Our visits to various tombs and temples during our recent trip to India was balanced by visits to four wildlife parks for a total of six safaris in which there were supposedly ‘generous numbers of tigers and leopards’. We looked forward to spotting and photographing these beautiful animals in the wild, only to be disappointed.
Keoladeo Bird Sanctuary
As mentioned in my previous post, the first wildlife park on the list was Keoladeo Bird Sanctuary, a short coach ride from Agra. Led by an experienced guide, we were transported by motorised rickshaws to various water holes to spot a range of water bird species. The most common of these was the Painted Stork, many of which were tending to their young in the nests high up in the trees or trying to help them fend for themselves.
Raneh Falls
Our full day at Khajuraho comprised a visit to Raneh Falls (which I was looking forward to photographing) followed by the first of our tiger safaris.
Unfortunately, at that time of year after months of dry season, the falls were dry, but the spectacle of the gorge into which they normally cascade was quite remarkable. Having been formed from the lava flow from a long since inactive volcano, the layers of rock displayed the green, pink, red and grey of the basalt, granite, jasper, dolomite and quartz rocks laid down so many eons ago.
Safari Parks
Our first tiger safari was to the Panna Tiger Reserve on the morning of our transfer to Bandhavgarh. It was an early 05:30 start on the back seat of a safari jeep. As the five-hour trip unfolded, I gradually become more and more uncomfortable with increasing back pain.
However, the first part, driving through a forest of teak trees was quite ethereal. Apart from the engine noise of the jeep, the silence was only broken by the constant rain of crisp dry leaves the size of my palm falling onto an already thick rusty brown blanket and the delightfully tuneful calls of a myriad of unseen birds.
The end of the safari brought some welcome relief from the discomfort of the jeep, but it also left us very disappointed due to the total lack of tiger sightings. The wildlife that we managed to spot was limited to antelope, monkeys and the rear end of a distant leopard (which I didn’t see) and a few bird species.
The afternoon six-hour coach journey to our next destination, Bandhavgarh, was nothing short of agony for me. The usual road hazards resulted in the coach bouncing, twisting, braking and speeding up. By the time we reached the next resort, I felt so much worse that I went straight to bed, missed dinner and was violently ill.
I missed the first of the following day’s safaris, but struggled on the second. As darkness fell, the last ten minutes delivered our first and only sighting of a tiger. My excitement was only tempered by the discomfort I continued to experience, however K managed to snap a shot of the tiger, highlighted in the jeep headlights.
The next day involved another six hour journey to our final two safaris at Kanha with some rest and downtime when we arrived at the resort.
The guide on our 06:00 morning safari was very good, pointing out numerous bird species, but not much in the way of animals. Towards the end, we stopped for a packed breakfast where some locals had set up a cooking display. We were also introduced to the Mauha flower. The flowers were falling from the trees to form a dull yellow carpet that the locals hastily gathered to use for medicinal purposes but more importantly to distil into an alcoholic drink. Yet again this safari ended without a tiger sighting.
Our afternoon safari was equally disappointing, with the sole highlight being a pack of wild dogs. According to our guide this was quite rare with only one sighting for every 10 tiger sightings.
During the downtime between Kanha safaris, K and I went for stroll down the road to soak in the local atmosphere. It wasn’t long before we were hijacked by some locals to join in their Holi festival celebrations. Of course, we were only too happy to participate – a bit of light relief between tortuous jeep park tours.
The final day involved yet another six hour coach journey to Nagpur airport for our flight back to Delhi, farewelling our wonderful tour companions and the start of the additional private tour we had booked to Darjeeling, the subject of my next post. The only point of interest was that a random person had taken K’s suitcase in error when we arrived at Delhi airport. With the great assistance of the airport staff, it was soon returned by a rather unapologetic local bloke allowing us and the rest of the group to transfer to our hotel.
In summary
To summarise the 13 day tour, the six included and optional safaris were a big disappointment with repeated sightings of more common wildlife such as the spotted deer and the lack of the more exotic animals including the tiger. Every safari lasted five hours, which in retrospect was rather too long, particularly when we kept going round in circles on a couple of occasions. However, the cultural visits at the start of the tour made the whole visit worthwhile. The weather was not excessively hot and the expected humidity thankfully did not transpire. (Not: bird and animal photos by K)
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