When it is time to shed their horns

Sambar Deer
Originally uploaded by Nachiketa Bajaj

It was a fine and misty morning while we drove around the forest hoping to catch some Tiger activity. We drove along 'Kamarpatta', A hilly and dense forest road where I was once charged at by a male Tiger but will discuss that in a different story as this picture here is just to share the beauty of this adult stag who was rubbing his antlers against a tree in a hope to shed his horns. I hope you enjoy my pictures and appreciate the  beauty of these fine animals.
To view more wonderful shots of this deer where it is actually rubbing its antlers against a tree, Please click here

The Tiger that came looking for us

Bijrani, Corbett National Park - November 14th 2008

Sometimes when you try real hard to find something, that thing comes to you itself.

I entered the park with two of my friends for a day visit in the Bijrani area on the afternoon of 14th November 2008. The sun was still high in the sky and we had about 2 hours of day light left to explore the forest. We set off on our journey and the forest seemed very lively on that beautiful Corbett afternoon as there were plenty of deer and birds around the area. Few minutes into the forest and we crossed the Bijrani  Forest rest house and entered the inner forest roads where we were soon greeted by alarm calls by spotted deer indicating the presence of a Tiger in the area. Driving a bit further on 'Kichar Road' we came to an opening in the forest where all the jeeps were parked looking at the alert Deer herd standing in the grassy patch nearby. We waited for 30 minutes looking at the direction where the Deer were looking till the time the alarm calls died out and the Deer became relaxed showing that probably the Tiger had either sat down to rest somewhere in the forest or maybe had gone away.

We waited some more hoping that the alarm calls may pick up again if the Tiger is still in the vicinity but it was to no avail. We pushed off from that spot and reached an open grassland where Elephants could be heard in the grass. In November, when the park reopens following the monsoons, the grass is so huge that even Elephants get hidden inside.
Disappointment started to show on one of my friend's face since it was his first visit to the park and he was still unable to see anything after being in the park for some time.

Light had now started to fade as the sun was almost at the horizon now. It was time to bid goodbye to the forest for the day. While we still stood there in the grassland I took some shots of the setting sun against elephant grass. Finally everyone started to make a move one by one to exit the forest for the day and my friend decided to go for one last drive down the forest road that lead to the Bijrani Watchtower to test his new offroader.

We were short on time and were just punching down the beautiful forest road which was surrounded by tall Sal trees. The evening had started to get cold and with the fading light our hopes of spotting any more wildlife also faded so we started to pack our cameras in the bag while driving. While packing I raised my head and noticed a large animal walking towards us. At first glance I thought it's a Sambar deer as it was hard to identify considering the low light and the distance at which it was and then I realized it was the King himself. I immediately asked my friend to stop and hurriedly the cameras came out of the bag and excitement reached fever pitch. I got out from the window and sat on the door and watched the Tiger pass by our jeep. My hands trembled in excitement as I clicked pictures. Realizing that the light was so bad that all my shots were coming blurred I stopped clicking and just enjoyed the Tiger before my eyes as it walked past us flawlessly marking and checking it's territory taking it's own sweet time and not at all bothered by our presence. This was the only somewhat stable shot I got of those majestic stripes walking past me. Long after the Tiger passed by we stood there feeling on top of the world for having such an awesome and close sighting forgetting the fact that we were getting rather late now to exit the forest. Realizing this fact we drove back to the camp in haste and remembered our superb sighting.

Vultures Thriving in Corbett National Park

18th March 2009, Dhikala - Corbett National Park, India.
Nachiketa Bajaj

Since early 1990s a sharp decline had been noticed in the Vulture population in India. Reason behind being the use of a drug in Cattle called Diclofenac. For every 1000 Vultures spotted back then, only 1 remains now. Such figures sent chills down the spines of conservationists and organisations like Bombay National History Society (BNHS) started Vulture conservation and breeding programmes. These declining figures had put conservationists in a dilemma whether Vultures would survive beyond 2009 but this year started on a positive note where Vultures populations were seen bouncing back in Corbett National Park, thriving in their natural habitat.

It was the morning of 17th March 2009 at about 11 AM, myself, Angad and Varun were perched atop Watch Tower No. 1 on Sambar road in Corbett National Park to try and sight a male Tiger who had recently made a kill in the grassland opposite the tower. It was a perfect spring morning and the sun felt nice and warm. Apparently the Tiger had dragged it's kill into a small trench that was hiddden from our view but we could still make out the exact location of the kill as there was a wake of Vultures in the area trying to scavenge on the kill. Every time the Vultures grew stronger in number over the kill, it seemed as if the Tiger tried to shoo them away as we could see the Vultures making a dash for their lives every now and then.

