Saturday 7 January 2023

Sanjay Dubri Trip Report

 
Hello friends, let me wish everyone a very happy new year. May god bless everyone with good health, wealth, and memorable trips all around the world. 

On a personal front, 2022 was an amazing year with some dreams coming true and with the hope to fulfill many more in 2023 as well. The year became amongst the best to date because of a lot of events which includes this memorable trip to end the year or you can say to start the new year. 

I know you are excited to know more about the trip so let me become Sanjay of Sanjay Dubri to narrate each moment

Crazy Kahani

To start with, I will update you on details of the trip followed by a snapshot of this new place, so fasten your  seatbelt to fly on this fantastic trip

Sanket/Jogi/Mihir and others initiated the planning of this trip in Kanha where I was not a party to the planning group but yes I was included by default in the list. Sanket updated me about this plan and asked me to be ready for year-end Dhamaka. It is like Jungle me Mangal type plan to celebrate a new year in the forest so no way I can say no to it and now it is part of our lifetime memory book 

Here the primary motive was to get together and Safari was secondary, so we opted train as an option because asli maza SAB k Saath ata hai, the fun that you can have in a train is unmatched. Birthday celebration of Kishore Sir, Biryani from Amol, UNO, card games, and a lot more fun

UNO somehow helped Virana Opps Veena to remember a few names from the group, which was the biggest achievement 😆😆With such unlimited fun we reached Satna and started evaluating the local food, it started with Moong Bhaji and Jalebi making at Dhaba followed by yummy lunch at the Sanjay resort (Baghela Heritage)

After having lunch we ventured into the forest for the first safari and in just 20 minutes target was locked, I mean the tiger was sighted giving us a reason to celebrate in a grand way

Now we entered into a party zone, for most of us it was the first time experience becoming wild in the forest😜. Party started with karaoke on demand from Sam and joined by others and later on change of theme by DJ Mihir, with different levels of dancing skills, we ended the year on a highly memorable note but gossip of the party will remain within the group only 😷

Now on the dawn of the new year even after the party, we all were ready for another round of safari, the day went completely dry due to fog (idhar Fog chalega to Camera nai chalega) but the evening was eventful with the sighting of tigress with a kill, now be ready for the encounter but Darna zaroori hai.

The Encounter

I have kept this section separate because this is the climax of the game, so now let us enter the last safari. The place compared to other places is less explored hence it becomes challenging to find a tiger but we had an expert with us “The Kanha Queen” so we were sure that we will find something. 

We the gangsters (me, Mihir, Sanket, and Sayali) started searching for a tiger by tracking the pug marks and after efforts of more than an hour, we saw peacocks flying in fear which hinted at us presence of a tiger. 
 
The tiger was rushing behind the peacock with failed attempt hence he was in anger, which he tried to pass on to us with a couple of mock charges on us. The aggressive look from the tiger narrated the story of a failed attempt, in my 7 years of wilderness I saw such a moment for the first time, the driver and guide got thrilled with the tiger’s look and were not ready to find the tiger anymore, we tried to convince them but the fear overruled our excitement and we missed few shots of a couple of more tigers passed along with angry tiger

We were sad to miss the shots but Kuki made us crazy, Kuki is imitating the sound of deer some time used by guides/drivers to draw attention instead of shouting. The way our guide did Kuki was out of the world, we couldn’t stop ourselves from laughing our hearts out. Sayali will spread the new Kuki method in Kanha for sure 😝😝

Dubri at a glance

The place is upcoming and not known to many hence it is important to give a snapshot so that the small wonder can become as big as other forests

Sanjay Dubri national park is in place since 1975, All of Sanjay-Dubri Tiger Reserve used to be in Madhya Pradesh before Chhattisgarh was carved out of it in 2000. 

After a split of the states the national park’s boundary also was divided, a large part of this 1,440 km2 (560 sq mi) area is now located in Chhattisgarh, which was renamed to "Guru Ghasidas National Park" by the Government of Chhattisgarh

The MP site includes Sanjay National Park and the Dubri Wildlife Sanctuary, both of which cover more than 831 km2, and are located in Sidhi District

As per information from local people, there are around 40 tigers with the presence of leopards, sloth bears, deer, jungle cats, hyenas, and many more of them

We should explore new places and help them to grow to the next level, we may face some hiccups due to lack of experience but surely efforts from travelers and the government can really pull up the standards

Now at the end please take a look at the DSLR section to see exciting pictures of the tour, do share your feedback with me at btwildart@gmail.com

Vote of Thanks

Nature Explorer (erstwhile Mumbai Travellers) and Team – Many thanks Saurabh, Jogi, and Mayuresh for managing the tour so smoothly, you guys are rocking, keep it up

Co-Travelers - Many Thanks to Sanket (for coming from LTT), Mihir, Sayli, Jogi, Mayureh, Samuel, Lakshmi, Mythili, Kishore sir (Birthday boy of the trip), Neeraj, Amol, Kshipra, Rohini, Deepti, Himani, Nishank, Dharmesh, Veena, Debraj     

Drivers and guides – Many thanks for such a memorable time

Sanjay Resort Baghela Heritage - Management and Staff many thanks for the lovely food and stay

BT Wild Art

Dils se DSLR