Taori's Tiger journey

 

Dear friends, thank you so much for showering so much love towards each and every blog I publish. Your love and affection motivate me to keep experimenting and bring something new. 

while I was thinking of a new topic my beloved friend/ colleague Abhishek Taori came up with a different level of  Tadoba experience (I am jealous) which I have not seen in my six-year journey. Both of us were discussing the same while the idea came to Abhishek's mind to post a blog on this, I loved it and immediately agree to publish on this blog space. The experience and pictures are all from the heart of Abhishek Taori and all credit to him for selecting BT Wild Art to post such unique stuff. 

Taori's Tiger journey

Hello Folks, you might have been expecting another one of Bhavesh’s blogs but you are in for a surprise. Bhavesh has graciously agreed to let me write a post about my jungle experience. After reading a lot of his posts, and mostly out of jealousy of his exploits, I finally booked my own trip to create my own first-hand jungle experience.

Being an absolute amateur in all jungle things, I delegated all the booking responsibilities to the resort owner with who I had booked my accommodation. After consulting with Bhavesh, I asked him to book a Safari through Kolara Gate. We arrived at the gate bang on time, all excited about our meeting with the tigers.

This is where we got our first setback. Our Safari was booked in the Kolara zone, but not the core area, it was booked through another gate: Madnapur Gate. This was a buffer area. And as I said previously, being an absolute amateur, this is what my understanding about the Core and Buffer area of a forest was.

Buffer Area                                                 Core Area                            

(Pics from the internet)

So, as I said, not the perfect start. With diminished expectations, I thought even if we were able to see some deer, I would call the trip a success. But still, we couldn’t be this pessimistic before the journey, and after a small prayer to god, we started the Safari.  

We told our guide about this mistake, and he was quite dismissive about the difference between the core and buffer area of a forest. Our driver during this time was taking us deep into the forest, we saw a few people working in the forest and thought to ourselves if laborers are working here the possibility of us seeing an actual live tiger sounds quite minuscule.  

And then it all changed, we took a turn and saw 5-6 gypsies in a huddle looking in the distance. We glanced in the general direction where people were staring at, and that was our first meeting with Tigers. We were staring at two tiger cubs of Junabai (an old female tigress in the region). Both of them were chilling by the artificial pond. We were told that these were two of the three one and a half year cubs Junabai gave birth to last year.

Now all pics from the lense of Abhishek

Sighting both of them, our spirits came back. I was already thinking that the trip is successful. It got even better when the third cub joined in the fun. All of them were enjoying a lazy Sunday afternoon by the lake.  For my friend, Anirudh who had been on countless Safaris without a sighting, this was a dream come true.  

We waited for about an hour for Junabai, but she did not grace us with her presence. After this, another of my friend, Aniruddha, for whom this was the first trip ever to a forest convinced us to go to a different area of the forest in search of more tigers. Our guide thought we were crazy. Leaving three tigers in front of us in hopes of more tigers in the bush.  

We left and saw the same laborers standing there. From a brief conversation with them, we understood that they were waiting for the tigers to go away so that they could have a drink from the lake. Imagine, man and beast sharing the same lake for water.  

We went to another water body and saw some Wild Boar and Gaurs. Afraid of us, all of them left the watering hole soon. We stopped at a forest rangers' house for a break and discussed with the guide our next course of action. Should we go back to our original place with the tigers or go ahead. Our guide convinced us to go to one other watering hole where there had been some tiger sightings.  

We left, and lo and behold, another tiger family. Tigress T-9 or as guides called her Korri Female (because of her distinct lack of markings on her back) was with both of her cubs. One of the cubs was quite surprised at the look of a gypsy and kept on staring at us. Occasionally looking at his mom for guidance on what to do. Korri Female was however unmoved, knowing that it was her Kingdom that we had entered and she was in charge there.  

After some time, the T-9 tigress left us the place and both the cubs went into hiding in the forest. Looking at us through the trees.

Not believing our luck, we were happy with just sitting here. But our guide said that we should get back to the previous location in order to try our luck with sighting Junabai. The original place had not changed much, the same gypsies were standing there and the tigers still chilling by the lake. Our guide slyly told a few other guides that there were Tigers at the other water body as well. This information went like wildfire through all the gypsies. All of them after looking at nothing happening in front of them left in a jiffy, leaving us alone with the tigers.  

Having virtually no one to look at them, the triplets overcame their shyness and started playing among themselves. 

With no one nearby, they came near our gypsy. We thought in a threatening way, but our guide told us they were just being curious. By this time, my camera battery was drained and I couldn't click any pictures but this I think was a good thing. Watching tigers play a few meters away from you, is not something that can only be captured in your mind.  

But this was not the end of the trip, after about fifteen minutes, of playtime. Suddenly, Junabai appeared in the distance. And on cue, all three cubs straightened up and went back to her. 

 

And this was the end of my trip, 2 families, 7 tigers. One of the best forest trips, something that I would remember all my life.  

PS: We did not see a single deer. 😜😜

Once again many thanks Abhishek for sharing this wonderful memory with my readers

I hope you liked this blog, keep blessing and keep motivating me to deliver unique stuff, do let me know your feedback on btwildart@gmail.om

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