Trip Report Central India Tour - Bandhavgarh and Kanha

June Month

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Destination Covers : Bandhavgarh – Kanha

This trip was led by Ms. Christina. We have started our tour from Bandhavgarh

BANDHAVGARH DAY 1 June 7th, 2018…..

I was back in Bandhavgarh after so many years. It was a great feeling as I met so many tigers here. The jungle to me is my peace of mind. My good friend Manoj was not able to accompany me this time for our adventure. It was my first drive in the early morning.I was with Papu as he is named and his nephew was joining us. He was about 12 years old. We had our fist sighting of a female tigress in the Bhitri area. It is said that she is the daughter of the Banbehi female tigress. We spotted her in the lovely meadow almost invisible to our eyes. We situated ourselves in the path of where she was headed. As she wanted to cross the track to go in the other part of the forest we had to move back a little ways. I got a good few shots and before you know it she disappeared into her jungle. I don’t blame her I would stay away from pesky humans also. It was a great start to my adventure. You never know what the jungle will present to you.

Our evening drive was not so successful. The other tourists that were present in an area had paid in advance to get on elephant back and follow Spotty tigress with some cubs, I believe the cubs were around 6 months old then. They were relaxing in a nullah by a waterbody away from the track. We rode around for the rest of our drive and we were able to see some deer and many langurs relaxing during the afternoon coolness. Bandhavgarh is a lovely place to visit.

Destination Cover :   Bandhavgarh

BANDHAVGARH DAY 2 June 8th, 2018….. Magdi zone

This was my morning drive into a different zone, and it was exciting from the very beginning. It was barely 5 minutes form our entrance and we had seen some jeeps that were ahead of us had stopped. They were all looking to the left as one female tigress and her two cubs were leaving the scene. She was known as Mahamans daughter. The older Mahaman was from the litter of Chakradhara female. We barely was them leaving into the bamboo thickets, as tigers have always been very shy cats. We fled the scene but we came to find out there was a third cub which had not caught up to mother yet. We also missed this opportunity. I also don’t like rushing off somewhere. Sometimes it is good to wait things out. Especially in the forests of India.

So to my surprise it started raining when we were half way done with our safari, and we had to take out the tarp to keep us from getting soaked. We had to be careful with our equipment as to not damage or fog up our cameras.

I was able to take pictures of two jackals on the road, lots of peacocks, Malabar Pied hornbills, Pita birds, and black hooded orioles. As we were waiting by the Sukkhi Patiya waterhole, someone had said there was a tiger in the water. I think we were not in a good spot because I didn’t see any tiger , and soon after that she had moved on into the bush for safety. She outsmarted the people and went to her safety place. For about 15 -20 minutes we tried following her but she was just too clever.There was a guy among us in another jeep who showed us his picture of the Sukki female. He had a very clear shot of her face as she was laying in the water. What a beauty she is. The camera lens he had was 4 times my lens size..I was only able to get a good glimpse of her golden wet coat as she got further and further away. No picture at all of this legendary female. But I had seen her with my own eyes, thus I have an amazing memory.

There is also an enclosure in the Magdhi area. There are 3 cubs being kept there two males and one female. The mother was Kankatti Jr. daughter of Rajbehra , and their father is Bameras son Mr X. they refer to him as MrX due to a strip pattern on his left cheek. He is a very huge and handsome male .These three cubs were put here after the mother was allegedly poached in 2017 in August.

So when we drove by the enclosure we spent some time with the cubs and watched them interact with eachother. One of the males was heading to the water which they call Tadoba pool as it resembles TATR water source. He was very curious as I was standing on my seat watching him from about 20 feet away. He gave me such beautiful eye contact…This was a sad departure as I hate seeing any animal cooped up in a small enclosure . I again had a lovely productive day in Bandhavgarh reserve.

Returned back to the lodge for overnight.

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