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Some folks like to get away,
Take a holiday from the neighborhood
Hop a flight to Jubbalpur or to Nagpur
But I’m takin’ a flight on the Chandrapur tiger line
I’m in a “Tadobaa”state of mind
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A friend of mine was uber keen to see some tigers in the wild. I asked around and got info that Tadoba was “the place” to see some cats. An almost 90% sighting chance I was told. I reached out to Manish Varma, a reliable Tadoba expert for organising my trip. All booking had to be done in “Tatkal” . We didn’t know till 3 days before our trip dates, whether we would get a slot or not. Finally the news came in that we were , GO !
We landed at Nagpur ” the tiger capital of India”. Four major parks Kanha, Bandhavgarh, Tadoba & Pench are accessible from here. A leisurely three hour drive with a breakfast halt at “Jam”, we made it to Mohurli. Manish’s place was fully booked so he had made arrangements at the adjacent resort. All meals were still at Manish’s kitchen. The rooms were nice and clean. The ACs worked but the power being erratic at such a remote place, we were almost 50% of the time on generators.
We rested a bit and had a nice simple but tasty lunch. The dal was especially fabulous. After a short rest, we got into the gypsy at 1430. The Mohurli gate formalities took a bit time and one had to pay camera fees of Rs200 for any lens above 250mm. 250 and below, no charge. It was blazing hot and must be some 45 deg C in the sun at least.
The main park opens at 1530H and we took the Jamni- Pandharpauni route which tracks mostly north. Some cubs of “Choti Tara” were seen in the morning in that area, so the guide suggested we go there first. We reached Jamni and waited. There was the odd alarm call but, nothing that we could really work on. A pair of JCB diggers were working on increasing the depth of the pond there. I started to shoot tree barks which I thought looked brilliant. Waiting for the tiger has perhaps been one of my more creative times, mostly !
We waited almost 45 mins at Jamni, but no luck. Jamni was a small village which has now been trans-located outside the park. Then the guide said that we should move a bit ahead and then look from another angle. We moved barely 200 m and sure enough there was another gypsy standing with excited onlookers. We could see at a bit distance, Choti Tara resting on the mudbank. The presence of the JCBs working at some 200m distance, didn’t seem to disturb her. Check one, we had sighted our first tiger in our first safari ! Since the cat was rather far away, we decided to move ahead.
Near the Pandharpauni waterhole, we came up on a big jam of vehicles. Something was visible, and so the crowd. We edged closer to the vehicles and we could see a huge male tiger the ” Matkasur male” sitting on the mudbank. Yeeha ! Tiggy 2 ! And that too a big handsome male ! He wasn’t too far but the crowd of vehicles made for a difficult time to align to get a few shots. Since we were one of the last to come in, we were obscured by a few rows of vehicles in front of us. I tried to shoot through the legs of the standing onlookers, but no luck. All I got mostly was “bums” in the frame 😉
He was peacefully sitting around cleaning himself like cats do. Not a care in the world on all the attention that was on him! For a brief moment he got up to turn and, I got my only standing shot of this wonderful chap. Soon a forest guard came by and started to gently disperse the vehicles. As we were moving out I requested a stop for a parting shot. The forest guard obliged smilingly and I got this shot of the magnificent “Matkasur” sitting proudly and looking at us. The water hole has a solar pump and that made for some really crappy “sustainable” photography 😉
A little ahead we saw a Crested Serpent Eagle grappling a prey on the ground. Couldn’t see exactly what the catch was and the bird flew away as the Canter vehicle rumbled past. We looped back along the Tadoba lake and on the way back saw some very interesting rainbow coloured cloud formations called cloud iridescence.
There was a bit of rain possibility and it drizzled a few drops, with a lot of wind and lightning later in the evening. The clouds across the moon made for a few interesting shots. There was a bunch of folks from Kolkata who were staying at the resort and were super enthu on the tigers. I got talking to them and tried to explain I was looking for fuzzy shots and not the standard shots. MnM who were within earshot rolled their eyes on my “giving gyan” 😉
Our next morning ride was again into Mohurli. My previous evening’s bum model, who was strolling near the entrance gate, was pointed out to me by my eager mates ;-). This time we looped a bit west, around the Telia lake. The route joins back on to the Jamni- Pandherpauni track. Enroute to the lake we saw a gypsy stop and a lady guide point out something. Our guide Mangesh also halted and asked. The other guide said “bhalu” or sloth bear. Mangesh peered into the undergrowth , moved the vehicle a bit for a better view and declared it a false alarm. Sometimes some guides do this false indication especially with folks are not that familiar with the forest & wildlife. Something to watch out for. Nothing much of interest but the lake was beautiful. It had rained last night and the grass had turned nice and green. We saw a couple of crocs in the water but other than that nothing much of interest. We saw a pitta enroute which flew across the track into the undergrowth on the other side. The pitta is a migratory bird and it comes in to Tadoba, in the monsoons to breed.
