Tiger Trails - Tadoba national park - Dec 2015

Trip dates - 17th Dec 2016 to 20th Dec 2016

Tadoba national park also known as TATR (Tadoba-Andheri tiger reserve) has a special place in my life, this is the place where I saw my first wild tiger. Tadoba is a southern tropical dry deciduous forest, I've always found it green even in the warmest of the months. May be due to all the bamboo thicket that grows throughout the forest overall the forest always looks green.

This trip was planned 3 months in advance, initially we were 8 people who were supposed to be on this trip, but 3 people canceled in the last week, so finally we were 5 people, 4 traveling from Gujarat & 1 person was supposed to join us from Mumbai, this trip was floated on thesafarist.com website, one person contacted me from the website and joined us on this trip.

We planned for 7 safaris in the core zone of Tadoba entering from the Mohurli gate, which has to be approached from the Chandrapur side of the reserve. So our train bookings were from Ahmedabad/Vadodara/Surat to Chandrapur. We had our accommodation bookings at Hornbill resort at Mohurli, it's a very nice place to stay and the owner Mr. Manish Verma is a very knowledgeable person, he knows the Tadoba forest inside out, so he is a great guide for any queries that you may be having related to your trip.

Before a week to go I realized due to our train timings we will be reaching just in time to make it to the morning safari on 17th, which was not planned 3 months back, checked with Mr. Verma and he assured of making arrangements to do a buffer safari in the morning. I was particularly happy as the buffer part of Tadoba is one of my favorite places, it's a lush green thick forest and usually there are very less vehicles entering that part of the forest.

After a 18 hours train journey we reached Chandrapur at 12.30 am on 17th Dec. Mr. Verma had sent a vehicle for transporting us to his resort at Mohurli. Around 1.30 am we entered the first forest gate. At 2.30 am we check-in at Hornbill resort. Our buffer safari starts in a few hours, so we slept for a couple of hours and got ready by 5.30 am. I was under impression that we have to enter the park at 6 am, so I was getting a little worked-up by the vehicle not arriving by 5.30 am, I inquired with the resort manager and he assured the vehicle will come in time and we will be entering the park as soon as it opens at 6.30 am. At 6.30 am we entered the Devada buffer from Junona gate which is like a few hundred meters from the resort.

Buffer is a thick forest, so chances of sighting a tiger is a little difficult here, knowing this fact I was not much hopeful of a tiger sighting during this safari. On board I was the only one who had been to Tadoba previously, for the other three people it was there first time in Tadoba, they were enjoying the views of the thick lush green forest of the Devada buffer forest.

There was only one more vehicle other than us. They rushed ahead of us after entering the gate. Our driver immediately expressed his concern, he knows of a sub-adult male tiger who has been seen marking his territory in the way the other vehicle went and he was afraid of them spooking the tiger. So we followed the other vehicle for few minutes, but they were going faster than we thought. We ultimately lost their sight. After driving slow for some time we caught up with the other vehicle, they were waiting for us and to tell us that they saw the tiger, this came as a surprise to me as I was not expecting to see a tiger this early in our trip. For about 30 minutes we searched for that tiger in the vicinity, there were fresh pug-marks all over the place but no sight of the tiger. Ultimately we gave up on this one and went to check some watering holes.

  

We checked 3 different watering holes, ultimately we decided to wait at one of the watering holes. It was about 9.15 am, for some reason by then I'd given up any hopes of seeing a tiger, being tiered of the train journey and lack of sleep I decided to take a power nap in the gypsy.  While I was dozing off I heard one of the loudest 1DX's shutter gunning on something at full speed, I woke up to find the big daddy himself, the Waghdoh male walking towards the water body, other two people had still not spotted the cat yet, but they did eventually. So the whole time we were there up until now, the big cat was lying down in the meadows on the other side of the waterhole.

After quenching his thrust, he sat down for some time, looked pretty for the pictures. 

This was an exclusive sighting for us with no other vehicles being around.

In no mood to take a dip in the water on a cold December morning, the tiger decided to move. We positioned ourselves on the other side of the road where we were expecting it to cross into the thicket. Before crossing over it looked at us once.

While returning we also got to see Sirkeer malkoha, a very pretty bird, hope to get a good picture of it someday soon.
Overall it was a very successful safari for all of us.

We came back at the resort, one of our friend who came from Mumbai was waiting for us at the resort. He got all excited by seeing our pictures, he was joining us for all the rest of the safaris in the core zone.

At 3.00 Pm we left the resort to go on our first core zone safari, by 3.30 pm we were inside. We were more interested in seeing Maya and her cubs. Our guide suggested we must try to find Sonam's family as well. So we went in search of Sonam first. Telia lake is Sonam's territory, we went to Telia lake but there were no signs of her presence, Sonam is a shy tigress, not everyone gets to see her.

By 4.30 pm we reached Pandher pauni, this is where Maya stays with her cubs. As soon as we entered her territory we heard alarm calls and someone hushed - "tiger tiger", nearby under a tree we found Maya walking.

Maya is a beautiful tigress in her primes, her skin is flawless, a very agile hunter she is, later we saw her looking to stalk some spotted deers.

Before taking a swim in the lake, she came pretty close to our gypsy, it was so close that for the first time i felt a little scared of a tiger, could only manage a few head shots when she came close.

She swan across the P1 lake and went to get her cubs, who were hiding safe on the other side of the lake in a meadow.

Some of the pictures of her cubs I managed from the other side of P1 lake.

Finally saw two of the cubs running after Maya, I think the female cub was left behind. This was a joy to all the tourists present there at that moment.

We called it a day, headed straight back to our resort.

