India, Scout Trip 2011, Trip One

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The following is a day-to-day account of our first Tiger Photo Safari. It was spectacular, with 25 tiger sightings, 2 leopards, several Indian wild dogs, 2 sloth bears, and all of the herbivores one can expect in this part of India.
That said, it had been twenty years since we’d last done a tiger photo safari and we were a bit worried about how we’d enjoy India, its food, accommodations, and people. We were pleasantly surprised, and overwhelmed, really, with the country, and half-way through the first trip we were eagerly making plans to return next year.
The attraction, of course, is primarily tigers, the most endangered of all of the truly big cats. Less than 3,000 probably exist in India, and less than 7,000 worldwide, a serious shortage when one considers that cheetahs, another endangered species, probably number 20,000 or so, and African lions, once thought to be a healthy population, are around 35,000 or less. The third big cat and until recently the most difficult to see, the jaguar, numbers over 100,000 in most estimates, so the tigers reduced numbers are quite significant.
The tiger is the largest of the big cats and, once seen, it is hard to disagree that it is the most spectacular. I’ve always been a fan of leopards but after being with tigers again I must say they are, to Mary and I, the most beautiful. Their color, a dull or a brilliant orange ground color, off-set by vertical stripes that really do allow a tiger to melt into the landscape, is beyond comparison. I watched one pair of sub-adult tigers walk down a road and step off into the brush. Both, in turn, hopped up a small embankment and, in doing so, passed behind a very thin stand of leafy bamboo. While the hindquarters of the tigers were still visible the parts behind the bamboo, and we’re talking a couple of leafy stalks, simply disappeared. As the cat stepped deeper into the brush it vanished.
Unlike lions, cheetahs, African leopards, and even Brazilian jaguars, tiger sightings are far from a guarantee. These huge cats are forest predators and the country they hunt is a mixture of various densities of forest, thick, tall grasses, and meadow edges and clearings. Unlike an African lion or a cheetah, one will not spot a tiger from hundreds or thousands of yards away (I’ve spotted lions 2 miles away with high powered binoculars). Instead, a tiger materializes out of the bush, or, in a bend in a forest track, a cat stands or lays before you and you see it for what it is, a gift.


That rarity, that sense of being granted something special, that elusiveness, and that karma or luck that brought you the tiger makes a sighting all the more precious. Our group, in visiting four different parks, had between us 25 different tiger sightings. I had at least 13, and at least 8 of these resulted in images that would have made the trip for me. We may have been lucky, but we’ve seen for ourselves that finding and photographing tigers is a reality if you go to the right places at the right time.
For those who did the trip, my cryptic references to Park One, Two, Three, and Four will easily translate into the parks we’ve visited. For anyone not on that trip, these references will still be valid in illustrating how this trip went, what we saw, what we did, and how the parks operate. I apologize for not being more specific for the parks, but frankly I’ve been a bit put off by seeing our itineraries copied, to the day, by other groups conducting photo tours. In the interest of their originality I’ve eliminated specific locations.
Pre-trip, Day -2. We had the day in Arusha, Tanzania, finishing up our last safari before leaving for the airport at 5. Arusha’s tiny Kilimnjaro Airport is one of the most chaotic I’ve seen, but fortunately our outfitters in TZ had contacted one of Prestige Airlines’ representatives and we had no hassle, either with our heavy carry-on bags or with two checked bags each. We were concerned, as an international flight from a zone 2 or 3 country should have limited us to much less weight. The bags, fortunately, were checked straight through to Delhi.
The airport was hot, and shortly after we arrived I had to assist a woman who was seconds from fainting to the floor. Without air conditioning, it was stifling, with the only respite the small gift shops outside the waiting area. At least three flights were leaving, but after checking through the ‘official’ gate check, a long line of passengers extended back out into the main lobby, passed that official, making a real check impossible. One pax lamented to us how, luckily, she had ignored the advice given at her hotel, saying an hour would be sufficient time for check-in. An easy two is more likely, as there were only two clerks for scores of people.
The connection in Nairobi went smoothly, only involving a long hike to the far end of the airport where the transfer desk was located, requiring us to backtrack as our gate was at the opposite end, where we landed. Air Emirates, which we’ve used before, is a wonderful airline, with an entertainment option that, if I read their literature correctly, offered scores of movie selections, including first-run movies still being shown in theatres.
Pre-Trip, Day -1, Delhi, India.
We arrived in Delhi in the late morning, I think, but with the time zone difference, the 3.5 hour flight east, and little sleep, I wasn’t sure. Customs was a bit confusing, as the Indian Embassy had issued a journalist visa for us, marked by a J on the stamp, while we filled out the entry form as a ‘single’ entry. The bored bureaucrat waved us through when we explained that, on our visa application, we had written in that we were here to photograph tigers, and hence, we guessed, the mix-up.
Most of our luggage arrived, but Mary and I are missing one piece, which an efficient young Indian informed us about even before we were certain it hadn’t made the connection. After filling out forms with their help – and they were helpful – we had our claim form stamped by another bored customs official and we proceeded out of the airport. Last time we were here, twenty years ago, we had a major hassle with our equipment, as the officials at that time wanted to check everything and asked for explanations, with one of our party, back then, almost getting into a fight he would not have won with one of the officials. This time, no hassles, and the entry was as easy and smooth as it is going into Nairobi, Kenya.
Sandeep, one of the staff of our outfitter, met us outside the door and we quickly transferred luggage to the vehicles for a 20 minute ride through old and new Delhi to our hotel. It was mid-afternoon and the roads were busy, but Sandeep assured us that during rush hour the traffic was bad, and that this was nothing. Still, horns blared constantly, and vehicles squeezed into impossible slots, with bikes and motorcycles darting between vehicles and lanes, but over-all the riding was much easier than I remembered from years back, although, again, this wasn’t rush hour.
The Claridges, where we’re staying, is a five star hotel, built it seems entirely of marble, with polished stone floors and solid, thick walls. The staff was efficient and courteous, creating an old world, past culture sense of elegance, and a great first impression for those about to join us on this trip.
We met our outfitter, and his lovely wife for dinner, and Tom joined us, where we went for a Pan-Asian meal that was a mixture of Chinese, Japanese, and Thai food. Delicious, spicy, a bit hot, but without curry. The restaurant was located in the Khan shopping district, where several great book stores are situated on the main street. Cars are parked in several directions, with those arriving last parked parallel to the main street, blocking in the cars that pulled in straight. However, cars are left in neutral, and the street parking attendants physically push the cars up and down the street to make room for any car that is parked in. For this, although they are under salary by the shop owners, the street attendants are given a tip amounting to about thirty cents.
Our restaurant was located in a back street or alley behind the front row of shops, and if you didn’t know it was there you’d never find it. We knocked on a plain door; it was opened; and we ascended a narrow stairway to a second floor restaurant. When I commented upon this later, Amit told me that there are dozens of restaurants here, if, I guess, you knew where to go. After dinner, Mary bought a pair of Doctor Scholl’s sandals – she felt a bit underdressed wearing our field sandals with a dress, and I bought Speedo swim goggles for the pool. We arrived back at the Claridge by 9, very tired after an almost sleepless night of travel.

Day 1, Delhi.
Most of our day was spent at the office of our outfitter, where we went over itineraries, time tables, elephant riding logistics and scheduling, and reviewing some exciting images of northern India where our outfitter had just spent 10 days on a snow leopard scouting trip, and he saw one!
By the time we returned most of our group had arrived, or would be shortly, and we met several for drinks and dinner.
Day 2, Delhi
We left for a city tour of old and new Delhi at 10, with Mary staying behind to try to finish packing for this next leg and to catch up on office work at home, via a remote connection.
Honestly, I expected I’d hate the city of Delhi, as my memories, and other peoples’ impressions, was loud, crowded, dirty, etc. It may be all of those things, but it was also exciting, and our brief tour, where we covered several locations for no more than an hour each, was simply too short. It was fun challenging myself to catch images that told the story, and not just boring monument images, and the wealth of opportunities simply couldn’t be utilized to their fullest.
We started at the capitol building where fog, smog, or some type of haze masked the sun, presenting a shadowless landscape that also muted any distant building to obscurity. Here, a gardener tending the park flowers provided a subject.
At the War Memorial, where 90,000 names are inscribed on a 40 meter tall arch marking the deaths of Indians who served in WWI and other conflicts, street vendors of various goods offered a lot of shooting ops, and where, unfortunately, many of us were ‘had’ in purchasing kids’ toys at inflated prices. I was probably the biggest sucker, so much so that when I paid for one, the young man ended up giving me two more out of a sense of fair play, and pity.
Our next stop was ‘old’ Delhi, where we mounted bicycle rickshaws, powered by some very strong, very thin men, one to a bike, which hauled us in pairs or singly down incredibly narrow streets, crammed with people and other rickshaws. Power lines snaked down many of the streets, hanging loose or jury-rigged in a nightmarish confusion, prompting us to joke about how, exactly, anyone could ever trace a line. We passed through the silver market, wedding market, cloth market, and more, as we pedaled past, snapping street scenes and shots of the people and shops en passing.
