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?    

Tiger Mating.

Tiger mating. This picture is similar to any other Tiger mating picture but major difference here is that they both are male and brothers..
It's a habit in animals to prove their dominance on others they do indulge in this kind of act although this is just a simple show off no actual sex is involved in this case.
When I saw this from elephant back in Bandhavgarh my guest who is a Doctor by profession put up this story with pictures for publication in BNHS journal. But he could not answer all those questions to prove it so I think this story never got published their either.
I never tried to do that only because he told me that he will try.
These two tigers are about 26 months old and their ID is that they are B3 and B1. 

A female cub killed by a male Tiger.

This was a very typical case of killing a female cub by a male Tiger in Bandhavgarh.
B1 formed his territory in Rajbehra area and most of the area up till Sukhi Patiya was under his control. He was over lapping the territory of two females. 
One day a very eager third female looking for him entered in his territory. Soon they found each other to fulfill the need of each other.
This kept on going for another day. Second day the resident female happen to stumble upon them. She chased this intruder female. Male tried to stop her to save his mate but she was very furious. She charged on male too. When male got charged by her in revenge he charged on a softer target, her cub and killed her instantly. After this incident he left the dead body and started looking for his mate but she was chased away very far by the resident female.

  

Shivaji elephant in Kanha

In 1970's Bori presently in Satpura National Park was the only place in M.P. where elephants were used for logging. M.P.Forest had few elephants in British period but they were used for other purposes than logging. Forsyth used forest deptt. elephant from Bori to Pachmarhi. Bori is famous for its teak forest. So when forest deptt needed some elephants for logging they brought them from Kerala. 
As Nayar's (Mahavat of Gautam) wife aka Chachi told me that they reached Bori on 2nd August 1971 with Gautam and Shivaji. Gautam and Shivaji came from a place called Badaliyaar (spelling may be wrong) in Kerala. First thy were stationed at Dhai'n and later shifted to Bori.
According to Chachi Bori was a real difficult place to live. No market to buy any kind of food supply. We use to rely on forest deptt drivers to bring us some food supply from Hoshangabad. She remembers one C.F Mr S P Dubey who always brought Vegetables and other provisions for Mahavats. In those days Characutters, most of them batchlors, use to eat from Mahavat's kitchen. They were a part of the family like elephants.
Once the logging was stopped forest department shifted these elephants to Kanha and Bandhavgarh National Park to make good use of them for Tourism. This is when Tiger show started in M.P. Baiting was allowed so every saturday forest department use to tie a bat for Tiger show on sunday.  On Tiger show only 30 Rs were charged for four pax on Elephant back. No discrimination of Nationality. All were counted as human. Gautam was sent to Bandhavgarh after spending some time in Kanha. Even Mahavir was also transferred to Bandhavgarh but he could not cope with food supply here. He thought Tala is worst than Bori. He was sent back to Kanha where nearest market was Chiraidongri 35 km away.
Although Mocha and Sarekha were rated as lifeline to get regular vegetable supply of Potato and Onions. Daal Roti was routine meal and Sabji was feast.
All those Mahavat's did pretty good job in those days. I remember Sursingh in Kanha use to go in afternoon to look for Tigers so he know from where to start next morning. His son Dharam became a very good Mahavat. But I don't think the present generation of Mahavats is as sincere as of those days. Elephants use to get good bath in the river. I remember Lakhnu in Kanha shouting on his characutter only because he did not rubbed his Elephants tusk properly. Those were the days.
Gautam's master Nayar had very good rapport with his elephant and on other side in Kanha Shabir had even better rapport with Shivaji. Chachi had better command on Gautam than her husband Nayar. Best display of loyalty from Gautam I saw in 80's only. Later when other Mahavat got him he refused to obey the command. Once a Mahavat got off Gautam to pick up Ankush, Sharply pointed Iorn rod, and he refused to get him on on his back.
Shabir in Kanha mastered his Elephant Shivaji so well that once when he killed a forest guard and deptt was ready to shoot him, Shabir walked forward called him and brought him back home on foot like a pet dog.
Since we have lost all those old Mahavats who use to take care of their animals we are loosing obedient elephants too. Indrajeet in Bandhavgarh was a living example of this. Sundargaj and Vanraj are the two young elephants which are completely destroyed by Characutters. At one time these two elephants were the first choice of every photographer who use to use Elephant Tripod. 
I have asked forest department to do some Characutter training program in monsoon so let us see which Mahavat they call for training. My choice is Shabir for this job.

Spotted Deer suffering with bovine T.B. seen in Bandhavgarh.

