Talking to Mr J J Dutta.

This is what I wrote in my diary about 5 years back.
Yes It is cosmetic.
Worst part of this conservation issue is that many park directors never takes it as a responsibility instead they treat it as a job . Only thing for which they are worried is about their career. That's the reason why many poaching cases never gets recorded in books.
Tigers disappeared from Sariska in thin air and not a single question was asked to the Field Director.
Naxalite has taken over almost all the reserves in Chhattisgarh and not a single Forest Officer dare to visit these N.P. or Sanctuary.
Our whole Wildlife Protection act needs to be rewritten, every single word of it.The time when it was written India had free logging and hunting. We did not ha enough quality forest. Mr J J Dutta retd PCCF told me in writing that when Bandhavgarh was given to GOVT OF M.P. there was a not a single quadruped of any sort was in sight in its boundaries. 
While talking about corridors he said How it is possible to have a corridor with constantly growing human population in those areas. We do not have any programm and resources to remove all those villages from corridor. How long we can keep on moving the villages.
The time of co habitation of human and wildlife is over. There should be some control on human population for sustainable living.

Sal Blossom

No matter what you say but in last ten years things have changed in the jungle.
Ten years back we saw Sal blossom sprouting in First week of Feb and this year it was in March.

Sal Blossom

Gaur

Gaur population in Bandhavgarh has gone just double to what was brought in here from Kanha. Now they are more than 100.
These Gaur have spread in Tala and Magadhi range of Bandhavgarh.
Often they are seen near Bhadrashila waterhole in Magadhi this month.
A herd of about 14 Gaur moves in Tala range Mirchhani area.

They do not have enough undergrowth to browse in Tala range but new Sal leaves provide them some good browsing.

Indrajeet elephant and his Master Sabir Mahavat

Another story of Indrajeet Elephant in Bandhavgarh.
Indrajeet elephant was bought by M.P. Forest department from Sonpur mela in early 1980's. He was kept in Kisli and temporarily the Shabir mahavat was asked to look after him. Shabir already had his Master Elephant Shivaji with him so he took Indrajeet under his wings.
Vinod Ramachandran use to call him langdi haathi. I hope he remembers that.
Indrajeet grown and turned in to a beautiful elephant and later moved to Bandhavgarh.
After twenty or more years so one day Shabir came to Bandhavgarh and went to Jungle with us.
A Tiger show was going on at Bathan Tiraha in chakradhara.
We went in queue. Shabir was watching elephants going. Suddenly Shabir asked - Saab is he apna Indrajeet?
I said Yes indeed that's Indrajeet.
Shall I call him?
I said no harm in calling.
Shabir called him twice. Mantu was a Mahavat on Indajeet and had 4 foreign tourist sitting on him.
Suddenly Indrajit stopped. Shabir called him again. This was his third call only. When Shabir called Indrajeet he was about 200 meters away from Shabir.
Indrajeet turned back. Mantu could not control him. Tourists couldn't understand what's happening.
Me and Kay were amazed to see the permanant

 bond between an animal and man.
Indrajeet came straight to Shabir. Sniffed him all over. Indrajeet trunk and Shabir's body were seen holding each other and so the their hearts.
We saw them both crying.
Meeting of two old friends unexpectedly surprised every one on the spot.
Copyright Satyendra Kumar Tiwari.

Spotted Owelet.

Have you realised that it's past mid April and not a single nightjar is seen in the park. There use to be minimum 10 different spots where nightjars use to nest. Some guides said that some photographers got off the jeep to photograph their close up and that disturbed them. But this happeed in last few years.
We remember one nightjar who use to nest about 5 feet off the road on Ghodademon road is not there and so the one of Ghodademon, Banbehi patpar, kila road junction etc.
A very similar picture of owl use to come from Kanha where some photographer stoned the nest to get them out for a picture (this case is few years old. on my request the nest was cleaned and owelets started using it again).
I hope this owl will not face the same problem as one of Kanha but still I will request people to refrain themselves from walking under the nest for a photo.

Bandhavgarh Park visit today morning in Tala zone.

