Bandhavgarh Diary 2008

Lot of people have written to me asking about my Bandhavgarh trips and how a Day in the Life of a Photographer like me looks like. So I thought of publishing the day to day notes that I write down along with a few images.

Day 1: May 7th 2008 Morning

I alighted from Utkal Express today morning. My driver and a person from the resort had come to receive me. I reached the resort, a new one, and was at a distance from the village and Tala gate. A quick cup of tea and I rushed to the Park. Before Sidhababa, I could see a line of gypsys and knew that a tiger is near by. The Sidhababa tigress was resting near the nullah and tiger show was on. The elephants were pushed into service and the poor things didn’t even get time to perform.

 

Though I don’t like getting into elephants in these infamous tiger shows, I saw that the tigress moved away and sat on a rock and she was lit by the early morning light. So I decided to climb onto an elephant. When we reached close to the tigress, I could see that she was pregnant. A foreigner was also with me she started whistling to attract the attention of the tigress. I was aghast. How can you treat a tiger like a dog? Most of these wildlife photographers have no respect for the tiger. Instead of a natural behaviour, they want particular image of tiger snarling. The mahout was trying to take the elephant closer to the tiger and I was asking him to move back and give the tigress some space. The mahout felt that I fear the tiger and hence was asking to stay at a distance. Little did he realise that we were moving too close and were causing stress to a pregnant tigress. I asked the mahout to turn back.

When I returned, the ranger looked at my two cameras and expensive L series white lenses and wanted money for his pocket. The full day elephant ride costs 25000 rupees for foreigners and he told my driver that people pay 25000 rupees and your saab wants to just pay hundred rupees? He ordered my driver to leave the place else he threatened to bar the vehicle for 15 days. I was shocked to hear such demands. Man goes to the forests to seek solace, unfortunately that is not to be.

In the afternoon, a Crested Serpent eagle flew and sat in branch before me. The lighting was tough but I got the exposure right. The Sidhababa tigress was sleeping in the nullah by the side of the road, but I didn’t want to disturb the pregnant lady and moved ahead. I didn’t get to see another tiger in the afternoon, but I didn’t have any regrets. Tomorrow is another day, who knows what is in store for me.

Day 2: May 8th 2008 Morning

I reached the National Park gate around 5.15 am. The gate opens at 5.30 am. Infront of the gate I met Paul Davis, a gentleman from UK. He is involved in an NGO. I understand they had discussions with the field director to generate awareness about the tiger in the nearby villages. As soon as it was 5.30 am, I could hear a whistle and the gates were immediately opened. I talked with an ex-army man Mr. Tripathy; he is among the bunch of ex-army men who have been recruited to help in protecting our National Parks.

In Siddhababa, we found the tigress sleeping in the grass land barely 20 feet away from the road. All the jeeps crowded around that place vying with each other to get a clean view of the tiger sleeping in the grass. I didn’t want to disturb our lady and moved ahead – far from the madding crowd.

I proceeded towards Rajbehera and could see a few jeeps waiting near the grassland. I thought that probably they had heard the alarm call. The early morning light falling on the grasslands always converts the sight of the numerous Cheetal (Axix axis) into a magical sight. I saw the BBC team filming and thought they are probably capturing the early morning scene of the grassland. And what a surprise! I could see a male tiger – commonly named as Sukhipatiha male – sitting in the open view in the grassland. The lustrous coat of the tiger was glistening in the early morning light. The deers were grazing and could see the tiger in open. However, there was not a single alarm call, as the deer knew that the tiger is not inclined to hunt. The peaceful look on the tigers face said it all.

 

I watched the tiger and shot it from various angles. I had all the time to change lenses, cameras, used different converters and the tiger was still there. It was one of those days, when you feel that the tiger is relaxed and offers "darshan" for hours together to lesser mortals like us.

The tiger yawned, and I knew it is a sign that the tiger will soon get up. After another 10 minutes the tiger yawned again. It looked at the deers grazing nearby, and then slowly got up and stretched itself. When it was stretching itself, you can feel as if a child has just got up from its bed. The tiger then moved into the deep clump of green grass bordering a small stream. The deer could sense its motive and had moved away towards the suaribah area.

I waited there for a long time, before moving ahead for the mandatory entry in the official records. I returned to find that the tiger had still not come out. On a hot summer day, the tiger prefers to remain near the stream. The grass gave it ample cover from the harsh sunlight and it had no need to come out. It was time for the gates to close, so we  proceeded towards the exit. On the way I shot the photograph of a crested hawk eagle drinking water. It was very far away and I could get it by using the 2x converter with my 400mm F2.8 L IS USM lens and the Canon 40D camera. The 40D camera, due to its smaller sensor has got a factor of 1.6. Hence the focal length of the lens gets increased by 1.6 times. My 1D Mark II camera, has got a factor of 1.3, hence I decided to go for the 40D due to its extra reach. Its 0.3 mm extra form factor meant, I had 240mm extra focal length than my 1D II.

Day 2: May 8th 2008 Afternoon

At 4 pm sharp, I again entered the National Park. There were about seven or eight jeeps at that time, the heat forcing people to come late. On the way, I found that the white backed vulture baby that had fallen from the tree the day before, had crossed the road. This baby vulture was taking its first flight and that had gone horribly wrong. It is now on the land, unable to fly. One of the tourist guides went up to the vulture and put water into her beak. The vulture was getting water, but without food it would lose its strength fast. I have my doubts as to whether this vulture baby can ever fly again. First I went to Rajbehera where we had seen the tiger in the morning. However, couldn’t see the tiger, so decided to go to Mahaman dam to see if the tigress and her cubs had come out.

It was not to be and we cam back to Rajbehera again. Finally, the tiger decided to come out of the grass at about 6.20 pm and crossed in front of my jeep. There were jeeps in front of me, so a wide angle lens would have captured other jeeps as well. So I used the 300mm with the 40D and captured only head shots.

It was getting dark, and the scheduled park closing time was approaching fast. We had no option but to leave the place and rush back to the Park entrance.

Day 3: May 9th 2008

A cloudy morning greeted us. The prospect of rain dampened my spirit as the chances of sighting a tiger decreases significantly. In an open gypsy, protecting the photographic equipment from rain is quiet a task.

My driver suggested that we should check the Mahaman dam area first. Most of the tourists are likely to go to the Rajbehera area where the male tiger was sighted yesterday. I readily agreed, as most of the tourists go berserk when the sight a tiger and behave like paparazzi making the tiger sighting a less than memorable experience.

We saw the pug marks and scratches in the soft sand on the road. The tigress and cubs were on the road early in the morning and had gone away into the grasslands. There were no langurs or deers nearby to give alarm calls. After waiting for about an hour, we moved ahead towards the centre point where we have to make official entry in the forest department register. We were immediately surrounded by small kids selling channa (boiled gram). They were requesting and begging me to buy from them. I felt bad as my policy is not to encourage buying and selling in the forest area. However, the plight of the poor kids was too much to bear. All of us love to play God when the cost is low – the kids were selling channa (boiled grams) for five rupees in small cups made of leaf.

I proceeded to Rajbehera. There were a few tourist vehicles. The BBC team was also there. I was told that there was a brief sighting of the tiger in the morning when it went into the grassland. The fear of the male tiger has made the female tigress with cubs avoiding the Suaribah area. We went to jhurhura dam but there was no water in the small dam. We then returned back. On the way, near Siddhababa area, came across a monitor lizard. I also took some shots of the Brown fishing owl. I normally, take shots of this owl, whenever I fail to shoot the tiger. This is a ritual that has been going on for the last three years. I took a few shots of an Indian Roller who came and perched on a tree nearby.

In the afternoon, my driver informed me that the dominant male tiger B2 has been sighted in the Ghoda daman area. Bittu is injured. Bittu has been moving far away from its territory and has been fighting with other tigers. Most of the times he injures his right foreleg. This time it had again injured itself about seven days back. We thought that not many tourists would know this. But word had spread around, and there was a procession of jeeps in that area. When I reached Ghoda daman area, there were already a couple of jeeps in the area. I could see Bittu sleeping in the cave about 40 feet below. From my position, I was unable to shoot him. After about an hour and half he got up and came up. I could shoot a couple of shots of Bittu crossing the road.

It then walke d on the road for some time and then went away. There were some kids on a few jeeps. They had come from Pune. They were pretty excited and were screaming on top of their voices. The Jeeps were hitting each other as each jeep driver tried to get a clear view of the tiger. The guide in my jeep – Jayprakash – held my tripod firmly as I was holding two cameras and shooting handheld. My 400 mm F2.8 L IS USM, my prized possession was bought for low light shooting but I could not use it. In close combat, you only use small arms, not sniper rifles. It was getting dark, and then I came back leaving behind the crowd. They were still waiting for Bittu to come to the road again. The light was pretty bad, but people in the jeeps had either no idea about photography or were happily shooting with whatever lighting conditions.

