 After having spent nearly ten long days in Assam, I had to move on to central India. The legendary Bengal Tiger was the obvious reason for me to camp in Madhya Pradesh (Central India) covering the jungles of Bandhavgarh, Kanha and Pench for exactly a fortnight. My initial plan was to spend 6 nights in Bandhavgarh, 6 in Kanha and 3 nights in Pench. Other than the secretive Tiger which thankfully is sighted more often than any other place on earth in these jungles, the Long Billed, Red-headed (King) and the Egyptian Vultures were added attractions. I had sighted Vultures twice in Karnataka and a couple of times in Gir, in Gujarat. I was also hopeful of leopard sightings in these regions. But undoubtedly the most majestic and beautiful cat of them all the Tiger was my major initial lust. After having sighted 13 Tigers in Karnataka over the last year I couldn’t wait longer to enjoy the tiger dose in Madhya Pradesh for which I have dreamt for ages. I apologize for the length of the report, but I have felt the need to explain my entire 15 days in Madhya Pradesh in as many words.
  Bandhavgarh National Park is one of the premiere Tiger reserves of the country and sighting of the otherwise secretive cat is common here. The park spreads across 437 km² and the tourism area of the park is just about 105 km². At present approximately 25 tigers thrive in this tourism region and sighting at least four or five is bound to happen in this relatively small area during a trip. Nat geo and Discovery flaunt films made in this park numerous times featuring the legendary “Charger”, the skillful “Sita” and a few other famous tigers which were favorites of many tourists who visited Bandhavgarh. Right now a royal male named “B2” and the elusive and majestic “Bokha” are the known dominant males of the territory and most visitors to the park hear tales about these gentlemen whose sighting is a thrill second to none.
 It is believed that Lord “Rama” after having defeated “Ravana” was passing by these forests when he decided to build a fort for his brother “Lakshmana”. “Bandhav” – translates to “Brother” in hindi and “Garh” means a fort. The sand stone plateau and the fort of Bandhavgarh was where the kings ruled for centuries until the 1800s when they abandoned the fort which is now ruled by the striped kings and queens of the forest. A large stand stone statue of “Lord Vishnu” and the “Shiva Linga” is one of the attractions to the visitors venture towards the fort.
  At the end of day one and two safaris, I had learnt the geography of the park and the names of different tiger territories. I had sighted numerous chital, sambar, plenty of birds like the Brown fish owl, the grey hornbills, and the Red-Jungle Fowls but was deprived with the sight of a Tiger. I started day two with a lot of knowledge of the park and we found some success when we heard loud alarm calls of the chital. We stopped and heard growls of a tigress behind the rocks. She was probably calling her sub-adult cubs – the guide reckoned.
 “Jhor Jhora” - Sub-Adult female : Just while we were hoping she would appear out of the rocks, we saw a gypsy rushing fast across the meadows. Immediately we headed in the direction and it was clear that everyone was rushing towards the “Raj Behra” meadows. The reason was obviously because of a Tiger’s presence. When I reached the spot, at least 10 jeeps were already on the prowl. A two year old tigress which was the cub of “Jhor Jhora” was peeping towards the chital herd in the grassland. I positioned my jeep in a nice angle with the sun rising behind my back.  The elusive tigress walked out of the bushes in to the meadows towards the deer and I was spell bound. Like a nice carpet of stripes she carried herself in the meadows towards the deer. I sighted her for at least 15 minutes and this one sight spanned more than the 13 other sightings’ duration I had enjoyed before. I was thrilled. She was seen chasing the chital across the meadows before we lost track of her. She escaped in to the hills behind the area and never returned. After a sigh of relief, life moved on with pictures of the brown shrikes, the rollers and the long billed vultures. “Badi Gufa” the ancient big cave was another must see part of the park.
 “Raj Behra” was one area of the park with meadows and a large dam with natural spring water. The view from this spot made me fall in love with it and I would use this particular place when I have to spend time planning my next move or wait for alarm calls in the meadows. The reflection of the distant hill in the water hole provided excellent photographic opportunities here and at least on ten occasions being here helped us hear calls from Chital and langurs.
