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.

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Welcome Surfers, Bloggers, Wildlife and Adventure buffs. I am Nachiketa Bajaj and I welcome you all to my blog. After years of photographing Nature and Wildlife, I have decided to share my experiences and photos of the wild with you and all I ask in return is for you to share yours.