Peter ward and family arrived with seeing wet land all the way from Jabalpur to here. Rain and wildlife viewing doesn't go well together. In an overnight sightings goes down. They had two good sightings of Tigers in the park but even when ground were moist Sloth Bear were hiding. 
Weather was again not very good when Fiona Monks and Nicholas Smith were here. We had very foggy mornings. It was such a thick fog in Rajbehra that we couldn't see animals standing in meadows. Visibility was about 15-20 feet.
But the best thing happened when Peter th Mann saw a Tiger in Hardiya. Mr Anand from hyderabad was also there and they all were confused about the identity of this Tiger. We were not in the jungle that morning but in afternoon Mr Anand asked Kay about the ID of this Tiger and when we got pictures a surprise surprised us.
Negative results were shown after matching that picture with Wakeeta's cubs but when Kay checked it with Vijya's cub a doubt aroused, Is he the male cub of Vijya? But male cub was killed by a Tiger in July as it was confirmed By Mr Neil Gogote, Mr Gyanendra from Tiger Den and Mr A.K.Sharma retd S.D.O. B.T.R.
We sent the pictures to everyone we knew and got the same results.
Everyone said that both pictures are of same Tiger.

Mystery is not solved yet. Which was that Tiger who found dead on 4th July is the question. Was he living at Fort hill and thats why his sightings were minimal. Some people did saw a male Tiger in Ghodademon and Khidki area but we never got hold of any pictures from them so never know which male it was.   

Wakeeta

Winter mornings in Bandhavgarh are cold and with no tiger sighting in early hours it feels even more colder.We had one such morning last year on 5th Jan. You don't see much Deer or Monkeys in morning hours till sun really comes up and warm up the air. With lots of money in the budget and wrong policies of the management that demands the patrolling has put too many labour on park roads. These labour are major disturbance to the wild life. This disturbance is so big and effective that most of the animals have changed their habits. Now in early morning hours you don't see deer in any of the meadows of the park. Chakradhara has a constant presence of labour on bicycle and so the Lakhumar, Rajbehra and Bathan.
We were first to leave Hardia so we could have a dust free ride in the park. We heard few alarm calls at behind Lakhumar meadow but that did not produced any results. It was probably the presence of village dogs that scared the deer. 
Rampur hill was as silent that day as ever before. There was hardly any sign of any movement of any tiger in the jungle today. 
When we almost lost all our hopes of Tiger sighting for today a faint alarm call of a deer raised our hopes. 
A tiger was walking away. She was Wakeeta. She set her clock well. She knew that this the time when there wont be anybody on road. She mean Bicycle not jeep. Tigers are more scared of a man on bicycle than people in jeep. 
We followed her few meters and then suddenly she started sniffing a scratch mark on the ground. It was more than a day old, but she could smell it well and shown the flehman behaviour. It was her partner Shashi who walked here yesterday and left his scent mark on the ground. 

   
She followed her route and sprayed every where. Later in the year we found out that at this time she was already pregnant and delivered her cubs in mid to late March.

Rangeela Rajasthan

in last November I spent a fortnight with some very nice people in Rajasthan. Jaisalmer was our first destination. Here I met The Lady Ms Meghna of Nachna Haveli. She has transpired this small Haveli in to a beautiful place. Her personal Touch was seen everywhere in the building. Everyone was praising the stay at Nachna Haveli. I wish if they had some control outside of their Haveli but one can educate those shopkeepers to keep the area clean. No foreign tourist wants to see garbage around. They are not use to of it and it's hard to digest the habit of throwing the garbage on street. Walking in some of Jodhpur gullies can ashamed any Tour Guide of the country. We walked in some of the most filthiest gullies of Jodhpur.   
It was hard to keep people busy for whole day in Jaisalmer. In my opinion Jaisalmer, Jodhpur and Pushkar are the places of Hippy Era. People keep on coming back to same place made them popular on Tourist circuit. I met few people who are visiting Pushkar since 70's only because at that time they spent months here and now they visit only because they knows the place better. It is all word to mouth kind of job they are doing for promoting few destinations in the country for Tourism Industry. Now present marketing system has taken over and we see more tourists than ever at these sights.
We were looking for a picture in Jaisalmer and that kept us busy for most of the time. Climbing on hilltop or walking for sunrise pictures was great.
Other interesting place in Jaisalmer is dunes at Sam village. We stayed at desert Dungri and that was a mistake. There services are downhill in a year itself. I wont suggest that place to anyone ever.
Blue city Jodhpur was no different than last year. Although we were there just after Diwali but still finding nice blue houses was a tough job. People are friendly and many group members were invited us in the houses for Tea.State Archeology department in Rajasthan is not a Tourist friendly organisation anymore.
Pushkar was as colourfl as before. Only thing that changed the mood of Pushkar was begging. Now every person big small  finds himself poor in front of Photographers and demands money in advance. This was not before. If you starts paying as per their demand then you will find yourself more poor than them within a day. Even money was demanded for photographing camels. Too many photographers in such a small place has created this situation. Normal blief is that photographer earns lots of money from there photos but real truth that all those pictures can not be published through an agency until unless they have release paper. No one carries a model release form in their pocket, minimum I have not seen anyone carrying it.

