Naturalist eyes (Part 2)

Have you ever felt that adrenaline rush in your blood when you face that moment which you have been dreaming of?????

It was an unforgettable memory for me, and I can say that images may get faint but not those memories. Even though I have never seen a tiger in the wild but have heard all kinds of stories. In my mind I was excited to see it on the next level but at the same time I was scared too. I had lots of questions in my mind, like what I’ll do if I see a Tiger like real one, what if it attacks, what if I’ll get afraid and want to go back, what will be my reaction, what will be my feeling, so many what if’s were running in my mind, and for which I need to face that situation so I can answer myself. At that point I didn’t want to hear anybody else’s experience…I wanted to experience it and answer it myself.

All those questions feel childish now, but at that time that mixed feeling of happiness and being scared at the same time was different.

I still remember it was 14th of October 2019 when I first time entered in core region of Tadoba.  I was fully prepared, dressed up. I was too excited to explore a different region of Tadoba. My backpack was ready, binocs checked, notepad checked, water checked and I am ready to go. Its 6 am and gates will open at 6:30 and you have to reach at gate 10 min before for document verification and other things. And gates are opening in my slow motion imagination……as soon as I entered we saw a pair of spotted owlets....a nice start. I was writing each and everything our guide was telling, about park different ways, what time I entered, which gate, what I am seeing and where... everything. TATR is only national park in India which banned use of cell phones strictly, which I feel is good. Well we reached another gate which is like the midpoint of all gates. All Gypsies from different gates come there for final verification. There our guides and drivers discuss where to go and look for tigers…as I mentioned in my old post that basically we search for tigers according to their last location. This time I was hoping to see one. It’s not I was not Interested in anything else but I saw everything apart from tiger and leopard. So now my only desire to see any one of them. But they say…if you wish by heart you will get more than you expected.

On the first day of my safari I saw a……………….Sloth bear. Sloth bears are very shy animals and they are vulnerable too.They are huge, black, and one angry animal. They have long snout-like mouth structures basically to feed on termites and Ants(My guests asked me many times why they are called Sloth Bear so let me tell you that because of its claw and teeth pattern the scientist named  George Shaw thought that it belongs to tree sloths,also sloth bear like tree sloth sometimes hang upside down on tree branches.). Again a kick start of to begin your journey.

In Tadoba we have some VIP animals apart from Tiger, you must look for this VIP, and they are leopard (mostly black one), Sloth bear and Tiger. Well I guess because Tiger is a keystone species, it is the most noticed animal, but wildlife is not about just Tigers. Yes I do have an awesome moment encountering a Tiger, but moment which I can never ever ever forget is Seeing a Black Panther.

While we were watching a slot bear a gypsy passed by and they said a Tiger was seen near a water hole. I can feel my heart beat at that time, excited, scared, looking everywhere (coz I didn't want to miss a single glance) ,praying. As we reached the location I stood up and started looking for it, so was it what I expected…….NO. Well it was my First Tiger in Tadoba, but it was not what I expected. This was a Famous tiger called Chota Matka (local names are Banned now) sitting far away in a corner of water whole…showing us his back. It was far enough that you can say there’s a tiger there, but not clearly visible. My whole excitement went back to level 0.

We came back that day and in my checklist I have one new animal which is one VIP Sloth Bear, which made my day, and I can say that my game drive was awesome.

 

Expected things come unexpectedly……………..and it’s true. More you desire, more you want it sooner, more your patience level will decrease, we had 4-5 game drives after that but no signs of tiger and after my first drive I decided that i'll not start my drive with this thought that may be today I will see a Tiger. Every day we were seeing 2-3 new bird species, we focused on learning routes, villages, flora, their importance, watching langurs and their babies enjoying, peacock dancing near lake sides, alarm calls and then following it and waiting for hours.

October 20 2019 we had our game drive in the evening and as always ready to move. There was still 15-20 minutes remaining for our gates to close so we told our driver to drive slowly and we started discussing with our guide. Then after a while we were talking among ourselves and enjoying our route because there was no other Gypsy on that route except ours…and suddenly our guide said sh…..Tiger. So in reply we said “ha abhi tak nahi dekhne mila pata nhi kab dikhega” (yeah till now we didn’t get to see it, don't know when we will get lucky).  He said no look straight…. We all stood up and there it is, A male young Tiger, walking on side of the path silently, no calls, no hustles in the Jungle, it was a memorable moment, no rush for Gypsies to go in front, no noise, no peekaboo moment…just us and Tiger. At that time I felt an adrenaline rush in my blood,  I was excited but not scared, slowly slowly my mind started answering me all my questions. We drove slowly, we guessed that the tiger was new and so trying to avoid our gypsy. We stopped we allowed him to go inside jungle…as he went we drove a bit forward and stopped waited for a while and here he came suddenly appearing from jungle, marking his way by urinating, he followed us or that path upto few meters, giving us a proper view and enough photos . And suddenly went inside the jungle. We all were silent for a few minutes…and then we looked at each other. I must say only visible thing on our faces was that huge smile .

When we reached the main gate, every Gypsy guide and driver were saying ooh today we didn’t get any luck…and we were like m….. humko to dikha :)( we saw a Tiger). I never expected to see a tiger without any hustle, my first proper Tiger. As we came back we just freshen up and started comparing photos with all other Tigers there for its Id.  But no luck with it's identification, after few days we got to know that this one is not new but he is an adult now and looking for territory and mate. After a few days compiling all old and new photos we got to know that it is Tala (T-101).

 So as they say, just work without thinking about what's gonna be there at the end point, and when you are working in Nature, with Nature and for Nature, there are 3 things which are fixed….peace, satisfaction and a pure smile on your face.

Pic credit :Neela Madhu Babu