Lunch was at ‘The Thugs,’ I believe, a restaurant that is appointed with items that any thief might collect, so it was a potpourri of chairs, tables, and wall hangings. The food was good, spiced but not curried, and almost the exact same menu that later, at the Claridges’s Dhuba restaurant, we’d have for dinner with the group.
We arrived back to the hotel by 2; I had planned on returning right after lunch to work on updating our website with our Tanzania trips, with the intention that everyone else would continue on the tour. It was somewhat comical as pulled up to the last stop, where I announced I was staying on to return to the hotel, and everyone sat, silently, not moving to leave the bus. ‘Anyone going?’ I asked, and no one was; all were returning to the hotel.
The rest of the afternoon, with a break for dinner from 7 – 8:30, and on until 11PM I worked on the website, dealing with a reasonably fast internet connection but frustrated by the delays still experienced when ‘talking’ with a remote computer. After about 9 hours of work, however, all was done, although we still need to pack for our trip tomorrow, which officially starts our tiger safari.
Day 3. To Park One
We left Delhi without hassle, accompanied by Sanjay who, for this leg of the trip, would act as a facilitator. We were, collectively, overweight with luggage, but Sanjay knew someone at the airline, and everything was booked through with a surcharge.
We arrived at Khajuraho and the Kama Sutra temples by early afternoon, where we were met by our guide for guide for the temple who did an excellent, and humorous job of explaining what we were seeing. The KS temples are known for their erotic art but our guide explained how sex was, for the Hindu, an expression of spirit, and a uniting, and in this spiritual sense it was celebrated. The temples were constructed of sandstone quarried 130 KM away, and then hewn to the design on site, on the ground, before being transported by elephant up an earthen ramp that buried the temple to the height it was presently being worked on. As that layer was completed, more earth was added until the structure, over 40 meters high in many temples, was finished, whereupon the earth was removed and the statues and masonry cleaned. No mortar, all just properly laid, much like an Inca structure in South America. The temples celebrated the five elements of the universe, earth, water, fire, air, and ‘sky,’ or the ether that existed, like space, above the air itself. The structures also mimicked, in a way, the mountains, ascending to the Himalayas, but although tall, the temples were not hollow near the top as man was not meant to stand taller than God. We could have spent hours here, but we still had a 5 plus hour drive to the park, and leaving at 4 we’d we arriving in the dark.
The drive was something of an ordeal, dusty at times, and nerve-wracking with pedestrians and cyclists weaving into the road. By nightfall, it was worse, with the road sometimes hidden in clouds of dust, as the headlights of buses or trucks zoomed past. We arrived after 9, very tired and hungry, and ate a quick meal before heading to our very spacious rooms for the night.
Day 4, Park One
Our first tiger safari, and everyone was excited. Half the group did elephants, an expensive option that offers the possibility of unparalleled tiger viewing, if successful, while the rest, including me, did the jeeps. The entrance is a bureaucratic mess, with passports being checked to verify that the pre-registration is valid, afterwards everyone is assigned a particular route, B, C, or D. Route A was closed, as it now had three orphan tiger cubs – killed by a vehicle driven by a ranger!
Tom and I shared a jeep, and as we literally raced through the park, as the light gradually grew brighter and to a manageable ISO, we observed that neither our driver or the Park guard who shared the front seat were watching the sides of the road. We sped onward, bumping along, and we assumed they knew what they were doing, so we’d go with the flow. The light grew brighter, as we passed some spotted deer, including a nice buck and a doe with a tiny fawn, and a sambar, an elk-like deer, wading in a pond
They did, and after about a 45 minute ride we came upon a huge male tiger that was feeding upon a deer. The tiger was close to the road, but busy feeding, with is butt facing us so we moved on, getting a position four times further away but where we had front views as he ate, then cleaned his paws. Eventually he rose, and started walking to the track, fifty yards or so down trail, and although he paused to scent-mark, we stayed where we were, not risking a fast drive where he’d move in the meantime and we’d miss everything. The male tiger, 14 years old, crossed the track, entered a meadow, and began to roar, a series of single, long-carrying notes that reverberated through the valley. His path took him onto Route D, where we did not have permission, so we left him, although our other two vehicles had D assigned, and shot the male as he entered a lake, soaked, and eventually climbed out, walking right passed their vehicles.
We continued on to a ‘tea break,’ before continuing on Route C, passing and shooting some langur monkeys, giant, spindly monkeys with extremely long tails, and more deer and sambars. The langurs lope along, very lemur-like, and, when back-lighted, their yellow-white fur glows in the sun. The Park  requires an exit by 10:30, so we sped the last few miles, passing a wild boar in route that we didn’t have time to photograph.
We arrived back at camp by 11, where breakfast was waiting. Mary’s group of elephant riders arrived an hour later, disappointed, tired, and brush-beaten from the bush-whacking elephants. They covered great country, but without seeing a tiger, although Mary said she’d do it again if she had the chance. Everyone we know recommends the elephant option, so it’s just a matter of luck, which I’ll experience, once way or another, tomorrow when Tom and I take the elephant.
PM.
We left at 3 to surprisingly clement weather, not too hot and with an angular sun diffused by dust, creating soft shadows that reminded me of Botswana. The shooting was extremely active, with stops for birds and spotted deer. In the low light the langur monkeys glowed when back lighted, and I got several shots as juveniles ran along a log and leaped to a low bush. Shooting was nearly continuous for around 40 minutes, when we headed deeper into the park where we’d seen the male earlier in the day. He wasn’t there, but another vehicle came down a track to tell us two young male tigers, huge 2 year olds, were ahead, and we raced to the spot.
There was a bit of a traffic jam with drivers jockeying for position, but actually the vehicles cooperated fairly well with one another and, when we moved to a position up the road, we captured some nice shots as one of the males left the pond and walked over the dike. Earlier, before we arrived, the tiger pair were resting right on the road, but we missed that, although the road images appear a bit too tame.
The rest of our drive was fairly uneventful, with more deer and a terrific langur monkey portrait opportunity, before we headed back to camp, driving through the upland country where leopards and sloth bears are commonly seen. We missed them.
As I reviewed my images this evening, I found one more reason to hate my Dell laptop. The machine crashes several times a session, basically every time I go to load a card or HD, and as I went to edit, I found that as I downloaded my tigers images from this morning the computer crashed. My drive said that all the images were downloaded, but in fact the files were listed but corrupted, and I should have dumped the file and started the download again. I didn’t, and the best shots, as B2 was within 500mm distance and scent marking, and walking along, were lost – about 40 nice shots.
Hopefully, I’ll have more opportunities, but anyone reading this, using a Dell with Windows 7, beware. Both Mary and my laptops are less than 6 months old, and both have given us problems from the start. In contrast, I’m using a HP netbook for this journal, and not once has it crashed. I’m done with Dell.

Day 5. Park One
We were robbed this morning. In a way.
Tom and I were scheduled to do an elephant ride, with the rest of the group taking the jeeps into the park. We arrived at the park entrance at the usual time, and although our jeep, going for the elephants, was the first to leave, we still didn’t get through the gage until 6:20. We drove down the main road, took a left, drove another mile, and discovered, from a roadside worker, that we were headed in the wrong direction. We turned back, took a different route, and again made a wrong turn, and by now, the driver and guide had no clue where the elephant was. We headed back to the entrance to get new directions, and finally encountered the mahout and his elephant walking down the park road, along the border of the park. Although I couldn’t understand any language, it was clear that the mahout had given up on u and was on his way home.
Mounting the elephant involved climbing up to the roof of the jeep and, from those roll bars, stepping on to the foot rest and ‘saddle’ of the elephant, and hoisting oneself aboard. At first, I thought travel would take forever, as the elephant barely walked faster than a man’s pace, but despite the slowness we settled in and began enjoying the new vantage from the elephant back. We crossed one of the main roads where we found large tiger tracks, and then had a radio call that a tiger had crossed the road and was running.
We ‘galloped’ toward the area, with the mahout practically running in place as he pumped the elephant to go faster with his legs. It was hard work, and the mahout pointed out how his thighs were working, but it was clear for him it wasn’t just a ride. Periodically the mahout would take a sturdy switch and swat the elephant across the forehead, and often he’d growl out a command. Although the treatment looked brutal, I’ve seen mahouts after a game walk down at the river, climbing all over their elephant as it lay in a river while the mahout painstakingly scrubs virtually every inch of their charge. So, while outward appearances may seem cruel, there must be a lot of affection, and a very important sense of order and dominance, for a 100 lb man to control 4 tons of elephant.We descended, and met the jeep that had taken us to the elephant. The driver and guide were waving us forward, and as we approached a large female tiger walked across the road and began to climb another hill. We followed, with the mahout urging his elephant to greater speed, pumping his legs vigorously as his feet prodded into the skin behind the elephants ears. At one point we got too close to a tree and my booted foot got caught between the elephant and the tree, but fortunately by ankle was flexible enough to flip backward without snapping any bone.

The mahout got parallel, and then in front of the tiger, which changed direction slightly to weave passed the elephant. Several times it grimaced into a snarl, and memories of a video I’d seen of a Kazaranga tiger attack came to mind, when a disturbed tiger charged through the grass and leaped onto a chair, taking the finger of the mahout as he did so. Eventually we got close enough to the tiger to see that it had either a missing or an injured eye.