This is not a new case but often animals suffering with T.B are seen in Bandhavgarh National Park. Most of the animals I saw were always around periphery of the park and so the this one. After visiting Chakradhara, ghodademon,  Rampur and Lakhumar when we reached Amanallah we saw this deer standing very close to road and did not moved when vehicle by passed him. I saw it very unusual so I asked Sanjay to reverse the jeep. Again he was standing so close to the road right in front of us that I could not photograph his whole body in a frame. He was about 5-6 yrs old male, antlers in perfect shape, no velvet, blackish neck and dark black line on his back were the sign of his maturity. He must have born with Bovine T.B. A deer born with bovine T.B. will survive for 5-6 years. Luckily disease is not passed on to predator.

  They gets Bovine T B from local cattle. Approximately 60% cattle in rural India is infected with Bovine T B .

Tigress died in enclosure, Bandhavgarh.

There is so much unnecessary fuss people made about this tigress death in enclosure that it became a complete joke. These so called keyboard warriors needs to come and work in the field to understand the working system. There are three enclosures in which these three siblings are put. Each enclosure is as big as Bhopal Van Vihar enclosures for the Tigers. When I went to see that tigress in that enclosure it took me about ten minutes drive to reach the spot by gypsy. So it's quite big more than 4-5 hectares. It's complete forest and the place where postmortem was conducted it was under a tree where they put a 15x15 feet polythene sheet under shade and all the staff was standing around in shade. There were quite a few trees like that in that compound. I heard people talking about water situation in that enclosure. I don't know how they got the idea that she did not had enough water. Do people know that those saucers are automatically filled everyday by solar pump. I thought to put all this immediately on my blog then I thought that why should I drag myself in this controversy of all lies. What I was told by the staff that they gave her a live bat one day, next day evening staff saw the bat moving around in the compound. He informed his superiors in the evening so they need to get elephant first to enter the enclosure to look for her. Next morning they entered the park on elephant back and they found her dead.
Rest is the story. With all this hue and cry responsible people just wants to act immediately and in that action a Ranger and a enclosure in-charge beat guard got suspended.
These are the departmental actions so I don't talk about that.
People are talking about rotten meat is served to them. I tried to confirm it with different sources and everyone confirmed me that this is a complete lie. They were given live bat all the time. 
On 30th May I was in the park and enjoying the elephant ride in the morning. We along with few jeep tourists saw Jaya tigress walking on road for few meters then suddenly she turned right, walked along the hillock, picked up an old carcass and walked away. We saw it from the road but when we took our elephant there we could not find her. So she went to eat that meat in peace. I asked the Mahavat to check the spot, there we found a rotten piece of meat filled with maggots so that carcass she took must have been covered with maggots. So eating rotten meat is in their general habit of their life.

       

Skays Camp Garden

June is always a very time for us in the Garden. Getting the pits ready for Papaya plants that are waiting to be planted since last one year.We transplant seedlings in poly pack and put them in green house so when they are transferred in the ground they are ready to fruit within few months. We get home grown Papaya in breakfast almost for 6 months in a year. Kay never liked Papaya in Britain and here she dont mind them eating everyday.  Cheeku and Orange plants are doing well and so the Ber and Bananas in the garden.
I spent all my childhood summer vacations at my Mama's (My mother's brother) house in Mainpuri. Going to Baag (orchard) to guard Mango trees in day time and spend the day cooling off in Tube well pool and eating Water Melon's use to be daily routine. In those days no one cared for the summer temp. We were advised to eat lots of fruit and drink lots of water and dont worry about the heat. By Four o clock in the afternoon we need to reach home with a bundle of green fodder for buffalo and some Labheda in our pocket for kite repair. Labheda has very sticky juice that acts like a gum. While we were sitting our Mango trees we always dreamt of taking few Bale or Mulberry from others garden. In those days no one grew Phalsa around. It was a delicacy. So when I had the chance to plant fruit trees on my land I chose all those plants that I liked in my childhood.
For more than ten years I was chasing one after the other nursery to get Phalsa plants. Agra, Dhaulpur, Shikohabad, Firozabad and Mainpuri are the area for Phalsa but none of the nursery keeps plants. One farmer and Dhaulpur advised me to grow my own plants. It will be slow process but more satisfactory. I did that and produced more than 50 plants that are planted on the land now. Majority of them are fruiting now.

We were expecting a much better Mango crop than what we got this year. Dashahari and Langda crop is poor but still enough for us. We have 6 Dashahri and 7 Langda Mango trees. Dashahari will be dropping in few week time. We let them ripe on tree and drop. Langada needs to be picked just after first rain otherwise some Moth start laying its eggs in it. Dashahari are about 5 inches long and some, that are knocked by crows, weigh about 250 gms and some Langda even more.

