Safari!

We have arrived at Mauna Kothi, near the village of Tala in the district of Umbria, our home for the next three nights. It’s located on the edge of the Bandhavgarh National Park. We’re scheduled for five safaris, each lasting four or more hours in duration. The first was the afternoon of our arrival. There are two more scheduled for each of the following days, beginning at 6:00 a.m. and 2:45 p.m. We’re to see many of India’s animals, but mostly we hope to spot the India tiger, the star of the forest. The previous tour had nine sightings.

But first some words on our lodging. the Mahua Kothi is an excellent accommodation with twelve large, roomy cabins, of which we occupied ten. (There are eight couples in our tour group plus two single women.) All our meals are served in the main facility which is open to the fields and forest adjacent. The meals are excellent if, as always, way too plentiful. When will I ever learn moderation in eating? Never, while the food is so good, I suspect. On the other hand, when we return we’ll skip having chicken for a while. With no beef or pork on the menus, only an occasional fish or lamb offering breaks the consistency of chicken as the only alternative to a vegetarian diet—for which we often opted. (Oops, while writing this in a car we swerved around a herd of cattle, most of whom are lying in the road. Being sacred has given the cattle a sense of entitlement. The monkeys in the road, by contrast, jump out of the way.)

The only odd thing about the pictures is that in the righthand picture, the road is a full two lanes, a rarity on this route.

Left: In places, the dust from road construction kept visibility to thirty feet. At one point I observed a farmer pouring milk between containers in this thick dust. Ersatz chocolate milk? Right: The ladies line up for a visit to the Queen Mary, the ladies facility that traveled along with our convoy.

Our cabin and the lodge.

So on to the safaris and our search for tigers.

Safari 1

The park is divided into three sections. This first afternoon, we travel section 1. The terrain is a mix of forest, hills and occasional open fields, many of which were village areas before their removal when the national park was established. We passed watering holes often visited by the animals. The park has rough-hewn trails of dirt and rock that are often a challenge even for the four-wheel drive safari vehicles that are our transports.

We were told that the odds of viewing a tiger any single four-hour safari was 25%. That means (using my ancient math training) we have a 76% probability of spotting a tiger at least once in the five scheduled safaris.

Getting into the park is a great example of the petty bureaucracy that infuses Indian officialdom. We had to show our passports to enter the park and details from the passports are carefully recorded. Everything is manual and recorded on paper, even to the point that our safari vehicle driver hands the lodge gate guard a slip of paper when we return. (This is in contrast to the street venders, all of whom accept electronic payment.)

We’re assigned a vehicle for the duration of our stay, driven by a lodge naturalist. Ours was Kul. For each safari, we were also assigned a park “spotter” who, as far as we could tell, spotted nothing. Of our four vehicles, two were assigned to six of us each, one to a group of four and one to a single couple, dictated by the national park administrators. Changing vehicles or even dismounting a vehicle at any time was forbidden. With the roads and lack of toilet facilities, it was a challenge for those with small bladders. (There was one rest stop each safari, but none with western toilets.)

On the road to the park entrance. 

The most common animals encountered were the spotted deer. We saw hundreds of them over the three days. Right: A wild Asian elephant.

A few of the scores of bird species we observed. 

Left: The massive gaur. The picture does not do justice to its size. Right: The male spotted deer.

Our safari ended with a downpour worthy of being labeled a monsoon. We found out our rain jackets are water resistant and not waterproof. As it is not yet (officially) monsoon season, I surely understand why safaris end when the  monsoons arrive. There were rumored sightings of tigers, but none were seen by us.

Instead, that evening before dinner we viewed a film on tigers.

Tigers 1; Visiting Team Yankees 0. (OK, we have one Canadian in our group.)

Safari 2

With flashlights we made our way to breakfast and then to our safari vehicle, number 191. Kul was ready to go. Our search this morning was in area 3.

There was one rumor of a tiger spotting, but again no one in our tour group saw one. (Our four vehicles would go in different directions but we’d often encounter one another.)

Left: The Indian wild dog, which looks more like a large fox. This is the only animal I recall the national park spotters actually pointing out. The rest of the time he was on Facebook and texting. Right: Tiger tracks! We’re close, if late.

Right: Peacocks were ubiquitous throughout the park. We saw them flying and in trees, but not with their tail fans displayed.

Breakfast in the park. Right: In many places the dominant vegetation is a type of bamboo that grows in thick bunches. One would swear that a tree was in the middle of a clump, but that was not the case.

Tigers 2; Yankees 0

Safari 3

It was the turn of area 2 to be visited. It is the largest of the three areas, with some beautiful scenery. On the far side of the park boundary were agricultural fields. We were told these areas would eventually be incorporated into the park.

Right: I believe this was a hilgai, the largest of the Indian antelopes. 

Oddly, tiger sighting rumors were for fields just outside the park entrance. We stopped to look for a while, but were unsuccessful in our search.

Tigers 3; Yankees 0

The return to our lodge passes through the village. All the drivers speed as fast as they can even through the busy main street. (It’s a one-street village.) Thanks to the previous day’s downpour, the facility that was to be used for the evening’s entertainment was water-soaked, so the venue was moved to the parking lot area.

The music and dance was very African in flavor, I thought.

Safari 4

It was back to area 1 for our morning safari. The sun rose a bright red as we traveled to it. We observed a few new animals and birds, but no tigers. 

The local village is nearly deserted in the early morning. Right: Sunrise over the park.

Lower left: This owl is one I was the first to spot. It would not turn around to pose for us. Right: At the rest stop this monkey is eating a lunch it stole.

We were getting a bit anxious about the odds of spotting a tiger. We’ve one more chance.

Tigers 4; Yankees 0

Safari 5

Kul worked hard to maximize our chances in this revisit to area 3. We did get to view a couple of animals new to us, but a sense of fatalism slowly enveloped us. We didn’t leave the park until precisely its closing time, 6:30 p.m., and even in the dusk, as we drove back to our lodge, Kul kept scanning the fields for a possible tiger sighting, even while driving and ducking cattle. But we mighty Casey’s had struck out.

Wild boars sightings were common. Right: This male spotted deer checks us out.

Left: Fresh tracks of a tiger. Note the print is over the tire track. Right: We encounter a patrol.

More elephants in the wild and a large resting hilgai.

Left: On our way to the park, this motor bike with wife and baby pulled out right in front of us. It’s one of the few times our driver hit the brakes hard. Right: We return to our lodge after our last effort.

Tigers 5; Yankees 0

T’was not to be, not for us or any in our tour group. We were told the “problem” was the rain of the first afternoon. Following a downpour, tigers have less inclination to wander or to visit watering holes. I won’t claim to not be disappointed, but in the greater scheme of things, it’s a minor setback.

We are now on our way to Mumbai (Bombay to the old-timers). It’s four hours of ducking cattle and motorbikes in the SUVs followed by a two-hour flight from Jabalpur to Mumbai. During the security screening at the Jabalpur airport, for the first time ever, the wand wielder picked up the titanium on my back.

We leave for Mumbai, again escorted by “Queen Mary”.

This trip is nearing its end.