fantastic tiger sightings
 

Hi, I had the most wonderful tiger sightings at bandhavgarh national park, 10 tigers in 4 nights at mahua kothi, saw both the dominant males of the park,the north end and south end male (huge tigers), saw one male adult cub(3 years) of the chorbehra tigress, also saw the chorbehra tigress and the mahaman tigress with 4 cubs, the most amazing part is that only one of the sightings is on elephant back(the south end male) all the others were sightings in our vehicle with our guide himanshu,(great guide and naturalist)as usual taj/ccafrica was terrific on all acounts...accomo,food,guides etc etc
I shared the vehicle with a german couple and thier son who live in delhi and love wildlife(really got along with them)
I will post a detailed report and photographs sooooon,
Sonali

Hello the similey is a typo mistake sorry!!!! Sonali

Sonali,
Thanks for the great news! I've been anxiously waiting to read about your stay. Was the weather very cold? I can't decide how much warm stuff to bring.

I'm looking forward to reading your detailed report and seeing the photos.

Great, Sonali ...... glad you had a good time.

Marija, It was very cold, but the rooms are fabulous, central heating is very good and they have electric blankets under your bedsheet, sizziling scented hot water in your bathtub, you can soak in after the day's game drive, wonderful

You will need layered woollen clothing for your gamedrives as it will be cold in the mornings and pleasant around mid morning when you arrive back at 10:30,definately take a scarf, cap to cover your head and ears,hand gloves,jacket,socks etc...(they give you hot water bottles and blankets on your game drives)

please feel free to ask me any other questions you have, I am sure you will loveeee it. I will definately post my photos and trip report asap,

Hari, it was great,after all the unusually lucky sightings I am so happy that the tigers are well protected inside the reserve as well as the staff at mahua doing all they can to
conserve the bio-diversity by doing community programmes etc... I think our parks in the long run should do well

Sonali

Thanks, Sonali. Sounds like we'll need the same gear we used in Botswana in July. I just hate the thought of having to carry it with us while we tour India. We're only at Bandhavgarh for three nights, the rest of the time we're in Delhi, Varanasi, Khajuraho, Agra, Rajasthan and Aurangabad. I assume we won't be cold elsewhere if we don't start out before sunrise!

Good for you! We went on a tiger safari in Rathambore last year and we felt like seeing a tiger was a shot in the dark! We ended up seeing a tigress and her three cubs. While it was spectacular, we were pretty far away. It also was pure luck that we saw them.

Marija, I remember, from your last post that you are in bandhavgarh around feb beginning?? India is cold in January till mid february, and as you are doing the northern part of India, it will be cold in delhi(winter it's freezing), varanasi, rajasthan etc I strongly recommend you carry warm clothing for the entire trip, though may be the scarf/cap and hand gloves you may only use in bandhavagarh....I want to go back.... it was great....

Sonali

Dr Andrea, I agree luck is the most important on safari, but the places you select to view your wildlife are important too... I think you were very luck to spot a tigress in ranthambore(even at a distance)... In bandhavgarh as it has a heavy density(highest in the world) of tigers within a area of 100 sq km ( 1 tiger for every 4.77 sq km), not spotting a tiger is unlucky, if you are there for 3-4 nights,I saw all my tigers in a 5 to 12 meter range, which was exceptionally lucky,got very good pictures, which I will post soooon with my report, Sonali

Congrats Sonali, sounds like Bandhavgarh needs to be on any serious itinerary.

Can't wait to see the photos!

that should read 'any serious Tiger itinerary'

PB, the park's wonderful, you would love it !!!!. I broke my kanha record which was in feb end march 2006,for natural sightings of tigers at bandhavgarh, I really never thought I could be sooo lucky....

Sonali

Congratulations sonali on a very successful trip! Can't wait to see the pics.

thanks Dennis, will post the pictures, Sonali

Hello all, I am starting with my trip report..... here goes

I started from my home town at 12 in the afternoon, my flight via indore to jabalpur was at 1:55 arriving at jabalpur at 4:30, kingfisher airlines is a good airline and the flight was nice, reached jabalpur and stayed at the itc sheraton welcome hotel and took the next day morning train to umaria, where I was picked up by a taj arranged transffer reached mahua kothi at around 12 in the afternoon

Jeetendra the deputy GM at mahua kothi was at the car park to recieve me, and the bulters served me lovely juice the moment I got off the car

Mahua kothi is lovely, the view of the tiger grass from the lounge is wonderful( I could sit there for ages )A small part of the lounge is converted into a snack and drink centre and I had lovely fresh mosambi (another fruit like the orange) juice as I sat discussing my trip with Jeetendra

Got to catch the flight to ahmedabad from indore.... gotta go more latter, very sooooon.....