Other fruit which we have best in the district is Lemon. We have only 6 seed less Kagazi (paper like thin skin)lemon plants. They grow so big in size that many people thinks it's Atarra, a variety of bitter lemon. Once one of my friend in Bhopal took me to market and suggested me tio buy a food processor. I said I dont need. No No you need it. It will help u a lot. I surrendered OK. So he chose Inalsa food processor, I paid. Now when we reached his home he gave a demonstration how to juice Lemons. Packed it back with a instruction that now you dont need to bring that heavy weight of Lemons here. Just bring few Juice bottles. His wife uses lemon juice for making Panir too. One of our friend every time he visits bandhavgarh takes lemons to his home and no one is allowed to use those lemons. My sisters teaches staff on phone how to make Lemon and Karonda sweet and Masala pickles so when they come it's all ready for them  Each lemon gives about 70-80 ml juice and each tree has minimum 8-10 bamboos for support. 

 Fruit tree where we have failed is Cheeku. At present we have only one tree and that does not give us enough fruit. It's like our Jackfruit tree where we have no idea what to do to get better crop. We followed all the suggestions of Pro people but no results.

We are fail;ed to make any good use of Mulberry and Guava. This year Mulberry trees were full of fruits and full birds. Pick no notus (Red Vented Bulbul) enjoyed the fruit more than anyone. Munmun and Mahi'  comment was It's pain to pick them up. That's because they never developed the taste for this fruit. Winter crop of Guava is dedicated to Parakeets. We can't save it from parakeet and we can't eat all those fruits so why not let them enjoy. Someone always gets a good picture of them from the garden.
Now we have so many trees in our garden that there is hardly any space left to put any new plant in it. Now I am planting all these trees again on our Ranchha land. 
Hopefully things will look better there in a year or two.        

Summer 2013

This looks like one of the hottest summer ever I have witnessed in my life. Day temperature in Bandhavgarh is constantly around 107 degrees or more since last ten days. 
Indian Pitta comes here to breed in summer and so the Paradise Flycatcher. When summer starts we await patiently to hear the call of Indian Pitta and then Peacock display and then that white streak diving on water surface.
When we are witnessing these in the jungle, at the same time we see jungle suffering with heat.  Ground cover gets dry and over grazed, in sandy meadows most of the new shoots dies of heat and even some shallow rhizome also dies. This makes meadows more barren for deer. Major concentration of deer for feeding now a days is under fruit trees. This year Tendu, Diospyros melanoxylon,  crop is very good in the jungle. Langur monkey drop lots of fruit for deer so most of the ground under Tendu trees looks ploughed by deer hooves. Summer don't comes here unexpectedly. It's a slow process after frosty days of January. February shows the colour on trees. Whole forest slowly slowly turns in to turmeric yellow. Sal drops their leaves from the top and by the time leaves in the middle of the tree turns yellow top is already getting new leaves. Flame of the forest buds start opening and within few days whole forest turns orange red. This is a feast time for monkeys. By the time the flame of the forest flowers dries out the new juicy flowers of Mahua , Madhuca indica, start dropping. This attracts birds, deer, Monkey and sloth beer. Often deer and Sloth Bear get drunk by the fermentation of these flowers in their stomach. Yellow hanging bells of Amaltas is the sign of peak of heat and by the time the Amaltas flowers are finished the Monsoon has arrived some where in the country and not so long to touch the grounds of Central India.
Wind drops grass seeds in earth cracks ready to germinate with first shower. Every evening Crows, Bee eaters and Drongo start gathering in our garden for water. They are notorious for killing butterflies. Rain is still few weeks away. Any sign of cloud in the sky gives us a false hope of Temp going down soon but by the morning sun comes as strong as ever above blue sky. Tigers sit in the water to cool off their body and all other animal that comes to drink move away, informing others about his presence by giving alarm call. 
We were in jungle this morning. Park opens at 0530, sun is  up and I am already wiping sweat drops from my forehead. No deer in meadow. Jungle looks very quite until we reach Bathan junction. Langur monkey's has seen some predator. Some people standing in a jeep holding camera towards jungle is a sure sign that they have spotted a Tiger or Leopard. Excitement of seeing a Tiger make them stand up in the jeep and forgetting photography rules and ethics. We just glimpsed the Tigress sitting in Nallah and kept on moving. It's still early to get our allocated elephant so we decided to look for him and inform him about tiger location. 
By the time we came back we saw her on other side of the road.