Wakeeta

After a long long time we saw this kind of fog in Bandhavgarh. Chakradhara was covered in fog and fort hill or watch tower at Bathan junction was not visible at all. We did not see any animal till we reached Jhilki Nallah at Bathan. Ugly dead tree was looking most stunning in dense fog at Rajbehra.
Jaya and four cubs were seen at Rajbehra yesterday munching a Christmas meal of Wild Boar. We joked about Tigers that they all 5 must be sleeping on anicut bank so leave them till the sun comes up.
There were some nice photos of Foggy trees in meadow.

When we lost almost all the hopes of sighting a Tiger today morning, Wakeeta obliged us with a stunning sighting. If Rajbehra was empty then so the Mirchhani and so the Tamaria. Pushpraj, the male cub of Wakeeta from previous litter, has started following Tulsi in search of some meals. On one such occasion last time he got some beatings from his father but some boys never learns. So he was doing the same thing again and this time Tulsi herself told him to behave.
We passed Tamariya water hole, where once Andrew Parkinson saw two cubs playing in the water and deleted most of the pictures because he didn't liked the man made bank in back ground.
We saw a hand waving for us to come to their side. We slowly reached there to see a Tiger coming out of the forest. This was happening about 150 mtrs away from that famous house near the park road.

She came out on the road and soon some smell on a tree draw her attention. She decided to check it. That's what we wanted. In touristic terms she was far far away from us. We are really appreciate the behaviour of that driver who was seeing her before us for giving her a wide space to feel free. She sniffed the tree and knew this is not from herself but her rivals smell. This spot is basically not in her territory. She is in Tulsi's territory. After realising this she did not even thought of doing any spray marking on this tree but simply slipped away in forest to move in to her own kingdom.       

Janmashtami in Bandhavgarh.

As usual like all other years we thought to visit park on Janmashatmi along with all other pilgrims. This year they stopped people going with camera so we went up till the gate and didn't see any point in going in the park without camera.

Why Janmashatmi the birth day of Lord Krishna is celebrated here at the fort is beyond my imagination. Why people goes all the way to Fort temple when there is no statue of Lord Krishna there? It has become a routine now.
We don't see many pilgrims here in this crowd. Majority of them are below 35 yrs of age and not carrying any kind of Puja material. remark of a forest official.
Just to make a check on litter last year they stopped people carrying any Puja material in the park saying there is no Statue of Lord Krishna there so if you have to offer it do it here in this temple. Same tradition carried on this year. According to forest deptt record 9491 people went till 1000 AM later they had to allow some without pass. So even if we count 9491 figure that many people did not visit any of the temple in the park and nor out side.
A lady forest employee in her dress was collecting polythene and other litter thrown by these pilgrims and believe it or not she worked for half the day collecting litter only in 100 mtr long area. People were watching her collecting litter and even than they were throwing it on ground. It looks as we have lost the respect for workers?  

Janmashatmi celebration has become more like a fair in the village. Shops are pitched on both side of park road selling toys, artificial jewellary, bangles and fruits. Now everyone is offering their prayers outside of the park then department should try to stop these things slowly slowly. 

  
 We were told that camera's are not allowed in the park and later in the evening I saw all sorts of photographs of the park on internet. Why make such rules that are not going to be obeyed by everyone. My major interest yesterday was to look for some new grasses or flowers in the park. 

Tiger fighting ID Confirmed.

First I thought to correct the last blog then I found this as easier solution to say only a line. It's ID is confirmed. It's Jobi male who fought with Blue Eye. No shoulder stripe and no stripe on right foreleg is one easy identification of Jobi in field. So P11 is absent from the area.

Tiger fight in Bandhavgarh

I am extremely sorry for not writing here since last 50 days. There was nothing much happening either. I been to Laddakh. A very simple trip. Nothing extraordinary except one or two landscape shots and few of Himalayan Marmot.
Bandhavgarh also looks very calm in monsoon but it is not. Many activities takes place in the night where no one to witness. 
Monsoon is the season for rain and for rumours. Rumour, that report of unverified or doubtful truth. But rumour often dont have any truth here. Since last few days I am hearing that a Tiger is being hit by some vehicle in the park even a newspaper report suggests that.

News paper says that Blue Eye is not being seen since last 4 days. The condition in which Blue Eye presently have, he should not be seen for few more weeks. According to Forest deptt he had a fight with another Tiger and in that fight he got injured on his face. He lost a chunk of meat from his face above his right eye. If that is the case than there must be some more canine marks on his face and those canine marks can not heal easily. He must be sitting in some dark hole away from flies, licking his wounds. The other Tiger who fought with him is either P11, Shashi's brother or Jobi male. He also got few marks on face. What people talk about Lakshmi's male cub as new male is rubbish. People just dont have any record of these Tigers and they say anything just to be over smart. Lakshmi's male is no where in Tala range. Kim Sullivan saw this Tiger In April and her pictures do not match with Lakshmi's male cub.
Now other thing happening is Tigress killing cow in Kachhaua village. A heavily pregnant cow wandering in jungle close to village delivers a calf. Some Jackal saw this. Their, Jackal, presence and noise in the area attracted the attention of Tigress. Tigress killed the cow and walked away with newly born calf in his mouth. First night she finished the calf then she protected her other kill of mother cow. This was a great loss for the villager and at the same time a great gain for tigress. Yesterday there were more than 5 thousand people making noise in the village and today only ten. Tigress was not seen today around the village but at about 0730 PM her growling were heard again.
Why tigers incline more towards cattle lifting in monsoon?