After years of unsuccessful attempts to sight a tiger in the forests of Karnataka, which is supposed to be home to some 500+ tigers, we decided to finally go to the place in India known for tiger sighting, Tadoba in Maharashtra/ Madhya Pradesh. I booked our stay at the Jharna Resort and Spa in the Northern part of Tadoba, with minimal research. I was looking for a decent resort at a not too heavy price and after a quick search, froze on the Jharna Resort which was apparently close to one of the many entry gates to the Tadoba National Reserve Forest. Reading through the Internet, I realised, a little too late that one has to also book a safari ride in advance at Tadoba! I booked the rooms for December, in October. I started looking for a safari ride online back then. I was not sure of the lay of the land and the nearest gate. Other immediate matters took precedence and I just let the matter be. As we came in to December and the dates of departure to Tadoba approached, our search for a safari ride intensified. I started reaching out to various contacts, the resort itself and so forth. All the rides for the entire last week of December were sold out!
Now on the Maharashtra Forest Department website (https://safaribooking.mahaforest.gov.in/Userlogin/index/), there were options for safari rides in other national forests in the vicinity, such as Pench and a couple of others. I had heard a lot about tiger sightings in the Pench National Forest and decided to at least book a ride there. Safari rides at Pench were open and I went ahead and booked an afternoon safari ride for Pench, which is about 2-3 hours by road from the resort that we were staying at. In the meanwhile, all the contacts and hope for a safari ride at Tadoba came to naught. That website also as a Tatkal option for booking rides, which opens 2 days in advance and that too at 8:00 a.m. I tried to book a ride in Tatkal as well, but by the time I even entered the details and clicked on “Book”, the rides were gone! So the day of our departure arrived and off we headed to Tadoba from Bengaluru, with a break at Hyderabad for a couple of days. From Hyderabad, the drive took us about 8 hours to reach Tadoba. The Highway was good for the most part except for a stretch as soon as we entered Maharashtra from Telangana. The approach road to the resort itself was also under construction, so the last 30 kms or so took more than 45 minutes.
Once we reached the resort, we were welcomed to spacious cottages, which was quite pleasant. The resort had a swimming pool, a kind of rain dance place, an open-air gym and loads of photographs of tigers from Tadoba. The food was decent and as soon as we checked-in, we enquired about the possibility of a safari ride. The gentleman at the desk was aged and very helpful. He asked us about the date when we would like to go for a safari ride through the forest. Since I had already booked the ride at Pench for the following day, I asked him about the possibility of find a ride on the day after. We only had 2 full days at the resort and were due to start on our return journey after that. He promised to try and keep us posted. We left with a prayer on our lips and some nervous excitement because we were in the buffer zone of the forest and tigers were ostensibly not too far away! The resort had a print out on the Notice board with a list of the tigers sighted when entered through the Navegaon gate, the one closest to the resort. Every one of the rides listed had sighted at least one tiger! The support staff at the resort regaled us with stories about the tigers of Tadoba – Chota Matka, the premier tiger who had killed his father tiger, Matkasur a few years ago with help from his friend tiger, who he had subsequently killed as well. Ghastly!
The following morning, we left for Pench, which took us through the city of Nagpur. We had a quick lunch at a proper, basic roadside restaurant at a small town just outside the gate to enter into Pench. Our safari ride was booked for 2 p.m and when we reached the gate, we were a little surprised to see that there was no one there except for a guard house and a solitary guard. There were basic amenities at the rear, which were quite clean and a nice little lawn for the kids to run around in. The guard checked the details of the booking (I had it saved in my phone) and he took a look at the Aadhaar card and we were all set. Another group arrived in a car shortly and two jeeps belonging to the Forest Department arrived soon after. We were all set to start on our journey. Not too excited because obviously, this was not a popular safari as evident by only 2 jeeps going into the forest. We drove around for almost 4 hours in the forest, stopping at various points and managed to sight a few herbivores from afar. The Nilgai, the sambar deer and a few monkeys were our returns from the Pench ride. As usual, similar to our experience with numerous safari rides in Karnataka’s forests in Nagarahole, Bandipur and Kamini, we were disappointed. The driver would stop at some spots and we would wait for a tiger to magically appear. It was not to be. We returned empty handed and tired to the resort. There was some good news waiting for us.
