Go Wild at Kanha and Bandhavgarh

Back from a fantastic trip to the Mowgli’s country. The twin trip to Kanha and Bnadhavgarh was part of a wildlife photography workshop by Nature Wanderers in association with Canon. Named ‘Canon Go Wild’, the workshop was conducted by ace wildlife photographer and naturalist Kahini Ghosh Mehta, Shivang Mehta and Udai Shringi.

In a long time I had undertaken a trip without having to do any planning. Normally I do the planning and research part for my trips, even for friends who had travelled with me. This time, I just paid the money and got tugged along wherever the group went. I was not even aware of the train I would be coming back till last day. All that was in mind for those 5 /6 days was just jungle and photography.

The trip started with an 18 hr train travel from Delhi to Jabbalpur. The 5 hours travel of 190 km to Mukki gate of Kanha was covered in comfortable AC vehicles. We were put up at the luxurious Infinity Resort at both Kanha and Bandhavgarh. Everything was arranged by Nature Wanderers nicely to let the participants concentrate only about photography and enjoying the trip. The tough part was getting up everyday at 4 am to get ready to leave by 5. Specially when every evening people would sit late discussing about photographs or events of the day or editing photographs. To do that continuously for 4 days was tough.

In all we had six safaris – 3 each at Kanha and Bandhavgarh. On two days we had spent almost the full days inside the jungle, only getting out for lunch breaks. Kanha allows you to be inside for longer duration – morning 5:45am to 11am and evening 3:45pm to 6:45pm. The timings for Bandhavgarh were shorter – morning 5:45am to 9:45am and evening 3:30pm to 6:30pm. Morning safaris at both places had been fantastic, but evening one mostly disappointing. Because of the rising mercury, even birds were hardly sighted in the afternoon safaris. In all 12 tigers were sighted by the group. My count is 6 – three each at Kanha and Bandhavgarh. That made my total sight count 8 in 2011. For three years I tried in vain at Corbett to get sight of the king. Now in just two months I met 8 of those majestic animals.

Kanha is difficult to access. Nearest railhead is Jabbalpur (140-190km depending on entry point you choose). Also because of its huge size of nearly 2000sqm, tiger sighting is lower. We saw wild dogs (dhol), Indian Bisons (Gaud) and Barashingas there apart from the normal spotted deer, sambhars and langurs. Bandhavgarh is easier to access. Nearest railheads are Umaria (34km) and Katni (95km). It probably provides the best opportunity to see wild tigers in India. The 9 tigers spotted by our team in 3 safaris is an indication of it. Not everyone was that lucky, but the worst count was 2. It is also excellent for birding as team was able to capture shots of serpent eagle with kill, king vulture in flight, etc.

The final morning saw everyone taking their best shots. The best being a tiger mating shot. Everyone returned happy from the trip. It was a fantastic learning opportunity for most of the participant. I had upgraded my equipment for the trip. I would sum up the 4 days as under –

Day 1 : I shoot monkeys and deer like most people with a camera do, but may be with better composition

Day 2 : I had stopped shooting monkeys and grazing deer

Day 3 : I had started understanding the importance of capturing moments and making photos like we do for normal photography

Day 4 : I had actually captured moments. I was proud of my shots on final day

To end it this is probably the best moment I had captured:

Sariska : face to face with the king

Forewarning : Sariska is actually bigger in total area than Rantahmbore NP or Corebtt NP. But it has only 6 tigers. Getting to see a tiger in the wild is always 99% luck. The jungle in the safari area is generally of dry type with very little cover of bigger trees. A safari often means scouting the jungle under a blazing sun and dust. Thus if you do not get to see a tiger, you may feel terrible. You may even feel whether the park has any wildlife!

Location:

The park is located around 38 km from Alwar on the Alwar- Jaipur SH13. The road condition of last 5-6 km to the park is very bad. Not much traffic, but you will get some big trucks plying on the highway.

Driving direction:

Leave the NH8 at Dharuhera. You need to get off the highway just before you get onto the flyover. This is a point where the local bus stand is and you will see lot of crowd. After a couple of hundred meters, you will take another left turn to get away from the crowd and onto the main road, which is NH71B to Bhiwadi. There are no raod signs though. Another couple of kilometers down on this road you need to turn right for SH25 to Alwar. Road directions are virtually non-existent and hence you need to ask people around. The road to Alwar is a mix bag. Widening of highway is on. Wherever the job has been completed, driving is a pleasure. On reaching outskirt of Alwar, you will get a round about with Ashok Leyland logo. Turn left here and continue on SH25. Do not take the road straight which appears to head into the city. If you search in Goggle map for direction, then they will show this straight road. It is actually closed under the railway line for some construction. Turning left at the Ashok Leyland circle; proceed about 4-4.5km where you will have to turn right to get into the city. Keep moving ahead, cross a flyover and then turn left when you reach Bhagat Singh circle. Statue of Bhagat Singh would be visible to you. Turning left at this point keep moving straight till reach a forked road. Fortunately there is a road sign here. The right road of the fork moves upward into a hillock. This is the road to Sariska. This is road MDR27 (major district road). Somewhere ahead it will meet SH13.