Few hours passed and the activity over the kill started to slow down. The Vultures started to scatter and flew in circles over the grassland, coming closer to the tower wuth ever flying circle. The first one to pass by was a Slender Billed Vulture, a species on the verge of extinction.

Next up was a Cinereous Vulture that flew past us. Cinereous Vultures are on the Near Threatened list for extinction and are one of the largest of the Vulture species.

Followed by a Eurasian Griffon that flew over us within seconds of the Cinereous Vulture flying past. Eurasian Griffons have a white bald head, very broad wings and short tail feathers. They have a white neck ruff and a yellow bill. The buff body and wing coverts contrast with the dark flight feathers.

It surely was a pleasing sight to see these magnificent creatures bouncing back from the verge of extinction, flying in pairs and thrive in their natural habitat, soaring over the vast open grasslands scoping for food. I sure hope that Vultures remain for as long as our ecological cycle since they are a vital part of our ecological cycle and their extinction could pose a serious imbalance in the way of nature.

The Bandit Of Watch Tower No. 1

18th March 2009 - Dhikala, Corbett National Park - India.
Nachiketa Bajaj

This story revolves around a monkey, better known as The Bandit of Watch Tower No 1 in Corbett National Park. On the morning of 18th March, Varun, Myself and Angad decided to sit atop the tower in hope to spot a Tiger who had recently killed a buffalo in the grassland. Tower No. 1 gives a panoramic view of the Grassland across the Ramganga river (as seen in the picture below) and is located on a popular forest road called Sambar Road.

We packed our lunch and left the camp at 10:45 AM to reach the tower as the gates for the inner routes close at 11:00 AM and open at 3:00 PM.

We reached the watch tower, picked up our gear and climbed our way up the ladder to the top which was quite a tedious task with all the equipment in hand. Finally we made it to the top and started setting up our tripods and other equipment after looking at the breathtaking view of the grassland. We saw another jeep coming to a stop below the tower but we didn't take notice of it and continued on with setting our gear up and settling down to play the waiting game with the Tiger when suddenly we heard a loud scream and we looked down and saw that a monkey had jumped into the jeep below and snatched some eatables from it's occupants and fled into the bushes nearby and I wondered then if this could be the same notorious Bandit of Watchtower No. 1 which I had been seeing there since years together.

We quickly decided to go into defensive mode and hid our eatables from view so that they could be safe...Well that's what we thought but .......

I took another look down the ladder and around the tower but could not see the bandit and then settled down absorbing the scenic beauty of the place and spotted some beautiful birds like the Collared Falconet, Purple Sunbird and near threatend towards extinction species like Lesser Fish Eagle perched on top of the trees around the tower and clicked them.

Varun was now looking through his binoculars into the direction where the Tiger had made a kill and Angad was upto his usual experiments with panoramas and I was sitting on the floor of the watch tower with my feet hanging out in the air through the safety railing when someone tapped my shoulder from behind, I looked back and saw the Bandit mocking me with his mouth open trying to scare me and tried to run off with a pack of our eatables but failed as Angad managed to yell out in time. I quickly got up on my feet and all three of us tried to scare it away with my Tripod.

As we tried to scare Mr Bandit away he climbed up to an elevated position above us and tried to scare us from there and mocked us badly by shitting down near where we were. Finally we managed to scare it away ... well atleast for some time and got back to our forest watch. Another 30 minutes passed peacefully and we had some good conversation about the Wildlife in Corbett National Park and clicked some more birds. Chances of sighting the Tiger in that vast grassland seemed bleak as the land though seems flat is actually not that way but is rather wavey with small streams passing through it which could not be seen from where we stood. It was 2 PM now and we decided to retreat back and get some rest and some snacks to fill our growling stomachs but alas! ... There was just a moment between our thought of having snacks and the bandit striking again without warning and running off with our bag of eatables and teasing us from the deck below leaving us with our growling stomachs.

All we could do then was to click him feasting on our food and nothing else... It didn't seem funny at that moment but we surely laughed about it a few minutes later. Nasir came to pick us up at about 3:00 PM with some packed lunch which was a blessing for our stomachs. We munched on our lunch and left for another safari through the beautiful forest giggling about our experience with The Bandit Of Watch Tower No. 1.

PS:- Any of you visiting the park...Beware of the Bandit :-)

Photo Credit:- The Pictures of the bandit himself were taken by our bandit Angad Pal Singh Kingra. Thanks for sharing buddy. :-)

The Tiger That Climbed Trees

It was a chilly early morning in March in Corbett National Park when Varun, Angad and Myself mounted on Nasir's gypsy entered the park. Braving the morning chill and cherishing the sweet scent of the forest we were driving from Dhangarhi to Dhikala which is about 31 KMS through dense Sal forest. In these Kumaoni mountains the small seasonal rivulets that come down from the mountain side are called "Sot" and it was on one of these Sots where the most unexpected thing happend. As it was early morning we were expecting to see some Tiger activity on our way to Dhikala.

