People Around Us "Safari Guides"

"KK"

The scorching heat of Central India was quite unbearable in May and sitting in an open gypsy (Jeep) we were quite anxious to quickly get into the Kanha Tiger Reserve safari ride. The previous two rides being unsuccessful in terms of sighting a tiger were weighing down on us and the kids were very eager to have a view of this majestic creature during this safari.

“Uncle who is going to be your guide asked one of them? Hope it is someone who is lucky”. That reminded me of a trip back in 2007 and a similar situation. With two safaris down and last one pending the family was eager to see a tiger in the wild. There came a guide  “KK” (popularly known in Kanha) who guaranteed us a sighting and before the ride was over he fulfilled his promise. Since then we had high regards for KK…but over the next few years we never got a chance to meet KK. This time around, I said to the kids may be it will be “KK” and soon after our driver comes back and mentions “we have the Chottu(small) guide with us”. I knew it was KK and when he appeared there was excitement around in the Gypsy. Rest is history…we had a wonderful sighting of Bhima at the BabaThenga lake in Mukki zone and to everyone’s heart content. Thank you KK.

Guides at Kanha Tiger Reserve,

Well the intent is not to describe my ability to prophesize or our excitement in finally seeing the majestic creature. It’s all about the Ecosystem around Safari parks and how the People around us make the experience good for us. Typically, most of the wildlife/Tiger Reserves are located in remote locations and adjoining a small village or hamlet. There would be a small road leading up-to the gate of the park and one can see a few Dhabas (restaurants), general stores, Handicrafts shops, Memorabilia shops and the Forest department offices. Off course there are the houses of the villagers and then comes the milieu of Resorts and Hotels.

There are many people who work in this eco-system who contribute to your experience. The hotel/resort staff, the shop keepers, the gypsy drivers, the forest staff (rangers, guards etc.) and finally the Safari Guides.  Most of us travel to such places, enjoy things around and come back to the urban jungle. Back there, the life still goes on and it is quite interesting to know & appreciate that there is a certain rhythm to this whole thing. The Tiger reserves operate only for 8 months during the year and between June and October these are closed to tourists. This is a period of emptiness and most of the things probably go back to a dormant mode, only to wake up in late Sept or mid October.

The question that comes to mind “What happens to the people?, “How do they earn their livelihood? “How does the ecosystem survive, that is so dependent on us (tourists)”.  “Why they chose this profession”? Also, what do they think about tourists, the forest, the government etc.

In this series, we would like to introduce you to two such key people i.e. “Safari Guide”, and “Gypsy driver”. The first in the series is an interview with “Neeraj  Pareste”, Safari Guide in Kanha Tiger Reserve.

Finally, we reckon that safari guides like KK, Neeraj, Tomar (all from Kanha), Bhupinder (at Ater), Baney Singh (at Bharatpur National Park), Neelkanth, Shravan, Dashrath (from Tadoba Tiger Reserve) and numerous other are an important part of our lives during such journeys and we owe then a  big thank you...

(Contributed by Enigmatic India team)

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Trip to Tadoba Tiger Reserve(TATR) - Tiger yet again

Ranjan - my lucky guide Tigeress's private moment


At the fireline Black wood spider - male/female

I have been blogging about Tadoba Tiger Reserve(TATR) as I am fascinated with that forest and regularly visit it from Hyderabad.

We visit Tadoba yet again on Oct 24/25 and there as usual we had our friend Shalik to meet us. So we(Lakshmipathi, Siraj, Sangeeth and myself) decide to go for two trips before heading back to Hyderabad. The evening trip yielded the same set of animals i.e. sambhar, wild boar, spotted deer, birds, bison, crocodile etc.

The next day morning(8:15 am) as we were near Padherponi, my guide Ranjan shouted "Tiger, Tiger" and there in front of us a tiger/tigress cross the road quickly and walked into the fire line. From that point on Ranjan and Shalik tracked the tigress(as we later found out) and it was a feast to the eyes for almost 20 minutes. It was a privilege to see a tiger shitting on the road.

You see the photo of a spider - the black wood spider...larger one being the female beautiful, black and large...the male small, looks like a baby(right of the photo). Well after the mating is over...the beauty(female) devoures the male immediately...short-lived life of the male...but he has passed his genes before that...

