Debasis Bose
01-03-2015, 01:51 PM
Hello to all my Indiawilds friends.
Recently was in Corbett for about two weeks and had some close encounters with supreme predators. Describing one of the close encounters with Dhikala tiger family and how a dull boring day can become a day to cherish for long.
It was afternoon about 1400 hrs, clear day, relatively not cold, leafs of the trees and the tall grasses were strangely quiet. Even the birds were silent on thandi sadak, no movement or rustles could be heard in the neighborhood. All of us were thinking where we should go to pass next few hours, till the predators movement starts. When I heard our guide Vijay confidently saying, “Sir let us go to motasal and do some water bird watching and if we are lucky there is a good chance that we may see the dhikala male”. We were at the motasal before lunch with no luck, so the kids and driver were not eager to go there once again. To which the guide said, sir “let us go and at-least check the area, wait for 10 minutes and then we will to gathiarow”. Gathiarow is favorite haunt for the kids, we all agreed with the guide and in next 20 minutes or so we were at motasal, the time was now about 1430 hrs. Ignition switch of the gypsy was turned off, ours was the only vehicle there. I could hear rustling at the edge of the patch of long grass, less than twenty feet away, and on carefully observing the movement could see three chital. Another chital herd was grazing to our right side, in a clearing about fifty yards from us. The reservoir water was blocking the road opposite motasal towards car road, it was dead end with reservoir water was about 30-40 m from where we were standing, the sun was behind us. Slowly the gentle breeze had started blowing towards us from west, our left; the afternoon at motasal was a typical jungle-cacophony of water birds. I picked up my camera and was focusing on the swallows that were hovering over the reservoir water. When a strange noise floated in from the distance, it seemed to come up from the depths of the earth itself. We cocked our ears and stood up. There it was again, closer this time, near the base of the hill to our left-coming from the edge of the leed khalia. Clearer too… a long deep note tapering off into a guttural cough ‘aaaaaaaaooun…aaaaaaaoungh…..aaaaoummm’… the unmistakable roar of a tiger. We geared up as we were in for some serious excitement. Video set to record the growl, cameras in hand and we all went motionless for few seconds, each one looking for a movement in the tall grass to our left from the direction of the sound. With continuous growl the supreme predator of the forest was on the move, softly padding its way towards us. The growling stopped, and then we spotted the head of the his majesty and then his body and then the tail, out of the grass standing between the reservoir and our gypsy, with a piercing stare at us. I whispered to the driver to start reversing, before we could reverse his majesty padding softly started moving towards us. The moment cannot be described in words. At that moment we did not know that next hour or so was going to be action packed…. any wildlife lover’s dream, his whole family (three full grown cubs with mother and his majesty) will display live what is called ambush, chasing, and aerobatics where deer and tiger in air one leaping for life and other leaping for survival. I did not know which action to shoot as was totally taken by surprise. Will post best moments.
Exif: Nikon D 700, Nikor 24-120mm F4, @ 120 mm, exposure 1/320 s, ISO 200
Recently was in Corbett for about two weeks and had some close encounters with supreme predators. Describing one of the close encounters with Dhikala tiger family and how a dull boring day can become a day to cherish for long.
It was afternoon about 1400 hrs, clear day, relatively not cold, leafs of the trees and the tall grasses were strangely quiet. Even the birds were silent on thandi sadak, no movement or rustles could be heard in the neighborhood. All of us were thinking where we should go to pass next few hours, till the predators movement starts. When I heard our guide Vijay confidently saying, “Sir let us go to motasal and do some water bird watching and if we are lucky there is a good chance that we may see the dhikala male”. We were at the motasal before lunch with no luck, so the kids and driver were not eager to go there once again. To which the guide said, sir “let us go and at-least check the area, wait for 10 minutes and then we will to gathiarow”. Gathiarow is favorite haunt for the kids, we all agreed with the guide and in next 20 minutes or so we were at motasal, the time was now about 1430 hrs. Ignition switch of the gypsy was turned off, ours was the only vehicle there. I could hear rustling at the edge of the patch of long grass, less than twenty feet away, and on carefully observing the movement could see three chital. Another chital herd was grazing to our right side, in a clearing about fifty yards from us. The reservoir water was blocking the road opposite motasal towards car road, it was dead end with reservoir water was about 30-40 m from where we were standing, the sun was behind us. Slowly the gentle breeze had started blowing towards us from west, our left; the afternoon at motasal was a typical jungle-cacophony of water birds. I picked up my camera and was focusing on the swallows that were hovering over the reservoir water. When a strange noise floated in from the distance, it seemed to come up from the depths of the earth itself. We cocked our ears and stood up. There it was again, closer this time, near the base of the hill to our left-coming from the edge of the leed khalia. Clearer too… a long deep note tapering off into a guttural cough ‘aaaaaaaaooun…aaaaaaaoungh…..aaaaoummm’… the unmistakable roar of a tiger. We geared up as we were in for some serious excitement. Video set to record the growl, cameras in hand and we all went motionless for few seconds, each one looking for a movement in the tall grass to our left from the direction of the sound. With continuous growl the supreme predator of the forest was on the move, softly padding its way towards us. The growling stopped, and then we spotted the head of the his majesty and then his body and then the tail, out of the grass standing between the reservoir and our gypsy, with a piercing stare at us. I whispered to the driver to start reversing, before we could reverse his majesty padding softly started moving towards us. The moment cannot be described in words. At that moment we did not know that next hour or so was going to be action packed…. any wildlife lover’s dream, his whole family (three full grown cubs with mother and his majesty) will display live what is called ambush, chasing, and aerobatics where deer and tiger in air one leaping for life and other leaping for survival. I did not know which action to shoot as was totally taken by surprise. Will post best moments.
Exif: Nikon D 700, Nikor 24-120mm F4, @ 120 mm, exposure 1/320 s, ISO 200