15 KMS before Dhikala we reached a small wooden bridge over a rocky rivulet at the foot of a large hill. The place was called "Gorkha Sot". The road was very sandy and while driving we were keeping an eye on the road to spot any fresh Tiger pugmarks. We crossed the bridge which was followed by an acute turn around the mountain from the edge of which one could get an open view of the river and the grassland on the other side. We stopped and looked through our binoculars for any activity down at the river but it all seemed calm when suddenly monkeys started raising alarm calls on the hill just above the Gorkha Sot bridge.

Monkeys are considered the eyes of the forest as they sit up high on trees and can watch the activity below and they raise an alarm when they see a predator lurking around like Tiger or a Leopard. Having the hill in our sight we reversed our jeep looking down at the road and were surprised to absolutely fresh Tiger pugmarks which really were not there seconds ago when we had crossed the bridge. Quickly all the cameras came out and the heartbeat picked up considering the fact that since the monkeys were calling on top of the hill, chances are we might get attacked by a Tiger from an elevated position if luck is not on our side. We stopped just before the bridge at the foot of the hill and looked for any movement but could not see anything. The Monkey calls we growing louder and louder but spotting the Tiger in the thick bushes over the hill was impossible. We decided to reverse the jeep a bit more to a spot where there was a smooth slope on the hill hoping that if the Tiger comes back down the hill, it would most likely take the easier slope rather than the rocky almost vertical drop.

We waited at this spot listening to the Monkeys for good 45 - 50 Minutes but still could see nothing when suddenly there was a loud ruckus made by the Monkeys and a dying squeak from one of them making us wonder if it just got hunted. After waiting another 15 minutes another school of thought came from Nasir that if the Tiger can see us where we are, it might not come down the slope until we leave that spot so we again went over the bridge and stopped at the turn where the Tiger could not see us while coming down the slope. Yet again, the plan didn't seem too fruitful. We were now losing hope of spotting anything and retreated back into our seats to hit the road again.

Before we started, another jeep went past us and stopped as they had a flat tyre. We all got out to help the driver quickly change the wheel as it was not safe to be outside on that spot at that time. 5 minutes by the clock and the wheel was replaced and we were set to roll when suddenly some rocks fell from the hill. There was a tree on top of that hill and as our eyes went up we saw the most unexpected animal of all. A Leopard was climbing up the tree and was looking down on us in great fury as if it would just pounce over us from atop that tree on the hill. It was a beautiful young adult in it's prime with great fur and rosettes.

Leopards are largely nocturnal creatures living mainly in grasslands, woodlands and riverside forests and presumably the most shy of all the Cat family members. We all clicked a few shots before it disappeared from our sight after climbing down the tree. In my years of experience in the park this was my second only Leopard sighting. We sat there thinking that we were tracking a Tiger and look what we found... A Leopard in Tiger shoes :-) . We all had a good laugh about it and pat our backs for a wonderful sighting and moved on ahead towards Dhikala thinking that if this was just the begining, what lies in store for us next once we reach our destination.

The Three Day Feast

19th March 2009 - Corbett National Park, India

We had been in the park for three days now. Varun and Angad, Friends and fellow photographers were accompanying me on the trip. We had already taken some great shots on this trip but one thing was still missing. The day we entered the park we recieved news that a Tiger had killed a domestic stray buffalo from the nearby Gujjar village in the grassland across the river in Dhikala. The only way to reach that spot was on Elephant back or spot the Tiger from the watch tower on Sambar road (A popular safari road in Corbett National Park) that overlooks the grassland. We spent a whole day from 9 AM till 4 PM on the watch tower hoping to spot the Tiger as we could not get an Elephant ride since all the Elephants were booked but we had to return disappointed.

Today we had to leave the park and at day break we were walking towards our jeep for the morning safari. On the way I ran into Mr Dhyani (The Deputy Ranger of Dhikala) and he informed me that there were 3 slots empty for the Elephant ride. We instantly agreed to go on the Elephant to see this Tiger which had now been seen around the same area for three days feasting on a giant buffalo. Although we were informed that the chances of spotting it today would be minimal as the kill was totally consumed and hardly any bones were left but we still decided to take our chance.