We continued to follow the tiger, sometimes almost losing sight of the cat through the bamboo and brush, although the tiger and us both followed the ridge line of the mountain. The tiger stopped, and we could see that it was feeding. As we got closer, we saw that it was feeding upon a large, reasonably freshly dead, tiger! Although the meat smelled, from the condition of the hide and newly exposed meat it was clear that the dead tiger was only a few days old, at best. We shot from several positions, trying our best to negotiate a reasonably steady image on a rocking, swaying elephant, before the mahout, who had radioed the sighting, told us we had to leave. He said, no pictures, and meant that we didn’t take any, or should say we did not, as it was not allowed to photograph a tiger eating another tiger. Talk about being image conscious! We quickly changed cards, and I showed him my ‘no image’ display on the LCD, and he was happy. We weren’t, obviously, but at that point we thought we’d still have more elephant riding, or another crack at this tiger.
We were told, in very broken English, that the boss needed to see this injured tiger, and by the time we arrived at the road his jeep was waiting. We got off, assured that it’d only be ten minutes before we’d be back on the elephant, and the boss got on and disappeared back up the hill. An hour later, another jeep arrived, with another park guy, this one with a little black pouch around his neck, which I guessed was a point-n-shoot and further trouble for us.
It was. When we heard the mahout, the new jeep drove behind a turn in the road, and, minutes later, the elephant, with the boss and the new guy, sitting atop, and disappearing back into the jungle. I made it clear we weren’t very happy at having our elephant stolen, and our guide suggested we return to the HQ to talk with someone there.
We didn’t, and while we waited, into an hour, the tiger crossed the road in front of us, and we were hopeful that now that it had left its kill we’d get another chance. That’s when the mahout and his two new passengers ambled by, and disappeared into the bamboo, following our tiger.

As it stands, now, the lodge is waiting to speak with the director about rescheduling the elephant. We’ll see.
No one saw a tiger from the jeeps today, and the morning’s game drive was devoted to birds and deer, although Mary managed to photograph a great brown fishing owl, and when I drove back into the park – a consolation for having our elephant stolen – I saw a mottled wood owl, a bird that reminded me of a huge great gray owl, not the barred owl which it more closely resembles.
That evening, the lodge staff was in a bit of a panic. Losing a tiger, for any reason, is a calamity and a cause of panic, and although I had kept silent about what we’d seen, not even telling Mary, the mahout had told the boss that I may have photographed it. Sanjay, our guide, approached me, asking me what I’d seen and telling me what he knew, which was that I’d seen ‘a tiger charge, or something, or I’d seen a tiger fight, or something like that.’ He said the director of the parks was coming in, and would like to see me, and I told him exactly what we’d seen.
Before dinner, I met with the director. We drove a mile or two to the park HQ, where he and a former guide and his British wife were sitting. We were led to chairs where, for the next five or ten minutes, I waited, as the director spoke on the phone and the woman looked everywhere but at me. Finally, after the director took another phone call, I introduced myself to her and asked why she was here, and she answered ‘I like to know things. I observe.’ Whatever that meant.
The director got off the phone, we shook hands, and he answered two more calls, interrupting whatever progress we were making in the conversation. A bit annoyed, I asked if he could refrain from the phone as we had a dinner to go to. I then asked him what ‘story’ he had heard, which turned out to be an accurate account of the events – no charge, no kill, just a dead tiger killed by the one-eyed tigress, who had lost her eye to this same tigress two months previously.
I expressed my frustration with how, one, I missed a great opportunity for them to document something rarely seen and two, the imperial manner in which the elephant was taken. The woman laughed and said that’s how things are, and I replied, nowhere else in the world would this happen without at least an apology or reason, while this guy didn’t even give eye contact. ‘That’s how it is, try being a woman here,’ she replied. Maybe, I said, but that doesn’t make it right or the way it should be.
The director then explained how this system works, where the park boss can actually ban someone, like me, from the park for whatever reason. He said that a posting at a park is a step down, a hardship post because of the hours, and that about 6 people, max, have a passion for wildlife that work in his department. Firing someone is out of the question, as there are already vacancies and a post would go unfilled, and both Sanjay and I questioned whether or not someone lower wouldn’t wish to take that position if opened.
His position, as described, seemed hopeless, and rather powerless, as those in the park, like the man who took my elephant, can basically do whatever they please. I reiterated that no one would balk at giving up an elephant for an important reason, which they had, learning that there was a dead tiger and trying to determine the cause of its death, but simple courtesies would be appreciated. They don’t have manners, the woman explained, to which I retorted, anyone can learn manners, and even a simple bow of acknowledgement would have been light years beyond the attitude that the man had as he passed by.
The director explained how low a priority wildlife has in the scheme of things, which I questioned – not to him, but to government policy, as virtually any India add features two things, guaranteed: the Taj Mahal and the tigers. Tigers are a huge source of tourist revenue in India, and if wildlife is indeed given a low priority then some parts of an important equation appears to be missing.
I certainly appreciated the director’s position and empathized with his sense of frustration, and perhaps nothing, indeed, can be done. But considering the revenue that tourists bring in, and the impressions conveyed home, it appears that something could, and should, be done. I pointed out that friends of mine that have visited the famous tiger reserve, Ranthambore, have told me horror stories about how the park officials, and their families, will game-drive roads closed to the public and, worse, pull up in front of a tiger, blocking the view of the tourists lined up on the dirt track watching the same cat. None of my friends recommended Rathambore for this reason, and as I recounted these stories to the director I pointed out how this nonchalance, arrogance, or sense of privilege may insure that visitors will go one time and never return. The same experience could apply to Park One for someone who had my type of elephant hijacking experience, as indeed may have happened if some others in our group had had the experience.
In contrast, virtually everyone completing a Tanzanian or Kenyan safari fall in love with the countries and, before leaving, are already planning on how they can soon return. That’s not the case in Ranthambore, and I wonder if that applies to India as a whole, and if so, what a pity.
PM. The afternoon game drive went rather slow, although the one-eyed tigress had been darted, tranquilized, and treated, and one of our vehicles briefly saw the cat as it walked to a resting area. Mary’s vehicle photographed a jungle cat, a tawny, stout, lynx-like little cat that appeared on the edge of a meadow.
Day 6.
We started 15 minutes earlier, although the jeep lines, paperwork, and general disorder had us entering the park at around the same time as yesterday, but resulting with a return to the entrance 15 minutes earlier, too, at 10:15. The morning was fairly slow, but two vehicles had a glimpse of a tiger in a bamboo thicket and my vehicle saw at least two different sets of enormous tiger tracks.
Now, in 5 game drives, we’ve seen tigers on all five, although only the first day, and my elephant safari, has produced usable images. While my shooting was slow, I did see a brown fishing owl and a calling jungle owlet, a tiny, sparrow-sized owl whose throat pouch stood out brightly as it called a very dove-like tooting.
PM. The group had another tiger, the sixth, out of 6 game drives, although Dave and Barb’s vehicle was the only one there at the time, and the tiger quickly crossed the track in front of them. Another pair of tourists had the same tiger, either earlier or after we left – couldn’t tell, that the mahouts inadvertently pushed towards the road and they had a great view as the tiger snarled at the elephant.
Nonetheless, it was a great game drive, as we didn’t worry about tigers but instead worked on whatever subjects presented themselves. We started with the best rheus macque monkeys we’ve had so far, perched on a rocky ledge beside the road. Langur monkeys shared the cliff, and, in a tree overlooking the road, a mother langur with the smallest baby we’ve seen sat on a limb in good view.
As we headed towards the break spot, just outside the park where it is legal to have a picnic, we passed some workers on foot who casually mentioned that there was a tiger ahead. We raced to the spot, to find about 15 vehicles milling about, all craning to see the tiger that had now disappeared into the brush.
We headed back onto the track for home, and I spotted a golden jackal in a clearing, feeding upon a baby spotted deer. We’d seen another golden jackal earlier in the day but this was the first one we’ve had a chance to film, and it was fairly good, with the jackal periodically breaking from its feeding to stand erect, looking away from us as it watched for danger. Once, a twig snapped nearby and I could see the jackal tense, ready to spring.
We had to head back fairly directly, hoping that in the late light we might see a sloth bear, but instead we came upon another tourist vehicle that was broken down and partially blocking the road. Our guide, Sanjay (one of the lodge employees), attempted to get it started but without success, so two of the occupants and their guide climbed into our vehicle for a lift back to camp.
This evening, the lodge hosted an outdoor barbeque where enough appetizers were served that everyone was stuffed by the time of the main course. This occurred after a fantastic dance/song performance by a native group, one that had once lived inside the park but had subsequently been displaced. It was quite acrobatic, with a whirling dervish type of dance with four dancers faced inward, their feet almost touching, while interspersed between them, and holding their arms high, four other dancers spun, moving faster and faster in a swirling circle. Others, later, performed an odd push-up like dance where the men did a tiny pushup, their chests barely leaving the ground, while supported by one foot, the other balanced above the ankle. In this position they literally hoped around the hard packed dance floor, while in the background another guy did what can only be described as a break dance. Another series involved a group of men circling, with five others balanced upon their shoulders, while beneath them, in the middle of this circle, a woman danced quietly.