On the road before Chakradhara, I came across a deer suckling from its mother. I shot it using the Canon EOS 40D at ISO 800, 1/60 seconds at F4. I tried the high ISO noise reduction facility. However, I didn’t like the shots and in future will definitely avoid ISO 800. Unfortunately, my 400mm F2.8 L IS USM lens was packed in the bag. There were vehicles following us. So I had to shoot immediately. Infact, hardly had I shot a couple of shots the deer ran way as a jeep screeched to a halt behind me. Let’s see what is in store for us tomorrow. Hope is eternal. Despite adversity, I have been surviving on hope. They say, hope flows eternal in the human breast.

Day 4: May 10th 2008

In the morning I decided to take a longer route and go to Mirchahni. I thought there will be less number of jeeps in that area. Unfortunately, we found about 6 jeeps already there. The tigress was sitting at a distance in the grassland. Her head was visible, but the grass made it very difficult to get any decent shot. I was not getting a full frame shot even at 800mm.

I watched her for about half an hour and the number of jeeps kept on increasing. After some time, she yawned and then started watching the cheetal grazing nearby. I was thinking that she will get up and start stalking when a cheetal started making alarm calls on the opposite side from the Andhiari Jhiria area. The tigress immediately took notice. After a couple of calls, she got up and started towards that area. The grassland was bifurcated by a road moving perpendicular to the road we were in. The tigress had to cross two roads to go to the Andhiari Jhiria area. There was a mad rush by vehicles to line up on the road where the tigress was crossing. I could manage couple of shots but the vehicles were too close and in number of shots the vehicles were in the image. The jeep drivers were driving in a thoughtless manner and were blocking the road. The tigress then growled and started running ahead to cross infront of us. A dust cloud had engulfed us and shooting in that condition was very difficult. Fortunately, the guide Jay Prakash was holding my tripod, else holding the camera with my heavy 400mm f2.8 lens would have become a big problem. The tigress was desperate to cross the road. She ran and in two jumps had crossed the road. It was evident that the cubs were on the other side of the road in Andhiari Jhiria. This Andhiari Jhiria is a stream in an area which is dark most of the times due to the thick canopy of tall trees and the hill. I could see the tigress and cub at a distance. I got couple of shots through the thick undergrowth, certainly not among my best shots.

I then returned to Centre point to make the mandatory entry. I was desperate to be away from the crowd and went to Sehra area but couldn’t find any signs of the tiger. On the way shot a couple of vultures. The rest of the morning was uneventful.

In the afternoon, when I reached the National Park gate, I was greeted with a heartbreaking sight – about 50 vehicles were lined up near the gate filled with mostly casual tourists. The air was heavy with the scent of deodorants and perfumes. The garish attire displayed an incredible lack of dress sense among the tourists. The different languages spoken at high decibels compounded the assault on the sensory organs.

I asked the driver to drive fast to move far away from this madness. We reached Sehra and parked ourselves near the grassland. A male tiger normally takes rest in a cave in the hill opposite the Sehra grassland. It would come down in the late afternoon. After waiting for about twenty minutes, I was worried to see a jeep coming towards us. In an hours time there were about eight or nine jeeps in the vicinity. I tried to desist from silently cursing them by trying to focus on the grey hornbills perching on the trees on the hill slopes.

It was about five thirty, when we heard repeated alarm calls by Cheetal. We moved ahead to find a male tiger at a distance – most probably the Rajbehera male who had charged at me in 2005 -  in the grassland stalking the cheetal. The road had curved ahead and we moved some distance and positioned ourselves near a fireline. By this time, other tourist jeeps had come and a cloud of dust had enveloped us. I counted twenty five vehicles before I gave up counting. My driver knew how I was feeling. We also knew that the Rajbehera Male, nicknamed ‘bokah’ by the guides normally avoids people. So we decided to go back checking Rajbehera grasslands on the way.

Near Chakradhara, I stopped to photograph a pond heron on breeding plumage. The light was really bad. I was shooting at 800 mm at f5.6 at 1/20 seconds. I used mirror lock up but still most of the images were soft.

Day 5: May 11th 2008

We were amazed to find the number of tourist vehicles had increased. I realised that probably the number had increased as it was a Sunday.

We soon proceeded to Chakradhara and within ten minutes of entering the forest we could spot Bittu, the resident male tiger of the area lying in the grassland. Bittu, has grown old and is limping. He appeared infront of my vehicle in a slight clearing in the grassland. I could take couple of shots before I vanished into the thick grass. I could later see him at a distance, but the tall grass didn’t allow any clear view for shooting.

We then went to Mirchahni. Again we could see about seven jeeps standing near the grassland. I could see a tiger after straining my eyes for some time, as the tiger was hidden behind a clump of grass. The distance made focusing difficult. Later on I saw two tigers instead of one. It appeared that the tigress had left its cubs behind and had probably gone for a hunt.

After about half-an-hour the cubs got up and got ready to cross the road. All the vehicles quickly rushed to the spot. Needless to say, that the cubs sat down in the shade beneath a tree. Visibility through the grass was poor. The jeeps kept on moving front and back to get a clear view. A further hour passed, and then the cubs got up to cross the road. My driver quickly moved the jeep and parked it infront of a game trail. In a few minutes, the cubs appeared infront of me. They were partially hidden in the grass. I was photographing from a low angle so that photographer behind me can shoot. Due to the low angle, lot of grass was appearing and playing havoc with my focusing.

There were some rude photographers from France in a couple of jeeps behind me. One of them was an elderly gentleman, who uttered some rubbish stuff. Some of these foreigners still have that old colonial mentality. These days I rarely meet such people, but today was one such day. I didn’t want to engage in a war of words in front of the tiger. I knew that the tiger will not come out as the jeeps had again blocked its path. I moved ahead and looked around to find if the tigress is around. After waiting for about fifteen to twenty minutes, we moved towards the gate. On the way back, I got some good closeups of a crested serpent eagle.

I had decided that I will go early and enter the Park before any other jeep enters. That helped in avoiding the huge amount of dust blown away by the jeeps. We proceeded to Suaribah anicut behind the climbers point. Sambars were grazing in and around the waterhole. I was informed by the guide that a male tiger was seen in Sehra area. I decided to focus on the tigress with small cubs even if that meant missing out on other tiger sightings.

We waited near the water for about half-an-hour and then decided to go and wait near a point where the road trifurcates. The tigress is known to take that road to come go to the water from its cave. We found pugmarks and tiger scat. The tigress and cubs had passed by that road in the morning and had defecated on the road.

I heard a low growl once. I think it was the tigress admonishing its cubs. The light was going down at a rapid rate. It was time to come out of the gate. I saw a pair of jackals when entering the resort. Light was very low and the jackals were moving at a fast pace so I put down the camera again. Lets hope for a better tomorrow.

Day 6: May 12th 2008

I had tried to be early, but was not the first jeep to enter the park in the morning. My driver directly drove towards Rajbehera area. We could see the water hole at a distance and my driver stopped near the Y shaped junction, unsure whether to take a right turn or go to the waterhole directly. We could see a jeep near the waterhole. Then thought of going towards it when the guide in that jeep whistled signaling that a tiger is nearby. We immediately raced there to find the tigress drinking water from the dam.

It was about 6 in the morning, and the early morning light was giving an ethereal glow to the scene. In my childhood days I used to read stories of Kenneth Anderson about his experiences in the jungle. In one of the books, the cover photo was a tiger drinking water. It had made a big impression on me. I was madly rushing to pull out my 400mm f2.8 IS lens from the bag and screw in the lens hood. I knew the tigress can leave any moment. I clicked a few shots with the 400mm and then I realised that the tigress is thirsty and still drinking water. I quickly set up my tripod, fixed my 2x II converter and then started clicking.

One more jeep arrived, with some local tourists. There was one elderly gentleman in that jeep who refused to keep quiet. The tigress gave a low growl and left. I felt as if the tigress didn’t like our presence. I had photographed this tigress last year. She was there in front of me for hours together in the same waterhole and she didn’t protest at our presence. Probably, motherhood has made her more wary of human presence. Of course, the kind of noise these tourists make, any self respecting animal would get annoyed.

We went to Sehra grasslands. There were repeated alarm calls, but we didn’t see any carnivore. After waiting for about half an hour, we proceeded to Hardiha – the centre point where we had to make entries with the forest office. On the way, I clicked some pictures of a king vulture or red headed vulture. The rest of the morning was uneventful.

In the afternoon, I straightaway proceeded to Rajbehera in search of tigress. I was expecting the tigress to be at Rajbehera with the cubs. When I reached the waterhole, I found the tigress in water. The lighting was harsh and I was shooting against the light, not a pleasing prospect, however, since the tigress was there in water, I clicked. The tigress then proceeded to the Rajbehera meadow. She was not clearly visible as she was lying behind a clump of grass. She was repeatedly calling her cubs, but they were nowhere to be seen. Perhaps they had wandered away. After an hour, a mongoose came and immediately the tigress got up hearing the sound. When she saw the mongoose, she sat down again. I could sense that hearing the sound made by the mongoose, the tigress thought that her cubs were coming.