A lone Sambar doe, standing frozen on hillock watching Jaya, exposed her movements. She came out of the jungle walked few meters on road, turned right, walked along the hill sniffing ground, pick up an old kill and moved away. This was a Sambar kill. We tried to look for her off the elephant back but she disappeared in thick forest. A smelly meat piece was lying on ground covered with maggots. Was the other piece she took was also covered in maggots? Must be.

This is normal for predators in the wild to eat maggot filled meal. We have seen it many times.
J1 and J2 were chasing deer. Looks like sometime they may have got a spotted deer fawn hiding in the grass and they want to repeat that luck. They vanished much before we could set our eyes on them. 
Saving grace for today's visit was J3 who was sitting on top of a rock. She was very relaxed, feeling cool on rock.

   And at last a fleeting glimpse of Rufous Naped Hare.
  

        

Tigers of Bandhavgarh in summer.

When night temp in village Tala, that is close to Bandhavgarh National Park, stays around thirty degree celsius than one can imagine the misery of people in cities close to high rise buildings and tar road. Do animals suffer? Yes they do. When we saw a tiger panting around 0630 in the morning sitting under sal tree, she was feeling hot. All what she wanted to do was to cross over to swampy meadow and sit on wet grass. It took her more than 15 minutes to cover the distance that she could have covered in less than 90 seconds. Poor girl has to make a detour to reach the destination but that detour satisfied the hungry cameramen. Often it's Indian photographers who asks the driver to move more close to the Tiger.  On 23rd morning we were on elephant and a Tiger came out to walk on the road and a person having 70-200 lens in hand and 500mm on seat was asking driver to move close. Thanks to some other driver who asked the driver to let her cross. Some times I am failed to understand that what people wants? Are they only after close ups of the Tiger that they can have anywhere in the zoo. Some of the photographers with whom I work always comlaints that they don't get good "animals in their habitat" picture in Bandhavgarh any more. Why so? Have you ever thought on this? Yes Tigers do change their behaviour accordingly and so the hervibore. B2 a male dominant tiger of Tala range was a prime example of this. This Tiger was born in tourism zone and in those days we had very sensible drivers in the park. He became very confident with vehicles. But later he changed his behaviour. After seeing the vehicles on road he use to change the direction and walk away from jeeps. Kuttappan Mahavat knew his behavior very well so he stopped following him for Tiger Show. He was rarely a part of any tiger show in his last 2/3 of life. If he was caught than it must be because either a kill or in company of his companion. Drivers are to be blamed for this change in his behaviour. Hervibores in Bandhavgarh has changed their grazing time due to human disturbance caused by labour on foot and on bicycle. Someone just wrote an incident from Pench and similar things are happening everyday in Bandhavgarh and Kanha.  

    Spotted Deer and Sambhar comes to Chakradhara meadow in mid afternoon. In april we saw 40 Sambhar deer and more than 300 Spotted deer between Siddhbaba temple and Watchtower junction. (Picture above). They have changed their grazing habit due to this labour. Same thing with Tiger. Damdama tigress was sitting near road in nallah on 23rd May 2013. She was cleaning herself in presence of Tourist jeeps without paying any attention to them. After 15 minute or so she heard the bicyle noise, ears goes up and eyes focused in the direction of noise. this labour informed others and 3 more labour appeared to see her. She saw men walking towards her on foot and she simply melted away in the forest. 
I will finish this soon so keep in touch.

A female cub died in enclosure, Bandhavgarh.

Lakshmi's daughter L2 moved to Panpatha range and her brother moved in completely opposite direction to her towards Gohni. They both ate a women in their childhood and similar things they did in their adult hood. L1 sent to Bhopal Zoo and L2 died of poisoning. At the time of her death she three cubs of about 6 months old. These cubs were shifted to an enclosure near Sukhi Patiya. They were in an individual enclosure which have sufficient water and forest. Even enclosure itself is huge.
Why she died is very difficult to say. No injury marks were reported on her body. Only postmortem report will tell the exact cause of her death.
Loss of this tigress is no loss in actual sense. There was no plan to release her in wild in near future so chances of her free range breeding were minimal and no one wants to breed Tigers in Zoo.
I am reading reports in newspapers about ill treatment of this tigress by forest department and laughing. 

Vijya's first litter female cub killed by a male Tiger.

