Bandhavgarh Days : Tigers, Cubs and Birds of Bandhavgarh (Camp 30) : Author - Reva Gitesh Kulkarni 😀

Huush…Much dreaded exams were finally over 😌😌😌😌, and long awaited Summer holidays finally began! For the past three years, I had been going on Wildlife safaris with “iCampers”, and this year too was no exception -  the trip was highly anticipated.  Same as last year my sis, Samiya was accompanying me and so was my mum, who was invited as a volunteer by Kedar Mama. In excitement, both me and Samiya packed our bags two days before our trip. We arrived in Pune one day prior our trip from Bangalore.

Finally, the big day arrived, and me and Samiya were extremely excited. The three of us slung our bags on our backs, made sure we had all the essentials and stepped out of our home.

We reached Pune Railway Station early in the morning and I was very happy to see several familiar iCampers. There were also a bunch of new people and after short introduction with everyone, we became good friends. We headed to platform and boarded train Deccan Queen which arrived within few minutes. Very soon everyone got settled in their seats and were having a loads of fun.

The journey begins

Sight-seeing began from the train windows itself. We saw many birds like common maina, common crow, common rock pigeon and many more at Lonawala and Khandala valley. Soon, before we reached Mumbai some of the kids were fast asleep while some started to play cards in the train. We put one suitcase in the middle, and all the kids gathered around it to play games like “Jhabbu”, “Challenge” and many more. At last, we reached Mumbai CST. We hurried to wrap our stuff in our bags. Everyone formed their groups advised by Chitra Mami and went to the waiting room.

We are in Mumbai!!

Mumbai CST waiting room

After some time two more members of iCampers joined us. After some time, the volunteers started to distribute lunch plates, and we had nice home cooked lunch. After lunch, Kedar Mama called everyone and told us to form groups and boarded train which was till Jabalpur - it was an overnight train.We kept all our bags under the seats and gathered to play and have fun.

Can't wait to play 

Then my mum and Chitra Mami told all the kids to open their boxes and have food. After our dinner we all were talking and having a lot of fun. Next day, early in the morning we reached Jabalpur. There were Innovas waiting for us, we boarded them and went in a restaurant nearby. 

Dhuandhar and Bheraghat here we come

After our breakfast we had planned to go to BheraGhat and Dhuandhar. 

Dhuandhar

Dhuandhar long shot

Dhuandhar is a waterfall of Narmada river while Bheraghat is the calm part of the Narmada river. We went to Dhuandhar, took many photos and came back near the Innovas and headed to Bheraghat. There are many different types of marbles in Bheraghat like Black marble, White marble and Pink marble on both sides of river.

Different types of marbles in Bheraghat

We had an awesome sighting of birds in BheraGhat too. We saw birds like Little Cormorant, Indian Eagle Owl, Red whiskered bulbul and many more. While coming out of the boat we did window shopping and ate kali maina while coming back

After lunch we headed straight to Bandhavgharh.  We reached at around 4:00 pm. The resort in which we were to stay was in the buffer zone of the jungle. Very soon we got to know that there is a swimming pool in our resort. Me and my sister immediately went in the pool.  There were already some boys from our group in it. 

Swimming!!

After about one hour of swimming and having fun, Kedar mama too joined us in the fun. Soon after about another hour Kedar mama called all the kids and he was telling us some amazing stories about Tiger.

After some time, hotel staff served dinner to us. After everyone was finished Kedar mama called everyone to give general instructions and told everyone to go to bed and sleep immediately as we had to wake up at 4:00 am and reach at the gate of jungle by 5:00 am in the morning. There were two safaris each day one in the morning 5:00 am-10 am in the morning and another 3:00 pm-6:30 pm in the evening.

The next day, we all were ready at the meeting point early in the morning. The Gypsies were waiting for us at the gate of the resort. In Bandhavgarh jungle there are four main zones - Tala, Magdhi, Khitaulli and Panpatta.

Tigers here we come!!