The time kept on ticking away, the sun which was mercilessly burning down my skin, had decided to soften its rays. Soon the sky was covered with an orange glow. The tigress was getting more and more agitated and had started calling her cubs loudly. She then got up and started walking. The calls were getting louder and louder. She crossed the road in front of my jeep. It was already 6.20 pm and we rushed to reach the exit gate.

I thought of trying to reach the waterhole early in the morning. It is about 15 mins from the Gohri gate. So I decided to enter the park through the Gohri gate tomorrow. I talked with Yadav and he did the necessary formalities.

Day 7: May 13th 2008

I had to start at 4.30 in the morning to reach Gohri gate by 5.15 am. Gohri gate is about 25 kms from Tala. I had decided to take a chance.

The tigress was not there in the waterhole. I checked some distance ahead and was coming back to the Rajbehera grasslands, when I heard an alarm call. I asked to stop the jeep. Immediately, my guide could see the tiger cub to our left. I was frantically trying to open the bag, take out my 400mm f2.8 and reattach the hood, the cub climbed a rock. We drove about 50 feet ahead and saw two tiger cubs on the rock. Unfortunately, the face of the cubs were hidden by climbers. It was an agonizing time for me as I was unable to photograph the cubs. Light level was quiet low as well.

After about half an hour, I could sight the tiger at a distance in the grassland. I realised that the tigress had entered the grassland with one cub and the other two cubs had got left behind in the rock. There were several jeeps lined up near the grassland where the tigress had taken shelter. A small nullah which is fed from the water from the Suaribah dam flows through the Rajbehera grasslands. The tigress had hidden her kill in the grassland and was guarding it. The tall grass made visibility very poor thought the tigress and the cub were barely thirty feet away.

I had raised my tripod to its maximum height to try and shoot through the tall grass. I knew that raising the tripod legs fully will make it more prone to shake. I had the Wimberley V2 head mounted on it and my 400mm f2.8 L IS lens along with a 2xII converter. I had my 300mm f4L IS USM lens mated with a 1.4x II converter on a 40D. I had mounted this attachment on my Bush hawk Shoulder pod.

The hot sun was beating down on us mercilessly. I could see that the tigress is also facing the brunt of the Sun God. The stream flowing by would be providing it some respite, no such luck for me though. The summer heat was making the tourists restless. There was some shouting at a distance that a tourist jeep had sighted the Rajbehera male tiger about 300 meters away. There was an alarm call by deers and shouting by tourists. At that moment the tigress made a mock charge at the jeep infront of her. My lens was in manual focus mode. When I realised that the tiger is charging at a jeep, I tried to focus. Unfortunately by the time I had focused, the tigress had turned its head to move away.

I waited till 9.25 am and then proceeded to leave from the Gohri Gate. I was told near the Gohri gate that two tigers have been spoted resting near a dam about 500meters away. Since the park gate had closed, I thought of investigating that area later.

In the afternoon, I rushed to Rajbehera area in search of the tigress and cubs. The tigress had moved the kill to a nearby area. The tigress was sleeping near its kill. The kill was not visible to us from the road. After an hour or so the cubs the cubs started playing. Initially they were playing near the tigress and were hardly visible due to the thick grass. Their small size and the tall grass made photography difficult. I knew that after some time the cubs will start moving around and would come to areas with sparse vegetation offering me a clear view.

The cubs were playing with each other for some time and would then rush back to their mother and show affection. Once a cub went and lied down near the tigress. The tigress was lying and facing to her right. She affectionately put her front left foreleg on the cub. I could see that she has embraced the cub and was kissing and licking the cub on her face. I felt very good watching that intimate moment.

One of the cubs was very inquisitive and adventurous. The cub would watch me for some time and would take a few steps towards me. Then the playful spirit would surface again and he would turnaround and go back to play with its siblings.

Day 8: May 14th 2008

I had planned to reach the National Park gate early, but I got up late. I was allocated the A route. I was disappointed but went along that route. The A route for the most part runs around the periphery of the park. When I reached Banbehi, there was another jeep standing near the nallah. On reaching the spot, I could find that the tigress was sitting about fifteen feet away, hidden in the dense grass. On closer inspection found that the cubs were about forty feet away, hardly visible through the dense vegetation.

About six or seven jeeps carrying school kids reached the spot. The ensuing loud questions and remarks of "where is it?" and "Oh! Its there. Can’t you see stupid?" was too much for the tigress to tolerate. She got up and left quietly.

I waited there for some time and then proceeded towards centre point. On the way, checked for the presence of the tigress and cubs there but could not find them. I then proceeded to Rajbehera to check whether the tigress and cubs are still in the grass. I found a few jeeps near the area. I was told that the tigress was in the grass. Could not see them.

In the afternoon, I entered the gate first, so could avoid the huge amount of dust thrown up by the vehicles. We went to Suaribah area. I could see one of the cubs in water. My driver asked me where to park the vehicle. I instructed him and then I immediately took out my camera. I had mounted my 40D on the 400mm f2.8 L IS USM lens. I placed the towel on the gypsy top and started shooting. When I saw that the cub is still in water, I attached the 1.4x converter. I then set up my tripod and mounted the lens on it. After some time, I attached the 1D Mark II with 2x converter on the 400mm f2.8 lens. I was getting the full frame with this set up.

The cub got up from water and climbed the rock. The tigress was sleeping on the rock under a tree. The other two cubs were perched on a rock near the mother. There was a clump of bamboo near by. One of the cubs started eating the freshly sprouted bamboo leaves. I was amazed that this cub continued eating bamboo leaves for about ten minutes.

One of the cubs got up and moved slightly ahead and sat on a crouching position. It was watching the deer grazing. I was happy that the cubs have been picking up skills from their mother. Time ticked on and my camera was busy capturing the antics of the cubs. It was about half an hour since we had arrived at this place. The tigress then got up and immediately started stalking the deer. She entered the grasslands and started watching the deer. I was excited, but knew that the deer was too far for the tigress to charge. I watched the tigress made two abortive attempts.

While watching the tigress, I could see a storm approaching. It turned out to be a dust storm and the deers immediately ran away from the grasslands. The tigress kept on waiting. After the dust storm cleared away, some more deers came near the water to drink. The tigress stalked and then turned back as the tigress knew that the distance between it and the deers was more than its range. It gave a low growl on being disappointed. It was then the deers saw the tigress and started sounding alarm calls.

I knew that it was time and packed my camera for the day.

Day 9: May 15th 2008

I wanted to straight away head towards the Suaribah dam. However, in the morning, I got the A route again. I was disappointed but had to take the A route. It was an uneventful drive, till we reached Bhitari bah area. Suddenly, I noticed a tiger coming towards us from the left. Both the guide and my driver failed to notice the tiger. I asked them to stop the vehicle and quickly set up my tripod and mounted my 400mm lens. I was told that this tiger is the female cub of the Chakradhara female. She is one of the four cubs from that litter. All the other cubs had gone out of the park. She too hunts mostly out of the park, but comes back to this area in the morning.

On seeing us, the tigress immediately sat down. Her ears were barely visible. After a couple of minutes, a jeep reached the spot. The tigress then got up and growled and ran away. My driver was trying to reverse the jeep, but the tigress ran away and hid herself in the dense undergrowth below the Jamun tree. I was surprised and anxious by this behaviour of the tigress. I thought the tigress growling at the sight of jeeps as unusual. It seems, she has got some bad experience from some unruly tourist vehicles.

I then proceeded to centre point and then to Rajbehera grasslands. I briefly saw the cubs at a distance, vanishing behind the dense foliage. There were few photographers who were shooting at a rapid pace like paparazzi. My driver remarked that he doesn’t understand why these photographers madly click even though only the tail of the tiger is visible. He told me that you are not satisfied with a sighting like this, where as these photographers are very happy and contented that they have clicked now. He further remarked that "I don’t know what they do with these kind of photographs?  It is certainly a very pertinent question for us photographers. Do we think before we click? Normally, I have seen that if a photographer is clicking, then other photographers stop their jeep and start clicking, even if the subject doesn’t appeal to them. Peer pressure even in the jungle!

In the afternoon, I could see the sky covered with clouds. I knew that it would rain. I remembered that last year it had rained in the same time and we had a memorable experience. I proceeded towards Suaribah and the downpour started when we reached there.

My driver, turned the vehicle away and drove near the grassland to avoid falling branches from the trees. We knew there was a tiger cub on the hill. We went to the other side, known as climber point and had a view of the tiger cub. It was not a clear view for photography. From this side we could see the dam and found that another tiger cub had walked over the dam and come near the tiger cub. I went back to the Suari bah. All the jeeps came to that area and people were straining their eyes to get a view of the cubs. Lot of school kids had come and they were all talking in loudly. It was impossible to hear any sounds. An hour passed and the most of the jeeps left the place. The guide in my vehicle, was asking me to proceed towards Sehra area. I didn’t want to leave and we waited there.

