Monday, February 11, 2013

Tadoba Andhari Tiger Reserve (TATR) contd.........


Day 3....1st Feb 2013

Today we decided to be early at the gate for the entry, the gypsy arrives at 5-30am its chilling cold. We got the second position in the Que.. we decided to visit the Jamun jarra water hole, where we sighted all the tigers on 30th Jan but we were not sure because they din't show up on 31st Jan...... we went there and waited for 10mins no movements or alarm call also, so we discussed between two gypsy and all had different opinions :) then Vijay Gangolli comes up with an idea & said we will toss a coin, heads we move from here tails we stay here at the water hole. Ok now who has the coin because everybody is in safari dress code, Pranam found a coin, Mahesh tossed ...it was heads, without any further talks just left the place drove to Tadoba from Moharli range(Jamun jarra) because we had heard that a mating pair tigers were sighted.

It was so cold I was frozen, but Mahesh had his nightmare, thinking we would stay in Jamun jarra he was not prepared for cold. Literally he placed himself between two seats of the gypsy telling me & pranam, if you guys sight anything pull me up..... :) we were a bit disappointed because we only sighted Indian Guar. Our luck changed while driving back we spotted  







       Wild Dog (Dhole)








After photographing these, few hundred meters we heard an alarm call from the deer, we were confused whether its for wild dogs or something else. We could not figure it out so left the spot to an one more entry gate & also a rest room place, we stopped there got down & went to rest room I had almost unzipped, our friend Aadi Nagaraj Gowda who was on the other gyspy in front of us saw a tiger crossing the road & there I also got the glimpse.. zipped & ran & jumped into the gypsy even our driver & guide were fast drove to the next jeep track where we expected the Tiger to cross the track from the road....... here he comes in front of our gypsy. Wow what a 

walk, super hulk just emerges out of the bushes on the jeep track & gives us a stare. I just took 8 frames and kept my camera aside & enjoyed his cat walk, an awesome experience.... ooooff even now I get goosebumps.   

                   Wagdho the huge guy

He has a scar on his right eye may be in a fight he has damaged himself.

Meanwhile our friends in the other gypsy missed the whole scene in fact even they were caught up with the wild dogs. We met them back at the entry point because we had not yet entered our gypsy so we had to come back make the entry, and our safari time was up we had to return to the main gate, ended our morning safari. 

Afternoon safari started, again first come first entry so by 1-30pm we were at the gate. We had lots of time to meet other photographers like Mr.Mohan Thomas & Mr.Thomas Vijayan (brothers) then Mr.Aadi Nagraj Gowda and lots of them from bangalore.... again this time same but decided to go to Tadoba its 20kms approx from the main gate, but no sign of anything. We were waiting near a water hole & one gypsy guy told us they sighted Tellia cubs near Tellia lake, immediately without any second thought just turn back on the way we spotted Leopard but not a great pic, it shied away. We reached the entrance of the lake to see this grown cub walking across the road marking its territory. Thus the tiger show came to an end with total five safaris....Six Tigers, Wild dogs, Sambar Deer, Indian Gaur & lots of birds.










L to R : Vasu Bellur, Pranam A Tilakam, Shyam Prakash RP, Kumar Pal, Vijay Gangolli, Mahesh Chand & Myself....... 











Thursday, February 7, 2013

Tadoba Andhari Tiger Reserve (TATR)

It all started because of Mr.Vasu Bellur a friend of mine, few months back we sighted & photographed a huge Tiger in Nagarhole NP which din't satisfy because it was inside the bush. Later after some days Vasu called me and asked are you game for Tadoba, I said yes from there it started then came in Vijay Gangolli, Shyam Prakash, Pranam A Tilakam, Mahesh Chand and Kumar Pal. We got our bookings & reservations done through Kumar Pal's cousin who stays in chandrapur. 

Day 1.... 30th Jan 2013

We reached Balharsh at 12-30pm by Rajdhani express train, then to Mohrali Range by road, on the way we had lunch and we were on the right time for our afternoon safari 2-30pm. Our gypsy were ready, we split into two teams. Got up our gears Nikons & Canons ready, there we gooooo......... And here comes the first one with loud roar then the second

 





                     The Tellia cubs ....... 






It was so exiting to see two tigers & photographing them was an awesome experience, but it did not end there, we were blessed with the third one, a life time frame for me.....


and then the mother, but was not lucky enough to make a frame of the mother and the cubs. Another friend of mine Mr. Mohan Thomas has got that frame all four in one... 

They started playing for almost one hour and could hear only the shutter sounds from all the safari gypsy parked around. Everybody like click click click.......... including me..  :) what best one can get than this..... Then they disappear to the woods... we move out....



We drove the other areas and sighting was not much or may be we had done with so many tigers, we would have ignored other sightings but could not miss this huge 

                       Neelgai...... 

 End of the day one...... because the reserve timing is 2-30pm to 5-30pm.



Day 2.....31st Jan 2013



This day was a bit bad for us, we decided to stay & watch the same water hole the entire morning because the tigres had made a kill just behind this water hole but they dint show up. But we had other visitors to the water ...

                       Indian Gaur






An unique pic of calf & mother Gaur along with cattle egrets ......







We continued our safari sighted Sambar deer, Barking deer, wild boar but saw a Magpie robin trying to do something which was strange, went close wow look at this, the bird had a lizard as feed and was trying to swallow......... with this our day 2 comes to an end.....

Day 3 ....to be continued shortly.....