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Trip to Tadoba Tiger Reserve(TATR) - Tiger Atlast(August 2008)

My sixth visit to Tadoba Tiger Reserve(TATR) yielded fantastic results. The trip was only for a day on 23rd August and I had two friends Lakshmipathi and Bhabani with me.

Also, with us was our new friend and wild life enthusiast Shalik Jogwe (http://tadoba-tiger.blogspot.com/). Shalik is a person who you shouldnot miss meeting if you are visiting Tadoba. Enthused and engerized we set upon a journey to photograph the beautiful Tadoba tiger. Though I had spotted the tiger twice in my earlier visit, I couldnot manage to photograph them, due to a lot of vehicles crowding.

During our morning trip we saw two packs(8 & 5) of wild dogs and other animals. In the evening round, Ranjan our guide(has a depth of knowledge on birds and butterflies) and Shalik said that we will definitely track the tiger. So, we went to Vasandhara and while travelling heard the alarm call of the barking deer. We rushed to the main road and waited...the call went on for 3-4 minutes...just then there was the distant noise of a vehicle which kept growing and there we find the Conservator of Forests' jeep next to us urging to move along...the noise from the vehicle distrubed and the alarm calls stopped.

Disappointed we moved toward Jamunbodi a lake...wherein earlier we had seen fresh pug marks of two tigers/cubs...just as we looked towards the lake we see this beautiful tigress walking into the lake. What a sight it was as we drove alongside her for almost half an hour...with no other vehicles nearby it was feast to our eyes.

The video is jumpy at some places as I didnot use my tripod though it was available.

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Trip to Tadoba Tiger Reserve(TATR) - June 2007

Well the family have been bitten by the nature bug and we decided to continue our quest for experiences with nature. This time around, we decided to visit Maharashtra's Tadoba Tiger reserve, part of the Project Tiger initiative. (http://projecttiger.nic.in/tadoba.htm). Located in the Chandrapur district it lies off the NH7. I had done an online booking through the Maharastra tourism(http://www.maharashtratourism.gov.in/) at Tadoba. Another interesting place to stay in a posh private resort called Tiger Trails(http://www.tigertrails.in/). The forest department also operates rest houses which need to be booked from Chandrapur,Field Director, 0712-2528953(O)

We started from Hyderabad early morning and took the NH7 to Nagpur. On the way we crossed Medchal, Tupram, Ramyapet, Dichapally, Armur, Nirmal, Adilabad, Bori, Pankharwada and then took a right near Karanji. By mistake we went to Warora and Wani thinking of approaching through Pirli. Howevver, people at Warora advised us to go to Chandrapur and then go to Tadoba. We lost some time in the process. We reached Moharli the village on the outskirts of Tadoba and checked into our guesthouse, just in time i.e. around 3:45 p.m. to be able to rush the evening round of the park.

One could take his/her own vehicle into the park and there were only 4 open gypsies available i.e. 2 with MTDC(Maharastra Tourism) and 2 through private operators. Since we were late, I had to drive around in our Esteem. We first visited the Tadoba lake and bingo saw the Marsh Crocodile and Open billed Stork. Also, saw the spotter deer, wild boar etc and the light started




fading. We decided to come back to the guest house.Had our dinner and decided to sleep as yet another exciting day was there to explore. As thenight progressed, our room became an entomologist dream come true. We found ourselves swarmed with almost 400 insects of different kinds. My daughter Shreya was jumping up and down. We realized we had kept a tube light on near our entrance which attracted all these tiny creatures of the night.


The next day we managed an open Gypsy for almost 2000 Rs for the whole day and had lot of exciting moments - Saw the Oriole, Paradise Flycatcher, bulbul, eagles, hawk, peafowl, monitor lizard, sambhar, barking deer, Ibis, Egrets, Tree Pies, Wild boar and innocent looking deer. The great tiger still eluded us and theonly solace was that during the last three days noone had sighter the king of the Indian Jungle.








On Monday morning we had planned to move back to Hyderabad. However, Madhu and I decided to take one last round of the park and were lucky we did so...we spotted the Nilgai,
elusive wild dogs, peafowl enjoying a dance and the male version of the paradise flycatcher...beautiful white color bird.

We all enjoyed the trip and want to visit again sometime in October...however my daughter has promised not to visit the insect ridden room again :-)

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