Grey Hornbill

Posting in Indiawilds after a very long time, glad to be back here. This is an image of the hornbill I took in December last year in Nagarjunasagar-Srisailam Tiger Reserve. We had gone on pilgrimage to Srisailam and extended by a day to visit this reserve. The reality is, inspite of it being a beautiful jungle there is no facility for a proper safari. There is just one route and the forest department organizes a 45min-1 hr so called safari. There is one water hole that we come across which if you are super lucky can spot some movement. We could see a couple of bisons wading in water and saw the pug marks of a tigress about 2-3 weeks old. The department hasn't sighted a tiger in more than 1.5 years in that route. Infact the forest dept staff is least interested in any activity, when I made a safari reservation I was asked to report at 7.30am, we reached at around 7am and it was 10am by the time the staff arrived. We were pretty annoyed but still waited endlessly. Finally with absolutely no emotion they started the jeep at around 10.15am. We saw spotted deer, bisons, grey hornbill and a kukri snake. Fairly disappointing.

Light was a bit harsh while photographing this hornbill.

Nikon D7500, Nikkor 200-500 @ 370mm, f/8,SS 1/5000, ISO 800.

Welcome back :). Hope you are doing good. Nice to see it perched in the open. Agree the light is harsh, it seems the tourist activity (really interested in wildlife) might be very less there, so the staff is not concerned about going into the jungle early morning and sightings. That shows how motivated the staff is :(.

After this lockdown, I am also really hoping to go back to the jungles soon, taking motivation from Shyamalaji :). Thanks for sharing.

It would have been nice to see this hornbill in good lighting conditions. Sad to hear about the safari condition in Srisailam. The authorities are not interested in tourists. They don't realise that if tourism is done in a controlled manner than tourists can actually serve as eyes and ears of the department and help in controlling poaching. In many wildlife sanctuaries, they decide on the time based on their convenience. There was a time when I used to enter the Bandhavgarh National Park at 5 am. It was before sunrise. Then they changed the time. In Andhra in Neelapattu WLS they told me that they will open only at 8 am. I called the ranger and told him that it is pointless photographing pelicans and storks after 8 am as the light becomes harsh. Most of the times I used to walk down parking the vehicle at the door. That was possible because it was a small bird sanctuary and the forest department used to tell me to do that.

In places like NSTR, they should allow tourists to go and sit the whole day in a watch tower. That may help with some sightings.

Cheers,
Sabyasachi