Sonali

continuing with my report...

Guests are allowed to have lunch at either the terrace, by the pool or in the main dining area, I choose the pool, which is set among thick bamboo trees... had a nice lunch( had to ask for achar and pickle as the food was less spicy, more suited to the needs of foreigners)..from then on the chef called me regularly in my room to make my spicy menu and veggie food

Left for my first game drive with our guide himanshu, who is an avid lover of wildlife and the knowledge he had about the eco-system was fantastic

Bandhavgarh national park consists of 100 sq km in the core area called the tala range which is densly populated with 25-30 tigers, the area has two dominant males the north end and the south end male who mate with many tigresses in thier territory, the tigers here are habituated to vehicles and show themselves regularly to tourists

The conservation area of the park is about another 1000 sq km, but the tigers as well as other animals in these areas are shy of human contact and hide very quickly making sightings difficult, also the density of tigers is lower in these areas as basically it is farm land the government is trying to convert in a buffer zone and park by relocating the farmers and locals..

I will put the map with my photos...ps it will take me a day or two, pls bear with me....

We spotted the mahaman female on the very first game drive, the tigress has 4 cubs(7 months) and was defending them against a 3 year old male adult cub of the chakradhara litter...only saw the female and male, did not spot the cubs....

The next morning tried our luck a many places,saw plenty of pug marks and heard many alarm calls....but could not spot any tiger so we inquired whether the elephants had spotted a tiger, the news was good, the south end male(huge tiger,u will see in photos....) had been spotted, so of we went on the elephant,WOW.... I had only seen tigresses in kanha, so seeing one of the biggest males of the park was an experience.... twice he looked in my eyes and made eye contact at close quaters....wheee, what a morning....

Evening tried our luck, but did not spot any tigers.....

more soooooon

Sooo glad you had such great sightings! I had high hopes for your trip as we had great sightings in Bandhavgarh too!

I was unusually lucky with my Ranthambore sightings too earlier that same year but I know that my experience was very atypical whereas most people have had good sightings at Bandhavgarh!

Sonali,

Your comparisons of the two parks - Kanha and Bandhavgarh? i'm sure both have great tiger sightings ..... but, specifically

1.) Crowds at sightings
2.) Size of the park vs number of jeeps out on drive plus number of hotels in the area
3.) Variety of gameviewing? different species, birdlife etc etc.,

Do they have an opening date for Kanha lodge yet? Correct me if i'm wrong - Kanha can be driven from Nagpur?

If only, Bandhavgarh had better access .....

Thanks
Hari

Kavey you are absolutely right, sightings in bandhavgarh are much better, due to the higher density of tigers

Hari,
Kanha is a much bigger park, so it naturally supports more tigers, compared to bandhavgarh.....but the density per sq km is more in bandhavgarh, so naturally better sightings...

The crowding of vehicles at a natural tiger sighting and the one on elephant would be less in kanha compared to bandhavgarh.... as kanha is a bigger park and sends 3 teams of elephants to track tigers, where as bandhavgarh only sends one team

Frankly for natural sightings bandhavgarh would be the best and for sightings on elephants kanha would be better

Also there is an element of luck involved as on my last evening game drive in the 100 sq km area 70 jeeps had entered yet when we spotted the dominant north male(son of the legendary charger) walking on the road at around 5 in the evening, we were alone, it was an absolute private sighting at close quaters, wonderful.... my guide could not believe it...

Comparing both the parks on other perspectives, kanha has the barasingha, the gaur, which are not seen in bandhavgarh, both the parks support many rare and common species of birds...., hotels are a dime a dozen at both parks, though kanha would be less crowded as it is bigger but bandhavgarh also during off season because it is so inaccesible.... In april and may the number of vehicles entering bandhavgarh drops considerably....

Ideally IMO feb/march/april, if one does a 6 night trip at kanha( 3 nights kisli, 3 nights mukki) and 4 nights at bandhavgarh, it would be fantastic...