I thanked myself that I was waiting there. Soon the tigress made an appearance. She came and started drinking water. She kept on drinking for about fifteen minutes. Then she called the cubs and the cubs crossed the dam and came near her. It was an absolutely lovely sight to see the cubs playing with each other and with their mother. The light was not good. I had by that time, attached the 40D to my lens. Unfortunately, its autofocus is not as good as the 1 series cameras. The action was fast and I had no time to change cameras. I regretted that I was shooting with the 40D as most of the shots are not in focus.

The tigress and cubs left the place around 6 pm. We then moved away and waiting near a road as we knew that the tigress and cubs have to cross that road to go near their cave. Unfortunately, the time was ticking away fast.  We could stay no longer as we had to exit the forest gate by 6.45 pm.

Day 10: March 16th 2008

In the morning, we got the E route. So we proceeded towards the Suaribah area. We found no trace of the tigers. We saw a mongoose on the way. It ran across the road and stopped at about 30 feet away, turning its head to watch us. We went towards Mahaman dam, saw pugmarks, but no sighting of a tiger.

In the afternoon we again proceeded to the Rajbehera area. We heard an alarm call when we were in the Suaribah area. So we proceeded to investigate. Some cheetals had seen one of the tiger cubs. This cub has a tumour in its belly and is remain away from the other two cubs and her mother. The tumour was big and the mother would have sensed that it is a hopeless case. I think the cub would die soon. The guide asked me as to why the veterinary doctors can’t treat this cub. I told him that we don’t have trained people who can calculate the dose of anesthesia required to tranquilise the cub. The forest department had tried to tranquilise Challenger, the male tiger who had fought with the Rajbehera male and had suffered serious injuries in 2006. Assuming that a big tiger like Challenger would need a bigger dose, the forest department persons tranquilised Challenger with a big dose resulting in the death of Challenger. People were told that Challenger succumbed to its injuries. This is the state of affairs of Field Biology in India.

I moved away from the people trying to get a glimpse of this tiger cub. I came across the grown up cub of Patiha female near Nilgai marg. The cub was moving in the forest at a distance of about 30 meters from me. The bamboo shoots and climbers made focusing absolutely impossible. I had a quick chat with my driver and decided to move ahead and wait for the tiger to cross a trisection.

I could hear the alarm calls of deer and sambar coming closer and then the alarm call completely dried up. I felt as if the tiger was lying down nearby as it would have seen all the jeeps standing on the road. After about half-an-hour a swarm of flies came and started bothering us. The flies were very sticky, probably due to being on a kill nearby. Two days back, I had seen how hassled the small tiger cub was due to flies. I could now empathise with the cub now after this terrible experience. It was nearing six and we decided to move. On the way, I found the tigress partly visible at a distance. After waiting for a few minutes, I called it a day.

Day 11: May 17th 2008

We had got the A route again in the morning. There were no signs of the tigress in the Bhitari bah area. We reached centre point about about 6.30 am. After the mandatory entry in the forest records, we proceeded towards Rajbehera. On the way, we met jeeps returning from that area and found that no one had seen a tiger. We decided to move to the Sukhipatiha area. The deer, sambar and langurs in the Sukhipatiha area were very nervous on seeing us. I realised that not many people come to this side of the National Park. So the animals are less accustomed to human presence.

I saw a king vulture with a piece of bone. The vulture after sometime got scared and flew to a nearby tree. I moved ahead and came to a nullah where I found a couple of vultures on a dead tree and deers moving feeding nearby. I liked the scene and took an environmental shot and then moved ahead. On the way back, we found several jeeps lined up and I was told that the tigress had taken shelter in a cave along with her cubs. The visibility was very poor. I decided to leave as there was no chance of the tigress coming out at that time.

In the afternoon, I wanted to focus on this tigress. I had a chat with my driver and guide. Both of them said that the tigress is likely to come to one of the two dams in rajbehera. I felt the tigress won’t come to the Suaribah waterhole but will go to the other waterhole. I knew the tigress wont cross the road and get into the open grassland to reach Suaribah. We waited in the nullah as the alarm calls were indicating that the tigress and cubs are on the move.

 Finally, we could locate the tigress. She saw all the jeeps lined up and then sat down with the cubs. The tigress was annoyed as lot of jeeps had lined up on the road. The cubs started playing and I got a few shots. One of the cubs tried climbing an inclined branch of a tree. The tigress was thirsty, so she got up and started walking towards us. She stopped at about 40 feet away from us, undecided as to where to cross the road. Finally, she moved in front of us and crossed the road. She was annoyed as there were lot of jeeps lined up in front of her and blocking the road. She growled and crossed the road. The cubs crossed later. I could see that she was calling her cubs and the little one ran and crossed the road.

Day 12: May 18th 2008

I was increasingly getting jittery as my Bandhavgarh trip was coming to an end. I was hoping to see the Jhurjhura tigress with cubs more often but was not getting them. The morning we again tried but couldn’t sight the tigress. When I came back to the hotel I was not feeling too good as I hadn’t even taken out the camera from the bag. In the afternoon, I could see the Jhurjhura tigress and cubs on a hill on the opposite side of climbers point. Unfortunately, they were far off and the light levels were low. There were lot of gypsys crowding in the area with excited squeals and laughter of the tourists. No wonder she didn’t move to the waterhole. We returned silently to the resort. Of course, there is hope that tomorrow might be a better day. Though I was feeling bad, but I had made the decision that I will sacrifice other tiger shots for the jhurjhura tigress and her cubs.

Day 13: May 19th 2008

Morning can’t start any worse than this. I was about to climb onto my gypsy and the EF 28-135 f3.5-5.6 IS lens was in my jacket pocket and it just dropped to the ground from a height of 3 feet. The AF mechanism was probably ruined as the sound coming out was bad. I feared the saying "Morning shows the Day". However, it came true. It was another fruitless day. We moved around trying to track the tiger, but nobody could see anything. When we returned back we saw that the Sidhababa female was sighted and tourists were ferried on top of elephants for the infamous tiger show. Ashish was with me and so I took him on an elephant to show the tigress. The tigress was moving on to the cave and we saw her briefly from behind. The mahout told me that if I want then he can do the "setting" with the Ranger and lot of photographers from abroad get good shots through this way. I declined to enter into any underhand dealings.

Day 14: May 20th 2008

With renewed hope we started but didn’t sight anything. In harsh light we found two wooly necked storks on the road. Photographed them for sometime, as I hadn’t shot for the last few days. Then we moved on. I  could find the Jhurjhura tigress and cubs sleeping in the cave. A little bit was visible from the road. Unfortunately that was the only tiger sighting we had in the entire day. To kill time I photographed the brown fishing owls.

Day 15: May 21st 2008

I was desperately hoping to get the Jhurjhura tigress in water again as this was the penultimate day of my trip. Unfortunately, except for a hoopoe near damnar nullah, I clicked nothing. In the afternoon, I wanted to check the jhurjhura dam. The area was burnt by forest fires and found a Eurasian Thick Knee. Later on I found the Jhurjhura tigress and cubs sleeping in the same cave. Photography didn’t make sense, but I clicked a couple for records. It soon rained heavily with hailstorms. The jhurjhura cubs were playing with each other in dense vegetation. I got a few record shots in heavy rain.

Day 16: May 22nd 2008

In the morning wanted to check the Sehra area but didn’t get any tiger. I found a yellow wattled lapwing and clicked to my heart’s content.

 

In the evening, I drove down to the Rajbehera dam and saw a jackal from a distance. We positioned ourselves near a fireline and I got a nice jackal shot. It is the best that I have clicked so far. We then went to the Mirchahani area and found one of the two brothers there. The tiger wanted to cross the road, but due to the unruly tourists, the tiger didn’t get any space to cross the road. I asked my driver to move ahead leaving the madding crowd behind. And soon it was time to rush to the station for our onward journey to Delhi.

 

Energy Efficiency & move towards clean and green Power

 

Leaders are visionaries. They show us their vision and lead us towards the Promised Land. Or atleast, they used to lead us till leadership became the domain of dynasties. In India, the former Prime Minister, Shri Atal Bihari Vajpaee was initially ridiculed when he unveiled his Golden Quadrilateral and East-West, North-South corridor dreams. With the success of the Golden Quadrilateral, every political party in India has understood the power of those grand dreams. Unfortunately, those grand dreams are limited to infrastructure projects and today the motto is “the bigger, the better”.

 

It is now an established fact that Energy is a great enabler in reducing poverty, and enhancing equity among the masses. It is also a prerequisite for India’s emergence as an Industrialised Nation. At a time when India is inviting foreign investment with open arms, the deficit of electricity has become more pertinent and is threatening to become the spoilsport. The response to this deficit is to think of mega power projects, which is in line with the current accepted wisdom: of big being better. However, the question is whether big is always better?

