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 Bandhavgarh National Park, Madhya Pradesh

Trip to the Bandhavgarh National Park was in the offing since a very long time.However, the long and tedious train journey of almost 20+ hours was the show stopper. This time around, Shreya insisted that we should make the trip come what may. MP Tourism as usual was our default choice as travel partner and got our booking done from Nagpur to Bandhavgarh and back.

The trip from Nagpur to Bandhavgarh by road is a very tiring one and at the time of writing this, it not advisable to follow the NH 7 route through Jabalpur,  Katni , Umariya and then Tala.- for almost 30-40 kms patch, the National Highway did not exist. What a state of affair!!! A better route to follow is Seoni to Mandla , Umariya ,Shahpura and directly to Tala (Bandhavgarh) through State Highways 11 and 40.

We reached the White Tiger Safari Lodge(MP Tourism) late in the night 11 p.m. and were greeted by Manager Alok Verma who was full of energy & enthusiasm to receive us. We had three safari trips and he promised us one in the premium Tala Zone and two in the Umariya. The hotel has a few rooms set-up in machaan design,  with the rooms elevated from the ground amongst the trees.

Bandhavgarh probably has one of the highest Bengal tiger densities in the country and recently had attracted a lot of negative attention due to a few tiger deaths. The park is divided into three zones - 1. Tala which is the premium zone and a lot of sightings happen during the summer season, 2. Umariya and 3.Khitauli zone........The total number of vehicles allowed in each zone is 65, 40 and 30 respectively. Rules are quite strict and vehicles are assigned a path and not allowed to deviate.

Sunday morning...we made two trips to the Tala and Umariya zone. With lot of activity around...animal sightings were very less. The usual sightings of Sambhar, Nilgai, Deer, jackals, wild boar, mongoose and a variety of birds added to the tally. It was breath-taking to see the mountain range and the Bandhavgarh fort. Some good bird photography was the highlight of the day and at the end of the day realized that of the 100+ vehicles none did sight the majestic Tiger.

Next day morning, I was the lone survivor from the family and with resolute decide to carry on with the third trip to Umariya zone. The early morning chillness was nice and we decided to go slow with the safari. At one spot in the distant I heard a faint alarm call of chital and alerted my driver and guide. We stopped to track the call...and then there was a rush of alarm calls (Sambhar, Monkey, Chital, peafowl) from all directions within a 50-60 meters distance.

Excitement was high and we were the only ones around this small patch of jungle. The guide figured out that probably the action was happening on the other side of the patch and the tiger (ress) will definitely cross our path. A lo and behold, there in front was a majestic female...(may be the Umariya female) walking parallel to the road. We moved along with it for 3-4 minutes by which time 3 more jeeps joined us...What a sight of this beautiful animal.

As she disappeared into the thicket we decided to move on and we encountered a rare scene of a pack of jackals, five of them, the guide was surprised too. Normally jackals  do not hunt in packs...We continued to watch them for 10 minutes and after taking some more bird photos returned to the hotel.

On, the return trip near Mandla we saw a signage reading "Fossil Park" and Shreya being very enthusiastic about Dinosaur fossils pleaded us to visit this park located in Ghughus. Run by the MP Tourism department, the place has plant fossils dating back to 5000 years and a nice museum houses the seeds, bark, eucalytpus trees and to our wonder a Dinosaur egg also. It was quite interesting to see these fossils and Shreya kept on taking snaps.

Overall an exciting journey...

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Trip to Jim Corbett National Park

Tusker at Corbett

During our childhood days my sister and I had grown up listening to a lot of stories during bed time from Nana. The whole spectrum - epic, Jataka tales, folks, Nick Carter, James Bond and finally animal tales was wonderful. The most memorable ones were the Jim Corbett tales - especially the man-eaters of Kumaon and Champawat, Leopard of Rudraprayag, etc. The stories of Jim Corbett and his dog Robin was always etched in my mind. As the years progressed, I grew up and got caught up with pace of life. Back in 2007, something reminded me that I need to connect with Nature and since then my favorite haunting grounds have been Tadoba, Pench and Kanha, apart from a few other places.

I was gifted a book on Jim Corbett and reading it brought back the memories...and all the while a gentleman Kevin Smith (who is a great photographer) and I got connected through photographs (thanks to Picasaweb). Kevin has been visiting India since many years and made Kaladhungi (ChotaHaldwani) his second home. His bird photographs from this area excited us and finally this year in May we decided that its time to make our first trip to Jim Corbett National Park.