Next day morning safari : 18th dec 2015

We waited at P1 lake for almost 2 hours in the hope that Maya & cubs will show up again, but they didn't. After a wait of two hours we decided to leave Pandherpauni and look for other things. We drove in the direction of Mahurli, very close to Maya's territory we found a pack of wild dogs. This was my first ever sighting of these relentless canines.

While going back after the morning safari we did wait for Sonam at a different watering hole, but as usual no show by Sonam.

We came back to the resort and rested for a while.

After a not so good morning safari, except that i got my first ever shots of wild dogs, we embarked on our evening tiger trail.

Evening was eventful, Maya did show up, brought her cubs on a kill from morning/night or day before, which was lying close to P1 bank at tourist's side. But there were just too many tourists around to see Maya with her cubs. Pandherpauni had turned into a smaller but more louder version of kumbh mela (no pun intended).

I managed a few cub shots from far..well not that far this time.

Two of the male cubs, named Karan & Arjun, trying to climb up a tree. 

The shy female cub, usually she gets bullied a lot by the male cubs, she is usually seen with Maya, seems to be a momma's girl. Her name apparently is Manka.

These guys will surely be ruling Pandherpauni when they grow up, though tough times ahead for Maya now.

Met the wild dog family yet again.

Day 3 - 5th Safari - Morning 19th Dec 2015

We went straight to see Maya at Pandherpauni.

One the way to Pandherpauni there was a road block by this gaur family.

At Pandherpauni we waited for about 45mins and got only a glimpse of Maya, she walked across the length of the P1 lake on the other side.

Her cubs were also seen for a brief moment, but there was so much tourist disturbance on this side of the lake that we decided to flee from Pandherpauni.

A lot of areas like Kolsa were closed, so there were not enough options to explore. We went to look for another tigress named Geetha, yes one of the famous Telia sisters, in the waghdoh area, this is the place from where the famous Waghdoh male, also the father of Telia sisters, comes from. It's a very thick forest, we enjoyed the ride, but there were no big cat sightings on that route. We were happy that we at least explored a new place.

Going back we waited at one of the waterholes which Sonam frequents, but as usual no show by her.

Day 3 - 6th Safari - Afternoon/Evening 19th Dec 2015

We were speeding towards Pandherpauni, it was around 3.30 pm, there was only 1 gypsy ahead of us, rest either went to Telia or stayed behind exploring other places. There was a 100 meter distance between us & the gypsy ahead of us, all of a sudden they stopped and signaled us to stop as well. This was right in front of the Tadoba lake, we stopped on the road and towards the left of us was Tadoba lake. We moved slowly towards the first gypsy. From there it was possible to see whatever they had spotted, it was suppose to be something important, I was praying for it not be a sloth bear, they were all looking in the direction of the lake, all of a sudden it moved, so I saw - a leopard, my first time seeing a leopard in the wild, it was an important moment for me and for another person in our gypsy who has never seen a leopard before. It stopped at the lake and started drinking water, after filling his stomach it started looking for a way to cross the road. We moved back and gave it way, it came on the road waited for a brief second and walked into the thicket and disappeared. All this happened, while only two vehicles around, ideal.

At least 5 more gypsy's were rushing towards us, but they reached just as the leopard entered in the thicket. 

Without wasting much time we reached Pandherpauni, people from Navegaon side have already reached. We waited and Maya did show up, but I didn't get any good shots this time, it was far.

We decided to try our luck somewhere else, we went to Telia and waiting at one of the water holes for Sonam, but as usual no show by her. We retreated back to the resort smiling, leopard was a real prized catch of this entire trip.

7th Safari - Morning 20th Dec 2015

As usual we headed to Pandherpauni, no show by Maya at P1 or P2, some fake alarms and lot of drama happened at both P1 & P2 water holes. We decided to explore Tadoba lake and places nearby it, so we returned from Pandherpauni. While going back to Tadoba lake, we heard from other gypsy's of a tigress which was sitting on the road as per the ST bus driver, the people in gypsy didn't see it but ST bus driver told them about it, she got spooked by people shouting out of the bus windows and went up towards Jamun bodi area.(fyi Tadoba is the only national park through which a tar road runs and is also a bus route, connecting several villages inside the national park). We decided to check if that tigress crossed across to the meadows of Jamun bodi.

A classical view of Jamunbodi with it's golden grasslands.

There were several gypsy's at Jamun bodi, all looking for the tigress. In about 15 minutes we saw a lot of gypsy's rushing to the end of grasslands on the north side. We too decided to move there and check, from about a distance of 100 meters I saw a tigress rubbing herself against a tree. She moved quickly into the grasslands and looked at us. There were some 10-15 gypsy's at that time. This was a very good sighting, we were lucky to be there.

Guide told us that she is Sitara, one of the female cubs of Choti tara, she has recently separated from her mother, she might be of around 2 years old. 

She entered a bamboo thicket and remained hidden there in attempt to catch one of these sambar deer's.

No action happened for long so we returned back to the base.

Day 4 - 8th Safari - Afternoon/Evening 20th Dec 2015

This was our final safari, usually the last safaris are full of anticipation and excitement, but given that we saw so much in the previous safaris our expectation were low. In fact, we didn't even go to Pandherpauni this time, we checked Jamunbodi, couple of watering holes at Telia, waited for Sonam. But I guess it was not our day, we already missed a leopard family on the tar road.
I think this was the best picture from the last safari.

Red spur-fowls

After clicking some random shots we called it a day.

Tadoba is definitley the real land of the tiger and a jewel of the Vidarbha region.

We left Mohurli at 7.30 pm, had a train to catch at 12 am from Chandrapur.