Driving from Kaushambi, Ghaziabad, the total distance clocked on my odo was 219km. From Gurgaon it took about 3 hours.

Accomodation:

The RTDC run Hotel Tiger Den is located close to the park gate and next to the safari booking office campus. The only other hotel Sariska Palace is also located close to the booking office. Sariska Palace is a luxury resort. Tiger Den is ideally located and reasonably priced. It provides best value for money for budget travelers. I saw another resort named Sariska Tiger Camp on way from Alwar. This is located quite far away, around 15-20 from the park.

Safari at Sariska:

The best chance of meeting the king is by a jeep safari. Though one is allowed to enter the park in your own vehicle, you are required to stick only to the carpeted main road. Private vehicles are not allowed to go on the kutcha roads or the core areas. It is not that tiger is not seen by the main road, but the possibility of getting to see the tiger in your private car is near to nill. In fact one of my colleagues had seen it close to the main road.

The cost for a jeep safari is as under (as on 19.03.2010):

         Rs.1050 -- hiring charges for the jeep (compulsory)

         Rs.250 – vehicle entry fee (compulsory)

         Rs.150 -- guide charges (compulsory)

         Rs.60 – entry fee per head. Max 6 person per jeep.

There are enough jeeps for safari. Each safari consists of 3 hours. Morning safaris start at 7am, which is actually quite late. You will be better of taking a late afternoon safari.

Wildlife at Sariska:

The jungle is mainly dry type. There is not much lush green type vegetation or tall trees around. Most common animal seen are Nilgais and Sambher deer. You will also get to see few spotted deer. But the numbers are not very high to excite you. You will also get lots of peacock.



Tiger ST2



The star attraction is the 6 tigers. These tigers have been relocated from Rantahmbore. The current save tiger furor had all started after the revelation that all of 14 odd tigers that once roamed Sariska had been wiped out either by poachers or locals. There are at least 2 villages we saw well inside park. One of them was not very far from where we spotted tigers. People were seen grazing cattle inside. The human – animal conflict is quite apparent here.

Meeting the King:

We took an afternoon safari. The official at counter said that 2 tigers were spotted that morning and hence possibility of seeing them again this evening is quite high. After scouting the jungle for about an hour we had reached the point where Sambhars gather near a waterhole. While enjoying this fairly large of animal, we saw a couple of Gypsies belonging to the forest deptt appearing at high speed from nowhere and disappeared into the jungle other side of the road. The guide and the driver were quick to realize that the forest vehicle had tracking equipment and have got some message of tigers. All gypsies around that area started a cat and mouse chase of the forest deptt cars. It was scene out of a movie. Our driver was finding direction only from the dust left by vehicles. Soon we had reached the spot where forest vehicles have located a tiger. We were almost covered in dust. But happy to locate the foresters with tracking equipment. Other gypsies had started arriving there. As advised by our guide, we waited patiently. He was sure that if there is a tiger, it will come out at around 5pm when the sun goes down behind the hill. Tiger always walks on sides of open roads when they move. He was dead right. Around 5 pm, the first tiger, a female named ST2 appeared in the scene. Everyone was looking in the direction of the forest deptt car which had actually located a tiger. But this one walked into the scene from opposite direction. Even the gypsies in that end did not notice it. Our guide was the first to see and alerted others. Soon there was a commotion. At this the tiger stopped its majestic walk on the road and took a turn around behind the bushes. Meanwhile the other tiger, a male named ST4 also appeared briefly and started moving in the direction from which ST2 had come. It did not come out onto the road, but continued walking behind the bushes close to the road. ST2 made reappearance, this time at our end, providing us unhindered view and a couple of good photographs. Despite the fading light I could a couple of good shots. It was about 100 feet away from our vehicle. Crossing the road, it started to follow the male tiger. The two tigers had been seen in pairs for past couple of days. We had our moments of lifetime. Actually we were lucky to spot the speeding forest vehicle. Couple of minutes on either side, we would have returned empty handed.

Excursion :

There is an old Hanuman temple at Pandupole. This is 21km from the park gate. Most people go their in their private vehicle. You need to pay the vehicle and per head entry fee. The road is intentionally kept bad so that one can not drive above 30. You will get to see few animals on the way as you drive 21 km into the park. There are lots of Langurs in the temple premises. The trip takes about half a day. This is generally not covered in safari. If you come here for an overnight trip, the choice you will have to make is between a morning safari and this trip. You would not miss much if you give it a skip.