The performance ended with a request by the host that the audience join in on this ‘karma dance,’ demonstrating the fellowship of East and West. Mary, Christine, and I joined many of the other tourists (but not of our group!) in the dance, which the girls did well and where I added validity to the adage that white men can’t dance, as I shuffled about pathetically.
I received good news, too, as the manager informed me that my promised elephant ride would occur tomorrow. Today, we were told, all the elephants would be occupied in tracking the one-eyed tigress, but we later saw a photographer had had an elephant for the day, and our manager kindly pointed out that that was not the story I was given. Fortunately, they’ve come through with making up for the hijacking of yesterday.
Day 7. Incredibly, the group saw another tiger this morning, and Tom and I, doing a 4 hour ‘make up’ elephant ride, had two! That brings a total of 12 tiger sightings in three and a half days, or 7 game drives, for the group. It almost doesn’t seem possible, especially when we learned that a photographer friend had a group here recently and no one in their group saw a tiger in their entire time at Park One. So, we’re lucky so far!
The park did come through with the promised elephant, making up for the day when our’s was hijacked by the park authorities. We left early, but waited nearly 25 minutes along the road, wondering where our elephant and mahout was, before they came sauntering down the road, a new mahout astride a new, bull elephant.
We headed out, covering a flatland of bamboo thickets and mixed hardwoods, with the bark of some deciduous trees resembling an alligator juniper tree from Arizona, and other trees that were now devoid of leaves but looked quite similar to Arizona sycamores. It was quiet, and as we rocked along, pausing at one point for the elephant, and that of another photographer, a woman from the US named Kim who is spending a month here photographing tigers, to take a drink at a small pond where a kingfisher and a squacco heron perched on a far bank.
We continued through the woodland, with the elephant periodically breaking off a limb, which it carried in his mouth but did not appear to chew, or knocking down a huge clump of bamboo. We heard one alarm bark, and the mahout headed in that direction, where we saw a few langur monkeys galloping off into the trees. We were way off the normal tourist track, so it is possible that the barking was directed at us.
I honestly didn’t believe we’d have luck, since the group, on the first day in the park, did an elephant ride and saw nothing. The elephant with the other photographer was about a hundred yards to our left when our mahout suddenly stopped and pointed at a tiger hunkered down in a broad depression about forty yards away. By her movements we could tell she was feeding on a kill, and I hoped this one wouldn’t be another tiger!
We approached, and as we neared the tiger growled and, as we cleared brush, she snarled seriously. Seconds later she got up and moved towards a slight rise, and we followed. Within fifty yards she stopped and laid down, where she proceeded to groom and yawn. The other photographer had returned by then and had stopped at the kill, and we figured she was simply photographing the remains of the kill. Our mahout then asked us if we wanted to see the other tiger, which had been there the entire time but that we had missed as we focused only on the first tigress.
We returned to the kill where an even larger tiger, a male, lay feeding. We assumed, incorrectly, that this was a mating pair sharing a kill, but we later learned that it was the two cubs, now almost two years old, of the tigress that was killed three days ago, and whose body I had photographed as the other tigress ate the remains.
While we filmed the male the female stood and returned to the kill, and although the male now dominated the kill the female stayed close and, when he moved the carcass, she grabbed a left-over scrap he’d missed. They were feeding on an Indian porcupine, a large nocturnal rodent that can weigh almost 40 pounds. The male, we noticed, had a few quills in his forearms, but they appeared to be attached easily, as if stuck in simply by pressing against the carcass, and not driven in by the porcupine.
Defensively, a porcupine can be dangerous, as it flares its fur to erect the quills and then rushes backwards, swishing its tail while doing so. The white quills alone would serve as a visual threat display, but if the attacker doesn’t retreat the threat will be followed through by stabbing quills that embed and eventually work deeper into the flesh. A serious mouth- or throat-full of quills can kill a predator, so I hope my observation that the quills were superficially embedded in indeed accurate.
Eventually we got shots of both tigers together, including more of the female as she lifted the remains of the carcass after the male finished and moved off. Except for some skin filled with quills, nothing remained, and the tigress and, a few minutes later, the male tiger moved off, heading towards thicker forest. We left them then, as our time – an owed four hours – was finished.
As we negotiated the trackless forest, without a visible feature we could use for navigating except for the shadows we cast, I thought about how lucky we’d just been. The other elephant missed the tigers by a hundred yards, and, had we been twenty yards or so to the left, or thirty some on the right side of the tigers, we’d never have seen them. With a small kill there was no smell, as the fresh meat was consumed immediately, and even when the tigers moved about there were no birds or deer or monkeys to sound an alarm call. Quite likely, we’d have continued wandering east, futilely looking for the cats.
PM. No tiger this afternoon, the first time that the group missed seeing at least one. However, the afternoon was productive, and Richard and I did very well with a troop of langur monkeys that, sequentially, ran across a meadow, backlighted by the late light, with the fur glowing brightly in silhouette. We saw several new birds, including a soaring red-headed vulture and a perched white-eyed buzzard, both seen at quite a distance by our park guide.
Dave and Barbara saw another jungle cat, the second one we’ve seen for the group, so our ‘cat’ streak, at least, remains unbroken.
Day 8. Our route today was B and D, and as we traveled along D we saw nothing of consequence to photograph. Our park guide and our driver both seemed intent on finding a tiger and, in the absence of any other subject, I let them drive, circling around the area where the mahouts had been following a cat deeper in the brush.
We found nothing and headed to the breakfast break stop where, upon completing our snacks, the guides asked if we wanted to do an elephant ride for the tigers. We said yes of course and raced along the trails, returning to the patch of forest we’d previously seen the mahouts. There was a line of at least 15 vehicles parked along the track, all waiting for their brief few minutes of tiger viewing.
This was the ‘Tiger Show’ where park visitors, if prepaid, get a chance to ride an elephant into tiger country where a cooperative tiger has decided to lie up. Two to four tourists climb aboard, clambering to the top of their open jeeps before clawing themselves aboard the elephant, and these are taken for a 10 minute or so ride in to see the tiger. Viewings are brief, lasting probably no more than 2 or 3 minutes, but if luck is with you it might be the best opportunity one has for a close up view of a tiger.
My vehicle, with Tom M, was second last, and Tom W and John were dead last, so we had a long wait ahead of us. I’d gotten to bed very late the night before, filing my BBC Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition entries, so I stretched out and fell into a light sleep, punctuated by the Hindi conversation of our guides. Normally one has to be out of the park by 10:15 but today those rules are relaxed because of the show and we mounted our elephant at 11:20.
We were lucky, as the tiger that Mary had seen earlier had changed positions, and was now facing our way and was in a bit more open area. The elephant and mahout gave us a few different views in our brief time, but fortunately the four of us were placed on two elephants, so we had a bit of room for maneuvering. The time went too quickly and we had to leave, but the morning of slow shooting was now salvaged.
On the way home we passed two sets of tiger tracks, with one leading to a small stream where we assume its maker, a large male, was now sleeping. We’re hoping we’ll see it this afternoon.
PM. We did see that tiger, which was the large male that has ruled this area for many years, but much happened before that sighting at nearly 6PM.
I had the same driver and guide that I had in the morning, and my plan, and hope, was that we’d drive directly to the area where we had seen the tracks and that we’d park there, waiting for the tiger to appear. As we started our drive, I believed that was our intention, although the park guide said we’d check a waterhole first. This waterhole was where we had the tigress at the Tiger Show, which was on the opposite side of the park!
No one saw anything of consequence on the drive to that area, and when we arrived almost all the vehicles in the park were congregated at one of the waterholes, or along the adjacent track, waiting for the tigress to come to drink. I didn’t want to wait, still having my hopes up for the owner of the tracks we’d seen, so we headed out.
Our route would take us over mountainous terrain where we’ve seen some tiger tracks but no tigers, and I was just hoping we’d arrive at the track area in time. Our route led to a fork where, in the past, we’ve taken the right but this time our guide stopped us and told the driver to go left, on a road I’ve been on once, again, without seeing a thing.
We hadn’t traveled far when we came upon another jeep, parked beside one of the large male tiger cubs lying beside the road, on a bank at eye-level. Fortunately that jeep wasn’t ideally parked so we moved ahead, positioning ourselves for a very clear shot, which included, quite literally, head shots with the 500mm. Too soon, the tiger got up and walked up hill and out of sight, but apparently the other drivers told our driver that another tiger was on the road ahead of us and we sped out, making another left turn and going higher up the hill where, lying in the middle of the road, the tiger’s brother lay.
We were the first or second car going up the road, so we had a clear view with the tiger facing us. Six or more vehicles were stacked on the road behind the tiger, getting a rump view. Our driver was a bit too enthusiastic and when the first tiger stepped into view from the forest, and the tiger on the road got up, he started backing downhill to intercept their path, just as the cats were getting into a great position for a front-on shot. That was frustrating, but that move did have us solidly in position when the cats started walking down the road. One stopped in front of us for nice full-frame portraits, although I missed a tight shot of a yawn as I was switching to my zoom.
The other tiger walked down to meet the first, and together they moved off into the forest, one by one, giving us a few more shots. As each scampered up a small cliff they disappeared into the bamboo – while their back end was still visible the few stems and leaves of vegetation made the forequarters of the cats virtually invisible.
