All through our visits to the jungles over these past eleven years or so, there is a sort of record that we have created: The very first trip we take inside the jungle we see a tiger and the same is true for the last trip. My friends who have been as mad about the jungles as we are and have been going to the jungles more frequently are jealous of us because the same thing does not happen to them. May be it happens to us because we do not go to the jungle to see just the tiger – we love everything that the jungle has to offer, the flora, the fauna, the ambience, the smells and the sounds. Or may be it happens to us because we have been plain lucky and that this luck will vane as all good times come to an end. Whatever, we are happy while it lasts. This first trip to Bandhavgarh was no different as far as this pattern was concerned.
We were wiser this time around from our earlier experience of the Kanha winter. Wiser in a manner that city-dwellers are, not wise as far as the jungle is concerned. We had taken some thermal clothing with us and felt secure wearing it. Maitreyi, however, is a girl in her own league – she was still shivering and had covered herself with whatever was available till only her eyes were visible in the face. There was a long queue of jeeps in front of the entry gate and guides and tourists were busy filling up the forms and paying money to obtain entry passes. This is one disadvantage of coming to a jungle during the Christmas holidays – it is the busiest season and so you have to pay extra tariffs at the hotels and pay higher charges for entry and then suffer from a crowd of tourists inside the jungle. You have to move to the remote parts if you crave the silence of the jungle. There is another irritating aspect that one has to put up with – the dust blown by the jeeps in front of you. Unless you cover your head with a scarf or a cap, fine dust settles in your hair and by the time you get out, you are a dirty red head.
The sun was just rising when our guide returned with the entry card and our jeep moved. The guard opened the barrier and we moved in. Slightly ahead, we turned left and moved into the densest fog I have ever experienced. You could not see anything just 3-4 feet away! For the city-dwellers, very new to the jungle, this is a potential thrilling point. There can be a tiger sitting just about 5 feet away from you and you wouldn’t even see it! Having been to the jungle so many times since that day, we can laugh at that thrilling notion that we entertained that day. First and foremost, we have come to understand one thing – the tigers do not make a move so early. Most of the times that we have observed tigers in the morning trip, it has been well after 7 and before 9. Secondly, a tiger is not going to rest on the pathway itself when it hears a jeep approaching – it will take cover much before. Of course, there are exceptions to every rule that you make. Tigers can come out virtually at any time morning or night – they are as unpredictable as human beings. Tigers do rest on the dusty pathway – their body marks are visible as you drive through the jungle. But overall, the likelihood of a tiger resting on the pathway just 5 feet away from you at just around 6 AM on a winter morning is next to nil.
As the sun came out and gradually gained confidence, the veil of fog lifted and lying before us was a jungle so different from Kanha that all the distance from Nagpur seemed utterly worthwhile. If Kanha was a gentle melody, Bandhavgarh was a music that experimented with the absolute high and the absolute low pitch. The terrain was mountainous interrupted by meadows and small stretches of flat land. The Sal trees were abundant along with bamboo. There were Indian ghost trees in all their white glory, Kusum and several other colorful trees. Even the flat lands were not entirely flat. Sudden low ridges rose from nowhere at all. Also, it was colder.
There is nothing much to write about how we spotted the tiger. As we moved on, around 9 AM, from a distance we saw about 10 jeeps collected at a single spot. Our driver too headed to the same spot. The terrain was mountainous and we gained and lost the sight of the jeeps below us. Then as we turned round a bend, we came to the melee of jeeps and there, walking on the ridge alongside the path, was a full grown male tiger. I cannot say that I enjoyed the sight. While the tiger was wonderful, the jeeps were moving all the time along with the tiger and also antagonistic to each other to secure for their clients the best possible view. There were tourists with cameras connected to long telescopic sights trying to get the tiger as close as possible. Many of these were obviously rich and arrogant. Their loud voices and insolence almost completely drained the pleasure for me. Also, the jumbled up voices, the cries of children, the shouts of elders, the loud conversation between the drivers and the guides and the ecstatic shouts of several mothers to their children to watch the great beast as if they needed these to see the thing, created an environment that is no different from any tourist place in any city of the overpopulated India. I watched the tiger because there was nothing else to do but my heart was not in it. Also, getting to see a tiger without tracking it from the alarm calls of frightened animals and from the pug marks does not hold any charm for me. Maitreyi and Udayan were too young to think on these lines but today, when they have grown up, the excitement of tracking or the possibility of the great beast very nearby due to the sounds from the jungle beyond or because of the fresh pugmarks can be seen on their faces quite plainly. All these elements were missing and that reduced the pleasure considerably.
The tiger moved off and became invisible and jeeps dispersed almost immediately and the silence ruled again. More differences became obvious now. The guides in kanha are far better. They want to show you as many things as possible. In Bandhavgarh, once you have seen the tiger, you are expected by the guides to lose all interest. We did but not because we were not interested in the other things. We did because of the attitude of the guide.
The landscape in Bandhavgarh is more varied as compared to Kanha, the flora may also be more diverse, but the faunal diversity is much more in Kanha. There is an abundance of birds there which we did not get to see in Bandhavgarh. Also, the phenomenal number of deer and the variety of species of deer was also something that we did not see in Bandhavgarh.
Having said that, there was one thing that we experienced in Bandhavgarh that we had not in Kanha. But about that I will write in the next post on this issue.
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