'Tadoba never disappoints' is what they always say and it's absolutely true. We had amazing tiger sightings, that too from very close distance during our Tadoba Wildlife tour organized by Owlet Outdoors. We did four safaris in different zones - Agarzari, Dewada, Nimdhela and Khutwanda. We could spot tigers in all four safaris. Addition to that, two leopards and numerous birds. This looks more satisfying because just a day before our arrival, there was heavy rainfall in Tadoba and the surrounding area. The weather was not very hot but pleasant enough and a little cloudy.
Here is the story -
Day 1, Evening Safari
Our first safari was through Agarzari Gate of the buffer zone.
Just before we reached the safari gate, we saw various birds in the Irai backwater and a herd of Indian Gaurs beside the tar road. We met our guide Devidas ji at the gate and started our first ride. Our first target was to check Navargaon lake where the dominant male tiger - Shambhu was sighted in the morning safari. We moved to the spot but there was no movement. We started exploring the forest and saw many wild animals and birds. A mongoose crossed our path and I whispered - aaj tiger dikhega. Heard a few stories that sightings of a mongoose are good luck to spot the tiger. After some struggle we sighted a young tigress - Amba, who has recently established her territory in the area which belonged to Sharmilee tigress who unfortunately died a year ago. Amba has come from a non-tourism area and thus is not very familiar with the tourist gypsies. She was resting in the bamboo thicket after a gulp of water from the nearest nallah. We could only see a glimpse of her.
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| Amba Tigress, also known as Laajri |
We left her and went in search of Shambhu again. We saw some gypsies gathered near Navargaon Talao and mighty Shambhu was walking on the track. Only one gypsy was ahead of him and everyone else was following him. We somehow got the place to get close to him. He marked his territory and moved towards the thicket. It was a brief sighting but satisfying that we could see a dominant and huge male tiger which normally are rare to sight. He then moved towards the boundary of Agarzari zone and entered the Devada/Adegaon zone. We were happy as our second safari ride was in the Devada zone the next morning.
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| Shambhu - the dominant male of Devada & Agarzari zones of Tadoba |
Shambhu is around 7 years old, in his prime and currently a dominant male of the Devada - Agarzari range and has ousted the previous ruler - Taaru. He killed Madhu Tigress's cubs from Taaru and later mate with her. Now Madhu tigress is raising a litter of 3 cubs from Shambhu.
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| Peahen and chicks |
We exited the safari gate 10 minutes early at
6:50 pm and got to know that Madhu tigress was walking on some particular road
adjacent to the gate. I regretted not utilizing those 10 minutes and exploring
that particular route before exit.
We met our group members at the gate who explored the Devada zone and
sighted two tigresses - Collarwali and a subadult female tigress. They also had
an amazing sighting of a pair of leopards which they followed for almost an
hour and crossed their path twice.
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| Leopards |
Day 2, Morning Safari
Our second
safari was through Devada / Adegaon gate of the buffer zone.
Cool breeze and the aroma of the mud made the jungle pleasant. It was like, we are doing safari in the month of December. The guide, upon asked told that it rained a little in the night. He stays in Devada village, situated in the buffer zone.
Our main target was Shambhu as he had entered this area last evening. Another target was a W-mark tigress who has three-month-old cubs. The gypsy driver and guide had something else in their mind. They drove us to the collarwali tigress's area where she and her sub-adult were sighted last evening. We moved towards Junona and looked around for movements and alarm calls if any. Our friend Shruti was very eager and was asking too many questions to our young and knowledgeable guide - Ganesh. As they were in conversation over the forest and tigers and what not, I was a little annoyed and was looking here and there for movements. The weather was cloudy and pleasant like we are doing safari in the winter and not in peak summer. At one turn, I shouted - wait!! wait!!.... Tiger ...Tiger !! The gypsy reversed and I showed the tiger sitting inside the forest, a little far from the route but clearly visible with naked eyes.
