Ever since grassland safaris were launched several months (years?) ago, we’ve been meaning to go. Although we’ve been on countless safaris in the forest, the grasslands were new to us, and the idea of seeing a whole range of birds, in addition to the possibility of hyenas, foxes and wolves was exciting! Finally, last week, […]
Burrapahar, Kaziranga
You know how in the buffer zone, they keep telling you that anything can happen? You know how all guides have stories about sightings of big animals on the main road? It never happens to me. I keep hoping, but no. Nothing on the main road. Until Kaziranga. All around us, like a wispy cushion on […]
Agaratoli, Kaziranga
The eastern zone of Kaziranga is much more forested, not primarily grassland. It was joyous being in there, looking at the crazy trees and ferns. Some trees look like they’ve set up hanging gardens of their own, with leaves of different kinds growing out of their trunks. I couldn’t stop marvelling at them. Bright green leaves […]
Bagori, Kaziranga
Pelicans! The safari in Mihimukh showed me not just the Lesser Adjutant Stork and the Woolly Necked Stork, but also the Open-Billed Stork, Bar-Headed Geese — and pelicans! When Bakul first pointed them out, I didn’t quite believe him. Then I saw those incredible pouchy beaks. I stared, filling my eyes with them. I found myself […]
Turtles, Ducks and Elephants, Kaziranga
Bakul identified the turtles for us. I did not understand at all, not even enough to figure out for myself later. Himalayan Box Turtle? Perhaps. That was a name I discovered. But I know nothing about turtles. Can anyone help? Ducks – we saw hundreds of them. A beautiful orangish red duck was everywhere. “Radisson […]
Rhinoceros Unicornis, Kaziranga
“Haan, rhino hai, udhar,” said Bakul. “Rhino?” I repeated. I had to have misheard. He could not be so calm. He could not tonelessly say ‘rhino hai udhar’ and leave it at that. In my head, though, I was saying, Rhino! Oo, rhino! Rhino! Where’s the rhino? I want to see … And there it was. Across […]
Mihimukh, Kaziranga
How different Kaziranga is from the other reserves I’ve visited! For one, you can get off the jeep in several places. In each zone, there’s a watch tower which you can climb to look at the world around you. And the zones don’t have complicated, circuitous routes. There’s no decision to make about what path to take, where to […]
Back from Kaziranga
Elephant grass. Anything could be hiding there. (A rhino, perhaps?) Huge birds that made me think of pterodactyls. (Wasn’t it enough that the word ‘rhinoceros’ tempted me to say ‘rhino-saurus’? Hog deer. (My auto response, by the way, said I was away looking at/for rhinoceroses.) Swamp deer. (I wonder … Why don’t we use the […]
Nightjars
When I think of nightjars, I think of poetry. Was it in “Fern Hill” by Dylan Thomas? Or did I come across a nightjar in something by Keats or Byron? I think of nightjars and I have the sense of something I do not know. Something that I can only imagine. And then we saw […]
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 […]
Bhigwan
My European travelogue has to wait; I went to Bhigwan yesterday. A journey of two hours brought us to Bhigwan, which has a lake that is roughly east-south-east of Pune. Flamingos, they say, come to Bhigwan, and stay there till the end of February. We left home at 5 in the morning, but by the […]
Leopard II
It was nearing the time to leave the forest, but we headed back towards the rest house in old Nagzira. The guide needed to use the washroom. There are lots of deer and monkeys near the rest house, so tourists invariably stand around taking photographs. On that day, there were people standing in their jeeps, looking fixedly […]
Leopard
We did our research before we went to Nagzira. We knew there were barely any tigers, but we also knew that many, many tourists saw a leopard in Nagzira. Surely, in eleven safaris, we would see one too. The first, second, third, fourth (in Koka) and fifth safaris were over. We were restless. Much as we […]
Starry, Starry Night
“There’s nothing in new Nagzira.” “Why don’t you go to Koka?” “It’s about 35 km from here.” “Anyway, Nagzira is closed on Thursdays.” “You could go to Koka on Thursday.” “Maybe you’ll see a sloth bear.” “Or bison.” We didn’t agree that there was nothing in new Nagzira. There were fewer animals; we did not […]
Nagzira
Ten days away from the city. No internet. Phone connectivity for about an hour a day. Eleven safaris into the beautiful jungle. Three leopards. A leopard making a kill: whose side are you on? The leopard’s or the fawn’s? Wild dogs in the distance. A herd of bison. Flycatchers, thrushes, drongos, night-jars, parakeets, hoopoes. A […]
Wild Dog Hunt
No one will ever believe that it’s not very easy to see wild dogs in the jungle if you spot them three times during the course of the same safari. At first, we saw five. Then we heard wild fowl crying out to one another – alarmed that the dogs were nearby. We then saw […]
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. […]
After the Burggarten
I wrote, some time ago, about how we hunted for, and eventually found the city garden – https://varshaseshan.com/blog/burggarten-bitte/. In English, somehow, people we spoke to called it the ‘Rose Garden’ rather than the ‘City Garden’. Not unnaturally, we expected to see roses, but we saw none. The garden was truly beautiful, but we saw no roses; […]
Chestnut-Headed Bee-Eater
Before going to Tadoba, we talked about the fact that sometimes, we see no animals at all. Two of us had been to wildlife sanctuaries before, and wanted everyone to be prepared for an experience that might prove to be disappointing if you only want to see a tiger. Just being in the forest has […]
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 […]