Working hard for the young male near “Bhul-bulaiyya”
  Guptaji, a senior guide informed about his sighting of tigers earlier in the day. His information was true and we started following numerous pug marks in the Sukhi Patiya area. After nearly 40 minutes of tracking pug marks and guessing Tiger movement we approached the Bhul-bulaiyya area to be shocked by the presence of a 3 year old male resting just a few feet away from the track. He was totally at ease and never showed any sign of surprise or shyness. After a couple of minutes he saw us settle down next to him and decided to grab a nap. He fell off on his back and started snoring. It was one of the most magnificent moments for me to put a young male tiger to sleep.  He would occasionally open his eyes and keep a watch on us but for most of the time he was careless of what I was doing around him changing lenses and converters and clicking his pictures continuously. I spent at least 2 hours next to him before he got up and ran away inside the bushes when a noisy vehicle approached us from behind and suddenly stopped disturbing the tiger. Unfortunately in excitement of seeing the Tiger, the other vehicle spoilt the rest of their and my sighting. I had enjoyed seeing him for nearly two hours and I moved on with a lot of smile on my face. I was told that this male tiger was the offspring of the Sukhi Patiya female. He was born three years ago and belonged to the earlier litter. We never found the Sukhi patiya female that day.
 Banbai Female and Cubs: For the next couple of days, sighting was pretty ordinary and I used this opportunity to photograph the other species of the forest as not much clue of the elusive tiger was found. Most vehicles were heading back disappointed. On one such morning, a dozen vehicles were found rushing towards the badi gufa(Big Cave) area and the reason was to sight the Banbai female and her litter of three cubs. The mahouts were already present in the place and guests were taken on elephant back to sight the three cubs and their mother in the interiors of the forest. While I reached the spot, the mother was seen walking away from the place and the cubs started following her. While they were on the move, I enjoyed taking numerous pictures of them being speech less. For the first time, I saw four tigers in less than as many minutes and I had no words to describe that feeling.
  I decided to climb the Bandhavgarh Fort that noon to try and have a closer look at the Vultures and also get a nice view of the entire area. It was a very hot afternoon and with 25 kilos of camera, tripod and my own overwhelming weight I reached the top in about half an hour. The whole of Bandhavgarh area can nicely be viewed from here and I spent nearly two hours trying to get pictures of the vultures. In the process, I also sighted a vulture nest and a pied hornbill near the valley. By lunch time, I could spot the elephants which were working on the tiger show that morning walking down the hill towards their camp. It was a long morning for them and I could see them from the top of the fort. I could spot the King/Red-headed vulture, the long billed and the Egyptian vultures fly across the plateau of Bandhavgarh.
  This was turning out to be a decent day with 4 tigers already in the morning. I was near my favorite place, the Rajbehra damn when I spotted sambars tentatively walking towards the water. Once they reached the water hole, they enjoyed the coolness of the water on the hot afternoon and that was the evening of the sambars until when we heard loud chital calls and my favorite tigress, the Jhor-jhora sub adult tigress was out hunting. I called her the “Princess of the Meadows” and was spell bound seeing her stalking skills. She made it quite close to a wild boar but it realized the tiger’s presence and ran away quickly. I had predicted a tiger sighting in Raj Behra area and it was nice to see one in the same area. The princess walked out of the meadows and vanished before sunset. All the guides pulled my leg asking where they could find the tiger next. Though it was a fluke guess, I would say for more information they had pay 
 The next morning - mother of the "Princess of the Meadows", the Jhor Jhora female was seen stalking towards a herd of chital again in the Raj Behra area. I had a glimpse of her head before she hid herself in the bushes. I decided to wait here and watch what she does. I told my guide that what ever happens we wouldn’t move from the place with greed of another tiger sighting and suddenly we heard a whistle. These guys call it a “Cuuki” which is used to inform others around about a tiger sighting.  They cannot shout or make calls so this is a mode of communication the guides and drivers have learnt. Without any further thought everyone just rushes towards the “Cuuki” and this is what happened with me as well. By the time my driver and guide could digest my wish to stay there, we were already on the move. It was a tremendous pressure to keep up with another tiger and we ended up in a place where the princess of meadows appeared from a hill outside. It was not a great photographic opportunity till then. We turned back and the Jhor Jhora female used this opportunity to walk out of the grass. We were stuck between two tigresses, a mother and her beautiful daughter. I was kicking myself for having moved out of there when the princess of the meadows crossed the road close by giving me ample opportunities to take new pictures of her. She was turning out to be lucky for me.