A sweet welcome

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Day-1 Zone- Magdhi: We saw many birds like -

·      Painted Sperfowl

·      Rose-ringed parakeet

·      Greater coucal

·      Yellow footed green pigeon

·      Black hooded oriole

·      Brahminy Starling

·      Red Jungle Fowl

·      Purple sunbird

·      Brown hawk cuckoo

·      Asian Paradise Fly Catcher

·      Red vented bulbul

·      Common maina

·      Orange-headed crown thrush

·      Painted stork

·      Common sandpiper

·      Lesser whistling duck

·      Little grebe

·      Great egret

·      Little egret

·      White necked stork

·      Little cormorant

·      Pond heron

·      Red water lapwing

·      Racket-tailed drongo

·      Rufus tree pie

·      Yellow wagtail

·      Shikra

·      Red naped ibis

·      Crested serpent Eagle

We were very tired here to wait for Tiger to come out so we went ahead and did not wait anymore. But one of our group waited for Tiger to come out and at last Kankatti (a Tigress) rose and came out of a covered region to drink water. Our teammates got real dream shots.

Kankatti

Here she comes!

This shows that patience is really important in the jungle.

In the second safari which was in the zone tala we saw a tiger cub near a water body and many birds like-

·      Plum headed parakeet

·      White rumped shama

·      Crested serpent eagle

·      Egyptian Vulture

·      White throated kingfisher

·      Little bee-eater

·      Racket tailed drongo

·      Barn swallow

·      House crow

·      Thick bellied flower pecker

·      Common night jar

·      Rock pigeon

·      Collared dove

·      Spotted Owlet

·      Eagle owl

·      Cattle egret

·      Jungle crow

·      Grey hornbill

·      Sirkeers malkoha

·      Lesser adjutant stork

·      Jungle owlet

·      Green Heron

·      Indian Eagle owl

·      Red whiskered bulbul

·      Black drongo

In the evening  there was a folk dance show of Madhya Pradesh arranged by the resort for the iCampers. 

Folk dancers making a Pyramid

Folk Dance

Everyone had a lot of fun. The same day  was birthday of Tanmay in our group, we celebrated his birthday with a great enthusiasm and then he cut a cake and everyone sat for dinner. 

Happy Birthday Tanmay

Day 2 Zone- Tala : Everyone was soon ready and met at the meeting point, took some pictures along with the jeepsies and got settled in it. Our guide introduced himself as he sat in the jeep. We saw one tigress called Banbai and three cubs along with her in this trip. One of the cub was sitting on a rock close by, another came walking on a path in the jungle while one was playfully going close to a domesticated elephant (which was owned by the jungle) and the elephant would ‘shoo’ him away and then the tiger cub would again try to scare him again. Then Banbai came and took her cubs in the deep jungle. The guide said us that she has done a hunt in the deep area of the jungle and leaves the cubs in another area so that, because of her cubs she would not miss a hunt. This sighting gave a boost to our count of Tigers. 

We again saw many birds like-

·      Grey hornbill

·      Red Sperfowl

·      Indian roller

·      White throated kingfisher

·      Black drongo

·      Honey buzzard

·      Green bee-eater

·      Common Kingfisher

·      Asian Paradise Fly Catcher

·      Crusted serpent eagle

·      Cuckoo shriek

·      Orange headed blue rock thrush

·      Red wattled lapwing

·      Woolly neck stork

·      Long billed vulture

·      Magpie Robin

·      Tickles blue flycatcher

·      Lesser Adjutant Stork

While coming back from the safari we visited an area in the jungle where there was a 35-foot sleeping idol of Vishnu. We took some pictures around it. 

Sleeping Vishnu

While coming down the hill we also visited a place called bat cave where we saw False Vampire Bats. After the morning Safari, we started to show each other the photos we clicked and immediately hit the bed.

After a good afternoon sleep, everyone woke up fresh ready to see something amazing as we entered the zone-Magdhi. Sound of an insect called Cicada was heard in the jungle throughout our rides. Suddenly we saw an area where there were many jeepsies standing in a line waiting for the tiger to come out but the tiger was not seen because it had gone deep inside the jungle, so without waiting a moment we again began search of Tiger. At last, we saw one at the long distance but  was very camouflaged so couldn’t get a good view. Rest of the ride was completely dry. But still, the silence of the jungle was incredible.

With a heavy heart we had to say goodbye to the jungle. We started our return journey to Pune by train from Katni Junction. On the way back we had a Bhel party while playing cards. 

Yummy bhel!

This jungle Safari was completely successful with the sighting of 8 tigers and spotting of more than 64 species of birds in a single trip which was very fascinating as my tiger count never went above 5 in earlier Safaris.

