Tadoba Returns a Trip Report

 

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. 

BT Wild Art

Photoshoot Section

Chotti Madhu

Shambhu

Taru

K1

Sloth Bear

Croco

Honey Buzzard

Shikra

Crested Serpent Eagle

Lesser Whistling Duck

Mottled Wood Owl

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  

Bhigwan Trip Report

Dear friends hope all is well at your end, I am good as well. I know this time took a long to publish a story, my sincere apology for the same, but due to some personal and professional commitments unable to publish. But let me tell you today’s visit will compensate for a waiting time

Somehow got the opportunity to travel after a gap of 6 months, this is my favorite now because it offers something unique every time. Let me begin the story in the next section and take you to the world of grassland to understand why nature is so beautiful

The starter

As I said no trips planned and had no idea what I am going to do in the coming few months, suddenly got a message from Vishnu regarding Bhigwan. I was in double mind because I had done it a couple of times but I finally decided to join the group because I wanted a short break 

With no plans and expectations, I got ready to travel with another five people because we all are MT buddies (Mumbai Traveler), and trip arrangements as always done by MTs.  I had a fair idea that even without a sighting the trip will surely be memorable. This is how the unplanned trip started and was high on rewards and low on expectations

We started on Friday evening, reached Bhigwan around 10.30 pm, and got ready for the next day's early wake-up call. The target set to get Wolves which is the main attraction in Bhigwan, it is very difficult to get wolves compared to Tigers because places are rare where you get wolves so we wanted to catch up with The Bhediays” of the world at any cost.

The expectation suddenly went high when we started at around 5am but the session went completely blank, with no clicks at all, and evening scope is very rare so the day went without the wolf. However, we got some wonderful birds in the evening, which was a bit of relief for all of us. 

Now we only had the last chance on Sunday morning because we had to go back to Mumbai. Here the problem was either birds or wolf, if you do not get a wolf the scope of birding also go away due to the long distance between places. Meanwhile, our expectations increased as we got a surprise from Saurabh, who joined us on Saturday evening for a Sunday visit. Now the confidence level went further up because of the expert joining us at the right time.

Now the last visit started with fingers crossed, we had to search for 30 minutes initially but finally, the wolves arrived in a style, around six were there and four were very close to us giving all kinds of poses, playing and running around, this went on for an hour compensating for Saturday and made our trip into a huge success. In addition to this, we also enjoyed food, our trip will not end till the time we add food to it, we had a lovely homemade Maharashtrian flavor like Misal, Bhakri, Shevbhaji, etc and on the way Kathi roll (suggested by Esmail Sir) and Mastani (connect with Vishnu for recipe and details of Mastani) J. Now before we move to the DSLR section let me give you a snapshot of Wolf so that you understand why it is so special. 

The Bhediya

The Wolf in Hindi is known as Bhediya and Varu in Gujarati 

The Indian wolf is a subspecies of grey wolf that ranges from Southwest Asia to the Indian Subcontinent

Wolves are found on the open lands of India and they are able to survive in areas that are considered desert-like in nature, hence it is not easy to find them in every region and forest

It is believed that only about 3,000 Indian Wolves remain in the wild today, due to the bad reputation that these wolves have and the poor economic area where they live, it is hard to get effective practices in place for conservation

An Indian wolf pack will spread themselves out when hunting Indian hares and various rodents, in contrast to coordinating when their target is the swift blackbuck antelope

lucky list

So the list stands like this – Montagu's harrier, Marsh harrier, Pallid harrier, Common Kestrel, Indian Roller, Bonelli's eagle, Grey francolin, Drongo, Yellow-wattled lapwing, Hoopoes, Shrike, Chinkara, Red avadavat

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

Vote of Thanks

Mumbai Travellers and Team – Many thanks to Saurabh, Jogi and Pathamesh, Mayuresh for managing the tour so smoothly, you guys are rocking, keep it up.

Co-Travelers  - Esmail Sir, Dhruv, Gayatri, Vivek, Vishnu, Saurabh

Drivers/guides – Kundan your effort in finding Wolves is highly appreciated.

Home Stay  - Sandeep Nagre (Agni Pankh Flamingo Point), lovely food, and super arrangements for finding so many species 

BT Wild Art

                          DSLR  

Wolf

Peacock

Montagu's harrier

Common Kestrel

Montagu's harrier

Shrike

Yellow-wattled lapwing

Chinkara

Indian Roller 

Hoopoes

Red avadavat