 

India currently has about 1.8 lakh Megawatts of power generation capacity. The transmission losses are about 30%. This amounts to 60,000 mega watts of power ie. Equivalent to 15 Ultra mega power projects of 4000 MW size each. If we consider that each MW of capacity creation costs about 4 crores of rupees, the total amount saved can run upto 240,000 crores. A leaking ship requires the hole to be plugged rather than thinking of building another ship. Unfortunately, the proponent of this simple truth is likely to be branded as anti-development and thus anti-people and the opinion would be trashed with impunity.

 

These mega power projects leave a huge environmental foot print. Each power plant requires several thousand acres of land. Since Relocation and Rehabilitiation is an issue, the proponents of these power projects mostly try to acquire wetlands that are breeding grounds of hundreds of bird species, flora and fauna. Typically these places are termed as wastelands and commandeered for setting up these mega projects. This means the mega power plants are situated at a great distance from the consuming centres. So the vicious cycle of power generation, transmission losses during wheeling over long distances, distribution losses starts yet again.

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I was increasingly getting jittery as my railway ticket was not yet confirmed. I was checking it online everyfew minutes. Finally, my ordeal was over at 8.15 pm barely three hours to go before the schedule departure time of the train.

To make the matters worse, I was thinking that the ticket wont get confirmed, so hadn’t packed. Naturally, something or the other would be missed. However, I had never imagined that I will miss my tripod. I had packed the tripod in its cloth bag, but while rushing from the room, I forgot to pick it up. What a costly mistake.

On 1st of November 2008, I got down at Naupara junction. It is a small junction with hardly any construction. I got into an auto rickshaw. And what a drive it turned out to be!

I don’t know whether the driver would have ever seen F1 in TV. Being in a remote corner of India, this seems to be impossible. However, the way the auto driver started driving his auto at breckneck speed, dodging the pot holes, he would have put aspiring formula one drivers to shame.

I had a tough time understanding the language as I don’t follow Telugu. I reached the forest guest house. I could see pelicans and painted storks flying by. I could see a watch tower constructed within the premises. Without waiting for the watchman to open the door of the Forest Rest House, I climbed up the tower and could see a small colony of pelicans nesting in a nearby tree. The sun was setting and I took some record shots of pelicans. Normally, I am not so keen in photographing Pelicans and Painted storks nesting. The background comes out pretty clumsy. I tried photographing them against the setting sun to make it slightly different than the run of the mill pelican shots.

I came back to the room and unpacked. I had a chat about Mr. Mrutyunjaya Rao – a man whom I had come to support in the fight to save the Telineelapuram wetlands – to understand the area. I asked the watchman to get some food from a nearby hotel. In the meanwhile, a few local guys arrived and striked a conversation. Initially I was polite with them till the time one of them offered to arrange someone to remove my loneliness. I had to show them the door and then retired for the night.

 

Lets see what is in store tomorrow.

It was tough sleeping in the forest rest house. The building is hardly maintained as this is not a regular tourist spot. There is a watchman who hasn’t got his salary for a long long time. Naturally, he felt very good when I tipped him yesterday. It was a difficult night and I woke up feeling uneasy.

I finished my morning chores and then slept for half an hour. I was woken up by a local guy whom I had met earlier. He was from Orissa and had settled in the village. I went out to photograph the pelicans and painted storks. I was urged by the locals to shoot the painted stork and I realized that they feel painted stork is better. On questioning, I was told that every year they wait for the arrival of painted storks and consider the day of their arrival as an auspicious day.

The forest watchman brought tea and breakfast for me. After having breakfast, I took an autorickshaw. There were confusions galore, as I could not understand their language. The auto rickshaw driver and the forest rest house watchman took me to the sea thinking that I am a normal tourist. I could not even convey it to them that the extremely bumpy ride was a waste of time. I had lunch in a small thatched roof restaurant. In such kinds of places, there is no point in asking for the menu. You eat whatever is given. Surprisingly, the hotel owner knew a smattering of hindi and provided me with some piping hot vegeteraian meals.

 

 

I then went to another place and could find lots of Open billed storks in the fields. I could find a pair of pied kingfishers perched on an electric pole. Black wing stilts, cattle egrets, median egrets, Indian roller, common rail, water hen, coots, shoveller, kite, harrier….

 

It was tough trying to photograph using only my 300mm lens as it was difficult to handhold my 400mm lens that weighs 5.3 kgs. All the time I was cusing myself for forgetting my tripod without which the 400mm lens was difficult to use.

 

 

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Sariska

 

It was our first trip to Sariska. I was getting impatient. The speedometer indicated it would not be safe to drive faster, given the numerous villages and the speedbrakers on the road. We started late in the morning due to heavy fog. And now I was getting worried because I thought I will miss the evening light.

 

I was taking my friend to give a feel of the jungle, so that the regular city folk can slowly imbibe the pleasures associated with the jungle. We quickly drove into the jungle directly without checking into the Tiger Den resort run by RTDC. That would have meant lunch and effectively blocking our entry into the Sariska National Park.

 

It was a Saturday, and we learnt that on Saturday’s and Tuesday’s the entry to the park is free as people visit the temple inside the park. We drove straight into the jungle, slowly watching both the sides for any visible sign of animals. I had told my friends from my past experience in other jungles, that he should not expect to see the tiger in Sariska, because the topography of the place makes it quite impossible to know even if the apex predator is close by. However, we never came across a single pugmark or did we hear an alarm call. Later the priest at pandupole put paid to all our hopes when he said “edhar koi share bare nahin hai”. So much for tiger conservation and to the figures provided thrown up in the census by the Park authorities.

 

An interesting feature of this place is the speed breakers in the road inside the National Park. We came to know that this is to deter the tourists from driving fast and crashing into animals when they were crossing the road. From a distance you can see a pile of white coloured stones on the sides of road, indicating the presence of speed breakers. They can effectively help you in sighting a speedbreaker and slowing down. I could see lot of tourist driving fast because people are not interested in watching a deer or sambar. All of us are guilty of persuing a tiger. If we can educate the tourists about interpreting animal behaviour, only then they would stop to watch even the herbivores. Other wise it is back at counting the number of species then saw in their trip.

 

This fanatic following for the tiger has led to people being very impatient and wanting to drive through the jungle all day as if they are on a hunting trip. Our Gypsy driver also tried to cash into this craze by claiming to site a tiger atop a cliff. A close focussed shot through my digital camera and blowing it into a bigger size finally revealed that there was no tiger. Obviously our driver was not amused at the prospect of losing a good tip.

 

The animals near the tarmac are slightly accustomed to the vehicles as opposed to the chital and sambar near the kaccha roads. We could guess that the number of gypsies and jeeps plying in the katcha road is far less than the vehicles moving in the tarmac connecting pandupole.

 

Probably I could instill some amount of discipline and understanding in my friends when I pointed towards a group of sambar deer with their fawn and asked my friends to watch out for a show of affection by the sambar towards its offspring. Soon it happened and my friend was very happy when he could capture it in his handycam. I now strongly believe that if all the lovers of wildlife start taking their friends to the jungle at least once or twice a year then it would be easier to spread the message of conservation.

 

(12^th December 2004)

It was a winter morning, and I decided to have my morning cup of tea in the sun. Suddenly I noticed a bird in the swampy land adjoining my house. Minutes later, with my spectacles on I was delighted to have seen a Purple Moore Hen. Needless to say that the tea went cold as I was busy shooting frame after frame.

 

It would be pertinent to mention here that I was not staying in a Jungle. I had gone home in the winter vacation. Our house in Bhubaneswar has a swampy land bordering it. This wetland is caused primarily due to the sewerage flowing into a patch of land that has now shrunk to approximately 3 to 4 acres due to constant land reclamation and housing colonys coming up.

 

Several species of birds can be found here, namely, golden oriole, bronze winged jacana, purple moore hen, pond heron, egret, black winged stilts, rufous tree pie, cuckoo, bee eaters, bablers, black drongo, parakeets, blue jay, Myna, Coucal, bablers etc etc. Last year I had sighted a pair of whistling teals here. There are also several trees nearby. Among the raptors, common is the pariah kite and there have been occasional sightings of Sikra also. One can regularly see the common whitebreasted kingfisher on guard either from a nearby tree, or the electric wires or in the rope used by my mom to dry her clothes. Pied kingfishers were regular here till a year back, but tree felling for construction work have forced them to abandon this place.

 

The thought of losing sight of these birds in a year or two, when this unique wetland will vanish due to urbanisation and land reclamation makes me sad. In our childhood days, we used to see many colourful birds in our backyard. That sense of enjoyment will vanish forever.

