TIGERS!

Some of you have emailed wondering if I love or hate India. The answer is yes. India is such a land of contrasts...every waking minute. At times the beauty of the people, land and culture brings you to tears. At other times it is the most frustrating of places. It is events like those contained in the following post is why I put up with the trials of travel in this strange land.

Bleary eyed we climb into the jeep as the light is just showing in the eastern sky. Even though we are only 20 degrees north of the equator we shiver in the open cockpit of the jeep. We are also shivering from expectation; we are tiger hunting. After a short drive from our hotel we arrive at the gates of Bandhavgarh National Park, one of the three Indian national parks dedicated to the preservation of one of the most exotic beasts on the planet, the Bengal tiger.

After a few minutes wait while our driver finalizes our permit, we drive into the park along with ten other jeeps. The fine silty dust of the dry season forest soon coats us. Deb and I look like a pair of banditos with our bandannas tied round our heads so that we can find some semblance of air in all the suspended dust.

The jeeps soon thin out and we follow a jeep track through a sparse forest intermingled with large meadows. We soon spot our first wildlife; the Indian spotted deer. After driving a little further we spot a long billed stork that stands at least 3 ½ feet high. Now our anticipation is almost palpable. We expect to see a tiger any minute. The guide hears some monkeys sounding the alarm which indicates a tiger is on the move. We stop in the morning stillness to hear a concert of chattering monkeys and several different kinds of birds. A pair of gray hornbills flutter past as I look around at the thin trunked trees that rise about fifty feet above in the now bright blue sky. I think to myself, “We are tiger hunting. How cool is that?”

Langur Monkey

No tigers appear so we press on and soon spot the other deer that is indigenous to the park, the Sambar. They are huge animals, nearly as large as an elk. A six point buck scratches his head on one of the thin trunked trees nearly bending it over with his rubbing. We see some Macaque monkeys scampering around and soon stop again at the monkey alarm and listen and look intently for tigers. Still, no tigers. We drive to a watering hole, but still no tigers. This goes on for about two hours and we arrive at the center point of the park where there are concessions for tea, samosas and pakoras. Our driver goes around to the other drivers querying if they have seen anything. He reports back that no tigers have been seen anywhere in the park that morning.

Wild boar-isn't he cute!

We soon set off and I resign myself to the fact that I probably won’t see a tiger today. We pass some rather large herds of deer, several peacocks and another large stork but still no tigers. We start to see Langur monkeys with stand about 30 inches tall and have tails at least twice as long as their bodies that curl up into an almost O shape, but still no tigers.

Now I sense that we are just about done as the driver and guide start chatting and appear to be paying no attention when suddenly the guide orders the driver to stop. He hears more monkey alarms that seem to parallel the road. He instructs the driver to proceed slowly and suddenly whispers with an extreme sense of urgency as he points to the side of the track, “TIGER!” We turn our heads in unison to see a tiger that is at least seven feet long standing in the bamboo 30 feet away. I almost s#*t and wonder, "Should we do something?" Despite an underlying terror and a sense of awe and wonderment, I have the presence of mind to flip my little digital camera to video and press record. The tiger parallels the track as other jeeps roar up. As the other jeeps jostle for position to give the clients the best view, the tiger nonchalantly crosses the road in front of the jockeying jeeps and wanders off into the forest.



We are completely blown away. None of us expected to see a tiger that close...it was almost too close for comfort. As we drove along we chattered excitedly when we saw two elephants with mahouts about 100 yards up the road. The guide ordered the driver to stop again and told us to be very quiet. The elephants walked towards us and as they passed to our rear, the driver again whispered urgently, “Tiger! Look up the hill.” I looked up the hill through the trees and finally made out another tiger. As he passed into a small clearing, the guide whispered,”Tiger with kill”. I looked in astonishment at the clearly visible tiger with a small deer firmly clenched in his powerful jaws. He came down the hill, closer and closer and crossed the road about 50 feet in front of the jeep. The jeep pulled forward as we watched the tiger carry his prey off into the underbrush presumably to devour it. The guide told us this was a female which had two cubs.

Tiger with small spotted deer

We felt totally fulfilled but we weren’t done yet. A few hundred feet down the road we saw one of the cubs leaving a watering hole about 150 feet from the track. As it wandered up the hill we could not stop talking about these wonderful animals. We felt lucky to have seen a large male, female with a kill and a cub. As we were exiting the park we all agreed to go again for an afternoon safari.

I have had many experiences traveling that have left me in an awestruck state. However, I can’t think of anything that compares to seeing a tiger in the wild. It is gratifying to know that such things still exist on our planet. At the same time it saddens me to think that a creature this magnificent may soon be extinct without drastic intervention. Please do what you can to prevent the extinction of the wild things. There are several organizations to which you can donate. Save the tigers!