Overall experience:

Fantastic if you get to see a tiger. Otherwise read my forewarning. We were lucky to see not one, but two tigers. Sariska is 866 Sq KM as against Corbett 520 Sq KM and Ranthambore 392 Sq KM. We did not see a tiger in two attempts to Corbett (staying once at Dhikala FRH and then at Gairal FRH). Corbett has 160 tigers, yet we did not see any. Sariska has only 6, yet we got to see two. Overall it is a good weekend trip from Delhi (200km) or Jaipur (100km).

Hawa Mahal at night

Hawa mahal -1
Originally uploaded by Rups33

It was an unplanned stopover at Jaipur. On the way back from Ajmer we decided to spend one night at Jaipur as spending two night at Ajmer appeared an unacceptable proposition. This gave me an opportunity to have a fresh shot at the Hawa Mahal, one of the celebrated historical buildings of India. It  was glowing in decent lighting. Actually I had never seen a photo of the Hawa Mahal at night. Most one time tourists to Jaipur get to see it only during daytime. It is worth visiting the market and area around Hawa Mahal at night.

Just back from Ajmer

This is a trip I had been planning for some time. But the 400+ km distance from Delhi was one of the reasons holding me back. The Shatabdi from Delhi leaves at 6 am. Given the fact that we see sunlight these days only around 7 am, one has to get up at unearthly hours in this bitter cold to catch this train. Finally I gathered courage to undertake a driving trip. The trip one way was 410 km. It took us 7 hours to make that distance. I had driven almost 400km many times during my earlier posting. My home town Guwahati and my place of posting Nazira was almost 400km apart. But those were days when I was 10 years younger and did not have the slip disc problem. Anyway, my back hold well for 410 km one way and 860 km round trip drive in 3 days.

Encouraged by this successful endeavor, now I am planning to have another 400 plus km trip. This time to the Rantahmbor national park via Alwar, visiting Sariska on the way, and then may be a return via Bharatpur.

Khartoum : My first foreign assignment

It was barely dawn when I left home on way to the Sudanese capital Khartoum. The name of the war torn African nation Sudan itself may scares many. But I was excited to be on my first foreign trip. I believe every place has something unique to offer. More so if it is off beat. While we were stamped without any query at immigration, one of my colleagues had to face a few question. Seeing the final destination as Sudan, the immigration officer called his boss who asked him why to Sudan. The moment he said that we are from ONGC and on official visit, he was cleared without any further question.

The Emirates flight to Dubai was late by about half an hour. It left us with very little time at the famed Dubai Inttl Airport. We rushed to catch the connecting flight to Khartoum. It was a six hours flight. The 3 ½ hours time difference meant it was still late afternoon when we had arrived at the Khartoum inttl. airport. The airport with only basic facilities required about 1 hour to clear immigration. There were few foreigners in the flight, mostly Chinese. All foreigners, including us, are part of consortium called GNPOC (Greater Nile Petroleum Operating Company), lead by Chinese Petroleum (CNPC) and Petronas of Malyasia. ONGC Videsh is 25% stake holder in the consortium. It is the lure of black hold which has made these nations to risk operating in Sudan after US and its allies exited the country.

Mr. Khalid, our PRO was waiting for us to receive at the airport. We were led outside to the parking area. The taxis operating appeared disorganized. They were clamoring for the customers like our bus and tempos do. Even in such a place majority of the taxis are Toyota Corolla. Even though the currency is not stable and freely tradable, the valuation of Sudanese Pound (now Guild) is about 19 Indian Rupees. It is the power of black gold.

On Sudan:

The ethnic strife in Sudan is between the oil rich but underdeveloped South and developed North. Most of the trouble is in the north which is controlled by warlord. North Sudan, including Khartoum is fairly safe. Khartoum is the seat of power and hence seen occasional attempts by rebels to take over. The locals from north are fairer and generally Muslims while those from South are darker and are Christians. So you can easily understand which part of the world is supporting whom. The country is currently under UN supervised ceasefire. It is going for a referendum on January, 2011 on whether to divide the country into North and South. If I recall correctly the date of reckoning is 8^th January, 2011.

On Khartoum:

The locality we stayed put is fairly up market. Roads are fairly wide and traffic appreciably disciplined. The Indian made Bajaj autos (three wheelers) are found to be a major and popular mode of local transport. Many LML and Hamara Bajaj were also seen on the roads. India is making good business with Sudan. In fact we were told by one of the local that there are historical examples of trade with India were also found.