  I had already spent 11 safaris in Bandgavgarh and was supposed to head towards Kanha National Park. But I decided to stay back in Bandhavgarh for three more nights for various reasons. I had spent some time getting to know the place and it seemed sensible to spend more time to take benefit of the familiarity. Also some of Kanha’s Tigers being radio-collared was not encouraging from the photographic perspective.
Surprise on the highway
 The next morning, none of the vehicles found any sign of tigers inside the park. At around 9AM while we were returning out of the park, we heard that the Chur Behra cubs were sighted on the main road between Umaria and Tala village. Every single jeep which was inside the park rushed out to the main road. A few kilometers away the cubs were lying around the road and were being watched by hundreds of people. It was totally funny that people spent hours looking for them inside the park but they were sighted outside on the main road of the village. I was overjoyed to take pictures of one sub-adult which was constantly staring at my camera. May be the size of the lens was of some interest to the little tigress.  Incidentally, it was this litter of cubs aged about 8 to 10 months old which had attacked a village woman in the forest. Parts of her thigh were devoured and officials guessed it must be out of curiosity and playful nature which made the cubs attack. These were the dangerous tigers of the area with a taste of human flesh already. I thought the assumption was quite correct. It was probably the mistake of the woman to venture in to their territory and may be run away on sighting them that might have made them attack her in a playful mood. That evening was quite normal without any tigers but plenty of sambar sightings in the gopalpur water hole.
 One morning, I was busy photographing the long billed vultures tear apart a chital’s carcass and enjoy their breakfast. It was a perfect setting with optimum distance from the vultures and a lovely stump next to the kill where one or the other vulture would sit providing me excellent opportunities to take pictures of such a large bird with a nice bokeh (Blurred background). I spent nearly 40 minutes watching the greedy vultures fight amongst themselves and eat the left over of the chital stag. I was wondering why the Red-headed Vulture is called the “King” vulture. It surely was very shy and reluctant to go anywhere near the kill. In fact the long billed vultures had outnumbered the king and never let him go closer to the kill. The red-headed vulture showed no sign of aggressiveness and was waiting for the long billed vultures to move on.
Date with Bokha
I had sighted 16 tigers till now and a three year old male for nearly two hours. Bokha and B2 were the famous dominant males of the area and I was hoping to see at least one of them. We got to know that Bokha was sighted around the area and the elephants were seen going towards him. We guessed bokha’s movement and was fortunate to be one of the very few people who had a glimpse of the most elusive and aggressive tiger of Bandhavgarh these days. Bokha was resting on the rock and I took nearly five minutes to first spot him. Later he got up, answered nature calls, marked his territory, stared at us and walked away in glory.
 That evening we ended up at the Sukhi patiya area to have a glimpse of the Sukhi Patia female and her cubs on a sambar kill. It was a very well spread news and at least 25 gypsys around the area made sure the experience would be chaotic. The next morning also witnessed crowd near this area and tigers were still feeding on their previous days kill. Irate drivers broke all possible rules and even got in to arguments to show their guest the tigress and her cubs. A couple of drivers left the tracks and ventured at least 15 feet inside the bushes for a better view. Frustrated and angry, It was probably time for me to wrap up the show at Bandhavgarh and travel towards Kanha National Park. After I reached Kanha, I realized why this place had inspired Rudyard Kipling to form the magnificent “Jungle Book”. Kanha, Kisli and Mukhi are the three ranges open for tourists and these places are spread over large areas and the Kanha meadows were one of the most beautiful tiger habitats I have ever seen.
The Barasinga or the Swamp Deer sighting
  Wonderful light in Kanha dragged me to the meadows. The scarce Barasinga or the Swap Deer is almost on the verge of extinction numbering less than 300 individuals, and found no where else. They recovered from a threatening number of 50 individuals to 300 in the last 20 years. Hence I was looking out for them instead of tigers. The swap deer found here are the “hard ground” barasingas and are well protected here. I spent the entire morning looking out for the swamp deer and was avoiding any area where tigers were supposedly being sighted. I was rewarded with very nice photographic opportunities of the swamp deer in the meadows and I enjoyed sighting them for a long time. I was also experiencing the tremendous difference in the etiquette of the park. I thought the safari experience in Bandhavgarh is really very harsh. Not many people follow the park etiquette in Bandhavgarh and the difference in kanha’s discipline was clearly visible. All drivers drive well within the speed limit and most of them love guests with interest in other species than just the Tiger.