 

Happy with the photographic opportunities present in my backyard, I decided to explore the outskirts of Bhubaneswar for any sign of birds. This led me to a village called Sisolo, about 17 kilometers from my house. There is a large pond about 100 meters by 150 meters. In winter this pond is frequented by whistling teals. You will find lot of lotus flowers blooming in this pond. Unfortunately when we visited this place, we could only find about 40 to 50 whistling teals in this pond. The pond is bordered on two sides by the road and by farmlands on the other two sides. When I parked my car nearby, there were may curious onlookers. The whistling teals appeared to be very wary of human presence. I thought probably because of the lot of traffic on the road, the birds are nervous. But villagers told me that three years back some body had shot a few birds. Since then, these birds had skipped this place for three years and for the first time in December 2004 made their reappearance.

 

Villagers told me that a major part of the marriage season is in winter and this coincides with the migratory birds routine. Since marriages are normally marked by bursting of firecrackers, it distracts the birds. Now the villagers are taking care of not bursting firecrackers near the pond. A couple of villagers and the tea vendor informed me that earlier a sizeable number of tourists visited the place to watch the birds. However, these days there are hardly any tourists due to drastic reduction in the number of migratory birds. This easy to understand impact of conservation on our bread and butter, if carried to other parts of our country might help in strengthening the conservation movement.

 

 Sabyasachi Patra

(Originally written in 2004)

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Tigers in the dark

 

It’s been three long years, since I had this amazing experience. It was the summer of 2005. Surjit called me to ask if I would be able to join him on a trip to Malani in Corbett National Park. I had not been to this part of Corbett National Park before and readily agreed. Sambit and Balu also joined us to make it a big party.

 The Malani forest rest house is located on a cliff overlooking a stream flowing below. As is the nature of these streams, the monsoon season sees it at its ferocious best and at other times of the year, the flow reduces to a trickle making pools of water here and there for the kingfisher to hunt or the langurs, deers and elephants to drink. When all these animals are there, how can be the king of the jungle be far behind? The tiger is seen cooling off in a small pool in this stream in the summer months.

Coming back to the story, we bought some fresh eggs, bread etc to add to the provisions we had procured from Delhi. The forest rest house doesn’t have a canteen, so visitors have to carry their own provisions if they expect to eat. We reached the rest house and handed over the groceries. We were hungry but rather than waiting for the meals to be prepared, we had some light snacks and moved on for the afternoon safari.

Sambit was in a jungle for the first time, and was pretty excited. We found deers and Sambars grazing or resting in the shade. Surjit was photographing them. I was on the look out for any signs of the tiger. We found lot of pugmarks in the dry river bed and then at a distance we found some tourists in a jeep. It took us some time to make out the outline of the sleeping tiger. The tiger rolled over and yawned. After a few yawns, the tiger got up and started walking and we could see that it was an adolescent one. It seemed to have had little success in hunting in the last few days as it appeared to be famished. The tiger soon crossed the dry stream and vanished into the undergrowth.

The rest of the afternoon was uneventful. We returned back to the forest rest house happy sighting a tiger. I was feeling good thinking that on every trip to Corbett National Park, I have sighted a tiger. Our tired but excited spirits soon got a boost with hot cups of tea.

Within half an hour the dinner was ready. Though it was hardly seven in the evening, we were pretty hungry and devoured the food. Surjit and I came out of the forest rest house to feel the evening air. The forest rest house is located at the base of the hill in a clearing of about a football field and half in length and breadth. The stream flowing in front of it, has carved a steep drop of fifteen to twenty meters at places. The forest department staff has made a gradual slope to approach the stream in front of the forest rest house. About fifteen feet in front of the forest rest house there was a tree, which is no longer there, and the base of it was cemented to create a rectangular platform of about fifteen feet by ten feet. We pulled two chairs and placed it below the tree in the compound. The edge of the forest is about a further thirty feet away sloping down into the stream. Towards the left the forest starts hundred feet away from the tree. Towards the right is the approach road and the clearing is about the length of a football field. Soon Sambit joined us by pulling a chair and placing it after me and closer to the edge of the forest. We were seated in a semi circular manner facing the approach road.

It was a moonless night and for the first hour it was pitch dark. We were enjoying the chill breeze and listening to the soft murmur of the flowing stream. We were happy having sighted the tiger and were discussing its emancipated state. Sambit was very happy on having sighted his first tiger on his first visit to the jungle. It is natural to be excited to watch God’s most magnificent creation in the wild. Sambit was telling us that he would definitely come back to this place with his wife. The deers were grazing in the compound. We could make out their blurred shapes at times and could here the sound of their grazing or occasional movement.

The playful banter came to an abrupt halt when we heard the sound of a twig cracking from the direction of the stream about 40 feet away. We were staring intently into the darkness towards the source of the sound, knowing fully well that it was done either by a tiger or a leopard. Sambit till that moment was blissfully unaware about our sudden alertness. The crickets had stopped chirping – there was an oppressive silence as if the entire jungle is watching with bated breath. Several minutes passed by and then suddenly the silence was pierced by a sharp alarm call about 30-40 feet in front of us. Even though we were alert, the sharp call, its proximity and the silent jungle gave it a sinister meaning. Till that moment, Sambit had never heard an alarm call in his life. He had no inkling about it and was so startled that he would have fallen from his chair had I not caught hold of him. A man with a weaker heart could have got a heart attack in such a situation. For Sambit it was too much to handle. He got up and shifted his chair to a position behind Surjit and closer to the Forest Rest house.

Clearly, the tiger was trying to hunt the deer barely few meters in front of us. Surjit suggested that it was too dangerous to be out in the open in the midst of the hunt and got up to move the chair closer to the wall of the Forest Rest House. We did so and realized that Sambit had vanished. He had got inside the Forest Rest house and had locked the door. We were straining our eyes to see any signs of the predator. At times we could see the white portion of the belly when the light of few stars could shine through the clouds. At times we could make out the outline of the deers. They had come closer to us. It seems the deers thought that coming closer to us might save from getting killed.

We kept on listening to the sounds as hardly anything was visible, breathing slowly through our mouth without making any sound. All our senses were in high alert mode. Minutes kept on ticking. After about half an hour or so, suddenly there was a sound of a charge. We could hear an animal abruptly run from left to right from a point about 30 feet straight in front of us. We knew the tiger is charging. However, we were shaken up when within a couple of seconds, there was another charge from right to left from the same point. All along, we were under the impression that there was one tiger. But it was physically impossible for a tiger to start a charge from the same point within a couple of seconds. We kept on straining our eyes to see any signs. And then soon the crickets started chirping again and the jungle came back to normal. We knew the predators are not there any more in the compound. I looked at the watch, and this experience had lasted forty five minutes.

After some time we got up and asked Sambit to open the door and we retired for the night. I was again woken up from sleep at the sound of an alarm call. It was 1.30 am in the night and the tiger was near the forest rest house again. I tried to listen for further sounds but didn’t know when I fell asleep. The next day we got up before dawn. Two tigers were roaring and answering each other at a distance from the forest rest house.

We had not taken a single photograph that night, but it was one of our most memorable tiger experiences. It gave a huge jolt to my ego. Despite several decades of tiger watching and studying, I could not know that there were two tigers in front of the forest rest house barely 30 feet away. It was a humbling experience as well. It teaches us that how ever experienced you might be, we are still scratching at the surface. Learning a single paragraph in a lifetime from the enormous book of nature, would be a big achievement.  

 

 Tourism: Boon or Bane

Wildlife tourism is viewed as a mode of protecting our wildplaces. The monetary benefits accruing out of wildlife tourism is used to justify spending on creation and maintenance of wildlife sanctuaries and National Parks by the Government in various developing countries. The argument is that wildlife tourism is a non-consumptive activity i.e. the tourists can’t remove any thing from the area and it doesn’t have any long term impact. It is said that Wildlife Tourism doesn’t consume our scarce resources and it will bring the much needed funds for sustaining our wild places and providing livelihoods for the communities around our National Parks, Wildlife Sanctuaries and Protected Areas. If this were true, then it would have been an easy solution. The tourism sector propagates such myths and the unsuspecting public are more than happy to adopt such an easy route. However, Wildlife Tourism is not the panacea of all ills. Recent research on various species around the world suggests that the harmful effects of tourism are much more significant than earlier estimations.

Let us first try to examine the validity of the basic premises of Wildlife Tourism:

a)      non-consumptive and its longterm impact as negligible

b)     providing livelihoods for the local communities

Let us look at our wild areas in India. Typically, there were small hamlets or villages around our wildlife places. Once a place is “discovered” by people, someone starts a hotel and few people visit that place. These tourists come back with nice experiences and then hordes of tourist descend on that place. When the tourist traffic increases, entrepreneurs move in to encash on the popularity of that place. And the so called development of that place starts. Unfortunately.