People are making so much hue and cry on such a small issue in Tiger's life. It always happens there. Whenever a dominant male is defeated and a new male takes over he just wants to show his supremacy through power only. Looks like either people have very short memory or they just don't care to look back "what happened in the past". 
First question is why female cub is killed?
General saying is that male kills all the male cubs? Then why this happened? 
In a very similar circumstances both the cubs of Yoshila were killed in Sukhi Patiya area.
I have record of more than ten incidents where female cubs were killed by a male tiger. Most of the time food was involved in the killing and few times young cubs didn't knew how to behave to an aggressive male Tiger. 
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=601868056501948&set=a.352868394735250.81778.304974559524634&type=1&theater
We were hearing the news of Vijya mating with this new male but no one seen actual mating except by one Mahavat who said he saw it. 
If we go through the cubs age it looks like a perfect timing for this but we knows that animals always prefer to mate with a dominant male. If Vijya was mating with this male then mating should have been continued for minimum three days. They never spent any day together. Most of the time they were seen sitting apart and growling at each other, Mahavat's report. This kind of aggression from a new male is previously seen in Bandhavgarh.
For months people including Mahavat's reported two males in Vijya's this litter. Last fortnight only when two cubs were sitting on a rock Mahavat identified them as two males. Her big built created all the confusion. She was calm and bold. We saw her hunting down a spotted deer which she did not allowed others to share while she was eating. She was a dominant cub amongst her siblings. She was becoming more independent than others and probably that cost her life. 
This new male has come from Mahaman. Indranis second litter probably. In those days she was very secretive and due to the new route system there were hardly any sightings of these cubs. Those were the film days, so many people has not even marked dates on their slides, so for many this is very difficult to find the real ID of this male. 
This is the one major drawback of park rules through Supreme Court rulings now. Park authorities should allow tourism in most of the park area for a better park record on film. In Madhya Pradesh most of the parks do not have permanent record of their Tigers.
Lately I heard that some people are claiming that she is Killed by her mother? So far in last 35yrs in the Jungle and in Wildlife Tourism I have never seen any female cub being killed by their mother. Once the cubs reaches to 18 months or so mother start looking for mate. This is the time when she start kicking her cubs to keep them away from her. In other words she tries to convey the message to Get on with your life by yourselves. We have seen Bachchi and Pyari taking her cubs far away from their territory to dump them. With few attempts they succeed in getting rid of them.
This cub was killed by this new male. Forest department got him in camera trap returning to same spot sniffing the bush.  

    Vijya's female cub that got killed by a male Tiger.

Tulsi

Today morning we saw Tulsi tigress growling on one of akeeta's male cub. it was not a happy site. I immediately said that there must be some kill. Later on Mahavat's confirmed me that a sambhar kill is near by.
I still have firm belief in my opinion that Infanticide behavior do not occurs in Tigers. Cubs get killed for some other reason. Shashi and other male cu were seen moving in Ghiorademon so they must have joined them. We saw pugmark of two different male crossing the road towards kill side near lal mitti.

Gaur Behaviour

Yesterday morning we saw a male Gaur browsing and grazing in Sal forest. He was grazing on green shoots in some wet patch later he picked up few leaves from lower branches of Sal Shorea robusta . Then he just walked up to a 15-18 cm girth tree of Sal and pushed it to fell on the ground. He finished eating fresh soft juicy leaves before he moved to push another saplings. 
Me with Kim and Ram Darash guide saw this behaviour on 16th April 13. 
Now the question is,
Is this the first sign of poor habitat for Gaur?

Sambar in Chakradhara Bandhavgarh.

Last month when Mr Choudhary said that kankati kills more Sambar than Spotted Deer, I did not believe it. Day before yesterday afternoon when we enter the park we saw more than 40 Sambar in Chakradhara meadow from Siddhbaba temple to Watchtower junction.
How come Sambar population has gone so high in this area?
We had to see the territory chart of Chakradhara meadow.
There was no resident Tiger in chakradhara since Pyari left. So for almost two years there was no tiger hunting there. This made Leopard population grow and tourists witness a very good sighting here. These leopards were preying more or solely on Spotted Deer. This made Sambar population grow.
Most of the time Vijya also kept her cubs on fort hill. This made two male Leopard stay in Chakradhara. So when Vijya came back to Chakradhara she found killing Sambar easier than Spotted Deer. A bulky animal is always slower than lighter one.
These three adult Leopards are the main reason of depleted spotted deer population in Chakradhara.      

Tiger mating

Recently some Mahavats and guide Drivers reported that they have seen Sukhi Patiya female, present cubs are about a year old, with a male Tiger, and probably they were mating. Their presumption on this issue came from the noise they heard from the bush. 
Magadhi zone of Bandhavgarh National Park is very unstable area as far as the Tiger situation is concerned. There are only two female, that's what we think after seeing all the photographs of all the females seen in that area. But there are more than 2 male tigers are moving and probably a third one too.
When a new male moves in to any area he tries to over power female by literally pushing her physically. Mahavats and tourist vehicles did not see them actually mating but saw them laying or sitting close by. 

