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.