What have you heard about the Sundarbans? I've heard all kinds of things. Most of the tigers are man-eaters.People who step out hope not to see a tiger because if they do, they probably won't come back.Like any other water safari, you don't really see animals because you're in the water, and why would animals come out of the woods to see you?Most of what I knew was like that. A rudimentary search told me nothing about how to get to the Sundarbans. Following my school text book, I even wrote it Sunderbans because I didn't know that it got its name from the sundari tree. What are the safari timings? Where does one stay? How does one get there? Is the forest closed in the monsoon? Zilch.Thanks to a friend who's been there, though, we contacted a guide and got a little more clarity--eventually. We learned that the forest was open, and so, off we went to figure out how things work. … [Read more...]
Back from Tadoba
We were famous, the talk of the town. Everyone knew us; the official at the gate wrote my name down each morning and each afternoon without having to consult the safari ticket. He grinned at us, exchanged a few words, and wished us luck. "Now at least, you must ..." At the end of each safari, as we signed out, he looked up hopefully. We shook our heads, almost delighted at being so difficult, and he let out his breath and gave us a crooked smile."Everyone is talking only about you," said our driver Ashish. "All the time, everyone in Navegaon - the guides, the drivers, everyone - is only talking about somehow showing you a tiger. Yes, it's a jungle, and yes, it's unpredictable, but how is it possible that after seven safaris, you still haven't seen the tiger?"We smiled. The people at the forest gate and the hotel seemed more upset than we were. We felt tempted, over and over again, to … [Read more...]
Back from the Wild – Again
Green forests. Dense.Tall grass. Just a few metres away, a tiger could be hiding and we wouldn't even know. Anticipation is thrilling.Spider webs glinting in the sunshine. A huge black spider poised on her web eats a grasshopper.The black ibis with its red hood and impressive beak pecks away in the grass.Sambhar - first the doe, then the stag - cross the road in front of us. They pause in the middle of the road to look at us. The way we go look at the animals, maybe they thought they'd step out today and look at humans.A yellow oriole flies above us, below the screeching green parakeets.The chestnut-headed bee-eater, flies and lands, flies and lands. In Marathi, they call it a 'crazy parrot' because of its peculiar habit of flying so briefly and perching again, time and time again. It doesn't seem to know what it wants.A crocodile, still as a log, floats in the water.An … [Read more...]
Detective!
From the time I was about seven, I wanted a mystery to solve every vacation. It was not fair that only Enid Blyton people (for me, they were people, not characters) got to solve such convenient mysteries, with the additional advantage of barely getting older each time around.When our guide Vishwas started telling us how much goes into being a guide, I wondered whether he had similar unfulfilled childhood wishes.Every time we sighted any animal, the pride in his voice was heart-warming. He pointed out to us that a single alarm call (that we, the tourists, had ignored) had led us to our wonderful tiger-sighting. He commented with pride on the fact that all the jeeps ahead of us had ignored the sound, but his constant attention had given us a beautiful sighting of the changeable hawk eagle that had just made its kill. He exulted in the fact that his forethought in having led us through … [Read more...]
Surviving in the Jungle
Eight safaris with the same guide ensured that we became friends of sorts, and once he realised that three people out of five in the jeep understood Marathi, he opened up fifteen long years of experience to us. One fascinating safari was devoted to attacks by different animals, and how to save yourself."If a tiger is nearby," Vishwas told us, "just be calm. If he doesn't feel threatened, he won't attack you." For me, this translates as, "If a tiger decides to attack you, you have no hope. Your best bet is that it won't attack.""If a bear attacks you," Vishwas said, "climb the bamboo. Bears are great climbers, so climbing any ordinary tree won't help; you must climb bamboo. They can't follow you." For most city-people, this translates as, "If a bear decides to attack you, you have no hope. There's no way you can climb a bamboo, even if you are adept enough to climb a tree.""If a … [Read more...]
Tadoba
Our guide at Tadoba said, "All these people who come from big cities - Pune, Mumbai and all - they take photos of anything!"He laughed incredulously at me when I was awestruck by a hare bounding into the jungle, chased by a wild dog. "Khargosh?" he laughed. "Hehe..." But truly, for this urban creature, it was fabulous to watch that hare leap away!Our guide saw chital (spotted deer) so often that he counted how many in a herd while we lost our hearts to those eyes.Our guide told us, "People come from all these cities - Pune, Mumbai and all - and all they want to see is tiger, tiger, tiger. I tell them to go to the zoo." Yet, the tiger was breathtaking. People who take photos of tigers have to be accustomed to seeing tigers. Otherwise, it's impossible to remember that such a thing as a camera exists when the tiger is looking at you. I thought I was very smart and set my video camera … [Read more...]