Rocking Ranthambore - A Trip report

 

Good morning gang, lovely friends hope you traveled this season and had a great time, if not do plan a nature trip and rejuvenate yourself, trust me nature is the best medicine to get refreshed from stress.

The Journey

Before I get into the details let me tell you my special love and affection for Ranthambore. This is my 2^nd trip to Ranthambore, the earlier happened in May 2015 so it was Van Vas of 8 years.

I am still thinking why I could not make it to this lovely place for such a long time. The first ever tiger sighting came from zone 6 of this place (Noor with 2 cubs) and gifted with me friends forever after that not looking back but sadly it took 8 years for me to visit here again. Nevertheless, the journey was equally rewarding with a lot of action and drama.   

Aap ka Sanjay will narrate each and every moment absolutely the same way Sanjay narrated the Mahabharata war to Dhritarashtra 😜) so I will be your Sanjay going further ha ha ha

So let me tell you how it started, as usual, Nature Explorer announced a trip to Ranthambore for the month of June to break my van vas of 8 years. I cannot let go of this opportunity and hence I jumped immediately for the trip. 

After a wait of a month, finally, the day arrived, we 12 wildlife lovers gathered at Mumbai Central to reach this lovely destination. Ashish Rego was added to the gang rest of the others are known gangsters, ohh sorry we were 13 people and not 12 because 1 person was watching us with his Mayavi Shakrti from somewhere 😝😝😝(bolo kaun hai who……….)

Finally, we reached Savai Madhopur, the land of the fort, Trinetra Ganesh, and forest, distance from the station to the hotel (Heritage Haveli) is hardly any so we reached quickly in 15 minutes and took a rest for the upcoming safari at 3pm. Now gear up for the bumpy rider to the jungle. 

Ek Shaam Leopard ke naam

We started with Zone 2 with a lot of excitement because this was 1^st visit for some of us and for me the feeling of Karan/Arjun returning to the place after Punar Janam J, I am becoming dramatic day by day.

On a serious note, the excitement was more for me because the attachment towards wildlife came from Ranthambore. Now we entered the zone and started thinking about what is there on the plate, within the next 20 minutes we heard deer calling, Yeh hota hai asli pyar, just in 20 minutes, and a straight indication of the arrival of the big cat. The calling was strong enough for us to decide to halt and wait for further action. Jogi was quick to find Leopard sitting on the left side, it was around 10 minutes long sighting for this elusive cat. 10 minutes with a leopard is extremely rare and more precious than sighting a tiger. 

Taking this luck, we moved ahead to see where the King is, in between we saw a few lovely birds and landed in another rarity, this time it turn out to be my favorite Ballu means Sloth Bear. Again it’s not easy to get an appointment from Bhalu but somehow it was a double jackpot for us. with this we ended the day without the King but with double happiness and double hope for the upcoming safaris. 

Mayavi Shakti😈 

Now time for the next day, so Zone 5 in the morning the Zone 3 in the evening. Both zones are beautiful and are full of greenery because of rain which is again unusual in the month of May. We were enjoying dancing peacocks all through the journey and we actually started counting. At one stage, we saw three peacocks dancing at the same time, and the count crossed 50 in 6 safaris.

To see as many as 50 dancing peacocks’ gives a feeling of a warm welcome from the heart of the forest, but you would be thinking what about the tiger? Tiger kaha gaya? Kidhar gaya tiger luck?

My answer is Ruko zara, Sabar karo, so in both these zone, we got trapped by the 13^th person who was following us from a suspicious place, Uski Parkhi nazar, Mayavi shakti or tiger nahi mila. 

So Zone 5 and 3 went without a tiger but again luck came to our rescue with a rare sighting of a Dusky Eagle owl, Stork-billed kingfisher with fish catch, Crocodiles, and many more lovely species which are gifts of nature. This is how we ended with a mix of feelings of no tiger but the happiness of rarity. Now watch out for the next 3 visits and the impact of Mayavi in the next section.  

Koi Mil Gaya 

Now we had zone 6, 5, and 1 in our bucket (for 1 jeep it was zone 4 instead of 1 as part of the last visit). We started with Zone 6 in the morning with a prayer to break the Mayavi trap, 75% of the time we spent with no sign of the king but we continue to evaluate different species and were running from pillar to post to meet the King. Suddenly the situation changed, got the hint of the presence of a tiger around, thirsty tigress T127 Laxmi wanted to drink water so she arrived near the pond. Our thirst for the tiger also ended with her thirst for a water

With a change in luck, we started getting tigers on all visits, now it was time to meet hunk T121 Male in the evening. This hunk was sitting in the water with a lazy attitude, we were greedy to take head-on pictures but the hunk was too lazy to come out of the water and due to lack of time, we rushed to the exit gate. 