Jungle Stories - Part 1 - Scavenger becomes Predator

Jungle Stories - Ranthambhore Apr 2017

Scorching heat of summer makes all the animals to roam during dawn and dusk. When the sun comes out, the predators prefer to live in shade. Both predators and prey rest throughout the noon. The strong predators like Tigers kill early morning or late evening and drag their prey near water hole. Tigress and cubs carve the kill and waterhole with their names. Leopards also take their food to the treetop. That make life tough for the scavengers.

Scavengers like jackal are smaller in size. They always steal the food from the predators to satisfy their hunger. Being smaller in size it becomes tough for them to steal the food from bigger predators if they are guarding their kill. Scavengers do have the killer instincts but do not have enough ammunition. But the hunger intensifies the instincts!

I was lucky to see the killing instinct of such scavenger. While in Ranthambhore in afternoon ride I got to witness something unique, very unique! As we were keeping our eyes open for searching the king in the jungle, we heard an alarm call of the spotted deer. Everyone got curious as they were hoping to see the king coming out of somewhere. To our surprise, we saw a juvenile spotted deer being choked by the jackal. Jackal was holding spotted deer's mouth and nose tightly by its jaws. Its jaw was not big enough to hold the deer's neck. We did not understand what we were seeing. We were getting goosebumps. The spotted deer was still breathing and the cunning jackal was trying its level best to choke it.

But as the jackal spotted us, it got scared of the vehicle and tried to get away. The spotted deer was still breathing but had no energy left. It was struggling for its life, was trying to move his legs, was trying to open its eyes. Another gypsy came over and pushed the jackal further away. Its scare for gypsys was bit surprising. I have seen jackals walking past gypsies very often.  This time the jackal had almost killed the deer but was still scared of the vehicles.

Though we pity the little deer, the jackal also had to live. Due to our disturbance, it got distracted. So after talking to our driver and the driver of other gypsy, we decided to reverse our vehicles. With agreement from everyone, we kept ourselves away from the deer. By this time, we saw some big Sambar deers driving jackal away. But jackal was also very determined. As we moved away, it again came close to the spotted deer.

By this time the deer had gathered some breathe. Seeing jackal coming, it gathered all the energy and stood up. It made a clever move. It came running towards our vehicle. With spotted deer's tail up, he had played well so far. The jackal was again scared of the vehicle and was not ready to pursue the kill. It was keeping its eyes on the deer and wanted it to make a mistake.

The juvenile deer stopped for a while but thought, it had enough energy to run away and tried to ran across the road. Mistake! A big mistake of its life!! As it ran away from the vehicles, the jackal ran very fast behind the deer. Just few hundred meters from us the jackal got held of its well earned kill.
Again we got to see a great example of the symbiotic life. The herd of sambar deer again tried to come to rescue the deer and tried to distract jackal by giving alert calls and trying to charge the jackal. This time jackal was so determined that he did not look back towards Sambar deer. He griped the spotted deer again. The Sambar deer got to know that its impossible to save the deer now. They turned their backs to the jackal and its kill. Jackal continued to chock the deer and ended its life.

One got killed, other got energy to stay alive. That's the rule of the jungle. Fittest the survival!

We were lucky to see something unimaginable. Our guide working in Ranthambhore for last 10 years had also not seen something similar before! I rate this sighting as one of the most thrilling sightings so far!

Thanks for reading! Photos to follow..

Jackal chocking Spotted Deer

Jackal waiting for us to go away

Its my kill

Holding back its breathe

Sambar trying distract Jackal

Fate!

RanThambore @ Rangeela Rajasthan - First Day First Show - Camp 29 (Author - Amol Kulkarni)

RanThambore @ Rangeela Rajasthan.........I am calling it as first day first show because within first hour of my safari I witnessed two tigresses. Some people call me lucky. Well what can I say, "Jaha Sher Waha Sherni". 😋.

With this blog, I would like to take you to our journey to RanThambore. Intention is to increase excitement in people and encourage them to go on such safaris.
Before I start on it let me tell you somethings. Feeling of jungle safari is a unique experience. I have been to lots of treks and particularly stayed one night at Rajgad in hot summer with clear sky. It was mesmerising experience having stayed in place where few hundred years earlier Shivaji Raje was living. I have played plenty of cricket matches having part of few breath-taking ones. It was plain happiness. Still Jungle safari was different experience. Not only Tiger seeing but trying to find birds and animals in forest is same as that of trying to understand beautiful girl's mind. Anyway, enough of philosophy and let's get going.