When you are not in good hands you gets misguided or you dont get sufficient information or you get the information about the tiger which can be completely wrong.
Today we were told that some full day safari people saw a tigress with her three full grown cubs walking on road.
Infact the information turned in to crossing the road, that otherone said that we saw the pugmarks of crossing the road and deer alarm call in the distance so news was that mother and three cubs were seen.
We did not see them and we were late to enter the park as usual as we do when not with tourists.
When we reached to these three cubs, who were sitting behind Bathan hill we did not see mother with them but did got the news that a female was seen on bathan junction.
Mahavats said that they found only three cubs and these cubs some times find other females too. Like other day they were following Xena and today they were following Crumb.
We saw Xena crossing the road and three cubs of jaya sitting 30 mtrs behind her in the jungle. 
Other sightings were of a beautiful male Peacock trying his best to impress the female, a male deer chewing bone, Langoor with an unusual coloured baby, meeting of two old friends (Langoor) and Painted Storks. And learnt how tiger swallow the grass.
In all it was a good morning.

Spotted Deer

Monkey's were dropping all sort of shit and we were just sitting watching these deer eating all those fruits and leaves dropped by monkeys.

One deer used his brain and came on otherside of the jeep to avoid competition from other males.

We were still like statues except our fingers pressing shutter.

He kept an eye on us all the time and when gain some confidence came as close to the jeep to pick up some fruit from the ground.

Watching Tourist watching Tifer was fun.

I wont say it was a dull afternoon. Our plan was to see Sheshshaiyya at the last but these two sleepy cubs and eager tourists took the whole afternoon away from us.
It was not at all a chalange to photograph them because they were not at all photographable.
Our major aim was to see some other animals but we got struck in road block where every vehicle in the park was there, later or sooner. 
When we reached to that spot we saw people standing in their jeep to get a glimpse of a Tiger.
We stopped about 20 feet before the crowd and our guide pointed out the Tiger for us. So in fact we had the best spot to see these 10 months old cub of Xena.
She left them there in the morning, like obidient pupil they stayed at that spot till evening.

Morning was cooler than last morning. Although sky was clear and birds were very chirpy at the time we were entering the park.

Within minutes of entering the park ten jeeps ahead of us ignored a Sambhar family but 11th jeep wanted to photograph them so we also ignored SAMBHAR in that dark forest. We were 12th.

As luck favours only to them who keeps their eyes and ears open in the jungle the Tenth jeep saw a Tigress walking in the jungle while others were busy watching pugmarks on the road. Here we also had a glimpse of Trya melting in Sal forest near Kanoji fireline.

She was walking towards waterhole but the trackers never allowed her to come out to have a drink.

There was no jeep except us and these two man on foot heard her growling, Deer and monkey were giving alarm call hardly 30 meters from the road but after seeing people walking on road she never came out.

They cleaned the water hole and left.

We spent next 30 minutes waiting for her and when we heard an alarm call from deep in the forest we knew she is moving to other waterhole.

By this time it was 0837.

We moved towards Sehra to look for some better Sambhar and Deer which we ignored in the morning.

At top of the meadow we heard an alarm call and thought this must be Jaya or her boys sleeping in the forest.

Suddenly guide saw some movement in the grass and next thing everyone saw was a Tiger.

She was gentle and so the we. Gave her lot of space to cross the road twice and then for next thirty minutes she walked along the hill.

It was Crumb who made our day.

Male Tigers in such a small area and still surviving without much of a conflict.

In one of our post on Facebook we said there are 5 different male tigers moving in an area of roughly about 40 sq km of Magadhi zone in Bandhavgarh.

We just thought to look for all the sightings of different males we had in Magadhi zone.

Question came up that what should be the centre point of this measurement so we decided to take Bagh Naka camp as centre point.

Everyone knows that Somanshu is being seen regularly around Arariya saucer which is only about a km or so in crow flight.

I saw Haaroon near Kadipani which is only few hundred meters from Baghnaka.

The other male which is coming to Sukhi Talaab and cuts up till Danwadol road is the male which charges on jeep without any provocation. We did not see him in this season but other people has seen him between Charakwaah and Bahera Camp. Very foggy day for this picture.

Other male which moves close to Baghnaka Camp is Chinku. He comes as close as Neelgaay road junction which is hardly a km from our centre point.

These four male always have a chance of conflict at one or the other point. The only male which comes under the length of 2.5 km radius and hardly have any chance to meet anyone of these is Tarun. He comes as close as Mahaman village and up till Sukhi Talaab which just touches the boundary of our 2.5 km radius map.

No one has any clue whether this male moves in anywhere close to Arariya or Kanoji fireline but being seen moving behind Sukhi Talaab.

And then don't forget about the Sukhi Patiya cubs which are still roaming in this area. They have a very uncertain future.

Bamboo Flower

Bamboo clumps are flowering in some of the areas of Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve.
This was seen today on 4th January 2017.