The brothers of the meadows
 That evening, we came across a gypsy waiting for a tiger to emerge out of the grass where they had sighted him hide. After a small wait, a male got up in between the grass and started walking towards the north. It was magnificent golden light in the evening which was falling on him. It was a perfect setting to photograph tigers in the grassland. Ah, but unfortunately, the male was radio collared and photographing him with his collar around the neck was not really beneficial. How ever, I enjoyed his graceful and cautious walk. Within minutes yet another Tiger got up from between the grass and started walking behind the first male. The second male was supposedly the other male’s brother. Fortunately this gentleman didn’t have a radio collar and he walked behind his brother providing excellent photographic opportunities.
  I decided to check out some birds of the area and was heading towards the cliffs of the kanha range in the next morning. I was watching birds like the Shikra, the Rufus woodpecker, the Rufus treepie, white throated kingfisher etc. I asked my driver to stop the gypsy in a nice location and we were catching up with some sun rays which provided some relief on the cold morning. While we were standing doing nothing much, Ghanshyam, my driver shook me showing a tiger walking down the hill towards us right on the jeep track. I took at least 5 seconds to realize what was approaching us. The tigress was walking briskly towards us and she stopped beside two trees, scent marking and sniffing the area. She vanished in a jiffy and never returned. I wish she had walked a few feet more and I would have excellent pictures of her. But that was a golden opportunity that never materialized. It was my 25th Tiger of the trip and was one of the most surprising and exciting head on tiger encounters. The same evening, the male of the meadows was sighted again and at least 50 people were able to get a glimpse of him.
 The last morning, on elephant back I approached a tigress and her two male cubs that were about 20 months old. The family of three was already feasting on a chital kill. I was amazed to see how nicely the tigress who was the mother of the two young males had removed the large organs of the kill and kept it separately. While one male was resting beside the bush the other was enjoying his breakfast. The tigress was seen cleaning the kill and removing the dung from the body of the chital. The tigress cleaned the unwanted portions of the kill and set the stage for the two young men to hog. One male cub argued with his mother and without any display of table manners and respect for elders he snatched away the kill from his mother. The mother roared at him and he returned back a much ferocious and aggressive roar.
It reminded me of a Russel Peters comedy show where the kid Ryan blasts his mom and she remarks “What am I gonna do with this guy…” with a weird smile.
  The mother let the boy enjoy his breakfast. The male enjoyed tearing apart the chital’s tough exterior coat and started eating raw meat. I was spell bound by this scene and kept on watching them for nearly 15 minutes. Thanks to less number of tourists, I was under no pressure to vacate the elephant for another guest’s viewing. I was for the first time appreciating wild tigers eat and the experience of hearing them bite and tear open the flesh of the kill is beyond explanation. Almost feeling like a tiger myself and with a lot of energy and happiness, I headed towards Pench in the southern part of Madhya Pradesh bordering the Maharastra state.
Pench – where leopards dare
 I was lodged in the Madhya Pradesh Tourism lodge called “kipling’s kourt” and I had enough time for just 4 safaris here. More than sighting animals, I was eager to meet my dear naturalist friend “Harsha” who now works in Pench. He was working for Cicada in Kabini where I had a gala of a time last year. He had helped me on numerous occasions in Kabini and I was more than happy to meet him after months. While I was about to enter the park on the first morning, Harsha met me and his was the second vehicle to enter the park. I told Prakash my driver that I had no special requirement of the Tiger and would love to enjoy the park in the short span of time. With a setup to watch birds, I entered the park.
 I had hardly traveled a distance of a kilometer before I had to stop. A sub-adult tiger was standing next to the road and looking at us. Goodness gracious! I remarked and clicked a couple of pictures of him. Soon, his sibling crossed the road from the left side. Within minutes two more siblings got up from the tall grass next to the road and changed positions. It was not even 4 minutes after having started the safari and 4 tigers were sighted. Magnificent!! I thought and moved on. I really disliked the way; the mahout forced the tigers to the interiors from the open areas. It was evident that they wanted to conduct a “Tiger Show” of these tigers and if they were visible outside for everyone no one would pay extra for the elephant ride.