We were the only ones for the next 10 minutes. The tigress decided to walk inside. Guide and driver observed her movement to know her direction. A sambhar deer honked. These are particular calls made by herbivores to alert their group members about the presence of a predator. Sambhar deer honked once more. As there was the only water saucer in that area, it was predicted that she would definitely go for a drink at that particular spot. We moved and took whoever met us on the way. Now the wait game has started. We only have to wait for the tiger to come over the water. 15-20 minutes passed. We heard a few alarm calls of Sambhar Deer but they were not very promising. The tigress probably sat somewhere inside. After enough waiting, we decided to explore W-mark tigress's territory. There was no movement and we decided to have a quick breakfast. We met a few gypsies who informed us that the subadult tigress had visited the water saucer and then went to the non-tourism area. We missed her.
Near the nallah, we spotted a few gypsies gathered and tourists seemed very excited. We checked upon the spot to know Shambhu - the male tiger is sleeping peacefully in the nallah. He was cooling himself in the puddle created due to last night's rain. Our group members in the other gypsy were in a better position while we had no place to see him properly. Everyone waited there for more than half an hour. He was least bothered about the tourists and continued sleeping. He changed his position once sun rays started falling upon him. It was 9:30 am and we had to leave Shambhu and the jungle.
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| Shambhu |
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| He chose a beautiful place to rest |
Day 2, Evening safari
Our third safari at Tadoba was from Nimdhela gate. We had to drive for almost an hour from our resort to reach here for an afternoon safari.
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| Our Group of jungle lovers |
As soon as we entered from the Nimdhela gate, we spotted a tigress - Nayantara
cooling herself in the water body. Nayantara, the young tigress of only 22
months of age, is on the verge of separating from her mother,
Bhanuskhindi and is trying to establish her own territory in and
adjacent to her mother's area. She slept for a while, drank water and
then came out just to see a herd of Nilgai. Nayantara started stalking them.
She took too much time to get close to the herd and allowed Nilgais to escape.
She crossed the road after the herd just to see them running away.
All the tourists in the gypsies were watching her grace. Her next target
was a pack of wild boars. They were resting in the mud under the shade in the
scorching heat. Nayantara - the tigress watched them and started moving close
to the pack. It was great to watch her moves closely. All the gypsies gave her
enough space so that she could hunt. Wild boars panicked and started running.
Everyone was eager to witness the natural moment. She managed to get very close
to the sounder - the group of female wild boars and their piglets. It was just
10 feet away. But the inexperienced young tigress waited too long to pounce on her prey leading it to escape. Now it was time to take a rest and we left her
in search of another tiger. Our guide Rukhamant and Driver Gajanan were excellent in positioning the gypsy for photography point of view.
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| Nayantara stalking the herd of Nilgai |
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| The Blue-Eyed Tigress |
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| Nayantara marking her territory by spraying her urine |
There were so many Langurs with their newborn babies. They looked so innocent and adorable.
Next, we spotted Bhola - brother of Nayantara sleeping on the safari track near a nallah. He was least bothered about the presence of gypsies and the tourists around. The shade of huge trees around was giving comfort for a good siesta on a hot afternoon of summer. We spent another half an hour watching him closely as he kept changing his positions, yawning, stretching his legs, rolling around and sometimes keeping an eye on us if we kept a safe distance from him or not.
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| Bhola |
Day 3, Morning safari
We entered the core area through Khutwanda Gate. We heard a few gypsies had sighted a Collarwali tigress on the main road between Moharli and Khutwanda gate. She was walking on the road and then went into the fire line. Our guide - Govinda decided to take a chance as she is a very bold tigress and according to him, she might go toward Teliya lake via Ainbody. That's her usual path as per him. So, we waited at the Ainbody - an artificial water body near the Crocodile Bark Tree (Called Ain in Marathi), thus the name. We saw a pair of barking deer. Some gypsies were waiting at the junction ahead. Our guide advised us to wait at this particular water body because that was the one-way route and if we go ahead, we might not be able to come back if a tiger arrives here. So we waited. Few more gypsies arrived and went to the junction while two more waited with us. One of the barking deer crossed the path and went towards its partner. And suddenly, Thhowww.... an alarm call echoed in the atmosphere. The broken silence was a signal for the predator. Alarm call from barking deer is similar to the dog barking and thus it is named as barking deer. One of the gypsies went towards the water body and saw a predator coming towards them. They signaled us and no sooner we were at the Ainbody too. A gorgeous tigress was coming straight towards us through the grass. We observed her and took some photographs and videos. She had injury marks near her left eye. This must be from the territorial fight with another tigress - Sonam, a few days ago. She came very close to us and without drinking water, moved towards her right. We anticipated her movement and turned our gypsy around and parked such that we get the tigress head - on. She marked her territory by spray marking on the tree. She crossed the safari track and vanished inside the bushes till other gypsies from the junction arrived. We thanked our guide for waiting at the correct place.