Dhikala Forest Rest House

View of the meadows
 from Dhikala Rest House

My parents and sister decided to join this journey in the peak summer season. So, we all landed up in Delhi and proceeded to Ramnagar. The roads were very dusty and at many places the visibility was zero and the roads were bad...The demographics of the uber rich of Delhi, to pathetic polluted conditions in Ghaziabad and the visibly poor rural India in UP was quite a spectrum. 

Once we were off the highway, the roads to Ramnagar was good...and we entered Uttaranchal state...everything looked green...Vivek Pant a classmate of mine...was there in Ramnagar to meet us (we were meeting after 20 years...and it was quite emotional)...Got ourselves booked in Dhikala Forest Rest house inside Corbett park. The rates were quite expensive and why not ..a lot of foreigners visited this area. What was shocking to see was the number of resorts - no wonder conservation experts have been fighting a loosing battle in this part of the country.

The 35+ odd kms drive to Dhikala was without any surprises and we arrived at Dhikala Forest rest house. We were amazed to see the infrastructure put up by the Government - compared to other states where I had visited Forest guest houses were in a bad condition. The Dhikala Forest Rest house - cabin hut probably the most expensive one...a 150+ years old log house overlooks the Patli Dun Valley and the Ramganga river. As the evening approached we could see herds of elephants walking towards the water body excitement started building up.

You can have food in the forest restaurant or there is a Dhaba nearby...the Dhikala camp is covered by electric fences to protect from the wild elephants. The food was good and we decided to call it a day. Next day morning the attendant for the log hut woke us and served hot tea and packed some sandwiches. The trips in the morning are  two i.e. between 6 a.m.to 9 a.m. and 9a.m. to 11 am and in addition there is also an elephant safari for two hours. We did three trips, and we were happy to see herds of elephants, wide variety of birds and ungulates. however the majestic tiger eluded us..

Corbett Falls

The third day morning we decided to move to Nainital(the city of Lakes) in the Kumaon hills and the drive was fantastic through the ghat roads. The sudden heat gave way to cool breeze and we finally reached Nainital. Quickly changing into something warmer we moved out to do boating in the Naini Lake, visited the malls and also visited the NainaDevi temple. The view from our guesthouse was beautiful and the lights dotting the lake was spectacular. Next day we had to return to Delhi and thought of trying out the Naintal Zoo, Governor house, Eco-tourism caves, however nothing seem to open before 10:30 am. Well beautiful hill stations can be termed sleepy towns.

Corbett House

We agreed to start our journey back and on the way Kaladhungi the place where Jim Corbett lived was a pit stop… and visited his home(Corbett House) and also saw the burial place of Robin. Had heard/read about them...now I was seeing these things...from there were moved on to Corbett Falls, a small one but a good sight. Finally our journey in this part of the country was over and we headed back to Delhi only to decide that visiting Jim Corbett was definitely on the cards again.

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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 Pench Tiger Reserve(April 2008)

We decided to visit the Pench Tiger Reserve between April 4-7. As usual our planning was late and we did not get the train tickets to Nagpur. Determined we were, we decided to drive down almost 580 Kms.

Started early morning at 5:45 a.m. from Hyderabad and took the Medchal road i.e NH7 driving through Toopran, Nizambad, Nirmal, Adilabad, Pankhwardad, HinganGhat, Wardha road, Nagpur, Deolapar, Khwasa gate and then Turia. The NHAI is in the process of widening the road and our speed was on an average 60KMPH. The road condition overall was good and the drive comfortable.

What intrigued me most were the deserted Reliance Petrol pumps, as Mukesh Ambani chose to shut down 1400 of the 1800 outlets across India. A reliance petrol fan, I was left with no choice rather than use petrol from other outlets.(we will talk more about this in another blog)

We checked into Kipling's court at Pench(a resort operated by MP tourism) and the facilities are definitely good. On Saturday and Sunday we had four rounds of the Park. The journey began on Saturday morning, and the Friday evening drizzle had its wonders - the animals were literally out in flocks - thousands of deer, around 80+ wild boar, two herds of Indian bison, sambhar, Neel Gai, couple of Jackals and a wide variety of birds.

We spotted around 65 varities of birds, some common and some new to us like the Eurasian Thickknee, Eurasian Wryeneck, Citrine Wagtail, Chestnut Sparrowlark, Malabar Pied Hornbill, White Eyed buzzard, Honey buzzard, Yellow wattled Lapwing, Chestnut shouldered Petronia, Yellow Footed green pigeon, Blacked headed Oriole, Flameback woodpecker, brown headed pygmy woodpecker etc.(the link to the photos is here)










Though there was Tiger show on both days, we decided against it. In a Tiger Show, domesticated elephants track the tiger and surround it. Then tourists are made to pay and watch the tiger from the Elephant back. We felt it was not an appropriate mechanism to spot an tiger as we had witnessed the same at Kanha National Park.