The ccafrica/taj banjar tola will open around april 2008, and I believe the taj safaris team is working hard on providing flying
safaris to all thier properties as well as create private concessions like they have in africa ( I hope they are succesful )

Actually kanha and bandhavgarh are around the same distance from jabalpur around 180-200 km( 4 hour drive ), there is a deccan airways direct flight from delhi to jabalpur, so instead of coimbatore-bombay-nagpur, it would be better to do coimbatore-delhi-jabalpur...

Frankly I went by first class train from jabalpur to umaria and it was OK, tolerable, on the narmada express there is only one bogey of first class, so the toilet was relatively clean !!!!

Sonali

We did the train too and found it tolerable. Not wonderful, but certainly not the big deal that people make of it...

Sonali,

Thanks for all the info! Appreciate it.

Private concessions ..... they must be dreaming!!! You know our Governments, politicians etc etc., very well, so you know what i'm talking about .....

Rgds
H

How wonderful to come back and hear about tigers

Wonderful, sonali! Thank you for the report.

Hi !!! Sorry was kind of tied up....
Kavey agree that the trains are tolerable and getting better in laloo's raj...

Hari, ccafrica has tied up with taj, for whatever clout the have in the ministry.... alone it is impossible for them to cut through all the red tape....

waynehazle, how are you ?? nice to hear from you, have you been to bandhavgarh..

leely, how have you been..... good to hear you enjoyed the trip report... more is coming....

Well the next day we were up early and went off on the chorbehra route which is close to mahua kothi and the chorbehra litter ( three year old male and female )and mother are frequently sighted at mahua kothi ( BTW they stopped the nature walks once the sightings increased, it was wonderful to hear chital and langur alarm calls, very close by in the death of night from your bedroom ) once at the time of the game drive there were some frequent chital alarm calls next to my room and it took alot of courage to walk to the lounge even with an attendant for my game drive... wheee.. very exciting....

Well on the chorbehra route we saw the 3 year old male cub, it has grown into a lovely tiger and it crossed right in front of our jeep, so we had our morning sighting of our tiger, on that day the eles were out of luck and there was no tiger show... so we were lucky to sight the adult cub....

Evening again we did not sight any tigers, by that time the german family was getting tired of the evening game drive....

more latter, gotta go... enjoy

I am dying to go back to India and to Bandhavgarh. I have only seen Ranthambore :(

Sonali, Between your report and your response to Hari's questions, you've created a great tiger primer here. What exciting viewing you had.

Can't wait for the photos!

Hi all, first of all happy new year, my net was down so could not post earlier.....

Waynehazle, a trip to bandhavagarh is a must for you and lynn, yes I was unusally lucky with my tiger sightings, I am still figuring out how to upload my photos on the net,so u should see them in a couple of days....

Well the next day morning again we were up for our safari, and we were in a different part of the park and heard that both the cubs of the chorbehra litter were spotted along with the dominant south male( who is not thier father), so the male cub had a short scuffle with the dominant male and they parted ways without any injury on either side (the forest rangers believe he is interested in mating with the chorbehra female adult cub), so we rushed to the site, on the way we spotted the eles and found that they had tracked the chakradhara female on elephant, but as there were many people waiting to go on the elephant we went to spot the other tigers first, but ould not locate them.....It was already around 9:30 in the morning so we were almost resigned to the fact that we would not see any tigers in the morning, and were going to the headquaters of the park to have breakfast, I was almost sleeping, when suddenly our guide spotted a tigress on the hill to our right.....amazing.... she came down and crossed in front of our jeep, wonderful.... unbelivable, we were left speechless, it was the chorbehra female, the mother of the cubs.... I was happy to seen a tigress at close quaters, for I had only seen the male tigers till now so was excited to see the female closely...so we had our one tiger sighting of the day atleast......

gotta go, will write very sooon again,

Sonali

Hello all..... sorry to keep u waiting, just in the midst of a nasty bout of flu, so kind of groggy, sleepy and depressed !!! I hate flu, pls bear with me.....Sonali

Hope you feel better soon! I'm patiently waiting for the rest of your report. (We leave on January 26th.)

Feel well, Sonali. I am looking forward to more when you're up to it.

Are we getting photos?

And to Marija, have a great trip!