Once we heard the similar story and luckily we got the chance to witness this from an elephant back. A young male Tiger appeared i the area and found a female. He was simply following the female and did not let her go. Every time she moves he tries to stop her. But did not tried to mate. When he tried to stop the female they both growl at each other and this noise gave the impression of a mating to Guides and Drivers.
In domestic cats when hormone kicks up of a young male he tries to mate with female by literally over powering it. He cant make any real thing happen but all his actions shows as he is really mating. Female makes lots of noise to get rid of his clutches but because he is holding her from back of neck so she cant get away.

Why Spotted Deer population dwindle so fast in Bandhavgarh.

Why Spotted Deer population dwindle so fast in Chakradhara and Rajbehra meadow of Bandhavgarh?
there are mainly two reasons for this.
1. Chainlink fence does not allow young Tigers to leave the area at the time when they should leave. Young tigers always prey more on fawn than adult animals. it is easier for them. This practice makes them perfect in skill but deer fawn pays a heavy price for that and their mother, Tigress, suffers in later stage. In Chakradhara, which is roughly of about 4 sq km, there is a female Tiger with her three cubs and a pair of adult leopards and a young sub adult male leopard are living at present. On top of this Shashi the dominant male also visits the area regularly and shares the meal with female and cubs. Lately more Sambhar kill are reported by Tigress in Chakradhara. It is only due to thin density of Spotted Deer population in the area. Now her cubs are about 18 months old so she is going to dump them soon. Again these cubs will share their mothers territory for sometime and prey base will dwindled more. we know that tigress do dump their cubs. A tigress use to make 2-3 kills in a row far far away from territory. Later she will take her cubs there to leave them alone. That's how three females once formed their territory around their mother.   
2. Due to Chainlink fence Leopards are confined to a smaller area and their population density is higher than before. They are preying on same kind of wild animals on which Tigers survive. Leopard takes more fawn and females than male deer. So if in any area leopards are trapped in a Tiger territory than they can be held responsible for dwindling spotted deer numbers.
So no matter how much efforts are put to make the deer habitat better and better their population will never grow under the high density of Predators, who are forced to confine in a small area.

Gaur in Bandhavgarh.

Gaur were translocated from Kanha to Bandhavgarh in 2010. What we observed here is that Spotted Deer are pushed away by Gaur from the area where they are at present. We have not seen Gaur and Spotted Deer Browsing -grazing in same area. Although we ourselves has not been able to watch Gaur for a long period of the day due to park timing limits for a tourist.
We need to know more about this? Any reader of this blog Please inform us if you know any paper on this subject.  

Why Tigers eat porcupine?

Catching a porcupine is very dangerous affair for any cat. Tigers and Leopards are seen with porcupine quills struck around their face and in legs. So far in my life I saw four different cases where young Tigers killed the porcupine and saw a young male tiger with fresh porcupine quill for almost a month. In thta period he killed and ate minimum four porcupines.
Why they do it??
All the tigers I saw and photographed doing it were under three years of age, some were still with their mother. Curiosity makes them to inquire any rustling noise and chase any moving object. Very similar behaviour is observed in domestic kittens. Once we saw  three cubs following their mother on a hill when suddenly one of them heard some rustling sound in the grass, ran to it and came out with a porcupine dangling in her jaws. We think at that time porcupine was still alive but because her whole head was under his jaws so she made no noise and as tiger was rushing to join the other siblings we have no idea about his, porcupine, struggle.
Another time a cub ran in tall grass and came out with porcupine. One of the male of Tulsi's first litter was killing porcupine almost for a month. Every week we saw and photographed him with new porcupine quill on his body. He became very skilled hunter as far as porcupine were concerned.We never saw his other sibling with any porcupine quill. It could be because the other sibling was stronger, bigger and always first on kill to eat a major portion of the kill.
On another time we saw this 16 months old cub playing with porcupine and finished it in less than thirty minutes without leaving even any quill attach to the meat. He ate all.
I believe this is all their learning process. They learn their lessons as they grow. An adult tigers knows the danger involved in it so he never touches them as in the case of snakes but that story some other time.
      

Sense of smell.

Sense of smell in Tigers is not as good as in Dogs. If a Tiger kill is shifted to 10-15 feet from its place where he was eating it first than it may take him few minutes to find the kill. They can smell it when it is close. Often we see cubs sniffing the ground to find out the scent mark of their mother from her pug marks. To get this scent mark they literally sniff the ground.
When this tiger was walking on this bank he found some typical smell of elephant dung which is more than 15 days old. He immediately sniff one lump and then second. 

So their sense of smell is not acute like dogs.

Why Tiger prefers to walk on open road???

