BT Wild ART - A unique Journey to the wilderness

Tandoori Tadoba

Hello friends, hope you are enjoying your holidays, I feel super as I get an opportunity to connect with you all every Sunday with new stories. As promised last week I am bringing you updates on my Tadoba visit. I am pleased to present extraordinary experience of Tadoba visit, which will instigate you to plan a visit to the forest soon. Now without adding more here let me quickly take you to the most awaited journey.

Live from the Tandoor

Today’s blog is special for me because I am providing you live updates from the place itself; yes, this blog is coming to your way directly from the forest. This is my third visit to the Tiger heaven which is again unique and more exciting from previous visits.

The journey began with Duranto to Nagpur on Thursday after office hours, a group of twelve wonderful people joined the journey with a pledge “To enjoy each and every part of the forest and not only Tigers.” We had planned to explore buffer zone because of its unmatched flora fauna, the perception of buffer remains always on the negative side but we wanted to prove that buffer zone is as beautiful and rich as core zone. We first started with Devada buffer Zone which ended with wonderful memories. Let us move to the next section to feel the experience I had in these two days.

Day 1 Devada Buffer Zone

With 45 plus degree, we were feeling like someone pushed us in a tandoor but the moment we entered the forest we completely forgot about the weather. The journey started with the sighting of Picklock, Flycatcher, Drongo and many more, along with these sightings we decided to search for the King, within one hour our Gypsy driver sighted Madhuri Tigress, one of the bold and beautiful Tigress I have ever seen. She was bold enough and accustom to the vehicles and visitors, she walked with royal attitude for some time and then decided to give us photo shoot for around 30 minutes, we all fell in love with her and said thank you from the heart to her.

After sayonara to Madhuri, we went back to the photography of birding, landscapes, anything and everything of our temple for the rest of the day where time was running like a storm. We were cursing that why the time runs out so fast, it was exit time, and we came out of the forest within the stipulated time. Wait for the climax the drama is not yet over, normally after exit visitors take halt or waits for their friends, but we decided not to wait for our other friends and we started takeoff from exit gate. Ohh dear story is not so simple after exit suddenly Rajendra Sir shouted see Tiger on the right side, we all were stunned and surprised to see Chhoti Madhu Tigress (daughter of Madhuri) crossing road near from our vehicle giving us huge surprise and wonderful clicks. Tiger crossing road outside the forest between the vehicle is very rare hence I said wait for the climax, this happened as a sudden shock with superb photo frame opportunity which was not even thought off. Now you know why I love forest so much, it always rewards you with unexpected sightings in a memorable manner.

Day 2 Agarzari buffer Zone

Now it was time for back-to-back safaris morning and evening, it may sound hectic but not at all hectic rather it gave us the most wonderful memory of our life. Till now I have been to almost eight forests and countless visits in the forests, trust me each and every visit was unique and one step ahead of the last visit. Similarly, day two proved to be stepping stone moment. The morning was cool and better than the evening to visit the forest, this time we all were eager to see small cubs of Tigress as we had never seen such little cute cubs. Nature god heard the prayers and gave us shocked with sighting which we wanted, after spending time in forest somehow we reached a place where Madhuri was settled with Bison kill with her cubs, any guess how many? It was four cubs of around 6 months of age with her mom.

It was dramatic sighting because Madhuri the star of the zone entered the place first and took a place for her in middle of the road, it was instruction for her cubs to cross the road to move towards the kill. It was not this much now see how the animals behave and follow the instructions from parents, each little kid entered and kissed her mom and then moved towards the food, all of them were bold enough to provide photos shoot by setting in the middle of the road. After the session, they enjoyed their family lunch and we enjoyed every single second we spent with Madhuri family. We were extremely lucky to see five of them together with such a bold attitude making them star family of the forest.

You know what; drama never ends at the forest till the time you are out of the forest, after such a wonderful time with Madhuri family we departed to evaluate other species of the forest. During our search for other wild animals we got to know that group of Dhole has killed Sambar, we rush to the place and we saw the way Dholes were eating the kill, couple of them were enjoying the treat as it is a birthday, if you remember I had explained you in the previous blog about Wild Dogs, the scene was exactly the same.

As I always say that every visit is unique and highly fruitful, in the evening visit we again saw Madhuri family who was on tour of the forest, mom with 4 little kids was on forest vacation they were roaming all around in their zone. We also had a glimpse of three sub-adult cubs of Sharmily Tigers but unfortunately could not manage the pictures as they are part of Sharmila tiger family. This is how our 3 safaris ended on a high note which you can see from the list of species we sighted and quality of pictures we got from the temple.

I have listed out details of species to give you an idea of richness of forest.

List of God Gift

Madhuri Tigress with 4 little cubs, 3 Sub-adult cubs of Sharmily Tigeress, 8 Wild Dogs, number of Bisons, Spotted Dears, Sambars, peacock, Indian Paradise Flycatcher, Tilt, Racket tailed drongo, Black-naped monarch, Orange-headed Thrush, Lapwing, Dove, Indian Pitta, Indian Roller, 3 types of King Fisher, Green Bee-eater, Honey buzzard, Cuckoo, Collared scoops owl, jungle owlet and many more.

Note of Thanks

Saurabh Thakekar and his team (Mumbai Travelers) for such a high standard trip, Saurabh's knowledge and love towards nature is just incomparable

Co-Travelers – One word for them - Wonderful People

Sarai Home Stay – Mr. Ashish and his team - superb arrangements with APRATIM FOOD

Tadoba Forest Department and team – Guides and Drivers – Very humble and attached to the forest, it was wonderful to see their love and respect toward the forest. without them such wonderful sighting is impossible.