When a wildlife sanctuary or a protected area is opened up for tourism, lot of infrastructure is created in that place. The Hotel owners come from the other areas to set up hotels. The local people don’t have the capability to invest in infrastructure. The local people don’t even qualify to become chefs or cooks in the hotel, as the right kind of culinary skills for serving the well heeled tourists is to be sourced from outside the locality. People from outside the locality again come and invest in vehicles for transporting tourists and in four wheeled vehicles for Safari inside the jungle. Similarly, telephone booths, cyber cafes, massage centres, grocery stores etc come up. The locals are only employed as gardener to maintain the lawns of the hotels or for cleaning utensils or for other menial jobs. 

In the initial wave of development, the locals sell off their land. However, in a couple of year’s time, the price of land multiplies and naturally the locals who had bailed out by selling their lands in the initial phase don’t get the fruits of the actual economic boom. A lot of economic activity happens, but the local communities don’t benefit from it.

This proves that local communities don’t benefit from the wildlife tourism.

Impact:

Does any one think whether a place, once a pristine wilderness area, has the capacity to cater to the huge tourist traffic?

The tourists come in hordes and place huge demands on the environment. To cater to the tourists, hotels are setup with Air Conditioners guzzling lot of energy. Swimming pools are setup and it places a huge demand on the fresh water. Exotic fruits and food supplies need to be transported for the tourists. Migration of people from other areas start. Someone needs to grow vegetables, cereals etc so lot of forest areas give way to cultivation. Similarly the goats for the meat requirements and cattle for the milk or cultivation requirements now fight with the wildlife for grazing space and freshwater needs. And with the livestock comes the attendant problems of the wild animals contracting diseases like foot and mouth, or carnivores killing livestock and then inturn being killed by the people. In a few years time, a hamlet grows into a town. A live example is Bandhavgarh National Park. The Tala village used to be a hamlet with about 8 huts. Now it is growing into a town. People have come to get jobs as guides, drivers, cooks, and have set up restaurants, hotels, grocery shops, wine shops, massage centres etc etc…the list is endless. Similarly, Masinagudi or the Segur Ghats area used to be a pristine wild habitat, till the influx of construction workers for the Moyar and Singara irrigation projects started changing the scenario. With the increase in wildlife tourism, the Masinagudi hamlet is converting into a town. The tribals – the original inhabitants of that area – now number about 600 as opposed to the total population of 15000.

With the increase in tourist traffic, comes the sad spectre of wild animals hit by speeding vehicles. In case of Bandhavgarh National Park, the forest department has now fenced the areas bordering the road and villages. There are cases of poaching by villagers. A tiger was also reported to be electrocuted. The numbers of village dogs has increased, and cases of deer being killed by the village dogs are often reported.

  

Impact on Wildlife:

 The transformation of a sleepy hamlet into a bustling town, has tremendous impact on wildife. Our wildlife don’t have inviolate spaces to roam freely. Most of the times a highway or a train line cuts across the forest and the animals are killed by speeding trains or vehicles. Or people encroach on pristine wildlife habitats, reducing the areas available to the wildlife. The migratory path of the elephants are cut off by high speed canals, or highways. Poachers arrive with their sophisticated weapons, spot lights, jeeps etc and the wildlife simply stands no chance.

 In Tala village near Bandhavgarh National Park, a tigress was hit by a speeding vehicle and its jaw was broken. Recently, near Corbett National Park, a tiger was mowed down by a tourist bus. Elephants are regularly mowed down by trains. The animals have become cautious in crossing the road. I saw a tusker look at left and then the right side and crossed the hurriedly cross the road in Nagarhole National Park. I have seen deers, gaurs and other animals running across the road to avoid being hit. But that is not enough. The top speeds of our vehicles make it impossible for the wildlife to dodge the traffic.

Elsewhere, there have been reports of corals getting bleached due to the sunscreen lotion used by divers. No studies have been commissioned to examine the impact of tourism on our marine ecosystem. In the absence of data, everything is expected to be ok.

We don’t realise that when we enter into the forest, whether on vehicles or on foot, we come in contact with animals. With each contact, we leave a lasting impression on the animals.

So the basic premise of Wildlife tourism as non-consumptive and without any longterm impact is a huge lie.

In India, in any forest or National Park, you can find a dilapidated temple. With wildlife tourism, people start visiting these temples or “sacred trees” etc. Soon people start flocking such places expecting miracle cures. That puts a lot of stress on the wild areas. In most of the cases, it is the tour operates who schedule such temple visits to widen their appeal to tourists. In Sariska, it is estimated that about one lakh pilgrims visited the temple in Pandupole on one day. In Bandhavgarh National Park, the park authorities created concrete structures around Sheshsaiya – a 32 feet sculpture of Lord Vishnu – to attract religious tourists.

Can our wildplaces survive such an onslaught?

A study conducted by University of California along with San-Franscisco based Wilderness Society reports significant drop in numbers of carnivores like Bobcats and Coyotes due to tourism.

Too often I have found that it is the tourism sector which propagates such myths of Tourism bringing much needed revenue to the villagers etc etc.

 Environmental Impact of Night Race in Formula 1

I am a big fan of Formula 1. Every day, I search all the websites reporting Formula 1 info. The disappearance of Narain Karthikeyan from the starting grid in 2006, made me sad, but didn’t diminish my enthusiasm for Formula 1. It never will, as Formula 1 is the pinnacle of motor sports. 

These days, the rules of Formula 1 are changing, supposed to be for the better. I am not sure. It is said that Formula 1 is aiming to reduce its environmental footprint. It is said, that Formula 1 is moving towards a cleaner and greener future. The KERS system (an energy recovery system) is going to be incorporated in the cars from next year and is projected as an effort to move towards a greener future. The rule mandating the driver to use the same engine in two consecutive races is more to limit the cost rather than to reduce the environmental impact. Honda, has painted their Cars in their so called “Earth Livery”. Is this enough? Is Formula 1 serious about environment?

Let us examine a recent move to introduce a night race. Formula 1 races are held at 2 pm in the afternoon on race days. However, that is going to change, when for the first time, a race is going to be held in the night at Singapore. The night race was conceived to beam the race to European viewers at a time convenient to them. It is also aimed to bring in excitement, which is lacking in most of the races due to the lack of overtaking. With increase in street races, the overtaking opportunities are minimal. So the night race is supposed to inject a dose of excitement into Formula 1. It is being hailed as an historic event. However, lets us examine the impact of the Night race on the environment.

The race track in Singapore is 5.067 kilometers long. To light this 5.067 kilometer cirucuit, 108,423 metres of power cables, 240 steel pylons and around 1,600 light projectors are used. Each bulb is of 2000 watts. The total power requirement to light the circuit is supposed to be 3,180,000 watts. The lighting level with around 3000 lux, is supposed to be four times brighter than the lighting in sports stadiums. Considering that there would be practice in Friday, qualifying in Saturday and race is Sunday; the race track will be lighted for atleast three days. So the total power requirement would be 3*31800000 watts i.e. 3*3.18 Megawatts ie. 9.54 Mega watts. Apart from this there would be additional lights brought by the teams to light up their pit areas. I am not sure how many hours the lighting would have been tested to satisfy the officials.

 It is estimated that 1 Megawatt will light up 800 homes in USA for a year as the average household consumption of energy in USA is 11,000 Kilowatt-hours. So the 10 Mega watts of extra energy that would be used in a night race would light up about 8000 homes in USA. The average household in a country like India consumes about 3880 Kilowatt hours in a year. This implies that 10 mega watts of power would be able to light up about twenty two thousand and six hundred (22600) homes in India for a year. Is it not phenomenal?

Do we need such a lavish spectacle? Consdering that there can also be other ways to increase the appeal of Formula 1 like increasing overtaking possiblities, conducting a night race in my opinion is not an environment friendly option.  

Segur Road

Couple of years back, I was in Masinagudi for the first time. I was driving on the segur road. Dusk was fast approaching and I was looking for a cup of hot tea to beat the December cold. I saw a board on the right and it appeared to be a small restaurant. Without thinking much, I drove in.

