Winter Tour | Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve - 14th - 19th Dec, 2011

Team

• Balamahesh P
• Naresh Balasubramanyam
• Harshvardhan Tanwar
• Shyam Prashanth
• Praveen Byrappa
• Gururaj Bayari
• Chaman Rana
• Karan Mohta

 

We all met @8:30 PM in Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar International Airport, Nagpur. Two Toyota innova vehicles were waiting for us to pick-up from airport to Bandhavgarh National park and we reached the resort @11:00 am. Infact we were suppose to reach at 6:00 am in the morning. Delay was due to heavy traffic jam on the bridge just outside Nagpur. Early morning @ 6:00, we reached Mandla tourist guest house to have coffee. It was an amazing experience to feel the chill breeze & sipping hot coffee. Early morning in Bandhavgarh, we spotted jungle cat, jackal and few common birds. Our curiosity of going to evening safari started increasing gradually.

We stayed in Goyal's Tiger Inn resort. Accommodation and food was up to our expectation. I assigned the room keys to respective members. We decided to meet in one of room for brief introduction session about the trip along with ginger tea and onion pakoda :)

We all decided to meet at 1:45 pm. Two open gypsies were waiting for us to take for evening safari. One of the gypsy was driving by Rajnikanth of Bandhavgarh, Mr Saleem Khan,  :) a very close friend of mine. 

First evening Safari (15th Dec) – Tala Zone: Entered the park with full of excitement and kept our eyes open all the time. Apart from Sambar Deer, Cheetal and wild boar we didn’t find any other mammals. We saw few fresh pug marks and finally missed the tiger in few minutes. In the resort, wonderful campfire was arranged. It was an awesome experience to experience the heat of the flame in the chilly cold weather. Sharp 9:00 pm, have super dinner and hit the bed.

16th Dec - Morning Safari: Tala zone - Woke-up at 4:00 am in the morning. Gypsies were ready at 4:45 am. The safari starts at 5:30 am. The jungle was looking beautiful with mist. We were surprised to see the pug mark as soon as we enter the park. But it was leading to different direction. We enquired about the tiger to a forester at center point. One of the tourist was behind us and they over took us and went. Lucky couple saw the tigress along with 2 cubs on the road. By the time we reach their, they said, tigers were went inside the bushes. Again we missed the most expected tigress within 2-3 min. On the way back, we found lesser adjutant stock on the dry tree.

16th Dec - Evening Safari: Saleem had actually booked that safari to Magadi zone. But he has forgotten. We went to tala gate and waited there for our permission letter. Later we got to know that, we have to go to magadi zone. Unfortunately we were delayed in entering the part in that zone by few min. In this zone, luckily one of our groups spotted the tiger cubs crossing the road.
When all were busy in photographing cubs, only few people could able to see the female tigress crossing behind the bushes. Also they saw the tiger which is in cage. It’s a long story to explain, why the tiger is behind the cage!

17th Dec - Morning Safari : Tala Zone - As usual we woke-up at 4:00 and get ready to safari. Could able to see few pug marks. This time, we missed huge Bamera male by few minutes. Also got to know that, Kaankatti female is staying in a safe place along with little cubs. The tala zone was looking so empty without B2 (Sundar). We were missing B2 (Died in 2011) & Mirchiani cubs (Now they are in Bhopal zoo). On the way back, we saw black capped monarch and paradise fly catcher in siddhbaba zone.

17th Dec Evening safari – Fortunately our evening safari was again booked to tala zone. With heavy heart, I canceled this zone and booked for magadhi zone. Expectation level was high and whatever I see in the park, it was looking like a tiger :). Sometimes, even cheetal was looking a tiger. Luckily in that safari, one of our group spotted the tiger cubs crossing the game route. But the friends sitting with me didn’t get any opportunity to witness the beauty of stripes. Finally we came out of the park by photographing, white eyed buzzard and crested hawk eagle roasting on the open dead tree.

This ancient temple is located on the fort which is few thousands year old. Earlier we used to visit this lovely place by using gypsy. Now we have to trek for atleast 3kms. During krishna jannmastmi, atleast 30,000 local people visit this temple do celebrate the festival. This used to happen only once in a year. Now other religion people also wanted to celebrate their festival like this. So there are 4 religions visit this temple in different dates in a year. In an average, 1 set of people visit once in 3 months. This will definitely affect the life of Tiger. Govt. should take some action against this.  This picture is from my earlier visit.

 

“The Truth About Tigers” - In the interest of tiger conservation and creating awareness, I screened a wildlife movie “The Truth About Tiger” filmed by Shekar Dattatri excited to see the wild tiger. Special thanks to Shekar for making such a wonderful film.

