The escape to Mysore & BR Hills...

"There is nothing in which the birds differ more from man than the way in which they can build and yet leave a landscape as it was before." ~Robert Lynd, The Blue Lion and Other Essays

 

On one Friday evening, with nothing much to do in Bangalore; I planned an escape to Mysore and BR Hills! I left Bangalore at 8-30 pm and took off to Mysore. No hotel bookings, no firm plan, no one with me...I decided to hit the road and plan en-route. I reached Mysore at midnight, and found a place to stay, and post breakfast, headed to Ranganthittu Bird Sanctuary, on the outskirts of Srirangapatna!

This was my first birding trip, so was ready to be pleasantly surprised, and I was. I decided to book a boat just for myself so I wouldn’t be bothered by anyone, and had the freedom of movement. It was a 45 min ride and was a brilliant experience. There were several species of birds like Egrets, Painted Storks, Kingfishers, several fruit Bats and many crocodiles in and around the river. I got many shots of birds in action. My best experience was to see a huge croc fly out of the water and catch a bird in mid-air. This was too fast to capture, and all I got was a few shots as the croc took the bird down into the water.

The next stop was BR hills! Pure magic is what the place was all about! The drive up the hills, the outstanding weather, the stay and food! I only stayed for one night, but it was a great experience. I visited the Biligiriranga Swamy Temple, and enjoyed the various views and sights the place offered.

My next stop was to see the Gagana Chukki & Bhara Chukki waterfalls. The poor rains in Karnataka had taken its toll on these wonderful falls. They were a shadow of their true and original self. Nevertheless the beauty of the place stood out.

Wild Dogs (Dhole) on the hunt @ Tadoba...Vicious Killers!!!

“Nature taking its course - hunter and prey, the endless circle of life and death.” – Stephenie Meyer

How often does one get lucky watching a hunt in the wild! Well I have been one of the lucky ones! It was a cold December evening at Tadoba. I was accompanied by Atul Sabnis, a dear friend & my classmate whom I managed to trace after more than 25 years.

Atul flew into Hyderabad and we decided to head to Tadoba for a weekend. We decided that was the best place to plan a getaway, and catch up on news, event etc over the last 25 years of our lives.

We didn’t get to sight any Big Cats on the trip, but were very lucky to see a pair of Wild Dogs (Dhole) hunting down a baby Sambhar, and that too right on the road. It was unusual just to see the dogs do that as a pair and not in a pack. I guess either they were very hungry or didn’t want to share the spoils with the rest of their pack. What we witnessed for close to an hour was how one dog managed to engage the mother Sambhar, while I other one kept having a go at the young one.
With just the two of them in the hunt, it needed a lot of guile and speed to bring down the young one. The mother Sambhar kept herself between the predator and the prey. The Dhole unlike Bigs Cats don’t choke their prey. But deliver a very sharp bite and take a chunk of flesh away. And this was how despite just being a pair, they managed to bring down their quarry. The pictures will showcase the Face-Off that happened, and the eventual result.

It was a very gruesome encounter, and definitely not for the faint-hearted. The Dhole continued their attacks, persistently and clinically, until they bit a large chunk of the young one's backside, which rendered the crucial blow. The young one couldn’t move and just lay down, tired, bleeding and in lots of pain. It kept howling, as the pain must have been intense. All the tourists kept very quiet, mesmerised by what was going on. The mother knew this was going to end in a kill, but made relentless effort keeping the dogs at bay. It kept thumping its leg on the ground, which was an attempt to fight the dogs.

As all this kept happening, another gypsy, the open safari jeep recklessly parked up right next to where the young one was lying, and this made the mother panic and run away. The dogs also ran into the undergrowth, cautiously eyeing their meal. And in this melee, the young one was bleeding profusely and crying out loudly in severe pain. The tourists guide and the driver got a mouthful of abuses from everyone there, as this was a very callous act. After the vehicle moved away, the dogs came out, dragged the young Sambhar into the undergrowth and started feasting on it alive. That's how wild dogs hunt!

As much as it was probably gory for many, we were witnessing the show nature was putting up! That's the law of the wild! That was an experience many yearn for, but you have to be very lucky to see it happen!!!

The picture below captures the dogs, in the morning, pulling off a stunt which is very very rare...walking on two legs...another lucky capture.

Tigers in the wild - Tadoba, Part 1

"A good mother is worth hundreds of schoolmasters." - - George Herbert

 

Having had the intense ambition to become a good photographer, I landed my first DLSR in Oct 2010. And never looked back. And it took a few months of capturing my first tiger in the wild. While I had seen many in the past at Tadoba-Andhari Tiger Reserve (TATR), in Maharashtra, my first capture of these magnificent Big Cats on my new DLSR took a while.

While I have had several great experiences, I am going to be talking of and posting pictures of what were some of my best shots and moments with the Big Cats!!!

It was March of 2009, as the summer started getting to full steam in Tadoba, all the tourists were waiting to see the mother and four cubs. The excitement was very evident and everyone was high on adrenalin. The mother played hide and seek, and then came out in full view once she had realised that there was a huge male in her territory, and at the very first opportunity, would have killed all her four cubs. The huge male's presence was clearly evident as the cubs were very nervous and were searching for their mother (Sundari as we called her; she was a beauty), who had gone out for a hunt. 

On sensing the male's presence, Sundari was searching for her cubs that were hidden in the undergrowth of the bamboo and shrubs. She kept walking on the road, calling out to them. Her roar each time sending a chill up our spines. She wasn’t bothered about the number of vehicles on the main road in TATR, and kept walking between all the vehicles that had stationed themselves in their respective vantage points. On many instances, she brushed past the open Gypsys', giving rise to the mixed emotions of fear and unrivalled excitement amongst the tourists.

Finally mustering up enough courage, the cubs came out in full view, and bonded with their mother at the artificial water hole (WH) 8. You could see the excitement on the cubs’ faces, on seeing the mother! We were there for an entire hour as the cubs played in the water, enjoyed a much needed drink, and forgot about earlier tension they were living. So much so, one of the cubs, walked across to another Gypsy parked across the road on his own. Something that cubs don’t do, but this was one courageous fella, who wanted to make his own mark. The professional photographers in the gypsy were delighted at seeing the cub, at less than 10 feet. But were wary of Sundari. Because she could have charged at them, potentially making it fatal, if she foresaw any threat.

The pictures here try and capture that special moment, for all of us, the cubs and us tourists. This was the start of our tryst with Sundari, a very proud and successful mother who has now gone on to rear many successful litters over the last 3-4 years.