Ofcourse, I could get my cup of tea and some munches as well. But someone else was waiting me there. I noticed the outline of a huge black animal, much larger than a buffalo. I strained my eyes, and could see a gaur (Bos gaurus) come out of the bush. I couldn’t believe my eyes, but the restaurant manager calmly told me that Gaur’s regularly visit this place. After some time, I was sipping another cup of tea when I heard alarm calls from about 50 meters away. Initially, I thought that it might be a false alarm call. But the alarm calls were repeated and I realized that a carnivore, probably a leopard might be on its prowl. There was a small building in the compound and I thought it would be an outhouse for guarding the property. I hesitatingly asked, whether I could stay in that building. My joy knew no bounds, when the manager told me that it is part of a resort that they are building, and I was welcome there. I immediately confirmed that I am checking in.And thus began my experiences with the wildlife of Masinagudi and Segur area.This resort, with basic amenities had one cottage. A small stream was passing by its side. I was told that the owner stays in Ooty, and has about 200 acres of land. They had fenced off only a couple of acres and the rest lies contiguous to the Mudumalai Tiger reserve, without any boundaries. The wildife were passing through the resort and crossing the segur road. Next day, I was sitting by the stream in the afternoon. On my left was the resort. The opposite bank of the stream slopes up to a hillock full of bamboo, lantana and other bushes. There were lot of birds chirping. A groupd of langurs were jumping from branch to branch. It was a very peaceful atmosphere, and I was soaking every minute of it, until it was broken by the sound of “Elephant”. My friends have spotted a herd of elephants, grazing upstream, about 200 meters away. I had my Canon 1D Mark II and the Canon EF 300mm F4 L IS lens. I removed my shoes and started crawling on my hands and belly. The elephant herd were feeding in small groups. A group of 4 elephants saw me and immediately turned to the right, and disappeared into the bamboo and scrub forest. I had by now crossed the stream and was moving forward in my hands and knees. The sudden disappearance of the 4 elephants to the right, made me feel edgy. From experience, I knew that elephants can remain very silent. After waiting for about 10 minutes, I started my crawl forward, shooting intermittently. The elephant herd had a small calf. The antics of the calf was worth watching. It was at times suckling from the mother. I wanted to get closer and capture it. I had moved pretty close to the elephants and was about to shoot the small calf when some one screamed from behind and urged me to come back. I turned around to see that the restaurant boy and another well dressed person were running towards me. Needless to say, the elephants simply vanished.

 

On asking why they were screaming, I was told that elephants are dangerous and I should not be going close to them. The well dressed gentleman told me that he is the owners son and stays abroad. They were calmed when they came to know about my credentials. But alas, by that time, the elephants had vanished, and I suddenly noticed that the scars and bruishes that I had received while crawling had started hurting.

The next day morning, I got up and came out of the cottage. The sun was about to rise. I could see a gaur and calf outside the compound wall. The calf was suckling its mother. I had the Canon EOS 1D Mark II camera and the 28-135 mm attached with it. I rushed and clicked. Unfortunately, the shots were not sharp due to the low light.

In the evening, I was again waiting near the stream. I could see the Indian Giant Squirrel (Ratufa indica) jumping high in the branches. It was a nice sight to watch. There were some parakeets feeding on the opposite bank. A solitary small kingfisher was perched on a branch at a distance. It was an idyllic atmosphere, a far cry from the mad hustle and bustle of the city. I was relaxed and soaking it up and was lost in my thoughts. Suddenly the silence was broken by the sound of hoofs, as a herd of gaur (Bos Gaurus) appeared on the other bank further upstream. There were a number of small calves and they were sliding and jumping on the steep bank. It was evening, and light was fading fast. However, I could see a calf with a very light colouration. There were some reports of albino gaur and some photographs were published in Sanctuary Asia and other places. I moved closer and closer. It was difficult to approach through the thick lantana bush on the left side of the bank without making any noise. The stream bed was barren, with some boulders here and there. I crawled on my hands, knees and belly. I knew I would not go unnoticed, but nevertheless tried my best hiding behind the boulders. The calf was from a normal coloured mother. However, its colour was totally different from the others. The light levels were low, and the photographs were not sharp to my liking. After observing this calf for sometime, I retreated back.

 

Masinagudi area was originally a tribal hamlet. Construction of dams in Moyar and Singara hamlets, brought labourers who stayed back after the dam construction was over. With passage of time, more and more people migrated to this area. Today wildlife tourism has picked up in the area. The locals are earning a lot by renting Jeeps to tourists for use in Safari. The small hamlet is now converting into a town. It is estimated that today, the population of the original tribal inhabitants of the area is 600, but the overall population is about 15000.

As a consequence the pressure on the forest has increased. It is estimated that about one lakh (0.1 million) cattle enter into the forest everyday for grazing. When so many cattle, goats and sheep graze, the impact on the forest is easy to guess. The forest has been virtually devoid of grass, bushes, and small shrubs. Such biotic pressures force the herbivores to move into deeper forests. The trees are hacked by villagers looking for fuel wood. And ultimately, the forest is transformed into a barren land. This also makes it easier for species like lantana camara to occupy the forest land.

Wildlife tourism is having its impact on the forest as well. A number of resorts have sprung up in the area. Wildlife tourism is seen as the “in thing” these days. Accordingly, number of tourists have increased manifold. I found liquour bottles lying in the forests, as tourists are having fun all around at the expense of wildife. Polythene bags, gutka/ pan masala sachets are found all around the place. Some of those are inadvertenly swallowed by the wildlife. Their deaths would go unnoticed. I have photographed a polythene bag that had come out with the elephant dung. I could find the hand of man raping this once pristine landscape. If something is not done soon, then this area will also be lost to wildife forever.

The traffic in the Segur road has increased. Earlier only petrol driven vehicles were able to negotiate this steep ghat road. So a major portion of the traffic to Ooty used the other route. Today, with the advent of vehicles with powerful engines, Segur road is the preferred road. Even late in the night there is traffic in the road. There have been demands to restrict the hours in this road. I was told that vehicles are not allowed to ply on this road after six. This move was started not due to love of wildlife, but due to an accident that took place where a bus overturned and lot of local people including the forest ranger died. However, I could see vehicles even in the late night.

I understand that the Tamil Nadu Government is taking steps to declare this as a buffer area. Predictably, there is lot of opposition to this from vested interests. I hope that the Tamil Nadu Govt. shows will and is able to convince the people to relocate from the area and restore this landscape to its pristine state.

  

Right of Way

Roads have been the bane of most of our wild areas. Some of the pristine wildlife habitats have been dissected by roads. In the early part of the 21st Century, the motorable roads were much less. The dirt roads were not much of a menace, as less population and a low frequency of vehicles on these roads didn’t create much of adverse impact on the wildlife.

Today, the quality of roads has improved a lot. The dirt roads have given way to metalled four lane or at least two lane roads. Increase in vehicles and increase in disposable incomes have led to a boom in tourism. The improvement in quality of roads has led to more and more people driving to destinations, instead of taking public transport.

And along with that comes accidents, throwing of garbage, teasing animals, zooming past animals at high speeds to terrorise them etc. At times, you would be amazed at the level of immaturity and recklessness shown by the people.

This shot shows a huge adult Gaur (Bos gaurus) crossing the road. Often mistakenly called as Bison, these can weigh upto 2 tonnes and when violent can topple vehicles. This shot was taken in Mudumalai Tiger Reserve.

The road from Bandipur to Ooty passes through the Mudumalai Tiger reserve. The shorter road passes through Segur and is known as the Segur road. It is steep and several years back diesel vehicles could not negotiate the steep inclination of this ghat road. Hence most of the traffic used to pass through the other road which is about 30 kilometers longer than the Segur road.

I was coming back from an afternoon Safari in Bandipur National Park in July 2008. Dusk was fast approaching and the showers few minutes back had decresed the light. I was driving slowly when a vehicle from the opposite direction slowed down near me and the occupants excitedly told me that there is a herd of elephants ahead. After moving ahead in the winding road, about hundred meters or so, I came across a herd of elephants. The elephants numbering about forty were feeding near the road. I brought my Safari (an SUV) to the left and parked. Soon other vehicles overtook me and stopped about 15 feet away from the elephants. The elephant herd had three small calves, about a few months old, who appeared to be still in awe of their trunks.

 

A lady from one of the vehicles, got down and was trying to move closer to the elephant. People don’t realise the difference between pet animals and the wild ones. Soon a herd of four Gaurs appeared and tried to cross from the left to the right. One of the adolescent elephants, with the impetuousness of youth, started chasing the gaur. In the meanwhile, vehicles from both the sides had created a traffic zam. People had got down from their vehicles and were watching the drama, oblivious of the danger of being too close to these wild animals.

The Gaur was crossing about a few feet from the cars. The cars appear to be dwarfed in front of the Gaur. An annoyed Gaur, can cause significant damage to a vehicle like Maruti in the picture. Apart from the danger to the people, due to their irresponsible acts of getting two close to these animals; it also causes stress to the animals as they are not used to such close proximity with humans.

Most of the people are ignorant. A quick briefing of people entering the sanctuary should help. The briefing can be just two or three lines while opening the forest entry gates, like “Please don’t Honk”, “Please don’t litter” and “please maintain 30kmph speed limit”.

People also violate rules as they don’t feel that there is any patrolling by the forest officials. Forest department is in perennial shortage of staff. Most of them are old and on the verge of retirement. Meager salary also doesn’t help in motivating them.

Most of the vehicles given for patrolling are used by the officials. So the forest department should provide battery operated vehicles that you mostly find in Golf courses. These vehicles, apart from stopping pollution, also won’t be misused. As officials won’t be seen taking these vehicles for any other purpose.

What you can do:

You can spread the message and educate people.

You can write a letter to the forest department and the ministry highlighting the issues and ask them to sanction more posts for the forest department and urge them to fill the existing vacancies.

I look forward to your comments and your ideas on this topic. Let us know when you take any action, so that I can mention it here. It will serve as motivation for others.