Should we even consider travelling? Maybe we should just cancel and stay home.
We haven’t gone anywhere for so long! Surely, a jungle is safe! Where else will we actually be able to stay socially distant?
What if we have to do an RT-PCR before taking our flight back. Will we have to spend a night in Nagpur?
Let’s not cross a state border. That way, being doubly vaccinated should be enough for us to catch a flight.
Wondering, debating, planning … we finally did go to Pench Tiger Reserve in December 2021, and I’m so glad we did.
Safari in the Rain
The weather report said there would be a little rain.
A little rain.
Not a thunderstorm.
But have you ever been stuck in a thunderstorm in the middle of the jungle?
It was incredible. We stood at Bakhari Camp and watched the rain pour down on huge teak leaves. We shivered with cold, delight, anticipation … When else would we spend so much time standing and gazing at a forest? Someone made lemon tea for us, and we watched the world.
Yes, the safari was cut short. Yes, it was our very first safari in a very long time. But as a welcome to the jungle? It was perfect. Before the rain, we saw the changeable hawk eagle, the odd frightened deer, and then the heavens broke. Ah! Rain in the jungle! The joy!
Chorbahuli Gate
Before we left Pune, we wondered whether we should even go to Chorbahuli. There were hardly any reviews of the gate, but the manager of the hotel we were staying at had recommended it to us, since Sillari Gate is closed on Wednesdays. It led to a core area too, not a buffer zone. Hmm. Should we go? It was some distance away. Would it make more sense just to take a break?
We decided we would go. Even after the threat of the previous days rain, and hailstones pounding on the roofs of our rooms at night, we stuck with the decision.
And in that little jungle, we saw our first tiger of the year 2021. I love seeing the tiger, of course I do. But more, when everyone’s on a high after seeing the tiger, I love the stories we hear.
“Just a few days ago,” our guide told us, “a tiger killed a leopard right here!” And that was the beginning of a story we heard so many times during our stay, a tale of how a tigress and her cubs had feasted on the leopard, and how tourists had feasted their eyes on the sight, venturing nowhere else right through the duration of an afternoon safari.
Khursapar Gate
When we went to Pench in 2018, a gentleman we met recommended Khursapar Gate to us. We were at Sillari, primarily because we’d found accommodation there easirly, but he told us that Khursapar was well worth a visit. Like everything else when I travel, I wrote it down, and when we were planning this trip, I dug out my diary and said, “This. On Wednesday, when Sillari Gate is closed, here’s where should go!”
Like with the Chorbahuli gate, it felt like the jungle was quite small. We kept going round and round–and it was one of those safaris when everyone was astounded that we didn’t see a tiger. I would say it was the one safari that left me a little underwhelmed and this, despite everything we saw. Three barking deer, watching us, herds of gaur, a magnificent male nilgai sitting in the mud … Why was I … not filled up? I wondered, had the magic of the jungle ceased to inspire me? Was I becoming one of those tiger-hungry tourists?
Sillari Gate
And then, the next morning gave me a resounding ‘no’ as my answer. Everything – everything – was beautiful. No, we didn’t see a tiger that morning, which made it all the better, in so many ways. Instead, we saw everything. The ghost tree, some white and sparkling; others showing us the journey to becoming the pale, gleaming ghost. The enormous teak leaves, dripping with dew. The suddenness of peacocks and deer. The calls of tree pies, babblers, and the magic of the racket-tailed drongo that can imitate 20 other birds. Kingfishers, nilgai, jungle owlets, gaur, wild boar, a little crocodile, and wild dogs … Ah!
And on New Year’s Eve – three tigers! They seemed full-grown to me, but they were still with their mother, so cubs they were. And we, who went for safaris on end without seeing a tiger, saw three of them walking together through the trees, across the road and away!
And again, the stories. Long ago, in Tadoba or Nagzira perhaps, a guide told us with pride that the sambhar deer never lies. A sambhar call is a true call because the sambhar doesn’t just call because it panics. It calls when it sees a tiger. It doesn’t lie.
Then, here in Pench, someone told us another side of the same story – of how the sambhar is the foolishest animal of all. It hears alarm calls, but no! It must go and see whether there’s really a tiger on the prowl. And that’s why tigers find it easy to hunt the foolish sambhar!
Left – The magic of Venuban, which we visited every day through Sillari Gate
Below – The closest we got to a tiger in Khursapar. And honestly, a pugmark is (almost) more exciting than a tiger.
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