  After entering a particular stretch of the park, I started envisioning a Leopard. The territory I was in was perfect leopard habitat and I was hoping to see one. In fact I was greedy to see a leopard to an extent that I decided to stop going behind Tiger trails and spend 3 safaris just for the leopard. I usually don’t get so desperate but this place seemed like a perfect place to start dreaming of a leopard.
 Harsha joined me for lunch and we were happy to talk to each other. For both of us, finding a kannada speaking person was a rare thing there. I was glad that he joined me for the evening safari. In last May, I had my second Leopard encounter and that was the best so far. The only opportunity where I got acceptable photographs of the secretive creature. We were roaming around the possible leopard areas where we met a group. When they asked us if we had sighted anything, I boldly saw my watch and said “Well, its 4:30. Wait till 4:35, and it will be seen”. “Ha ha” everyone laughed.
  With in less than 30 seconds a chital stag started alarming at the top of its voice. “Yes! There you go” we told ourselves and reached the spot. I was the first to sight a leopardess that seemed to have walked out of her den after a nap. I saw the chital’s face and then traced the leopardess that was wonderfully camouflaged. I couldn’t believe my luck when this beauty walked a few feet and sat on a rock posing for us. I tried to move to and fro to find that perfect place to photograph the calm and stationary leopardess. Well, unfortunately at a distance of less than 50 feet she sat behind trees and bushes always covering some part of her. I never got a single chance to take her pictures without any foliage. After a couple of document shots, I gave up clicking and grabbed a binocular and started admiring her beauty. I couldn’t believe with camera in hand, I chose to appreciate her beauty through my naked eye. I was letching at her beautiful green eyes and a romantic posture. She was gorgeous!
 After a while, she got up and vanished behind the rocky terrain. Within minutes we saw her tail emerge out of another point and then she walked towards a cave next to the road. She sprayed against the rocks and yawned in glory. Her’s was lazy elegance. She jogged across the jeep tracks and I thought she was limping a little. She vanished inside the forest and never returned. Harsha and I were looking at each other with featureless expressions. I was speechless!
I saw the other jeep and asked them what the time was. “4:35” they laughed and that was an amazing day with perfect timing. Harsha and I recalled our leopard encounter in Kabini and spent the rest of the evening seeing her pictures in the hotel. I spent the next two sessions in the same area and I felt very close to a leopard after numerous langur and chital calls.
 Actually, another jeep close by saw her partner – a male leopard. I was following alarm calls of deer to trace this gentleman. How ever, I thought I shouldn’t be complaining much and ended my stay in Pench with one of my best leopard sightings till date. A drive to Nagpur and a flight to Bangalore the next morning ended a pilgrimage lasting a fortnight where I sighted tigers 32 times out of which 26 were different individuals. The date with the leopardess seemed more valuable than all the 32 tiger encounters. Moments of seeing her still haunt my mind as I get back to the same old boring world of technology at my finger tips. I hope after a dedicated Tiger pilgrimage and blessing, I find greater success at work where I start working for a new role from now.
 What’s surprising is the behavior of the Tigers in places like these and Ranthambore versus the ones else where including south Indian forests. The tigers in Bandipur, Nagarahole etc rarely give anyone an opportunity to sight them with satisfaction and photographing them requires too much of luck. Perhaps sighting Tigers becomes more exciting in these jungles if one has to work hard for it. Usually, it’s the first jeep or person who does the hard work of tracking the Tigers. The rest enjoy sighting a tiger without having put any effort and most of them take it for granted. Probably the only effort they put in is by driving fast and reaching the spot on time which honestly is less of a safari and more of a race.