This is one of the most frequently asked question by most of the tourist in the jungle. Some says because he prefers to walk on soft sand, clear path etc etc but no one tells them the truth.
Cats are very clean animal. They spend lots of time in cleaning their fur, paw and other body parts. They don't like grass seeds and other things struck to their fur. for the same reason one can watch domestic cats or Jungle cats. They behave in a very similar manner to tigers. They don't like any object struck to their fur.
Today we were watching this Wakeeta's male cub sitting on bank of Kinnarwah water hole watching his sister chasing Peacock.
At last he lost his patience and decided to join her. He was walking on bank. His move made many photographers very happy with a very good reflection in the water. I was shooting almost 6-7 frames per second. While checking these pictures at home I found these images giving me the answer.
He was perfectly fine before he reaches to this bush on bank.

When he reaches to close to this bush a small stick / branch touches his left cheek. Instantly his facial expression changes to grimace. 

So one can clearly see his concern about the twig touching his face in these pictures. 
I will say this could be the reason why they prefer to walk in open space. 

Tigers fighting in Bandhavgarh

Since last few days we are hearing about the fight between two tigers in Chorbehra. One is Shashi and other one could be Shardul??
Five days back a blood spot was seen in Chorbehra. Mahavat's presumed that one of the Tiger must be very seriously injured. Elephants were brought in, a male Tiger was seen opposite Siddh Baba temple. Before disappearing in cave this tiger even tried a mock charge on elephants. His identity could not be fixed. Later in day time Shashi appeared near Siddh Baba and remain sitting in water for whole afternoon.
We heard / read different stories. Someone commented on internet that Shashi had a wound on his neck and Shoulder. Pictures posted by Lala guide on facebook did not prove this story. He looked fine and vet saw him limping with right foreleg but he did not mention any injury.
If other Tiger is Shardul than he must have some injury but no one saw him since that day. Last night again they were heard fighting but none of the Tiger were seen in the morning.
Identity of second Tiger in this is still a mystery.

Photography Tour to Kaziranga for One Horned Rhino.

Wildlife Photography Tour to Kaziranga For

One Horned Indian Rhino.

Maximum group size : 8 Pax.

Total Days : 10

Accommodation : Twin Bed Room with attach toilet with hot and running cold water.

Food : Indian with continental breakfast. Veg. and Non Veg. meals served at lodge.

Transport : 3 pax in each car from Guwahaty to Kaziranga and back.

Season : Winter, warm clothes are necessary with warm cap and gloves.

Booking Date : End of September 2013.

Booking deposit : $700 Non Refundable.

Tour Cost : $1950 per person in twin sharing accommodation.

Single Supplement : $250

Insurance : Travel Insurance compulsory.

Medical : Please check with your GP about all the anti dots needed for India.

Includes : Accommodation, all meals in Kaziranga, all transport and air fare to guwahaty and back.

Extra's : - All drinks and beverages, Laundry, camera fee and all expenditures of personal nature.      

Itinerary: 

Day 1 . 24th January 2014 - Arrive at Delhi transfer to Hotel in Connaught Place. O/N stay.

Day 2 . 25th January 2014 - Fly to Guwahati and car to Kaziranga. O/N stay at Kaziranga.

Day 3 - 9. 26th Jan to 1st Feb - Morning and afternoon safari to the park in open jeep. 3 pax per jeep. Elephant ride on first morning (subject to availability)     O/N stay at Kaziranga 

Day  10 . 2nd February 2014  Car to Guwahati fly to Delhi Tour ends

20 minutes at Waterhole.

Since the route system is applied in Magadhi zone has become a real pain. That 12 km road journey breaks the back and rest of the journey in Magadhi is full of dust. Entering late is always a bad idea because one is always rushing to cover the route. 
Most relaxing spot we found in Magadhi was stopping at Dabadol waterhole.
On a crisp winter morning cricket comes to live slowly slowly. This action of coming to live turns out to be the moment of death for them. It is not only the Lapwing scanning the area for food but a pair of White Eyed Buzzard finds it more interesting to perch 3 feet above the ground than on tree top.
We saw a major food competition between waders and these buzzard. They wont let anyone come close to this grassland of about 1500 sq feet. One Indian Roller tried to join them but he was  chased away immediately. 

Lone Little Ring Plover wading through the shore was a real surprise. Different Sandpipers kept us busy. Mary told us the great joke about Sandpiper in Kanha, where person accompanied them from lodge spent about 30 minutes watching and learning about common sandpiper. A prime time of the morning was wasted on most common bird of Norwich.     