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The name Collarwali was given to her because when she was about to separate from her mother - Lara, she was put with a GPS collar to track her movements. It was anticipated that she may migrate in the adjacent forest to establish her own territory and the GPS collar will be useful to trace her migration route and further studies. But she stayed in the same territory, pushing her mother out. Later the GPS collar was removed.
We waited at the junction for the next 15 minutes for her to come out which she didn't and then we drove towards Khatoda gate.
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| Common Hawk Cuckoo and a Barking Deer |
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| Peafowl displaying his arsenals to attract female |
The Kosekanal route is famous for great sightings and thus we decided to take the same route. We saw a queue of vehicles trying to spot something in the bushes. After some 20 minutes of waiting, it was our turn to know there were three tiger cubs inside the thicket, totally camouflaged and only a part of their body was visible. Not everyone could see them. This area belongs to Zoya who is raising 5 cubs and 3 of them were sighted. We had no choice but to wait because it is a very narrow route and one cannot overtake another gypsy. Forest department should take this seriously and make the route wide, otherwise there can be serious issues in the worst-case conditions.
Little ahead, there was another queue of vehicles to sight more tigers. Only a few of us were able to see a tiger walking inside the thicket. They were Mama-Bhanja. Our other group members had amazing sightings of them before our arrival to the spot. Remember we had wasted 20 minutes in the queue earlier. They also had seen Zoya's cubs dragging and eating a wild boar.
Now there
is an interesting story behind the names - Mama & Bhanja.
Choti Tara gave a part of her territory to her daughter - Bijli and most of
the time they were seen in the same area. Choti Tara and Bijli both gave birth
to two cubs each in the span of two months. Unfortunately, both of them lost
one of their cubs. Later safari guides realized that Bijli had adopted Choti
Tara's cub. This is a strange behaviour of tigers. Now both the male cubs are
being raised by Bijli and a size difference between both of them can be easily
differentiated. The elder one from Choti Tara is named Mama and the smaller one
from Bijli is named Bhanja.
We got information about the leopard pair on a tall tree on Cheetal road. Our group members in the other gypsy went and could see only one leopard up on the tree, totally camouflage. Instead, we waited for Mama-Bhanja to come over for a drink. But no luck this time. Total 5 tigers in the last safari. What else do you want?
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| Mama - Bhanja |
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| Mama |
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| Temple of Lord Taaru |
We saw this temple near the Tadoba lake, built in the memory of tribal lord Taaru who died in the fight with the tiger to protect his people. Out of respect, everyone used to call this elderly gentleman as Taaruba . With his name, the forest is known as Taaruba .... Taaroba.... Tadoba.
We concluded our adventurous safari with superb sightings of 10 tigers to each gypsy and 11 in total along with 3 leopards and lots of other animals and birds.
Summer is the time when there is water scarcity and due to scorching heat, animals have to drink quite often to keep them hydrated and to cool their body, they frequently visit water bodies. Their movements are restricted because only few water bodies in the forest have water availability. This increases the chances of animal sightings. March to June is a good time to visit Tadoba for good or I say, easy tiger sightings whereas winters offer quality sightings with a little struggle.
Remember, no one can guarantee you of a Tiger and that's the fun of it.
Dhanyawagh.