Photographs of this trip
Birds and Mammals Sighted in Bandhavgarh, Kanha and Pench National Parks
**Birds**
1. Spotted Dove (Streptopelia chinensis)
2. Emerald Dove (Chalcophaps indica)
3. Oriental Turtle Dove (Streptopelia orientalis)
4. Little Cormorant (Phalacrocorax niger)
5. Black Drongo (Dicrurus macrocercus)
6. Jungle Owlet or Barred Jungle Owlet (Glaucidium radiatum)
7. Red-vented Bulbul, (Pycnonotus cafer)
8. Crested Serpent Eagle (Spilornis cheela)
9. Red Junglefowl (Gallus gallus)
10. Grey Hornbill (Ocyceros birostris)
11. Brown Shrike (Lanius cristatus)
12. Pied Wagtail (Motacilla alba yarrellii)
13. Oriental Magpie Robin (Copsychus saularis)
14. Indian Roller (Coracias benghalensis)
15. Common Kingfisher (Alcedo atthis)
16. Greater Coucal (Centropus sinensis)
17. Malabar Pied Hornbill (Anthracoceros coronatus)
18. Shikra (Accipiter badius)
19. Little Egret (Egretta garzetta)
20. Cattle Egret (Bubulcus ibis)
21. Intermediate Egret or Yellow-billed Egret, (Ardea intermedia)
22. Changeable Hawk eagle (Spizaetus cirrhatus)
23. Bay-backed Shrike (Lanius vittatus)
24. Stone-chat (Saxicola rubicola)
25. Red-whiskered Bulbul (Pycnonotus jocosus)
26. Jungle Crow (Corvus macrorhynchos)
27. House Crow (Corvus splendens)
28. Greater Racket-tailed Drongo (Dicrurus paradiseus)
29. Lesser Adjutant Stork (Leptoptilos javanicus)
30. Long-tailed Shrike (Lanius schach)
31. Black-shouldered Kite (Elanus axillaris)
32. Red-wattled Lapwing (Vanellus indicus)
33. White-throated Kingfisher (Halcyon smyrnensis)
34. Hoopoe (Upupa epops)
35. Common Kestrel (Falco tinnunculus)
36. Common Myna (Acridotheres tristis)
37. Jungle Myna (Acridotheres fuscus)
38. Rufous Treepie (Dendrocitta vagabunda)
39. Spotted Owlet (Athene brama)
40. Rose-ringed Parakeet (Psittacula krameri),
41. Alexandrine Parakeet (Psittacula eupatria)
42. Green-bee Eater (Merops orientalis)
43. Indian Peafowl (Pavo cristatus)
44. Black Ibis (Pseudibis papillosa)
45. White-Rumped Vulture (Gyps bengalensis)
46. Woolly-necked stork (Ciconia episcopus)
47. Brown fish owl (Bubo zeylonensis)
48. King/Red-headed Vulture (Sarcogyps calvus)
49. Black Stork (Ciconia nigra)
50. Black-winged Cuckoo-shrike (Coracina melaschistos)
51. White-eyed Buzzard (Butastur teesa)
52. Purple Sunbird (Cinnyris asiaticus)
53. Long-tailed Shrike (Lanius schach)
54. Paddyfield Pipit (Anthus rufulus)
55. Long-billed Vulture (Gyps indicus)
56. Collared Scops Owl, Otus bakkamoena,
** Mammals **
57. Tigers (Panthera tigris) – 26 Different Individuals, 32 sightings (4 Pench, 7 Kanha, 21 Bandhavgarh)
Most seen Tiger – Bandhavgarh’s Jhor Jhora – Female’s 2 year old Tigress Cub on 3 different days.
58. Leopard (Panthera pardus) – Adult female in Pench
59. Gaur (Bos gaurus)
60. Sambar Deer (Cervus unicolor)
61. Chital (Axis axis)
62. Barking Deer Common Muntjac (Muntiacus muntjak)
63. Barasinga – Hard Ground Swamp Deer (Cervus duvaucelii)
64. Indian Wild Dog – Dhole (Cuon alpinus)
65. Golden Jackal (Canis aureus)
66. Hanuman Langur (Semnopithecus hypoleucos)
67. Rhesus Macaque (Macaca mulatto)
68. Nilgai or the Blue Bull (Boselaphus tragocamelus)
_________________
Cheers,
Jayanth Sharma
jay@wildlifetimes.com
Last edited by Jayanth Sharma on Thu May 03, 2007 5:04 pm; edited 6 times in total
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there were too many of us and all of us were unprepared and amateurs 
...especially the BIG CATS....oh man..it reminds me of a quote "'A picture speaks more than words".....expecting more nd more.....Thumbs up......