Kaziranga Tigerscape

[Debasis Bose]

The tigers of Kaziranga in Assam are famous for a number of reasons; they are among the biggest in the Bengal tiger family and the most elusive. So, sighting them in open is nothing less than miracle and catching them on camera is nothing less than divine intervention … but sometimes, just sometimes, magic happens.

We landed at Guwahati and drove down to Kaziranga. It was drizzling now and then on our way and the sky was overcast. Lo and behold, traffic jam on NH 37 near Nagoan caused by our famous politician, a congress meeting; it took nearly 30 minutes to maneuver 500 meter or so. The evening safari was not in our agenda, but we all wanted to go for it, we requested Pralay and he managed it so well that on arrival our luggage was transferred to hotel and a safari gypsy was waiting at the ranger’s office. Finally we managed to enter the park @ 3.20 pm with occasional drizzle. About 4.30 pm the accompanying forest beat guard and gunman gave a call to his brother (another forest beat guard) for some reason and learned that a pair of tiger is mating, the distance was about 700 to 800 meter from where we were positioned. Without delay we reached the spot and saw another gypsy watching, by the time we reached one of the tiger went down the far side of the slope, however were lucky to see the second one, majestically lying down with his head raised. The tiger was quite far; however sighted it clearly through binocular and this is a record shot. Till date all the tiger parks I have visited for very first time, sighted a tiger on the very first safari, I was confident that my record will be broken in Kaziranga, but no, miracle did happen.

You can see the tiger on the hillock in front of the bush about half a inch from the center of the image.

Wishing all my Indiawilds friends and their respective family members Subho Naboborsho, Rongali Bihu, Varuda pirappu, Happy Vishu, Mahavishuva Sankranti, Vaishaki and new year

Nikon D 700 (FX), Nikor 70-200 f 2.8, @ 200 f3.2, ISO 400, 1/400 s

[Mrudul Godbole]

Nice sighting. Good your luck continues . Nice display of the habitat at Kaziranga. Subho Naboborsho . Thanks for sharing.

[Samrat Sarkar]

wonderful image and lovely description....liked the frame...Shuvo nababarsho Debasis da...

[Sabyasachi Patra]

Great to hear that you sighted a tiger. Last time we had just missed the tiger by a brief second or so. Kaziranga is much bigger than our smaller boutique national parks like Bandhavgarh and has the potential to offer an incredible experience. Sighting a tiger, even if far off is a nice experience. Thanks for sharing.
cheers,
Sabyasachi

[Saktipada Panigrahi]

Nice sighting. Except for swamp deer, Kaziranga tiger lives on large prey species and has to face challenge of much heavier animals. Evolution has made it larger. Thanks for sharing. SaktiWild