18th Dec : Last Day - Morning Safari – Please note, people who were sitting with me has not seen the tiger at all. Luckily, both the safaris were booked in Magadi zone. In the morning we saw a jungle cat looking at us. It was very beautiful to see small cat in the mist. As soon as we enter the park, we saw a pair of jackal and blue sheep waiting for early morning sun light. Safari started with full of excitement and enthusiasm. We got an update that, Mukundha male has crossed the road and you may get the same in water hole. We went there are waited for atleast 1 hr near the water hole and didn’t find any tiger. The morning safari ended with again same old crested hawk eagle.

We came back to our resort and started packing our kits as we had planned to leave the place as soon as we came back from the safari. Because, we have to reach Nagpur airport early in the morning to catch our flights.

18th Dec - Last Evening Safari: People were praying to see tiger. No mood to have lunch also. Just waiting for the last safari and try our luck.

As usual the safari started at 2:30 pm. Ours was the first gypsy. Within 10 min, we saw few fresh pug marks on the game road. At 2:45pm, we saw the male tiger relaxing on the warm soft alluvial soil. It was very beautiful and the peahens were disturbing his valuable time. In a frame, we got to capture both national animal and bird. We were extremely close to the tiger and could not able to photograph by using 300 mm tele lens.

I had to change it to 70-300mm variable lens and captured few satisfactory images. Tiger woke up and started walking. We were just behind the tiger and following kings footsteps. Later he went inside and gave few poses to capture in back-lit effect.

Need to appreciate our guide and my friend for taking such a lovely decision on parking our gypsy at the correct spot and wait for the tiger. Later the tiger started coming towards us with majestic walk in the evening golden light.

He crossed the road exactly infront of us by giving deadly look. After that, he straight way went near the water hole which is quite far from us and there he sat for few min. We decided to search for female tigress. Unexpectedly we spot this female tigress for few seconds. We came to see the male tiger again. Oh god, the beast was walk royally in the middle of dusk light. Video graphed and photographed for atleast 30 min in all directions. Finally he went inside the bush and started taking nice rest.

It was almost 5:00 pm, we decided to log out. One the way out, we saw 2 tiger cubs innocently sitting inside the bush.

We could not able to photograph as it was very low light. We came out of the park with full smile and had cup of hot tea. So in the last safari, we could able to sight 4 tigers – a complete family. Bandhavgarh is Apana wala park. 

Reached the resort and took our luggage and started traveling towards Nagpur. Reached the airport early in the morning. Finally we reached our places on time with lot of memory. 

We have decided to visit again in May 2012. Those who are interested, please feel free to join us! See you all in Summer 2012.

Stay in touch www.wildlifediaries.com.

Call of the Coorg | Monsoon Trip - Aug 25th to 28th 2011

Call of the Coorg – Aug 25th to 28th
Trip Report by Naresh Balasubramanya

Here is the route map to reach Honey Valley!

Trekking, photography can be listed as my favorite hobbies. When my dear friend Bala announced monsoon photo expedition to coorg, I was tempted to navigate deep inside the Coffee estates and jungles of the Western Ghats to sight and photograph nature’s rare species. On 25th early morning we started to Honey Valley -coorg. Drive amidst through lush green terrain was breath taking it is not an exaggeration if we bracket Coorg with Scotland. The place Honey Valley home stay facility is situated near the town of Virarajpet in Coorg. It’s about 285 kilometers from Bangalore by road. This place is managed by Mr. Suresh Chengappa.

The estate is about 38 acres in size and has it’s share of coffee plantations. Not too long ago, it was very well known for honey production and had won lots of awards. This estate borders on to the jungles of the Western Ghats. One could experience the fantastic bird life comprising of 350 birds including Asian Fairy Bluebird, Nilgiri Flycatcher, Nilgiri Laughing Thrush, Great Black Woodpecker, Malabar Whistling Thrush, White-bellied Treepie, Hill Myna, Vernal Hanging Parrot, Malabar Parakeet, Honey Buzzard among others. It is a promising place for wildlife lovers to sight & photograph endemic and rare Snakes, Frogs and Lizards, Spiders, Caecilians, Scorpions, Beetles, Centipedes, Millipedes and an array of insect life!

Day 1

We were a group of eight; most of them were my seniors and well versed with the terrain. After unloading our bags into our rooms, Bala briefed us about the activities we would be doing for 4 days, also gave us list of species that can be sighted there, precautions we need to take , during the treks and night walks, after the brief session we stretched our legs for few hours and stepped out on my maiden trip.