The cats were gone, and as the time was late we headed towards camp where, at the site where we had had the tracks earlier in the day, another tiger-jam had gathered. We zipped down a branch road and had a brief glimpse of our third tiger for the afternoon, huge B2 as he walked along a hillside about 70 yards away.
Paul and Chris also had the tiger cub pair, but on the back side, although Chris did get a nice shot when one of the cubs was lying down. Richard and Tim saw the male as well, and Mary’s vehicle had a brief, tail-end view of a Sloth Bear, our first for the trip.
With one morning still left in Park One, this evening’s game drive may have been the exciting climax for this leg of the trip. It will be hard to beat. We’ve now had 16 tiger sightings for the group, and I’ve seen at least 9 of these, with photos of each. We’ve missed tigers on just one drive out of 10 drives, and we had two jungle cats, one on the tiger-free afternoon. Not bad.
Day 9. The group got another two tigers, and Tim and Tom were there for it. Another vehicle had a passing view of one going away and into the jungle, but later, another tiger was thought to be in the area around the breakfast meeting point. All of us stopped there for a short while, and Mary’s vehicle was present just seconds before the tiger appeared, but she had moved on. The shoot was a bit frustrating, as the park guide kept stopping the vehicle as it paralleled the tiger, instead of letting the driver get ahead to have the cat walk into them. I addressed this issue with the guides at lunch, and hopefully, in the future, they’ll listen to their clients and not the park guy.
I had a great langur and baby, which we think was an aunt baby-sitting and grooming the baby. She’d often hold the youngster over her head while plucking at fur or ticks in its fur, and the shooting was good. Somewhere, towards the end of the game drive, my Molar Bag slipped off the seat and fell out of the vehicle, but I didn’t notice that until after we passed through the gate, when it was too late.
After lunch we headed towards Park Two, passing the spot on the main access road where, three days earlier, Tom and I rode an elephant out of the park and to the two young tigers. There were guards there now, as the two had killed a sambar deer close to the road. Unfortunately, this area now has a series of fence posts, and rolled wire, strung along the length of the road, so it is just a matter of weeks, I’m sure, before the ‘wild’ area outside the park, where we saw our two tigers from elephant back, is now out of the reach of the tigers.
The road to Park Two was good, and only the last few dozen miles covered dirt roads. Travel was fast, although often the road was merely a paved one lane road, and, being winding, it was a bit scary as a truck or bus often appeared on the road as we rounded a bend.
The countryside leading to Park Two is high country, and wet, and we passed many lagoons and rolling hills covered with forests. Villages were scattered about, but my over-all impression, as we drove through, was that India did not seem as crowded as Kenya, despite its huge population.
We arrived just after 6, to an almost empty lot. One staff person was present, but there was no sense of greeting and, I felt, a definite sense of disorganization. I walked down a trail that led to the dining area where I met one of the lodge managers, introduced myself, and asked for assistance. Staff quickly arrived, but the contrast with our previous lodge was marked.

I met with the lodge manager shortly after our check in and we reviewed the vehicle situation, and he was quite helpful in arranging cross beams for resting our beanbags. We had a good meeting with the other driver/guides about what our photographers would want, and the group seems quite competent.
Day 10. Park Two’s entry is quite a bit more organized than Park One’s, which required seeing our passports on the first day (and potentially every day) and had a chaotic sense of disorganization and needless bureaucracy. We passed through the gates quickly, with our park guide taking the front seat and not, fortunately, sharing with anyone in the second row.
It was noticeably cooler, or colder, than Park One , and with the mist lying low over the ponds and meadow the atmosphere was prettier and, potentially, more photogenic. However the countryside is thick, with tall, climax sal trees and an understory of forest floor plants that make viewing difficult after the first few feet off of the track. Park One, in contrast, was more arid and more open, and although thick stands of bamboo sometimes filled the understory the land was much more open and animals more easily seen if off the road.
The roads, however, are much smoother, and a speed limit is strictly enforced so the travel through the park is more pleasant and far less bouncy. Unlike Park One, where drivers are assigned specific routes – B, C, or D, in Park Two all of the roads are open, and along with the main tracks various two-lane side tracks extend into the forest.
We’d barely entered the park when we were asked if we wished to go see a tiger by elephant, which I took, correctly, thankfully, to mean a Tiger Show. In Park One, a tiger show involved getting in line and waiting, as we did for almost 2 hours, until one boards an elephant. Here, in Park Two, one signs up at the elephant registration area, where you’re given a number which provides some insight into how long a wait you’ll have, and whether or not you should game drive in the interim.
We’d barely finished breakfast when our driver/guide said we had to go for the elephant, and after a short drive we arrived, with an elephant waiting for us. Again, in contrast to B where we climbed aboard the elephant from our jeep roof top, in Park Two they had an aluminum ladder braced against the saddle and we ascended that. Dave and I shared the jeep and the elephant, so we had a lot of room.
The ride through the jungle was short, and we quickly came upon a tigress lying on her side in a semi-open area. We shot some quick shots of the sleeping tiger, figuring that, like B, we’d have a minute or two before having to leave. We didn’t, and instead the mahout moved his elephant about as he looked for the clearest, cleanest view, and we had several minutes, and several opportunities, for shooting.
John and Brian joined us on their elephant while we were there, and agreed that the mahouts did an excellent job. Later, Mary went in alone, as Barbara had sat out the drive, and she, too, had a good experience. Unfortunately, Tim and Tom missed out, as, when they were asked early on in the game drive, they assumed that the ride was imminent and still too dark for photography.  Consequently, they declined, although they had some great shooting with the gauer, the largest of all bovines (cow-like antelope).  Communication, like at Park One, is a problem here, too, and I only got the elephant/tiger show because I agree to anything, figuring the guides know best otherwise they wouldn’t ask.
The rest of the morning was rather uneventful, with various jeeps getting some owls, shikra hawks, more gauers, barasinga deer, and other subjects. By 11 it was hot, and we headed back to the lodge. At the gate, our driver/guide got into an argument with some official about the seating of our guide – we had permission to have him upfront, but he didn’t know it. The bureaucracy here is notable.
PM. No tigers this afternoon, but we’re now up to 19 sightings with the tiger this morning. This afternoon, we left at 3 and after a phone call and brief discussion we were cleared to have our park guide in the front seat. Barbara sat out with a bad back, so I was alone with my guide. We checked out the tiger spot from this morning without any luck, and continued to a waterhole where, in the afternoon, the light is great and game comes in to drink.
When we arrived a nice sambar buck was feeding along the edge and as the afternoon progressed three other bucks, or bulls, and several cows came in to drink. One of the bulls sat down in the water and proceeded to roll, kicking up water and creating huge splashes. Later, the bull came to the edge of the pond and proceeded to wallow in the mud and hammer the shoreline with his horns, much like an elk in Yellowstone would do at a wallow.
Several spotted deer entered the area, some drinking, others passing by, but many offering nice reflections. Several peacocks gathered as well, and one put on a full display as hens foraged nearby. The peacock would strut, side-stepping while his huge fan of eye-spots shimmied, the extended feathers so large that the bird, rather tiny in body size with the 500, barely fit into the frame.
We stayed at the waterhole until 5:15 or so, when the light finally failed at the pond and most of the game had retreated back in to the forest. We continued, checking the various roads for a moving tiger but the remainder of the drive was slow.
Day 11. We headed into the central section of the park, which required our driving over a ridge before descending into a central valley that was beautiful, with meadows, ponds, and scattered forests. Our guide advised us to go directly to the HQ area to register for another Tiger Show, since this area can be crowded. We did, and received number 13. Mary, who came much later, had number 38, but when she arrived at the elephants she was 4 vehicles behind me, so the number does not mean the order, just that there are that many of vehicles set to do the show.
Two or three of our other vehicles did not go directly, and in the circular route they made they encountered two Indian Wild Dogs running across an open meadow. Richard and Tom’s vehicle were with them throughout and got some great shots as the dogs loped across the road and, pausing, they managed some quick head shots, too! Although sharing similar hunting habits, the Indian wild dog belongs to a different genus, Cuon, not Lycaon as in the African, or Canis as in the wolf. Cuon alpinus, the wild dog looks far more like a domestic dog than the African species, although it has a rounded, shorter snout. Running, it resembled a red fox in both shape, stride, and the lay of its tail. It was an exciting ten or fifteen minutes following the dogs, and one of the trip highlights.
Meanwhile, as we did our game drive waiting for the Tiger Show we encountered a leopard, climbing about on a rock ledge about 70 yards away. The cat seemed unconcerned and laid down on the rocks, but at an angle where we could only see its head. At one point the leopard got up and started moving down the rocks, and from its stare and gait I thought it was hunting, but it turned around, jumped up into a tree momentarily, hopped back down, and disappeared over the ridge.
The Tiger Show was disappointing. A collared female tiger had killed a spotted deer fawn, and while the carcass was in the open the tiger was in deep grass. I didn’t bother taking a photo, and neither did Tom, riding a different elephant. Another mahout, with a group of tourists that had been circling the tiger, approached a tree and had his elephant break off a large branch, and then, quite literally, brush the grass ahead of it, whether to wake the tiger up or to batten down the grasses. At any rate, the tigress got up and walked a short distance where she lay back down, in a bit more open location and where, finally, I took some images.
