bandhavgarh

Tuesday, February 8, 2011

Kanha

We set off for Kanha at about 0900 AM from Bandhavgarh. Reached Mandla at about 0100 PM to find out that road to Kanha is blocked by Kalash Yaatraa. No one knew about this festival. Someone from the crowd commented this is a part of next election otherwise in hindu calander Kumbh is not mentioned in Mandala??
Somehow we reached Singinawa by 1800 hours. Nand and Latika Rana runs this place with a style. Staff warned us about Leopard they saw near our room few days back. Spotted Deers and Wild Boares are every where around this place. If you are driving down from Baihar to Mukki then Singinawa is just after river Tannaur bridge and next to Buffer Zone of Kanha National Park. A very good place to stay for Wildlifers. Surroundings are full of birds and animals.
Mukki area in the park is coming up well. Lots of Barasingha but at this time we didn't saw many Gaur. Tiger sighting is good as they say but we didn't saw one. Kay needed to see one Tiger from the road but this didn't happen in 5 days we stayed in kanha.
I found Kisli area more drier than Mukki. Kanha meadows lost their charm. For me Kanha was very different than what I was expecting.

Sunday, January 30, 2011

Tiger Tourism

I just saw the pictures of Bamera male on an Indian website. After seeing these pictures and the report from my client from that Evening I am forced to say that YES I AM IN FAVOUR OF THAT PIL. If this is the behaviour people has to show in-front of the Tiger then YES WHY NOT THIS PARK SHOULD BE CLOSED FOR TOURISM FOREVER. These pictures shows that just for a photograph how close they can be so they can claim that I have it.
Everyone wants to be in-front of the queue.
It may not be any other thing but the behaviour of Tourist will certainly help the PIL.
I wish forest department and NTCA should look in to this website and findout the real truth of Tourist behaviour in the park.

Friday, January 28, 2011

Gaur translocation from Kanha to Bandhavgarh

So finally Gaur are in Bandhavgarh Now.
Soon they will be major Tourist attraction here.

Thursday, January 27, 2011

Elephant Ride

Two of our Guests were very keen to do an Elephant ride in the park. Tiger was not their objective but if he is there well and good. We reached Bhadrashila at about 0650 and by 0700 AM we were riding on Elephant Gautam.

Two other elephants were ahead of us following Sambhar alarm call means Tiger is nearby. This excited us more. We followed other two elephants in grassland to get a glimpse of a running tiger. Within seconds he disappeared in thick jungle. We tried to locate him but failed. Soon our elephant ride turn in to a proper jungle ride. Our ride time finished at 0900 AM and so of some other clients. These other foreigners complained to their Naturalist / Driver that for most of the time we were watching the bum end of this elephant walking ahead of us.

When you are sitting sideways on elephants than who asked you to look in-front of Elephant. Mahavat is doing his job. On elephant ride one is going through the jungle to see the forest. This is lack of communication / briefing / interpretation at the lodge. Unnecessarily poor Mahavat got blamed and the visitors didn't enjoyed their ride.

My clients were very happy to see the difference in the forest. Probably my presence on elephant as interpreter made the difference.

After we got off the Elephant our driver and guide said that they saw three tigers running across the meadow and still there is a chance to see them from the road. We came out on the road and we saw one running across the meadow.

Monday, January 24, 2011

Vijaya AKA Kankati AKA D4

We saw Vijaya this morning. Her eye looks bad. She challanged Lakshmi and forced her to move out of her teritory. They are still fighting and had a good fight few days back where Lakshmi chased her out of Chorbehra but not for long.

I am putting all the pictures of Vijaya's wound on my Flickr account so if interested please check

http://www.flickr.com/photos/satyendraphotography.