Vultures

I still dont believe that Vulture population is on rise in Bandhavgarh,
My opinion is based on field observation. Sighting of Vultures in Bandhavgarh Ntl Park and around Tala village on cattle carcasses.
Jaya killed a Sambhar in an open meadow on Kadipaani road. Since then she had another two kills so this carcass is about a week old. Vultures found this carcass today afternoon and total what we could count were not more than forty vultures sitting on ground and trees. We saw 35+ vultures on a cattle carcass in Tala village last month.
So these two sightings of Vultures on carcass shows the similar figures. This makes me feel that Vulture nos that were 80 + last year has come down to 40+. 

Let's wait for few more months and see what we see.    

Another Tiger died of electrocution in Katni division.

I was planning to leave for Bhopal on 25th Feb. I booked my ticket only a day before so I was all set to leave in afternoon. Every concerned person was informed to accommodate me for next three days. All these plans failed after a phone call. Somebody told me that there is a rumour that a Tiger is found dead near Barhi. I asked him to confirm the news and within minutes he confirms his own statement. I pass on the news to few concerned people and they were all unaware of. All those people should have had the news well before me but they all failed.
By one o clock in afternoon I was on my way to Barhi. This Tiger was lying in an open field hardly 100 mtrs away from Kua to Machmacha village road. Morning was very foggy around Katni and Barhi. People got up late and even they took their cattle to the jungle late. One of these cattle man saw cattles running away without any reason at this spot. When he looked up he saw a Tiger lying in open field. He rushed back to village to inform forest guard. Same case again. A trap of G.I. wire from 11KV line was laid on the ground. They meant to kill Sambar or Wild Boar but this male Tiger stepped on it. After seeing the Tiger they collected the wire and ran away leaving dead Tiger behind.
This was 4th Tiger death around Bandhavgarh through electrocution since Nov 2012. All were male. It was funny that how they declared Khitauli Tiger female while we photographed his charred testicles.
When Kay saw these photos and started matching with Tigers of Bandhavgarh she found it to be male cub of Khitauli female.
Here are pictures for you to see.

He was photographed by me following his mother in April 2012 near Damdama and now lying dead near Machmacha village.
    

Two destructive things in Bandhavgarh

What are the two most destructive things for wildlife and their habitat in Bandhavgarh?? 
I will say chain link fencing and Elephants.
Chain link fencing has not served any purpose in this park and in fact the present management has proved it by putting a Cattle Protection Trench around Gohni and Mahaman villages where 
Bandhavgarh faces maximum cattle pressure.

 Picture Copyright Natasha Broemling.

So why this was not done by other people. What benefit they saw in Chain Link fencing?
Sighting of Wild Dog, Wolf, Jackal, Porcupine and some other small mammals has gone down since the chain link fencing has come in Bandhavgarh. We don't see any other reason for their disappearance from in side the park because all of them shows their presence outside of the park where they are facing difficulties in their survival.
Second one is Elephant.
I don't see their use and viability of that many elephants in the park. Their use in patrolling the park has proved worthless.They are good for monitoring the Tigers but for that purpose park doesn't need that many elephants.    

Agra, Kumbh and Varanasi

I was travelling for two weeks in Agra, Kumbh and in Varanasi. I spent only three days in Agra and rest of the time in Kumbh and Varanasi. Had good time in Agra and in Kumbh but Varanasi was worst experience.
I booked rooms in Varanasi Palace on Steps hotel and paid them advance too but when our group reached there we found that only two rooms were available for ten pax.
In this situation one can shout to a limit or threaten them up to a limit because you have to see the guests and their comforts first.
Believe it or not we did not had any meal that day apart from breakfast at Lakshmi Kutir and dinner at this place was waste of money.
Agra was smoggy. Throat started crackling in a day. I was happy to leave Agra as early as possible but I had to suffer it for 3 days. 
Lakshmi Kutir at Kumbh Allahabad was a bliss. Those 106 steps to reach mela ground from Lakshmi Kutir kept many of the campers fit. I had a bad knee but never felt any pain after first day. In-fact after seeing the impact of those steps on my body I decided to go down and up 5 times a day. When I came home for a day on 11th first comment Kay, my wife made that I lost weight just in 13 days. Are you eating enough?? was her second question. I am not a greedy eater. I eat what I eat no matter how good the food is.
Poverty and greediness was an eye opener for me. Perfectly healthy people were drying Roti and Poori on road side. They were covered in thick layer of dust. I rate them as rodent and feel they should be eliminated. 

Other eye opener in Kumbh was cleaniless. Never expected Mela area that clean. Streets in Allahabad Kumbh fair were much cleaner than any street in Delhi apart from President house road. 
My this visit to Kumbh took me more far away from my religion. Surely I will visit next Kumbh, Sinhasth in Ujjain 2016.