" Munna"

Early in 1st week of this month visited Kanha and Pench tiger reserve with my family after a long gap. I am lucky to spent more than 30 minutes with dominant male tiger "Munna" in kanha and it was a first tiger ever I have seen in wild. I took two safari on 3rd April .Morning safari was on kisli zone ,we started early as soon as safari gate open at 6.00AM, as we went inside first we saw pair of honey buzzard busy enjoying morning breakfast with honey comb, proceeding further found wild boar very near to road side, just ignoring us or may be very habitual of human presence ,It was so close that my 300mm attached with 1.4x tc was too long to capture full image, I took 2/3 snaps and we proceed further, as usual we came across spotter deer ,peafoul, gour etc and come back for breakfast. After taking breakfast we proceed again , I was taking images of whatever we came across, it was already 10.10 AM our driver and guide were heading towards the returning path ,bad luck , no tiger sighting , I was little disappointed but still I hope we have another safari in the evening in Kanha zone, so I said let us go. After moving little further I saw 2/3 gypsys which were moving ahead of us 50/60 mtr apart stopped , and suddenly my elder son started murmuring tiger, tiger and yes 'Munna' appeared gracefully in front of us from left , My heart beat goes up, he was very near to us ,I do not know what to do my 300mm prime was too big to capture , my ef-s 17-85 with 500D was not working on any mode, our driver stop our gypsy and we waited to move it further, but it moved only a little and sat down on the road in-front of us. I managed to take few images and we were waiting for any movement but he did't move . We are in pressure because of getting late at safari gate, there was no way out, our driver told this is the only route we can reach early, if we move back and take another route we will reach there after 11.00 AM. So we waited there for movement of his Highness and we are started thinking how to make it. We along with 2 safari start/stop engines, after trying 2/3 times finally he got up and moved away at about 10.56 AM . We reached safari gate at about 11.25AM and we all three Gypsy's ( Driver, Guide and Us) had given written explanation to the forest authority for coming late. It was great experience. First tiger image taken by me, .
Canon 40D, 300mm,Av mode, f/3.2, f/500sec, Ec:-0.3, full frame Image

Congratulations. The pose and grace look nice. Colours have come out well. Let us try to forget about the leaves intervening.................Let us remember that half-fullness is an absolute truth, so it is stored in our mind throughout the life. Thanks for sharing.SaktiWild

First tiger sighting in the wild, is always an unforgettable moment. Congratulations..!!

You got it well through the leaves and bushes. Wish the tree on the right was not present, nothing you could do though. Its good, you also got some images with it sitting on the road. Look forward to see them. Thanks for sharing.

Congratulations! Good to know that you had your first tiger sighting. It is always a memorable incident. Infact, every sighting is memorable as you learn something different each time even in situations where one can't click a good image. The tiger seems to be going about its daily chores. I agree that without the intervening leaves and the tree on the right this would have been even better. However, we should remember that watching a tiger is a wonderful moment. Any good photograph is a bonus.

I wonder why the forest department can't open the forest gates at around 5 in the summer and prepone the exit time at around 10 am. Light becomes harsh. Ofcourse the officials need to then wake up and come early. In Bandhavgarh I have seen that in harsh summer heat at around 10 am the elephants for the tiger show keep on blocking the tiger's exit routes.