The climb up from the Ravine

[Shyamala Kumar]

It was a blood curdling experience . On a cold feb morning we made a beeline for the flatlands which was inhabited by black bucks and chinkaras in the new Tipeshwar wild life sanctuary .One hour into the drive just short of the grasslands our naturalist a famed tracker (one who tracked Avni the man eater) saw a very rarely seen tigress called Twinkle move through the dense forest on the ride side of the road .She would have crossed the road ahead a few seconds before our vehicle arrived . About 20 feet to the right was a river bed at the bottom of a ravine. Our naturalist instructed the driver to leave the road and move across the dense undergrowth, to the edge of this ravine and wait for the tigress to move down the river bed towards the point where we awaited her. About 5 min later we saw her through the dense foliage, moving along the river bed .It was impossible to get any shot .Then the unexpected happened .The nightmare of any safari .She looked up and saw us.
Unbelievably she started to climb up the side of the ravine her deadly eyes focussed unflinchingly on us , even at the steep angle .I expected the naturalist to instruct the driver to back on to the track but there was no such order and a few more seconds brought the tigrees right on to us. She was wide eyed and perplexed and we were, there all four of us alone and terrified . My first shot as she climbed up .Nikon D 750, 70-200 , F/3.5 ,ISO 500 ,1/500s early morning Tipeshwar .