It was drizzling on and off , leeches were in plenty ,all of them desperately trying to suck our blood we had to pluck them as plums and throw it , frogs of different hues greeted us with there bulging throats. All of us were tired after day’s travel and hungry we decided to walk back to the dining hall for a nice homemade dinner. After dinner we spotted snails and frogs near the entrance of our rooms, did not want miss this opportunity and we started clicking, I had never used a flash before ,thanks to Bala and Praveen who taught me quite a lot on flash settings, composition etc. After a brief photo session we all retired to our rooms with a dream of finding more species tomorrow.

Photo by : Naresh Balasubramayam Photo by : Naresh Balasubramayam

Day 2

The next day we were greeted by colorful insects, praying mantis at our doorstep. We soon set up our equipment and took some pictures of the mantis. After breakfast we sighted birds like scarlet minivet, hill myna and greater coucal outside the dining hall, we set out for a trek in search of Caecilians and pit vipers, we photographed some colorful snails, earth worms, millipede, mushrooms and landscapes on the way, It soon started to rain continuously and we thought that the monsoon made it’s presence felt. After lunch we couldn’t head out to the field, due to the rains, we had causal chat, with Zeeshan, Rajesh, Bala and Praveen learnt quite a lot on the species we had sighted so far. On the way back to our rooms, I spotted a bedome keel back juvenile a non poisonous snake, we were all excited soon set up our equipment and took some pictures of it The skies had opened up a bit by evening we all decided to leave behind our cameras, expect for two in the group who decided to carry there equipment with them . We sighted velvet natach bird near our to living quarters, we ventured into streams close the cardamom plantations and found lot of crabs ,a bronze frog , we walked further , we spotted frog called as Nyctibatrachus sp. (Wrinkled frog) which was perched close to a small pit filled with rain water , Praveen took some snaps of it. It started raining heavily again and we did not want to give up quest to find vipers, frogs and Caecilians. We continued further in the rain and found a scorpion, these species glow under UV light, we witnessed this phenomenon and photographed it with the help of Zeeshan. It was getting late of dinner , hence we all decided to go back after dinner, Bala and Rajesh spotted some rare spiders close to the dining hall, Bala took some snaps of it. It was really fun through out the trip. We all headed back to our rooms we with a hope to find pit vipers and caecilians the next day. Near my room found a colorful bug, rushed to my room to set up my equipment and took some pictures of it. The rains continued to show its fury all the through the night.

Photo by Sudha Achar


Scorpion in UV Light: Photo by Subramanniyan.C.M

Day 3

Woke with bird calls, stepped out of my room to find them , saw Praveen photographing a cicada perched on a small wooden piece near our living quarters, had heard its calls all for the last two days , was excited to see it , it was very colorful species. After a heavy breakfast we decided to go the streams close to the roads with a hope to find Caecilians, we were disappointed again, we headed back to lunch, heavy rains kept us indoors, little late in the evening despite of heavy rains Bala , Zeeshan and Rajesh ventured into the coffee estates in search of Vipers but returned back empty handed. After a nice dinner and chat with the group, we retired to our rooms, with heavy heart that we all have to go back to our respective destination tomorrow

Day 4

This was the last day of our tour. We all woke up leisurely and started to pack our bags to get back home. Our four day tour was quite eventful and we had got some good shots and plenty of information about the species and there habitat. After breakfast it was time for some group photo session. With a promise (to ourselves) to return soon we bid goodbye to wonderful people at Honey Valley who took care of us so well during our stay.

My heartfelt thanks Bala for his time and effort in organizing this trip and identifying the frogs photographed on this tour. None of these pictures on this tour would have happened, if not for the great team effort shown by the wonderful people in our group. Each one of us had a role to play - be it searching for subjects, holding umbrellas, lighting the subjects by holding the torches the correct angles, looking out for leeches…the list goes on! Apart from all this, the great fun we had for these four days is something, one can cherish for a long time. I would like to thank the entire team for making this a memorable photo-tour with great companionship and picture making ideas. Come August I am ready to pack my bags move with this group again for another adventure.






List of Frogs
1) Raorchestes leoteolus
2) Micrixalus sp.
3) Raorchestes chromosynchysi
4) Golden Frog
5) Nyctibatrachus sp.
6) Raorchestes tuberohumerus
7) Raorchestes charius
8) Indirana sp.
9) Fejervarya sp
10) Bronze Frog

Snake
1) Beddom’s keel back (Juv.)

Scorpion
1) Heterometrus

Snails
1) Indrella ampulla