Mary and Tim did their Tiger Show about ten minutes later, and by then the tigress had returned to her first spot close to the kill, and where the tigress was almost completely hidden in the grasses. The area had potential – there was a large shade tree nearby in the open where the tiger could have laid down, or the tigress could have picked up the carcass and carried it off, but, alas, it did neither.
The rest of the morning was fairly uneventful, with both Mary’s vehicle and mine getting a nice black drongo, a long-tailed flycatcher-like bird, and I had a pair of golden jackals that were walking up the road. We stopped, and they continued approaching, eventually walking right by our vehicle.
As we returned to camp we stopped as a group of langur monkeys gave repeated and emphatic alarm calls, joined, periodically, by some spotted deer. Our guide said leopards were more common here than tigers, and that a tiger, had it gone to water, would eventually be ignored by the monkeys. A leopard poses a greater threat, which is why the monkeys continued to call. We didn’t see either, and as it was close to quitting time we left.
We’re now up to 20 tiger sightings.
PM. We stayed in the lower section of the park and my guide was intent on finding a tiger. We heard alarm calls of the spotted deer, and raced around several roads trying to intercept the cat but without any luck. We came just minutes late for a leopard that crossed the road on our track, and a woman in another vehicle showed us her frame-filling image from a camera-phone.
We did have some okay wild pigs at a water hole, and at another, the one we visited yesterday afternoon, there were a few spotted deer and, while Mary was there, they were giving alarm calls but nothing was visible. No one, we later learned, saw a tiger from a jeep today, but with leopard and wild dog this morning, it was still a good day for the jeeps.
There is quite a contrast between Park One and Park Two, in terms of topography, vegetation, game, and management. Park Two seems well run, and the entry each morning and afternoon goes quickly and smoothly, a marked contrast with the first park. There is a far greater network of roads, so one sees far fewer people on any given track and, if we ever get to see a tiger from the road, I suspect it will seem far more private.
The vegetation of Park Two is primarily sal climax forest with a thick understory, although in the central section of the park the hill country, with its bamboo, reminds me of the first park. Park One is far more open, but with fewer roads, and rough ones at that, there is a definite trade-off. Park Two is a mix of flatlands, of woods and meadows, and section one and two are divided by the only range I’ve seen so far, whereas our first park was mostly hilly with small stretches of valley floor in between.
Wildlife is similar with the predominant species being spotted deer and langurs, but the first park had macaque monkeys, and this park does not. Both have sambar deer and wild hogs, but this park also has barasinga, the swamp deer, and I’ve seen one barking deer. Both have leopards, but they must be more common in the second park as I’ve seen one and missed one, to date. Tigers may be easier to see in the first park, although we’ve only had four game drives so far, and our first days at that first park (the first morning being the exception) were slow.
Day 12. 21 tigers now, with today’s tiger show. My 70-200 crapped out, so the shoot was lost.
We headed back to the Park Two section of the park in the interior. I had a new guide, one of the experienced naturalist/guides, but his English was poor and communication was frustrating. We were hoping to find wild dogs but were not successful, and as we drove through the forests and fields we heard that another tiger had been located for a tiger show. We were planning on passing on the show but by the time of our decision to do it any wild dogs would be long gone, so we registered.
While we waited in line for our turn on the elephant the tiger moved, and we could see the mahouts urging their elephants to speed up to catch up with the tiger. From our vantage it looked as if they were herding the tiger, and the yells we heard seemed to confirm this, but we were wrong. Golden jackals had spotted the tiger and were howling, and that was the sounds we were hearing. The tiger looked as if it was going to cross the road but turned back, and had resettled in a pathway when we finally got our chance. The mahout did a good job and we had a clear view, but later I discovered that my 70-200 had conked out, and my images were very soft or slightly blurred.
Tom and Brian were the only ones who had scheduled the tiger show, and they registered early and were on an elephant very early on. They did extremely well, with the tiger sitting in two different very open spots, including one that appeared to be simply under a tree in open shade. Great stuff.
PM. We stayed in the lower section of the park, and again I had the new guide. We traveled slowly, and I was hoping to spend time at the water hole but we went on several other tracks, intending to go later. On one of these we found very fresh tiger tracks heading down our road, and we raced ahead, spotting the cat in shoulder-height brush near a water hole. It appeared to be hunting, so we moved further down the track, hoping the tigress would walk our way. It never did, but instead started an unseen hunt, and killed a spotted deer in the brush about 20 yards from the road. We could hear the screaming but we were blocked from any view.
The screaming, I thought, might attract another tiger and I was hoping to cruise the roads, but our guide thought it best to wait at an opening in case the tiger dragged the kill. That didn’t seem logical, and didn’t happen, and when we finally left, with very low light, we saw nothing else on the road.
Photographically, it was a very slow afternoon, but it had the excitement of a tiger kill, and our 22nd sighting for the trip.
Day 13. We anticipated a Tiger Show from last night’s kill, but the mahouts could not locate the tiger. Nonetheless, the group saw two more tigers, our 23rd and 24th, during our game drive. We missed the first one by minutes, although Christina and Paul were there and got some nice shots. That tiger kept walking, and either that cat, or another, walked down a game trail along a fire trail in the ‘dream shot’ position I’ve looked at every time I passed the spot. Again, Christina was there and got some great shots as it walked right to them! Wonderful!
Our tiger, the definite 2nd for the morning, was a brief glimpse as she ducked into the brush and walked in a dry stream bed. We moved on ahead hoping she’d reappear but she did not.
I had my first luck with gaur, the largest of all bovines, and a wild cow that is sometimes referred to as a bison, and easy to see why. The animal is huge, with a large shoulder hump, and contrasting white stockings on all four legs. A herd moving through the undergrowth and bamboo make some noise, as leaves crackles underfoot, but overall they still pass through silently and, once behind the thinnest veil of vegetation, their dark forms completely disappear amidst the undergrowth.
Tim shot a great Indian roller in flight, and Mary, at the end of the morning, got her best langur monkey baby, close to the main gate. While a bit frustrating for Brian and I with today’s tiger viewing, the luck of the group held, and aptly illustrated simply being at the right place at the right time. So … that dream shot of the tiger walking down that game trail occurred, and hopefully will do so again!
PM. No tigers this afternoon, and a fairly slow game drive. Only one jeep in the entire lower area had a tiger this afternoon, so our luck wasn’t exceptional. We spent most of the afternoon parked at a water hole that was strangely empty of life, which both our guide and I felt was an indication that a tiger was in the area. We did have a long-billed crow bathing close by, and a crested serpent eagle hunting frogs on the opposite bank, but except for one spotted deer walking nearby as we approached the water hole, no other herbivore passed. A sambar deer gave an alarm bark, a deep, throating honk, and we heard some spotted deer call periodically, which encouraged us but nothing came of the calls.
Day 14.
We had our 25th tiger this morning, but all Mary saw was a bit of hide and twitching ears of the tiger, lying in heavy brush in the rocks where we’d seen the leopard. We drove straight to the upper section of the park and, as we climbed the final hill before descending into the central valley, we heard the deep bark of a sambar deer. We back-tracked down the trail but we saw nothing, although had a tiger appeared on the rocks paralleling the road the shots would have been wonderful.
The lower section, where we expected to have a tiger show yesterday, did have one today, so apparently a tiger had made a kill that the mahouts discovered. In Park Two, mahouts were out but unsuccessful.
I was with Tom, who had brought along his big lens and who hoped to get some birds today, and in that we were immensely successful. We had stopped at the registration area to sign up for a tiger show – Mary already had, and had the 29th sign up, but our guide said it was useless now and we’d be better off still looking for the wild dogs.
We hadn’t traveled far before spotting an Indian roller perched on a small weed stem no taller than 18 inches and rather close to the road. We pulled up, hoping to get a flight shot when it flew, but instead the bird hopped to the ground and hunted insects. Then it flew, but it did so returning to the same perch. It did this repeatedly, which gave us, and Tim and Richard, multiple opportunities to shoot the bird as it took off or returned to the perch. Two other rollers flew in and one of them flew to the same perch, giving us multiple opportunities to shoot the pair together, or as one or the other flew off and returned to the perch. Eventually the birds flew to a more distant perch, which made framing and focus even easier, and, before we finished, one perched close by again for some final flight landings and take-offs.
We headed towards the leopard rock but a wire-tailed swallow was perched close to the road and we stopped. It flew after a few shots but the perch looked well-used so we repositioned the vehicle to be off the road and waited. Three little green bee-eaters appeared and began to hunt the field, and soon one, then another, flew to the perch for near frame-filling shots. We had two portrait sessions and were about to leave when another flew in, this time with a large dragonfly which it proceeded to toss about and finally swallowed.
We left for a late breakfast where we met up with most of the group, and, as it was now 10:20, we headed back towards the main gate, arriving 70 minutes later without any significant stops. By 11 it was hot, and we were told within the next week or so the weather would shift and the coolness of an Indian spring would be replaced by an increasingly warm summer.