Now 3^rd in a row, Zone 1 with early luck, with morning time we just entered the forest and hardly had passed a few KM and saw two sub-adult cubs of Norrie sitting a little far, both were in play mood but watch full at the same time. We started clicking record shots and waiting for them to come out but a stupid biker disturbed the sighting. These were sub-adult tigers not very used to the presence of bikes going with speed, which spoiled the probability of long sighting. Kahi yeh woh Mayavi ka banda toh nahi 👹 this is the mystery and will be solved once the 13^th person will come on a future trip, Kahi Kisi roz Milega toh sahi na…………. 

Ohh wait please, Ruko zara, sabar karo, this is not the end of the story, read the next section for a couple of unique instances

Truly amazing 

I notice three instances, which were unusual and hence mentioned in a separate section. The first instance was the Rufous treepie, though this bird is very common in Ranthambore the behavior made us laugh a lot. This energetic bird is such a crazy creature and is bold and fearless. On all safaris at the entry gate, this bird was present in good count and one of them was behaving as if it is hired by the forest department to check each vehicle. There were more than 15 vehicles waiting for clearance from FD where this bird was visiting each vehicle standing there and checking everyone sitting in the vehicle. The act was too funny, we counted and noticed that it ensured to check all the vehicles and not even a single car was left unattended

The next instance was playtime with the cute and sweetie pie squirrel, again like Treepie, a squirrel was bold enough to reach near anyone who calls out. During the break time, we got the opportunity to come out of the gypsy for 5 minutes. I utilize the time with sweetie pie, she came very close and intended to drink water from my hand. It was too funny to play with a harmless squirrel, normally such small specie will not come closer to anyone out of fear, but Squirrel was funny and fearless

Now the last event is special from anything else we sighted because this animal is nocturnal and sighted mostly after the dark. This is none other than a deadly Hyena. Accidentally we got to the site where it was a routine for Hyena. Probability is after dinnertime, we tried our luck for two days and luckily sighting three at a time. For pictures, the time was difficult due to hardly any lights around (not even streetlights) but to watch this animal is a big treat. This is how the trip ended with so many twists and turns and with amazing sightings making Ranthambore Part 2 a huge success. For your information listing down the list of total sightings and some exciting pictures

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 Jogi and team for managing the tour so smoothly, you guys are rocking, keep it up.

Co-Travelers - Many Thanks to John, Sonia, Amol, Kshipra, Neel, Neeraj Sir, Kishor Sir, Himani, Dharmesh, Ashish, and the Expert Jogi.

Drivers and guides – Many thanks for such a memorable time

Heritage Haveli Management and Staff -  Many thanks for the lovely food and stay arrangements. 

Unmatched list

Brown fish owl

Dusky eagle owl

Indian Scops owl

Indian pitta

Peacock

Indian paradise flycatcher

Red-headed Vulture

Honey-buzzard

Oriental magpie-robin

Night jaar

Stork-billed kingfisher

White-throated Kingfisher

Common Kingfisher

Pied Kingfisher

Eurasian thick-knee

Pond heron 

Woolly-necked stork

Moor hen

Yellow-footed green pigeon

Painted stork 

Spoonbill

Crested serpent eagle

Grey francolin

Orient white eye

Crested bunting

Golden oriole

Red-vented bulbul

Blue-cheeked bee-eater

Leopard zone 2

Sloth Bear Zone 2

Tigress T127 Lakshmi Zone 6

Tiger 121 male zone 5

2 Sub adult cubs of Norrie Zone 1

Spotted deers

Sambar Deer

Chinkara

Langoors

White Bellied Drongo

Black Drongo

Blue bulls

Rufous Treepie

Great Thik knee

Asian Open Bill Stork

Lesser Golden back woodpecker

Little Green River turn

Darter 

Little Cormorant

Indian cormorant

Black-winged stilt

Little grebe

Lesser whistling duck 

Black-headed Ibis

Bay back Shrike

Long-tailed Strike

Painted Spurfowl

Green Bee-eater

Red Rumped Swallow

Red-wattled Lapwing

Spotted Owlet

Jackals

Brown crake

Jungle bush quail

Common hawk cuckoo

Asian koel 

Greater coucal

Mongoose

Hoopoe

Yellow crown woodpecker

Indian robin

Tickell's blue flycatcher

Fantail

Large grey babbler

Brahmini starling

Indian pied starling

Stripped Hyena

Monitor lizard

Garden lizard

BT Wild Art

Dils se DSLR  

Leopard

                                                                     Leopard

Leopard

Sloth Bear

Laxmi T127

T121 Male

Norrie's Cubs

Street Dance Peacock 

Stork Billed Kingfisher 

Dusky Eagle Owl

Crocodile 

Indian Paradise Flycatcher

Indian Paradise Flycatcher

Deer fight

Indian Scops Owl

Indian Thick-knee 

Stork-billed Kingfisher

Wooly necked Stork

Oriental White Eye

Large Grey Babbler 

Blue-Checked Bee-eater

Garden Lizzard

Forest Officer -  Rufous Treepie

Playtime with Squirrel 

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