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...