I started towards Pune station from my home only to witness rare halt for train crossing on actual road carrying army trucks, jeeps and other things. When I reached station Tanmay and Prafulla were already arrived proving of my late latif tag. AC of train was very relaxing specially when train reached to Khandala. Nature is beautiful over there. It would have been better in rainy season. When we reached to Kalyan, Shrikanth joined us tallying our count to 4. Kedar had plan to join us by train but some people planned road journey and so he join them. People say that travel make you meet new people. We accompanied one government official from Bharatpur only to increase our knowledge of RanThambore. Homemade dinner and sleep made way to next day reaching to Rangeela Rajasthan. People are in their traditional clothes which in Maharashtra I have seen on traditional day or in some hotels people wearing it. We reached at Sawai Madhopur railway station around 11:00 feeling hot environment as we came from AC compartment. While coming back I didn't feel that heat may be because I am from Solapur where I witnessed such temperatures. But caution to people that Sawai Madhapur is hot in summer so take care when you want to plan for it. Our driver took us to the hotel where we had bath, lunch and prepared for my first safari. We divided in two groups. In first one there is Kedar, Francis, Dr. Dilip Shah, Kalpesh, Shrikanth and me. In another there is Tanmay, Prafulla, Amit, Anoop and Saurabh. Some of us are nearly professional photographers carrying expensive and amazing cameras and lenses. I saw photography from one such lens of Dr. Dilip Shah or otherwise I could have been termed it as rocket launcher. Just kidding. I myself bought Olympus 10x50 binocular and sightseeing from it is fantastic.
I am narrating this blog from my safari but others have witnessed same excitement and some Tiger sightseeing.

I wore full clothes with hat and something to cover face to protect from heat and dust. Our gypsy took us to entrance gate where I bought one hat because I lost one due to fast driving. We are visiting zone 4 of jungle. Once we entered I started seeing animals like monkeys, deer, peacocks in large extent, well why shouldn't I, after all it is their home. At RanThambore you can spot lots of animals including different types of owls, different types of deer, crocodile and so many birds like thikani, kingfisher, eagles, vultures etc. The jungle is rich of these living things.

Drivers of the jipsies are talking each other to see if someone spotted Tiger. I am eagerly waiting for the Tiger. Our vehicle is running with optimum speed on straight roads, on turns while we are trying to see things at both sides of roads. After some time at one turn there she was. People shouted! she was inside bushes and wow I saw her, my first Tiger sight in actual jungle.......She was not visible clearly but then she moved to closer to water and we all can see her. Below is her name and photo. What a view, everybody around her is excited to see her. But as usual tigress is in her own mindset not to bother about surroundings. Photographers are clicking from their cameras trying to see from all possible angles and all her moods.


Kid of T60(f) which is Meera........Kid's naming ceremony is yet to happen. Well hopefully Meera will invite us.

Kid of T60(f) which is Meera

Kid of T60(f) which is Meera

As there is water there are animals. One such group of spotted deer was approaching to drink. They are distance away from water and Tiger. Male animal from the group approached water slowly sensing there is some danger. Now we can see Tiger and group of spotted deer. And in between them is large bush and behind the bush is male deer. Everybody is waiting to see what will happen next! And male deer shouted so loudly that group ran away, birds ran away and tigress herself shocked and tried to see what happened. This is a call indicating there is danger at water. "Saawdhan". Once tigress woke up and tilted her head all photographers started capturing the moment. And sound at that time was like this.....click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click.....Well I could not capture this video on my iPhone, how come I? Nobody knew what is going to happen.

Someone told us that there is one more tigress near current location and we geared our jipsy towards that location. Well we spotted her but then as there are already other vehicles, only head is visible. Once one hour had gone still tigress hasn't moved, our vehicles started to move one by one allowing others also to see her. When our time arrived, we have seen her from very close as she just sits near the road. We clicked lots of photographs and videos. I am not big fan of selfie but this is the time where I should have clicked one. We started to come back to hotel. People clicked photo graphs of kingfisher and other birds while return journey. We are also lucky to spot an owl. Hotel greeted us with pakoda and tea and which ended my first safari.

