy about the visitors in his place. He gave us some lovely poses though!

After this lovely sighting we wanted to move on to other places in the reserve, we found Langurs, Indian Gaur, a Crocodile in the lake, Blue Jay, spotted deer, and other animals. Over all we saw a lot and enjoyed the day.

We were completely tired, we freshened up, had dinner and slept off. The heat was taking its toll, we decided we will skip the afternoon trip into the forest the next day. We decided to do the morning trip and leave for Hyderabad, we would get an additional day to rest. Good we did that as when we reached the gate early the next morning we saw a lot of chaos. People were fighting to get in. They had come from long distances and didn't get permission to get into the reserve. Remember the 20 vehicle restriction? They were to be given the first preference in the afternoon trip and we wouldnt be very lucky anyway. We left post our trip in the morning. The morning trip was uneventful, we didnt see any .They must be resting in their respective places. We missed the tigeress from the previous day. She had come for a dip for about 15 mins when we were looking elsewhere and had left.

Tadoba and such national parks are really some ecosystems we have preserved in the country, I just hope our children will be as lucky enough see a tiger in the wild. I just hope we are not only left with pictures and stories to tell our children about this wonderful creature.We Indians can be proud of many things but we are not. We should be proud of our wild life and preserve it. Nature preserves us if we preserve it, if we upset the balance nature has its own way to get back!

Tadoba Nature at its Best

Wildlife and Nature have always interested me. Like most of you I have also dreamt of befriending wild beasts. Most us have read about people who have been able to keep wild animals in their back yards and have managed to include them as part of their families. We hear of these amazing stories and also the bonds they were able to create with wild animals over years. Some stories that come to mind are that of Christian the Lion and also of Kevin Richardson the lion whisperer. For readers who haven’t heard of either can use the below links to watch the videos on YouTube, Christian the lion at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVNTdWbVBgcatch?v=zVNTdWbVBgc and Kevin Richardson the Lion Whisperer at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hsXG-TyqrFIXG-TyqrFI.

On the contrary these animals are called “Wild” because they are. They are unpredictable and tend to attack when they are threatened or feel insecure. We have numerous examples of Wild animals in captivity that have attacked their trainers without provocation or suck their teeth into their owner’s legs or hands without warning. I feel man has never has been able to domesticate cats, he has tried and failed. Even the domestic cat comes home for food and the next moment is gone doing its own thing. The canine story is different; the canines have always shared a warm bond with man.

Some of us decided to explore the wild and so decided a trip to Tadoba or TATR (Tadoba Andhari Tiger Reserve). Sabarish and Wasim my colleagues from Dell had been planning a trip in May 2009. I was not interested initially but later decided to join them. We left Hyderabad on 1st May from Hitech city, Hyderabad at about 12:30 AM. The total distance is about 450 KMs and took us a good 9 hours to get there. Vishnu a friend of ours had also joined us for the trip. We talked about a lot of stuff en route, the traffic was not very bad but we drove at our own pace and were not in a real rush to reach our destination. We reached at about 9:30 AM; we decided to take some rest and planned to take the afternoon drive into the forest. We were more interested in seeing a tiger than anything else. The park offers two trips into the forest to all tourists. The first starts is from 6AM to 11AM and the second from 3 PM to 7 PM. The cost is not much, comes to about 270 rupees including a guide and a car’s entry. The best part of the reserve is that it is not very commercial unlike the other tiger reserves in India. We woke up in the afternoon and made the first visit into the forest. We wanted to track a tiger but of course didn’t find one immediately. We saw a lot of Wild Gaur (the Indian Bison) and tons of deer. We saw an owl and some eagles as well. We later spotted a tiger at a distance. It was across a lake, it was too far for us to take a picture. We somehow caught some glimpses through Wasim’s video camera. The day ended with not much of spotting.

Enclosed are some pictures of what we managed to see: The forest is mostly dry and deciduous. Water is scarce during the summer months, the authorities water the man made water holes to help the wild thrive.














2nd May 2009, Saturday: The second day began early; we woke up at 3 AM and got ready. The plan was to do the morning trip and the afternoon trip into the forest. We had to queue up before the others got in line. We managed to procure passes to get in. We are all ready to get in by 5:30 AM, we wanted to be the first to ensure we spot some tiger tracks and that way catch the elusive cat in the wild. We saw the Gaur and some deer again. We nearly missed seeing a bear, he just ran in, must have been too shy.

Gaur

Early morning

We kept looking but only found more deer and langur. We decided to take a dirt track that leads deeper into the forest. Down the track we slowed down to see if we could see any pug marks and indeed we found some, we saw a tiger's pug marks and next to it the pug marks of a cub. This was an amazing site and gave us some hope that we would spot a tiger sooner or later.

We listened to our guide chattering away about himself and his experiece in the forest. Vasant was a knowlegble fellow though. He knew the way and also told us about many things about the forest. He decided we move towards the other side of the forest as the tiger must have passed towards the front side judging by the pug marks. We got onto the main road and we saw a tiger atlast. It was a tigress walking away from us, but we were glad we saw one atlast in the wild!

We were overjoyed to see a tiger at last but we were not content. We wanted another close encounter. A closer look at the animal. We tried going around the 650 Sq Km forest in search of a tiger. We saw some beautiful stretches and also some other animals but not a tiger. We had a quick lunch, took some rest and were back in line at the gate for another trip into the forest. We were to leave early the next day, we wanted to make most of the afternoon trip. The afternoon was quite eventful, we saw a pack of wild dogs, more deer and also the beautiful Tadoba lake.

We were told the best thing is to wait at a waterhole patiently for a tiger to arrive, we did just that. Vasant directed us to a water hole where we waited patiently for the tiger to arrive, atlast a tigress did. She appeared pregnant. She walked into the pool, sat there for sometime and drank water gingerly. She was not happy with the noise around, she got disturbed later and crossed the road and went away from where she had come. The sight was amazing. We got some lovely pictures of her.

We decided to go around and see the other parts and come back in sometime. When we got back we saw a lot of crowd around the same area. We waited. We heard calls of deer indicating a tiger is near and as we predicted we saw the tigress appeared again for another drink. This time it was getting dark but never the less the experience was beyond explanation. We had to leave as it was time for the gates to close. We had a nice dinner and went to bed. We had to leave early the next morning as we had stuff to do that evening in Hyderabad. Sabarish had some family commitments and so did Vishnu. I was really keen to go Sunday morning as well but I stuck to the unanimous decision the team had taken. I couldn't wait to get back home to tell the tales of the tiger.