PM. Our last afternoon in Park Two and we stayed in the lower section where our favorite water hole is located and where, earlier in the day, there had been a tiger show where we’d seen the kill the two days earlier. All of the vehicles scattered, checking various routes with the intention of meeting up at the water hole around 5 when, we hoped, a tiger might appear. None did.
Instead, in contrast to yesterday evening when nothing was present at the water hole, and a sign of tigers for us, tonight spotted deer, sambar, wild hogs, langur monkeys, peacocks, and two gauer were present, and the gaur offered the first good shooting opportunities in the open of this enormous, hump-backed bovine.  It didn’t look likely that a tiger would come so, when we heard that a tiger was spotted at the kill we drove there, but the viewing, as on the previous evening, was too brushy to offer any view.
We left, hoping to find ‘our own’ tiger, and although we saw some old tracks the forest was silent, with no alarm calls and, of course, no tigers. We covered the river route, an area Mary’s been on several times that I’ve missed, and it was filled with game – many gauer, wild hogs, and birds. A tiger and cubs is supposed to live in the area but the cats are shy and rarely seen. On the return trip Mary came upon a traffic pile up for a leopard sighting, but it was too congested to attempt a shot.
Our last evening was great, with our hosts throwing a traditional Indian barbeque beside a camp fire, and we received some news about our next two locations from two friends, who gave encouraging news on the number of tigers at Park Three and the sloth bears of Park Four. Hopefully our great luck will continue.
Day 15. Park Three
We left our camp in Park Two at 7:25, and after a 4.5 hour drive arrived at our lodge in Park Three. The lodge is almost over-the-top in luxury, but after the intimacy of the small lodges/camps we’ve used the lodge, and its superficial friendliness, and less than accommodating reality, the lodge is not our favorite.
Park Three, in contrast, promises to be one of the best. In contrast to Park Two  , and its dense understory beneath the sal forest, Park Three’s forest is teak, and the understory is almost absent, creating a park-like atmosphere where visibility  is the best we’ve seen. 15 tiger cubs are in the area, and twelve adult tigers, so the possibility of tigers is high. One British couple I met saw 12 tigers in 2 days, although they said the visibility was tough with the vegetation – apparently they haven’t been to Park Two!
Our game drive began at 3:18 after 20 minutes of bureaucracy as the officials checked passports. Forltunately we haven’t had to put a guide in the passenger seat, a plus. It was hot, but not intolerably so, and as we drove through the open forest with wide views, several open lagoons and easily seen water holes, and rock outcrops reminiscent of Serengeti kopjes, perfect lairs of leopards and tigers.
Our drive was reasonably successful as we saw guar, the huge antelope, the Nilgai or blue antelope, whose female is tawny brown quite unlike the blue-gray color of the male, wild hog, spotted deer, and sambar. Other vehicles saw open-billed storks and other birds, but my highlight was seeing, and photographing, my first Indian or Asiatic wild dog, or Dhole. The tiger-colored dog was standing just below a rocky ledge amidst somewhat heavy brush, and we worked the jeep back and forth to try to get a clear view. We were never too successful with that endeavor but it showed that the dog was quite tolerant of vehicles and, if it had been sitting in an open area closer to the road, the shots would have been outstanding.
Our rooms, upgraded luxury tents with cable TV – a welcome luxury right now as the tsunami that devastated Japan was poor rumors for us beforehand, are quite far from the vehicles and requires almost a ¼ mile walk, a tough journey for a few in our group. We’ve organized a shuttle for tomorrow with the golf carts they use for moving luggage, and we’re hoping that works.
Our outfitter is planning on erecting a lodge or tented camp in Park Three by next year and we’re anxious for its completion – the difference between a small camp and a tourist camp is just too much.
Day 26. Park Three.
We woke at 4AM for a 5:30 departure but wasted well over a half hour at the entrance doing meaningless paperwork, and the ‘opening’ at 6 resulted in a 6:35 entrance for us. Sunrise occurred shortly afterwards, but it was nearly 40 minutes before the light was high enough for shooting.
As we saw last night, this park is beautiful and our route took us to the backwater of a dammed lake where, on the flood plain, herds of spotted deer grazed, and where we spotted a mongoose. Four gaur grazed in the open woodland, giving us the most open view we’ve had of this huge bovine. We passed on two nilgai in thicker brush, but a buck spotted deer in velvet was in the open and offered nice shots.
We found another dhole or wild dog and followed it about a quarter mile through the open woodland. Distant alarm calls lured us away and when we returned to hunt for the dog we encountered a langur monkey with a very young baby and, within sight, the wild dog was lying in a clearing. We stayed with the langur as it groomed and nursed the baby, keeping an eye on the dog the entire time.
While we watched the langur another mother approached and greeted our mother, and to our surpise this second langur took the baby from the other and walked a short distance away. The baby didn’t seem to mind and while the mother’s baby nursed the other clambered about, climbing atop the adult that I assume was its aunt. The mother moved to a new spot a dozen yards away from the other baby’s mother and again neither monkey seemed to mind. Eventually we lost track of the mothers when the dog stood up and we drove closer.
The dhole never moved from its resting position while troops of macaque monkeys foraged nearby. Distant monkeys, seeing the dog for the first time, gave alarm barks but the closer monkeys paid no mind, as they hopped from tree to tree or galloped across the meadow.
Mary spent the morning with a female leopard that was near a rock pile, coming upon the cat just minutes after it had killed a full grown spotted deer female. The cat moved off, climbing over the rocks and Mary drove on, but returned later and discovered the leopard had returned to the kill and where it was feeding.
Paul and Christina saw the mother tigress who has five cubs as the female crossed the track in front of them. That makes our 25th tiger sighting, and our first for Park Three.
Two friends whom we met at Park Two on our last evening almost had spectacular luck at the water hole where we spent several afternoons. They were sitting at the water hole but left when they heard alarm barks, and went searching for the tiger. Whether that was their decision or their driver and guide’s I don’t know, but after they left a tiger appeared at the water hole and climbed into the water where it soaked for ten minutes or so until a couple of gaur disturbed the cat and it moved off.
That had to be frustrating, to say the least, but it does point out the importance of patience and the wisdom of waiting at a water hole. While nothing may happen, and for our three times there no cat came in, eventually you’ll have luck if you stick it out. On our three ‘sits’ we had plenty of herbivore activity two of the three times, and on the day where nothing came in we suspected that a tiger was holding the other animals back. We’ll see, when we visit Park Two   again in a few weeks.
PM. A very frustrating afternoon for me, although several other vehicles had some great shots of a wild dog, and Mary got both sitting and running shots fairly close. She also did well with a rose-ringed parakeet in a nest hole and a very rare rabbit or hare.
I had, on the other hand, the same park guide I had on the first afternoon, and I didn’t think he did a bad job then. Tonight, however, he and the driver simply sat, stopping occasionally at odd locations to listen for alarm calls. There seemed to be no side-ways viewing, watching rock outcrops or stream beds as we drove by, and I was convinced that the only way we’d see a cat was if one was actually on or near the road. Tipping the guide at the end of that drive was an unnecessary, wasted expense.
That said, we did shoot some nilgai or blue bulls, the largest true antelope in India, and some golden jackals, but even here the positioning of the vehicle was simply a joke. I was relieved when the drive was over, which was nearly 15 minutes before another vehicle rolled in.
Day 17. This morning I had the same park guide that I had yesterday morning, and he was good then and great today, seemingly understanding how to work with the driver for positioning for photographers. It was a refreshing change from yesterday.
No one saw any cats today, and all of us ended up at the central point for breakfast and to hear word of a tiger show. We ate quickly and continued searching, and soon all of our vehicles were out.
Richard and I had a very productive day of shooting, getting two sessions with golden jackals and multiple sessions with langur monkeys with their babies. I finally saw a spotted deer shedding velvet, rubbing its antlers and head against a 6 inch thick tree.
Yesterday afternoon’s frustration was mellowed, but that game drive illustrated how poor drivers or guides can so underutilize the park. Park Three has the potential of offering the very best shooting, with a wide variety of mammals – leopard, wild dogs, tigers, gaur, spotted deer, nilgai, sambar, golden jackals, langur, and rhesus macaques. The open, park-like environment is the most conducive for photography, and if the drivers/guides knew how to work with photographers  the area would be perfect. Hopefully, our outfitter’s new camp, which should be open next year, will address this and reach Park Three’s full potential.
Day 18. We left Park Three by 6, seeing off the four who were not doing the extension. The trip was the worst of Indian tourism, as we had a co-pilot who said he was the manager of the company who suggested tips, who knew nothing of the countryside, and who, at a rest stop, directed the women to a shower stall as the toilet. When Mary questioned him on this, he said women go in the fields, but we were on the edge of a cliff and in an open forest. We had a breakfast stop where, as the guide collected our plastic bags filled with our trash, he blithely tossed a bag over the cliff edge. I just saw him do this out of the corner of my eye and couldn’t believe what I saw. We kept the rest of our trash to get rid of in Park Four.
The road descended from the highlands, covering what could be wonderful tiger corridor or a project tiger park, and our driver careened around the turns where at each bend his momentum cast him into the on-coming lane. We were being whipped around in the back seat and were pretty annoyed, when suddenly our driver pulled to the side of the road and stopped. Our useless co-pilot, the supposed manager, got out of the vehicle and proceeded to vomit repeatedly from car sickness.