It was 6 in the morning when we mounted Nisar's Elephant Laxmi. There still were a few minutes for the Sun to show in the sky and Laxmi was making her way down the hill from a narrow gravelly path and by the time we got down the hill the Sun started peeking from above the mountains across the grassland. The whole place was painted orange and the reflection of the sun in the river seemed magical. Looking at the spot where the kill was made from a distance seemed as if whatever was left of the kill was consumed overnight as there were no Vultures around the area.

We approached the area cautiously looking around for any movement in the grass but it was a calm and quiet morning. We started moving further from the kill site and all the Elephants (4 in number) split up over a wide area searching the grassland for the Tiger. We kept moving eastwards for about 15 minutes after which we were riding along a wide trench which seemed like a perfect hiding spot for the Tiger. We carried on our search and minutes later Nisar, our mahout pointed out towards North east direction saying "Woh soya pada hai Tiger" (There it is sleeping, The Tiger). We looked in the direction where he was pointing and there it was at the edge of the trench, well camouflaged in yellow-green grass.

We slowly approached the trench from where we could see the Tiger sleeping on the other side. We took a few shots before Laxmi (Our Elephant) entered the trench to go over to the other side. It was a freak moment as for once instead of looking down from the Elephant, I was looking up at the sleeping Tiger and was just wondering if it wakes up by the sounds made by our Elephant, it could easily pounce on us from that elevated position. Breath soon came back to me when we came out of the trench on the other side and were barely a few meters away from the Tiger. It surely was one of the largest male Tigers I have seen in years and just by looking at it's sheer size I could understand how it managed consuming a fully grown buffalo in just three days. The belly was so full that it was bulging out indicating the fact that the Tiger had feasted and had feasted really well.

In the mean time Nisar waved the other mahouts to bring their Elephants in as well to see the Tiger. Soon we were joined by the other Elephants and then waited for the Tiger to wake up so we could have some nice shots. The elephants by the time started feasting on the nice green grass below us which probably woke the Tiger and it growled at us to step back and then put it's head back down on the ground to sleep. Perhaps it was too full and lazy to do anything that morning :-).

We waited some more when it got up again and gave out a deafening roar which really was ground shaking and then it got and moved down into the trench. We could still see the Tiger down in the trench through the grass and it surely was ready to pounce on the Elephant as the tail was snapping. A Tiger's attack can be judged by it's tail. Before a Tiger attacks it snaps it's tail on the ground followed by spinning it slowly in circular motion. Seeing this behavior Nisar immediately steered Laxmi out of the Tiger's way as it was well agitated by now.

They cannot really put the tourists into harms way so they always retreat before anything can happen. We then left the Tiger to let him digest his three day feast and made way back to our camp for our departure from the park. It surely was one of the best Tiger sightings I have ever had...

The Great Elephant Charge

14th June 2009 - Corbett National Park, India

It was a day before the park closes for the monsoons and after 2 days of frantic Elephant back Tiger tracking we were making our way back to Dhikala. Corbett in this season is flooded with Elephants as they are on their retreat towards the forest of Rajaji National Park and also since it is prime Elephant mating season.

Wild Elephants can be more dangerous than Tigers in these forests. If a Tiger attacks your car, you are still safe inside but if an Elephant does...it will surely make a football out of your car.

As we made our way back towards the camp, The grassland was full of elephants. There must have been over 250 elephants in different groups as far as one's eye could see and that too Elephants at their aggressive best. We managed maneuvering through giant herds saving ourselves from being attacked or provoking them. Now the camp was in sight and I looked back at the path from which we came and all I could see was Elephants and more Elephants and even up ahead I could see 2 groups of Elephants over 50 strong each that we had to cross from the middle but this is where our calculations went wrong. We stopped to gauge the distance between us so that we could safely pass the herds but instead they saw us first and started giving out loud trumpets. Before we could think of retreating our Elephant to take a different route the two herds started running towards each other...one from the right and one from the left in front of us. As they joined together they suddenly changed direction and headed straight for us from a distance of less than 50 meters. Our Elephant was frozen at one spot and didn't move, The Mahaout (Nisar) said "Aaj to gaye" (Today we are done for) looking at the charging herd of Elephants.

I had my bigger 400MM lens mounted on the Camera and I took as many shots of them as possible thinking that these might be my last...LOL ... The thudding sound of Elephants charging towards us had engulfed our minds and there was dust all over and just when the Elephants were less than ten meters away from us they turned towards the left and passed us on the side trumpeting loudly leaving us totally stunned and in shock. I took a sigh of relief when I saw that the Elephants were leaving us and going towards the forest and I pointed it out to Nisar. Nisar looked back at me and could see me totally spell binded by what had just happend and I could see the same expression on his face. We didn't utter a word and while trying to catch our breath back reached our camp in one piece to tell the tale of The Great Elephant Charge.