Saturday, January 12, 2013

Chakradhara Leopard

Chakradhara Leopard has obiliged many in last few weeks in Bandhavgarh so when we both were in the jungle we decided to look for him and not to chase the Tiger.
Upper part of Chakradhara meadow is dangerous spot for leopard due to Vijya and her cubs so they hang around more around Bathan Junction or Siddhbaba temple area.
We reached Siddhbaba around 8 am. On regular interval of 10 - 15 minutes the alarm calls were still going on. It must have been a leopard otherwise a Tiger would have either moved or if he is sitting deer will keep an eye on him and wont waste energy by giving constant alarm call. We decided to stay in this area. Tiger hunters had already left the area so Chakradhara came to his old glory of "Magic meadow" 

A sharp alarm call from spotted deer is always a positive sign. Sanjay saw him moving in rear view glass and reversed the jeep quickly. Now we are face to face to a leopard but this joy lasted only for a second. He just jumped off the road but still walking towards us so we decided to stop where we were about 200 mtrs away from him. He regain some confidence and came on road but we decided to stay still for few minutes so lost the chance of photographing him on the road. Loosing few initial shots was a good idea, it paid well in multiple instalment quickly.

He jumped on a rock to sit for few seconds but looking around nervously. Jumped off the rock sniff the tree, flehman, sprayed and moved away. 

Never seen a leopard doing it before. 
He obiliged us for next 30 minutes or so doing what an animal should do for a perfect demonstration. If you know the road from Siddhbaba temple to Chakradhara then you will remember all those rocks where seeing a Leopard was a dream but today many of those dreams come true.
He started from Bathan junction and vanished in ferns of Siddhbaba. 
While checking our pictures from our last glimpse of a leopard we noticed that this was a younger animal. 



    









    

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