The stay had been very hectic with mostly stayed put late in office to finish the job for which we were deputed there. Still we found time to explore few things around the city. The Khartoum city is divided into 3 parts – Khartoum South, Khartoum North and Omdurman. We had explored Khartoum south and Omdurman. The city boasts of confluence of the White Nile and the Blue Nile. The two Niles meets right in the heart of the city and then flows from this point into Egypt as the great river Nile. One morning we went to see the confluence. The areas around the Niles are having a fair green cover. But the city in general is generally devoid of greenery. The Nile Avenue on the bank of the river houses almost all government buildings including the palace of the King. We went there once more in the evening to see the sunset. Cruises are available on paper. We also saw few boats parked on the river. But could not found from where they can be booked even after taking to the people on the boat. The main problem we had was the fear of taking photographs. We always asked before doing so. It is a country under military rule. If police arrest you even for taking a photo, you are done.

The next visit was to the local market at Omdurman in search of gold. Gold in Khartoum is generally 21Ct. and price was also compatible to India where it is generally 22Ct. Thus we left this for Dubai. We were in the market in the night. I had some kind of fear stalking me as we were clearly the odd man out in the entire market. Nevertheless it was an unforgettable experience.

Another morning we went to the desert beyond Omdurman. On the way we saw the Libiya market. It is said that goods smuggled from Libiya were sold here while Libiya were under sanction. But now a day most of goods sold comes from China. All China maal. Then we had crossed the local animal market. The guest house staff goes to this market to buy goats to ensure that they are getting only mutton. Finally we had reached the desert after travelling for about an hour. Local call it Dar-e-Sallem. Navigating though road less terrain, the driver took us a village named Nifasa. The soil colour was kind orange and red mixture. It was a dreadful landscape. The first that will come to your mind is as to how people can survive here. See the photographs. It in fact was a very large village with sizeable population. We had stopped at an open place which appeared to be a playground. Our Honda CRV was already a cynosure in that landscape. Few locals gathered around us. The driver introduced us as Hindi, which is how they probably refer to as Indians. We had few good moments shaking hands and taking photographs with friendly locals. We even played football with young boys. The suddenly someone appeared in the scene and started raising question about taking photos. Sensing trouble we all got into the car. The driver had some conversation with the self styled leader and then he drove us back.

One evening we landed accidentally at the museum. It happened to be the World Tourism Day. The ministry was organizing some function. It was a nice coincidence. We got to see few performances of local dances and photographed ourselves with them. The museum had few statues brought from the pyramids of Merowe.

Beyond Khartoum:

There are two places which one can visit. The first one is Pyramids of Merowe. These part bordering Egypt has some of the pyramids though inspired by the ones at Egypt, has their own style. Not being a tourist country, these are still fairly untouched. One need permit to visit them. We got the permits, but unfortunately could not visit them because of paucity of time. The place is about 150 km from Khartoum and so would require one full day.

The second one is the Jabel Awliya dam built on the White Nile. We went to the dam located some 80 km from city. The dam holding back the powerful While Nile on one side was worth a site. We spent some time watching local fisherman catching fish on the dam. Unfortunately, photography was not allowed.

The Yellow Fever scare:

We knew that yellow fever vaccination is required for visiting certain African countries including Sudan. But input from colleagues who had visited earlier said it was not mandatory. Further the procedure for getting vaccinated in Delhi is cumbersome. So went there without vaccination. One fine day, we were told that without the vaccination card, we will not be issued boarding card at airport. Shocked. Office arranged vaccination for us. We were taken to the local vaccination center. We waited in queue with local and finally got vaccinated for yellow fever and meningitis. It was one of the unforgettable moments. So be sure to get yourself vaccinated before you leave for Africa. The list includes Egypt as well.

Meeting Abdul:

Abdul was the tall lanky Sudanese guy in my engineering college hostel at Gujarat. Abdel Rehman El-Rasheid was senior to me by couple of years. Towering around 6 ½ feet, he had to innovate to make himself comfortable in the barely six feet hostel bed. Barely a few days before my departure, I found him on facebook. This was a reunion after 18 years. He works with Sudan Airways. When we finally met each other, we turned nostalgic. We talked about old classmates. The world has really become smaller. We were separated before the mobile and email days. But we were able to find many of them through net. He even came to the airport to see me off. I will always remember this meeting with Abdul.

Sleepless at Dubai:

On return we reached Dubai around mid night. The flight to Delhi was early in the morning. For 3 hours so late in the night we just kept hopping from shop to shop in the Dubai Duty Free. By the time the boarding call came, we were almost exhausted. Boarding flight back home after almost two weeks was as exciting as onward trip. I missed my family as it was long trip after a long time. I knew they would be waiting eagerly for me to arrive.  Soon sleep overpowered me only to be awaken at Delhi.