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.  

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. 



    









    

Wakeeta

It was a cold morning of usual January weather in Bandhavgarh. Yesterday our elephant ride was cocked up so I booked the elephant again. Vijya took her cubs back to the fort hill. Forest department still trying to find her about her health. Tourists now a days are very sensitive about Tigers health. According to them Vijya, Blue Eyed and I 9 are limping in the park. Vet says it could be due to physical injuries but nothing seriousness. How it could be serious when Vijya can walk 15 km in the night and then take her cubs for another 5 kilometer. 
After seeing Vishnu statue we decided to complete our route. We were not expecting any tiger sighting at this time of the day. We left Sheshshaiyya after 0830 looking for some nice Malabar Pied Hornbill on way to Ghodademon. It was very quite. No pugmarks and nor any bird. Often this road produces some nice birding behind Ganesh Pahadi but today it was quite.
There were no Tiger pug marks of any sort at Ghodademon junction. So even last hope of seeing any cat around died out quickly.
I asked Ramlakhan our guide to keep an eye on Monkey alarm calls  because in this area when Tiger crosses the hills monkey's are the first to sight him or only animal to give first alarm call. Just on rocky bit of Ghodademon towards Khirki junction we saw some pug marks and quickly Ramlakhan declared that's male walked last night. We agreed to him but in next few seconds I saw some fresh pug marks on  jeep tracks and mumbled "what is this happening".
I dont know if any one heard me or not but I was not happy with Ramlakhan's view that male tiger walked last night. This was all going in my brain and suddenly me and Sanjay, both saw a Tiger walking on road. We stopped to give her some space. I took few pictures of her walking on road that I deleted later on on camera itself. After walking for 100 meters on road in-front of jeep suddenly she stopped to sniff the grass.

She was very puzzled.

Who is this Tiger who walked here in my territory?
It must have been Shashi?
Pugmarks shows it was Shashi.

She sniffed the ground and followed the scent mark to a grassy patch where Shashi sat in the night.
She sniffed the ground again and soon started rubbing her body on the same spot. She wanted to cover his scent mark with her.

I witnessed this behaviour only second time in my life. One has to be very lucky to find a Tiger displaying this kind of behaviour. it all becomes possible when there is only one vehicle and you dont have Photo greedy tourists to give her enough space. In our vehicle I was the only person with camera. Guests were only watching her. Mr Prasad told us later that he never carries any camera any where in the world.
She was sniffing and marking every possible tree trunk and bush where this male may have marked his territory.

We gave her more than hundred meters space to walk freely on the road. Luckily she chose the same road on which we were a head of her. She walked more than 300 meters behind our jeep and follow the scent mark of Shashi in to Khirki gorge.
It was 30 minutes of pure joy in the jungle.