To our disappointment we could not spot the Leopard which a few tourists managed to do so. Our guide Shubhash mentioned that he had not seen a tiger for the last 90 days apart from the Tiger show. So, in our last round our guide Rajaram assured us that he will be able to show us a leopard atleast and we can very close to spotting one. In the Piyarthedi range, he managed to track the alarm call of langurs and Shambhar, So we waited for an hour alongwith around 10 other gypsies trying to catch a glimpse of the elusive tiger or leopard...but our saga continued without us being able to see a tiger in the open. A better bet would be Rathambore, where one can see Machli(the tigeress) and her cubs quite easily.

Overall a very satisfying and enriching trip after a long time. Thanks to the MP Tourism team of Mr. Yadav Incharge of Kiplings court, staff of Bhave, Ranji Sen and to Ashok Soni our Gypsy driver whose knowledge of the jungle was good.

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Trip to Kanha National Park

Its been months since I wrote something...as usual "lack of time" was the culprit. In the meanwhile even Blogger moved from Beta to the tested one.

Well the new year 2007(which is now two months old already) have been a good one till date and I have started to accomplish some of my dreams. One of them was to connect with Nature and we as a family decided to explore more and more.

Kanha was one such place that always has fascinated me - reading about it. We decided to set our course for this beautiful place sometime in mid January. As we searched for various options the best we could find was one from the MadhyaPradesh tourism and its Resident Manager Deepika promised us that the package was worth investing.

So we set forth on our journey from Hyderabad to Kanha via Nagpur...We landed at Nagpur and went to a hotel Orange City(in the middle of the city market) it is not a upmarket hotel...the room were okay and under renovation. For Rs.1000 a night it was not worth the money.

The next day we set forth in a Qualis to Kanha enroute Pench(another tiger reserve). The journey for most part okay with an exciting stop at a dhaba which was run by an entertaining Bihari gentleman who served us with hot pakoras.

Reached Kanha around 2:00 p.m, grabbed our lunch and proceeded for our first round of the park. our guide was Salim and driver Naresh for the trip. The whole set-up is so professional....a computer generate which route you willget andwho will be your guide. We started wonderfully with a fully grown Barasingha, followed by spotted deers, two serpent eagles, owlet, wild boar and two sloth bears. However the tiger eluded us. Since everything depended on nature unlike a zoo scenario we were okay with it.

Day2 - morning trip started at 6:00 a.m. and the temperature was around 4 degrees...previous night we managed to buy monkey caps from the local village. Since it was two cold for a 5 hrs trip it was disappointing...we did hearthe warning calls of the monkeys and spotted deer. At one of point of time there is an event called "elephant show". Early in the morning three batches of elephants and mahouts are dispatched in three directions, Kanha, Kisli and Mukki to spot tigers. Once spotted they surrond the tiger and then visitors are allowed to go on elephant back to see the tigers from as close as 50 mts. We lined up for this in Mukki and rushed to the spot...however the great animal decided to elude us that day too(we got our money refunded as is the practice) so a disappointing morning ended. We set forth in our afternoon trip and did manage to see parakeets, tree pie, bablers, red wattled lapwing, coots, waterhen, lots of deer, barasinga, wild boarand a beautiful peafowl dance. The tiger was not spotted however we waited in couple of places for more than an hours as some of the other tourists seem to have spotted one. As we were moving out of the park, we saw alarge numberr of vehicle crowded at one place and people literally fighting to get a view...we knew our search has ended for the elusive Indian Tiger and there we saw two of them playing in a small ravine kind of place...however at the better spots were taken away by our visiting athithis i.e. foreigners.

Day3 - we had the last round of the park and departed for Nagpur to head back home.

It was a beautiful experience to connect with Nature at its best...the staff at the MPtourism guesthouse were too good, our driver Shankar & Naresh and our guide KK were the perfect hosts.

We promised to visit Kanha again in April and soon you will be seeing another posting here.

Some photograhs from our visit


(Indian Bison) (Barasingha)

(Dead Bamboo) (Early morning wait)

(Infront of cottage) (on the jeep)

(The dhaba) (all expecting me)

(Red Lapwing) (unknown Spider)

(the pristine forest) (the pristine forest)

(Ghost tree-dawn) (Ghost tree-close to noon)

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