When he climbed back into the vehicle we chewed him out about the driving, which may have slowed down a bit for the rest of the drive. Mary text-messaged the office and, at dinner that evening, we were told the co-pilot had been fired.
We arrived at our lodge without incident and left for a 3PM game drive, in very warm air. When we reached the forest, however, the temperature was tolerable and our first stop had us watching a large pack of Indian wild dogs, or dholes, that had gathered at a water hole where they had killed a sambar deer earlier in the morning. We stayed with the dogs about an hour as several walked down to the pond to drink and soak, but eventually the entire pack moved into the forest where our guide thought they would spend the evening and so we too moved on.
Later in the drive we had the giant tree squirrel, the world’s largest squirrel and a handsomely colored animal of russet browns, blacks, and whites. We had surprised it on a tree where it was a bit nervous and attempted, several times, to climb out onto a limb to leap to another tree. Eventually its confidence gained (for the jump) or lost (because of us) the squirrel did a huge leap that took it far down onto another tree trunk, as if he missed its target. The squirrel was okay and climbed higher up the tree, where we left it.
The park has a good population of sloth bear, leopard, and wild dog, and one can expect to see them in this order of commonness. Through the rest of the drive we saw no tracks and heard no alarm calls, but we did see sambar, gaur, and a limited number of spotted deer.
Day 19. We took the ferry over to the park and started our game drive shortly after 6. I had picked a small pickup last evening where the seats faced sideways, into the interior, in contrast to the other jeeps with forward-facing seats, like the ones we’ve had in other parks. It is an uncomfortable ride best endured by standing, but this morning John was going to join me but with the seats, and the useless guide standing in the back of the bed, too, we simply had no room. When we caught up to Dave’s vehicle John switched, which gave him a good guide as well.
I’ve commented multiple times about the guides, which the Forest Department employs and requires that each tourist vehicle have one along. Some guides have been excellent, while in other parks they’ve done nothing but sit or, worse, sit and talk with the driver. Some have slept through nearly the entire game drive, while the great ones stand up, interpret natural history, and genuinely look for game.
I had the same guide this morning as I had last night, and I wasn’t impressed. Last night, as we drove through stream beds and ravines we zoomed through, too fast to possibly see anything lying in the shadows. Today, due to our lodge guide’s direction, the driver went slowly, while my park guide pointed out extremely generic bird terms – woodpecker, eagle, etc. I didn’t have much confidence in him and requested a new guide for this afternoon and beyond.
What was particularly frustrating, and I’ve seen it several places, is the lack of commonsense that some guides have when it comes to looking for game. In our last park I strongly felt that several of the guides I had would only see game if it was on the road. A tiger, leopard, or whatever off to the side would go unnoticed. Today’s guide fit that category.
We did see tiger tracks, and huge ones, that had come from an open area by the river, and up in the hills we heard a sambar give multiple alarm barks, but we saw no cats. One vehicle had a sloth bear but not from our group, so we’re still waiting for shots of this shaggy termite eater.
PM. It was hot as we left camp, with Tom’s thermometer reading 100 degrees in the shade.  Fortunately without humidity the heat is tolerable. I checked my watch after we’d already started our game drive, 3:22, and 20 minutes later we were at the pond where we’d seen the wild dogs and now one was present. We stayed with it for an hour, hoping it would soak in the pond but it merely woke up, stood, stretched, and went back to sleep. Hoping to find a leopard we moved on.
The rest of the drive was rather slow, covering some spectacular country where, in this hilly terrain, many gullies had a stream or dammed up pool, perfect locations for a hidden predator to suddenly materialize and glide in to drink. None did.
We were back at the pond by 6, hoping that the dog pack would come to water but we were minutes late. John’s vehicle had arrived a few minutes before us and he saw 4 dogs, while the guide said the entire pack was there and moving off.
Regarding guides, I had a different one this evening who could identify birds and who had some grasp of English, and my driver, whom I’ve had for all the game drives, now knows what I need and drives well. We arrived back to camp after sunset and, after drinks at 7:30, we were treated to a very tasty bush dinner out in the brush near our room. David, one of the lodge’s naturalists, joined us, telling us of images he’d made – tigers killing a wild hog – and shots he’s seen – snow leopards and black panthers. India has a lot still to offer.
Day 20, Festival of Colors
The park was closed today because of the religious holiday known as the Festival of Colors and our guides took us along the roadsides for bird watching and photography. It was very productive, especially for seeing new species, but we did quite well with a real rarity, a Eurasian eagle owl, one of the largest of all owls. We saw two in a canyon that has been modified for irrigation, and the best of the owls was perched upon a ledge completely in the open. John was carrying his 600 and loaned me the lens for a few shots, otherwise I’d have been stuck with a non-IS 400mm that I braced solidly by lying flat upon the ground.
The Festival of Colors can get extremely boisterous, and so rowdy that it might be dangerous as people get truly carried away. Sanjay, our guide at the beginning of the trip, literally was when he was a boy, as revelers picked him up and tossed him into a sewage ditch where he cut his leg badly. He recommended that we stay out of the villages and towns on that day, being safer inside the lodge. As we returned from our birding trip I saw one young girl, around 12, walking down the dusty road colored completely in purple, head to toe. With our dark skin the purple hue was barely noticeable at first, but hinted at some extremely interesting images. This afternoon, we may visit a few local families where color may be present without the craziness.
We had an outdoor lunch, and an abbreviated face-painting session where Mary gave a palm-print on each side of everyone’s faces, and I did a rough job of painting a tiger pattern on Mary. Although we had the option of going out in the afternoon for some village photos, our guides were still a bit worried about potential craziness and so we elected to stay at the lodge, with the generator running, to rest or edit. It was a great break, and after so many days of hard shooting a welcome change.
March 21.
Our last morning game drive in the park and we were hoping for sloth bears, the one animal we haven’t yet photographed. Mary’s vehicle had one quite early; while they were watching a wild boar a sloth bear, unnoticed in a tree, slid down the tree and was promptly charged by the hog. It ran off, rapidly, belying the ‘sloth’ adage, which is given as the bear can move quite slowly and deliberately, like a South American sloth.
Our lodge guide found another set of sloth bear tracks and followed them and Dave and Barbara’s vehicle had two encounters. One was brief, as the bear moved through low undergrowth in the forest, but the second was great, with the bear visiting a salt lick and a few minutes later standing and licking a tree, completely in the open and in great light. Dave got some great shots, and although the guide whistled, hoping to attract another vehicle or two, they had the bear to themselves.
My vehicle saw bear tracks, which Richard and I photographed, but aside from seeing one giant squirrel and, at the picnic spot, a rock agama, we had the slowest morning of the trip. It started promising, with our vehicle packed with the driver, the park guide, and, up front, another guide that may have been associated with the lodge in some way. He seemed rather ineffective, and when he pointed out scat that he identified as porcupine I began to wonder. Later, a plum-head parakeet was identified as a rose-ringed, further putting his competency to question.
When we returned to the meeting area a blackbuck doe and a spotted deer doe were both feeding placidly nearby, and both allowed people to pet or scratch their necks. I did so with the blackbuck, and it clearly responded to the scratching, enjoying it.
For some, our last morning was a bit of a disappointment but with two sloth bears, and good photos of one, the mission was accomplished, just not shared. I know the lodge guide was disappointed, hoping that everyone would have success, but that luck is out of his hands.
PM. Our last afternoon at Satpura and the group split, with Tom, Dave and Barbara opting to stay at the lodge, Brian, Richard, and John doing another jeep ride, and Mary and I planning on a boat trip to check out the lake for bird photography.
Our boat ride was cut short when our outboard motor failed to start reliably, and, after drifting with a stiff wind, we hailed another boat for a transfer back to the dock. Rather unprepared, we did a final jeep ride rather than risk taking the boat around a bend in the lake and out of sight and then having the motor quit for good. Discretion prevailed, as a walk for help could be a long one, or impossible if we ended up stranded on the wrong side of the lake.

Our jeep ride went rather uneventfully with Mary and I now sharing an older park jeep that lacked any suspension, and I was getting kicked around like an old can on the bumpy roads. We did drive up on a cooperative group of gaur which stayed close to the trail side, offering one session of nice portraiture in the evening light. Richard and John’s vehicle saw nothing on their drive, but Brian, riding solo, had another blond gaur, a rare color morph only found here. He’d seen one on every game drive here, while I haven’t seen one.
It was a rather anticlimactic end to this trip with a slow evening for most and, aside from Dave and Barbara’s great luck with the sloth bear in the AM, a fairly slow last day. Still this park has potential, with leopard, wild dogs – which we saw twice, sloth bears – one, gaur, sambar, and unhabituated tigers that we were told will stay if they have a kill. We’ll be returning here in two weeks, hopefully with better luck with the bears, and a better assessment of this park as a stop for a trip extension.

 

We loved the trip, and as we begin the start of our second 'scouting' trip we're planning on our 2012 trips for tigers in India. As I write this, I am on a slow internet connection in Delhi, India, but when I get home I'll post an entire trip portfolio. Look for that after after April 28th.