Hi, I am much better.... well, it was my last evening game drive, I had already enjoyed a wonderful 3 night stay and it was my 4th and last night.....the german family opted to skip the game drive, as for the past 2 game drives in the evening we had spotted no tigers...(that was unlucky) and also as they were at mahua for another night..... I almost, almost skipped it......THANK GOD I WENT....

We usually left at 2:30, but on that day we left at about 3...( so the rule the more time you spend in the park you have better sightings is wrong !!!), went into the park at 3:15.... my naturlist informed me that the guide given by the government(all vehicles have to take a park guide with them to give employment to locals, report sightings and prevent the rules being broken by safari operaters)was one of the most experienced and was giving his services to the park for the last 37 years..... I was thrilled...

We opted to go in the mahaman area where a tigress had four 7-8 month cubs, and had made a kill in a nearby bush..... and she was expected to cross the road to drink water at the dam with her cubs in tow.....

We were trying to locate her via langur, sambhar alarm calls, so while we were on the road we came across two safari vehicles which had stopped to discuss the tigresses movements, so we naturally stopped and the guide of the vehicle on the left, turned to chat with me and he suddenly exclaimed tiger tiger on the road, so I turned around and saw this beautiful tigress standing in the middle of the road, I was spellbound, I still cannot believe my luck.....she crossed and so did the 4 cubs !!!!! We immediately tried to locate her in the bush.. but she had disappeared..... I could not stop thanking the guide in the vehicle opposite to us....for I would never have seen the tigress, if not for him......

Now comes the most amazing part....I told my guide and naturalist that I had seen the south end dominant male, but had failed to see the north end dominant male who took over from his father the legendary charger..... my guide scratched his beard and kind of mused that in the morning he was spotted in a certain area, so he will definately mark his territory on the road.....so off we went, frankly I really did not expect to spot him..... honest....

It was a beautiful area near the hand painted caves and the views I had on that particular game drive were amazing..... we were busy chatting about the different tigers in different areas and how the other 2 male siblings of the north end male had dispersed in the park into other territories.....they have not been spotted in a long..long time.... and all of a sudden we were right in front of the north end male.... maybe he heard us discussing him and decided to drop in !!!!! ..... the most amazing part was that our's was the only vehicle at this sighting..... he walked towards our vehicle (its was scary he is huge)....gave us wonderful poses, and kept walking on the road.... as the road was too narrow... we had to drive ahead and reverse to get back to the tiger..... for the next 5 minutes.... he kept walking on the road in front of us and kept scent marking his territory, finally he climbed a rock, which had almost no vegetation and sat down looking at us..... amazing, we spent 15 minutes with him and would have loved to spend more but it was already 5;15 and we had to be out of the park gates by 5:30..... so we were forced to leave such a great sighting.... by that time my naturalist guide was going bonkers murmurring many many times you are tooo lucky !!!! he said if we come across another tiger on the way back, I will not be surprised !!!
He was like what are we going to tell the german family ????? by then I was feeling sorry that the only game drive they missed we had the maximum sightings and was wondering what to tell them..... by that time we had become really good friend's. At Mahua they jokingly refused to talk to me when they met me.... as my sightings by that time had become famous to all the guests
at mahua, but we had a great christmas brunch and dinner and they as well as the others just drooled over my photo's......

Well there is a saying that all good things must come to an end and so did this trip.... which I badly needed and throughly enjoyed.....

guys I have never uploaded photos on the net.... I have them on my laptop... what should I do...pls guide me.... so you can have a look....

Sonali

Yes I was just about to ask when these photos will be uploaded :D

#1 Kodak easyshare
Flick
pbase
or AOL Pictures

Thanks waynehazle trying...... hope it works.... Sonali

Sonali, I use pbase.com; it's about $23/year but nice and easy. Koday Gallery is free, I think, and also fairly straightforward.

Can't wait for pics!

thanks leely..... I have managed to do something.... but it is taking ages to upload the pics.....really not comfortable with cameras and computers..... beware the photos are really ok

I think I have one album of 7 photos of the south end male and the link is

http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=...1&y=rqhnfc

Yes it works, but how do I change the settings so anybody can viw them without signing in......

I will post many more later.... enjoy... Sonali

Sorry for the view typo mistakes...Sonali

Hi guys, here is the link to access the photos without signing in....

http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=...&y=-lnb7b0

I will load more pictures today night... gotta go to work.. sigh....Sonali

Hi everybody..... and to all who asked for photos.....hope you enjoyed the photos..... should I post more ???....Sonali