Dear friends hope you are doing good and enjoying the summer vacation with your loved ones.

Last time we saw the forest of MP (Sanjay Dubri) which is an unexplored place and now it's time to visit the completely opposite of it, I mean the highly explored and oldest place (Tadoba).

Tadoba is like Char Dham for wildlife lovers hence we keep on going there, I know you have seen multiple blogs on Tadoba and you will be thinking what is new this time? But let me tell you each and every trip is unique and as fresh as a new place. So let us catch virtual Duranto to reach Nagpur and then directly to the heaven

The madness begins

First, let me give you context on why Tadoba again, and then will get into what happened during the trip.

The idea came from Saurabh for Tadoba in April, I was reluctant for the 7^th round but Saurabh updated me that it will be a full-day safari planned for this trip which will be a unique experience. At no cost I can ignore a full-day visit plus meeting crazy friends like Vishnu/ Saurabh/Mihir together is again a motivation to join the trip.

The journey started from CSMT with a variety of food like Thepla, Pizza, and paneer/chicken rolls but not Alphonso 😄. Upon reaching Nagpur first thing we did is Pet Pooja (Breakfast) at Uttar Dakshin with absolutely amazing food such as Uttapam, Idli, Vada, Dosa, and filter coffee, highly recommended, do visit here for many more options even for lunch/dinner.

After a yummy breakfast, we directly reached Pugmark Jungle Lodge, we geared up for the first safari of the trip after having lunch.

Now it’s time to get into the drama, all two days from here are dedicated completely to the forest. Trust me it was like Jungle Me Mangal. To know the reason you need to take a permit to enter the forest (I mean the next section of the blog)

Aaj ki sham taru ke naam

Tadoba is home to us so we entered the forests without any worry about the sighting, the driver and guide both were experts. They had a fair idea of the possibility of a tiger in this zone (Junona Zone) hence within the next 20 minutes we land up in Taru’s area (Young male tiger). Taru was relaxing in the lake. After showing a tantrum he came out of the water, the reason to move out of the water was Bison grazing close to him. Taru wanted to attack Bison but gave up in the end and changed his mind to attack because Bison was too big to handle. Taru was smart enough to realize that it will be difficult and might cause an injury so he dropped the plan, though Taru did not attack the Bison still we got a good opportunity to take a variety of pictures.

The evening went very well majorly driven by Taru followed by a glimpse of Chotti Madhu (see another section for this queen). The day ended and we went back to the hotel and decided to become Taru by jumping into the pool.

At the initial 40 minutes, we loved the pool but a twist in the weather forced us to come out of the pool, it started lightning and raining resulting into dropping in temperature. The combination of lightning, rain, and wind made the situation crazy with no power for 5 minutes and the sound of the wind took us to the memory of a horror movie scene. It was unexpected but turned into fun, this is how Ek Sham Taru Ke Naam ended with hope and a lot of expectations for a full-day safari event.

Shambhu ne diya bamboo

Now the most awaited day arrived, this was our first experience staying in the forest for a full-day safari, and without worrying about food/water, hot and humid day we bumped into a whole day event. You must be thinking why full day, is there any advantage, etc. so let me explain to you why it is so exciting, the reasons are -

1. You get almost 12 hours in the forest without any pressure of time

2. You get 15 minutes early entry, which gives the advantage to reach the sighting place first, so more probability of sighting opportunities

3. Similar to entry time you get an additional 15 min for the exit as well, same advantage position here as well.

4. You can skip between zones, so based on sighting opportunity you can switch the zone

Now let me take you to meet Shambu to know what kind of Bamboo this handsome tiger gave us.

Shambhu is a dashing male Tiger dominating the Agarzari buffer zone, he looks a little more aggressive than Taru. We were searching for Tiger in this zone and suddenly saw Shambu taking a nap in between Bamboo trees. He was in no mood to wake up but still with hope with waited for more than 30 minutes. Finally, hunger forced him to wake up and come out of the clutter and move towards the kill. A cattle was killed a couple of days back and was still there, such a big kill can feed a tiger for 4/5 days. Shambhu was feasting on cattle like a birthday treat and giving us a unique moment to capture his treat

Ruko Zara, Sabar Karo, Shambu ka Bamboo toh sun lo, we saw all this drama and thought that normally after eating tigers mostly visit the water area to relax and cool down the body, but yeh toh tha Shyana Shambhu, he opted to go behind trees to hide from us and decided to go on deep sleep. We waited until 12.30 noon and then decided to move on to check other areas

The next couple of hours were dry so we decided to check once again about Shambhu, when we reached the place, and saw that another animal was killed by Shambu and it was lying in an open area near the pond-type area. After we left Tiger Ne game kar diya.

The drama happened around 2 pm and the news got viral. As per the rule, Forest Department (FD) initiated the process of collecting evidence through trap cameras to complete the process of compassion for the owner of the cattle. FD could do this because Tiger moved away from the site but was expected to come back to take control of the kill and keep it at a safe place from scavengers. But Shambu ne diya Bamboo did not return till the evening exit time, multiple times we checked the place but till our exit he did not come back. Somewhere in the dark, he managed to shift the cattle to a hidden place.

We visited again the same place again the next morning and saw that Shambhu shifted the kill overnight and was kept at such a place where vehicles cannot reach. This was a smart game played by Shambhu to give Bamboo to all visitors to ensure that no one disturbs him and no one takes clicks of his lunch.

Chotti Madhu the new Queen

Now let us meet the new queen, the daughter of Madhuri who ruled Agarzari and Telia zone earlier. Chotti Madhu resembles her mother; she is as beautiful as Madhuri is. Chotti Madhu has taken over Agarzari from her mom and now ruling the most beautiful part of the Tadoba. We have seen her when she was a cute little cub and used to follow Madhuri, what a lovely tigress, queen in making.

We were lucky to sight her twice during this trip, firstly we just got a glimpse of her walking across on day 1, and on the next day, she made our day with her royal walk and crossing through the lake with some close-ups. With Madhu’s sighting experience, I want to share one thing, you need to keep your gears ready all the time else you will miss the special moment. This means you need a zoom camera or zoom car 😜😜😜 (yaa to camera zoom karo yaa car, warna photo Aayegi Bekar)

Bhag K1 Bhag

Now we reached the evening time of the safari with around 1 hr left for an exit, we got the news that K1 another young charming male tiger is around so we reached the place quickly but this guy was in sleep mode with no intention to come out from hide. We decided to check Shambu’s status and we moved from K1’s place.

In no time suddenly it started raining, and we were lucky to reach a safe place near the forest house to keep the camera safe. The rain continued for 15/20 minutes which forced us to take a reverse decision and check the status of K1. It was Saurabh who quickly analyzed the situation and decided to go back to K1 because the rain would have forced K1 to come out to find a safe place. This turned out to be the best decision because K1 came out and gave us a lot of happy moments to capture the memories.

Apart from Tiger, we were lucky to see Sloth Bear and 70 birds, in addition to this discussion on various topics among all of us was just out of this world. Overall trip was highly memorable, starting from the train to the break for food, the hotel, the sighting, the poolside chats, crazy co-travelers, and so on. Looking forward to meeting everyone again at some new destination with a new story, till that time wishing all of you happy traveling, take care.

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 on 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 Saurabh, Vishnu, Mihir, Abhijit, Carel, Neel, Atit

Drivers and guides – Many thanks for such a memorable time

Pugmark Jungle Lodge Management and Staff - Many thanks for the lovely food and stay arrangements. Impressed with the way you packed and deliver food at the gate for a full-day safari.