The resort Manager informed us that he had arranged for a ride for us from the Navegaon gate, which was hardly a km or so from the resort for the following morning! We were thrilled! We slept well that night and were awake bright and early, ready to depart at 6:00 a.m for the safari. The resort had packed breakfast for us, which was directly loaded on to the jeep which picked us up from the resort. This time, at the entrance gate to the forest reserve, there were at least 15-20 jeeps, all full of tourists like us. I had to get down and sign some register and we were all set. The gates opened and all the jeeps set off. We were all super excited, we could feel it in our bones that we would sight a tiger today! We were not disappointed. After about an hour of driving around, the guide received a phone call and we were off, reaching a spot where there already some 10 or so jeeps surrounding a young male tiger. It was majestic to look at him! He was feasting on a kill behind a few bushes and coming out of the bushes to let us feast our eyes on him. We were told to not shoot any pictures with our mobile phones and because we were not carrying any of those large DSLR cameras, we could not capture any photos. Not such a bad thing, in all honesty. It allowed us to simply soak in the moment, watching him as he walked around in majesty totally oblivious of the jeeps and the people in those jeeps surrounding him. After a while, he decided to take a stroll and started trotting through the open area. He passed right next to our jeep, giving us the best view yet of his magnificence. He was not Chota Matka, the undisputed king of the forest, but he was one of his off-springs, on his own, not fully developed into an adult tiger, but boy, was he a sight to behold out in the forest! He spotted a few deers grazing about 500 meters away. All the jeeps followed him and surrounded him in a broad semi-circle as he stood poised to attack the deer, who were somehow alerted to his presence and turned to stare at him. He stood still as a statue with one foot in the air, ready to make a charge. The deer gradually moved farther away, maybe another 500 metres or so and he finally relaxed, lay down and licked himself. Soon, he was up and running through the open jungle with the sun kissing his skin, to have a sip of water. The jeeps all started up and quickly surrounded the water body as we got a beautiful sight of him drinking water. Those sights are etched in memory, likely better than a photo could have captured it. He soon got up and went away into some bushes. This whole episode took up at least an hour and we headed off into a small settlement in the forest for a much needed toilet break and breakfast. After wolfing down the breakfast and drink, we were back in the jeeps, trying to catch a sighting of another tiger, but it was not meant to be on that day. We did sight a few nilgai and deer and that was all. We returned, satisfied and happy about our returns for the day.
The rest of the day was spent relaxing in the pool and generally reminiscing on the morning’s activity. We left early the next day morning with a packed breakfast, on our way back to Hyderabad. En route, we stopped at a waterfalls, tucked away just about 10 minutes from the highway. It was quite serene and nice. We reached Hyderabad in about 8 hours accounting for the break at the waterfalls and lunch en route. A few tips if you are going to Tadoba:
- Book your safari ride online first
- Plan for 2 rides through the forest, it is quite magnificent
- Plan the rest of your itinerary around the safari rides
All things considered, I thought the tigers have now become accustomed to the jeeps and people surrounding them and almost harassing them with their proximity. There was ongoing construction activity inside the forest, would you believe? There was a JCB crane clearing some area, there were tractors carrying stones and some gravel to make better roads in the forest. It was noisy when around that activity, disturbing the tranquility. Sad, how we manage to disturb wild animals in their habitat even by wanting to simply sight them. Our human comforts know no end. We would like to have smooth roads in the forest, maybe even washrooms and hotels with wild animals around us for “entertainment”. Such is the world that we are a part of. Do we have a line that we do not dare cross?
Mithun's Musings 