Moving along we got hailed by a “full day safari” gypsy to follow them. Seems it was a certain film maker “Nalla Mutthu”. I remember this same guy getting one full zone in Ranthambhor closed for his exclusive access to film some cubs. And we were one of the impacted and couldn’t get access to that zone despite booking in advance. All the folks who had booked for that week were denied access. I name him “NOT SO Nalla Mutthu”. (Nalla in tamil is good / wonderful and Muthu is Pearl). Later I get to know some others too don’t fancy this film maker guy too much. We followed the gypsy and sure enough we spotted the cub of Maya sitting in a clearing besides the track. Maya the tigress was probably inside the undergrowth nearby and could barely be seen. Maya and Choti Tara were two of the bolder tigresses and were unfazed in the presence of the vehicles. The cub after sitting a while started to pace and do a few mock hunting “poses”. Great fun to watch. I took a few standard shots and then decided I prefer the shots through the undergrowth to bring out a certain mood. I am kinda bored with the standard shots overall. Need some fuzzy logic now 😉
The standard shot
The not so standard shots
One option was to stay put and watch the cub but, I urged Mangesh that we should go where the crowd wasn’t. Mangesh said we will try for Sonam and we looped back to the main road which leads to the Mohrli gate. Just as we were crossing the track junction coming from Telia, we spotted a Kolsa range gypsy turn aggressively and speed up towards the Mohurli gate. Mangesh told the driver, “Usne kuch dekha hai, Peecha karo!” ( He has seen something, Follow them!) Just a bit ahead we saw one gypsy parked on the side of the road and they pointed us to two tigers sitting in the waterhole which was visible through the gap in the undergrowth ! I think it was the 22No waterhole about 5.2Km from the Mohurli gate. Sonam and a cub was cooling off. One could barely see the tigers until they lifted their heads. Soon Mangesh asked us to look back and we saw another cub cross the road and walk towards the water hole. A few minutes later another cub quickly scampered across the road to join its siblings. We were just two gypsys who saw these cubs that morning. While we were waiting, a pair of full grown Paradise flycatchers sat on a branch nearby to make for a couple nice shots. This was beginning to look like an IPL match now with “Tiggy count” over 2 safaris = 6 !!! Yeeha! 🙂
As we moved out of the gate, I was again promptly pointed to my “bum models” who were strolling ahead of us. They probably had finished their safari before us.
The evening safari ride was booked for the Agarzhari buffer zone. I was told that there was a good chance to see Madhuri and her cubs. We entered the zone and checked out the reservoir edge but the cats were not seen. Some of the vehicles decided to wait it out but we decided to do a round of the forest and get back by 5PM to this same spot. Tiger movement in the afternoon is a low probability and they will start to wake and move only towards dusk. We got lucky with a sloth bear cooling off. He was startled when or vehicle approached and he scampered out of the wet mud. We could hear his hard breathing a 100m away. The bear was the highlight of the evening and we were very pleased to have seen one. Bears are elusive and not seen as often.
Around 5 PM, we went back to the reservoir edge and Madhu, a fully grown tigress, made her movement. She crossed over a high mudbank and our driver “Akash” along with our guide “Ramkumar”, setup the vehicle brilliantly for us to see her walk down to us. What a lovely beast ! On seeing more vehicles on her direction of march, she settled down in a patch of grass near us.
The standard shot
The not so standard shots
As we saw her rolling on her back the clouds were putting up their own show.
In camera overlay – “Rainbows over stripes”
Madhuri and the cubs to were in the vicinity but had decided to stay put inside the undergrowth. We did see a glimpse of them through the bushes, a quick glimpse just before we turned back to the gate to make the closing time.
Sometimes when you need more reach than the mobile phone camera has , you can add the bino to your mobile 😉
What a trip it had been, we had see, Dholes, Sloth bear and tigers, some half a dozen plus in just three safaris ! Fully satiated, we decided to forego the next morning ride and slept in late enjoying the solitude and generally basking in the “Tadoba state of mind” 🙂 Our bong friends at Manish’s stay were really an enthu bunch I just had to make them jealous by encouraging my friend to show Iphone grabs of the beautiful Agarzhari tigress 😉 They too had good sightings. After enjoying a leisurely breakfast, we said our goodbyes to our “bong friends” and set course back to Nagpur.
Just three safaris and one even “sacrificed” and it felt as if we had been out for more than a week. Time had somehow stopped or actually extended and uncompressed. Such was the wonderful feeling at the end of the trip, WOW !!
So bottomline, EmmNm are lucky with tigers !!
P.S: Trip song: “Tadoba state of mind” set to –Billy Joel’s “New York state of mind”
Some folks like to get away,
Take a holiday from the neighborhood
Hop a flight to Jubbalpur or to Nagpur
But I’m takin’ some time out with the Em square fine
I’m in a “Tadobaa”state of mind
Photo tips:
The 200-500mm worked well though I missed my 300mm 2.8. I didn’t miss my 600mm. But, if I was looking for birds then I would definitely haul one along. My dusty safari check list really helped not to miss out anything important. Mohurli is the zone to go to and if you want a nearby buffer, the Agarzhari zone it should be. All the other entry gates are quite far off so its better to plan to stay near that gate. But if you are staying at Mohurli, then the Mohurli zone and the Agarzhari zone are the nearest ones.
Stay & Safari contact: Manish Varma ( 09860692422,08055920303 or manish.varma96 AT gmail.com ). Highly recommended especially for all photographers. Basic, neat accomodation and some lovely simple food. His six room resort is called “Hornbill” and is located adjacent to the “Waghai resort” at Mohurli. Nagpur to Mohurli is about a three hour drive.
Cellular coverage: Zero pretty much as of 01 June 2018. Jio has just set up a tower there. Get a Jio sim along if you want to be in touch. But, my suggestion, it works quite well without a cellphone 😉
Super Krish. Great pics and a good guide for a future trip.