Noor

Noor

Second day in morning @ 5:45 our second safari started. This time we are all in one open truck (cantor). At the start of the safari itself we spotted a full grown male leopard but before we set our cameras he ran away. Still some of us were successful to capture him. It is very rare to see leopard as he was very shy animal. This time we are visiting zone 3 but we are not successful to see any tiger. So, we captured lots of birds like parrot feeding others, crocodiles, peacock dancing etc.
Other animals of the jungle are also worth seeing and not only Tiger but still Tigers are the king of jungle.

Leopard

Next safari is planned @ 3:30 and we had time till that so we decided to visit RanThambore fort. We took one guide and went there. He narrated creation of fort, various names of lake like Padmavati lake, Rani lake. He also showed puzzling door mechanism which was used to protect the fort and misguide the enemies. We visited Ganesh temple over there. Rajasthani forts are little bit different than Maharashtra forts. As they built on ground we can still see their remainings. Most of the Maharashtra forts are built on high hills so because of wind and rain now a day there are little remainings. Government and social organizations are doing their best to preserve them. Guide was telling that leopard was spotted at the fort in the morning and evening though we didn't see any. We finished fort visit and started return journey. We all are sweaty and waiting eagerly to have a bath at hotel.

Entrance of Jungle

RanThambore Fort

Shiv Temple

Ganesh Temple

At our next safari, we are visiting zone 2. This is different zone than zone 3 as it was mostly barren and little lakes are present. One driver told us that he spotted tigress at some point. And we raced away there to see it. We saw a cub and its mother together. Both are taking rest and we are busy clicking photos.

We had to leave that location and our driver took at one place where we hoped to see tigress. After some time, tigress came but not at the position we were hoping. She is the same one which we saw just a while ago today. What a luck it is. She is climbing down the hill and our gypsies are running parallel to her. She was walking along side us for almost 45 minutes, just taking some time to rest. We have captured plenty of photos and videos of her. We followed her till the point she went in to jungle deep where vehicles couldn't reach. She is walking so smoothly and confidently that it reminded me Sachin's straight drive and Federer's forehand shot.

Laila (T41)

Laila (T41)

We started our return journey by achieving a great day. And suddenly at one corner we saw a jackal killing little spotted deer. It grabbed the neck of the deer and was not letting her go. There are other big deers which are trying to save her. After some time, deer stood up and started running but jackal eventually killed her. Well that’s how jungle works but honestly, I was silently hoping for deer's life. Our guide told us that he was working here for 10 years but never saw such killing. Below is the photo, viewers are advised to see on their own. Once we came out of zone gatekeeper told us that there is male tiger near another gate and we went to see that. It just glimpses of tiger and not able to capture any photos or videos. We again greeted at hotel with Tea and Pakodas which ended our quite busy day.

Jackal killing spotted deer

Crested Bunting

Coppersmith Barbet

Peacock

Rose Ring Parakeet

Next day in morning we again visited zone 3 but not to see any tigress or tiger. We wondered here and then there to see lots of crocodiles, birds etc.

Coppersmith Feeding chicks

Oriental Darter

Rat Snake

Sloth Bear

Neelgai Female

Brown Fish Owl

Honey Buzzard

Spotted Deer

Royal Family's bathing place

Parrot Drinking Water

Spotted Deer

Gypsies :)

When we returned from the safari we had to hurry because Jaipur - Pune train was scheduled at 11:35. I know it was a long journey (I had thought of flight journey also) but thanks to one lovely kid in train with whom I played and my time went quickly. But that is at later stage. As here I am standing at Sawai Madhopur railway station waiting to go to Pune after visiting enchanting jungle. It only reminded me movie where Harry Potter was waiting at Hogwarts to reach to home.

Thanks to Kedar for arranging this trip. Thanks to all my trip mates for sharing photos and making this journey wonderful. And finally thanks to all those unknowns who contributed to this.

With this I, Amol Kulkarni signing off.


List of tigers we saw in the trip.
1. Kid of T60(f) which is Meera
2. Noor(f) T38 which has 3 cubs
3. Male Leopard
4. Laila (T41) and her cub
5. Laila walking
6. Unidentified Tiger

Photo Credits:
1. Dr. Dilip Shah
2. Kalpesh
3. Kedar Kulkarni
4. Tanmay Gadakari
5. Amol Kulkarni