Early May 2009 I went to an exciting 4-day trip to Kanha Tiger Reserve, Madhya Pradesh, India. This is a detailed trip report of what I saw and clicked in this wonderful park. Would be highly obliged if you leave your thoughts/comments/suggestions in the Comments section below or eMail me @ Santanu_Banik@yahoo.com . To see a larger version of the images, please click on the corresponding thumbnail views below.
I chose summer time to visit the park just to maximize my chances of a clear sighting. During summer, the big cats generally stay near the water holes / lakes during daytime. Not only cats, other animals e.g. sloth bears, deers, dholes etc come close to the water patches more often. The temperature remains above or around 40 degrees most of the times during peak summer (April-June).
Day 0 ~ May 1, 2009 Friday ~ The Journey begins
We took the route Nagpur → Bhandara → Tumsar → Balaghat → Mukki . Our accommodation was booked in MP Tourism's Kanha Safari Lodge, Mukki. There are two entrances to the park - one at Kisli and the other at Mukki. From Nagpur, Mukki is around 270 KMs; we had booked a cab which picked us up in Nagpur at around 4 PM in the afternoon and dropped at the hotel at 10 PM. The exhaustion of the travel was forgotten in the utter excitement.
Quick links for the various safaris of the Trip.
Day 1 Morning Safari
Day 1 Afternoon Safari
Day 2 Morning Safari
Day 2 Afternoon Safari
Day 3 Morning Safari
Day 3 Afternoon Safari
Day 4 Morning Safari
Day 4 Afternoon Safari |
| |
| |
| Day 1 ~ May 2, 2009 Saturday ~ Welcome Greetings |
| | Go to Top | Your Comments |
| |
 | At this season, park gates open quite early in the morning; we were at the gate 5 minutes before the scheduled entry time - couldn't wait for it! We entered the park before the sunrise and drove towards the Sondhar Tal area. The sunrise view was lovely; had a lot of promise! We stopped for a couple of minutes to enjoy the beauty. |
| |
| Inside the park, the National Bird (Indian peafowl) greeted us; we were lucky to see the majestic courtship displayed - by spreading out the feathers. It was such a lovely sighting! |  |
| |
 |  | Here are a couple of more shots of this beauty. |
| |
| Then we met a Langur family; they were sitting pretty close to the road - on a fallen trunk of a tree - with soft morning light falling on them. We spent a few minutes and took some snaps. |
|
| |
 | After sometime I had the luck to see Asiatic Wild Dogs - popularly known as Dhole. This was my first ever sighting of Dholes. This was a pack of at least 4-5 dogs. A large cluster of tall grasses and undergrowths made it difficult to focus; the Dholes were far from us, too. Therefore managed to get only a few record shots. Nevertheless, I was indeed happy to see this highly endangered species for the first time! |
| |
| At the same place where we saw the Dhole, we saw a peafowl sitting on one of the top branches of a tree. The branch was at least 20 meters above the ground level! Following is a record shot of the same. |  |
| |
 | We had our breakfast at the central camp in Kanha. While coming back from the morning safari, took this snap of a little turtle from a bridge. We spent a few minutes there and saw Chitals, Sambars, Wild boars and Peafowls quenching their thirst. Some common water birds viz. Cormorant, Egrets were also seen. |
| |
I saw a Small Blue Kingfisher too close to our vehicle. Since it was within the minimum focusing distance of my lens, I decided to simply enjoy its beauty with bare eyes.
At the same place, on the other side of the bridge, a Shikra had perched on a branch - almost at eye level; I could take only a couple of snaps before it vanished. |  |
| |
 | We drove back towards Mukki. Heard a few alarm calls and thus waited for some time in Sondhar Tal area. Saw a gang of Gaurs drinking water at the far end of the pond. A few Chitals were at the nearby end. |
| |
| A Grey langur gave a nice pose while we were waiting near the tank. |  |
| |
 | Unfortunately there was no tiger sighting for us in this first safari; got some shots of a Monitor lizard just before the end of the first safari. |
| |
Overall, I was happy with the very first safari of the trip! We saw quite a few animals there. At 11 am, we came back to our lodge.
We got freshened up and finished off our lunch by 1.30 PM. Took some rest and were ready for the afternoon safari which started at 4 PM. |
| |
| |
| Day 1 ~ Afternoon Safari |
| | Go to Top | Your Comments |
| |
| In the afternoon safari, the first thing we spotted was a Gaur very close to the safari trail - on a roadside bunk. We waited for it to come on the road. Initially we couldn't see how big it was - later when he crossed the road, we found that it was an enormously big creature! Our safari guide told us that the weight would be approximately 1500 KGs! Phew! No wonder why a big cat enjoys a Gaur-meal for more than a week! |  |
| |
 |  |  | On the way, we came across a group of Chitals; they were looking great under the fading sunlight. We stopped for a while to take some snaps. Saw Barasinghas, too. |
| |
| After some time, near a waterhole, we spotted a Dhole drinking water. It sat for some time to relax. Light was too low as we were in a dense part of the forest. A few minutes later another Dhole came. One of these came close to our vehicle just to see what we are up to. While doing so, he gave us some nice poses :-) . Then it went back. We realized that there were not just these two; but a big group around. They actually came to drink water and went away. |  |  |
| |
 |  | Our guide did a terrific job. He told us we can still get to see the group of Dholes in better light if we follow them. We did the same. The dholes didn't follow the safari trail and took their own way. After a few minutes we came to a rather open area where light was good and guess what? Bingo - the Dholes came out in the open area! |
| |
| It was a pack of 18 Dholes! Just too big for an endangered species! We were extremely lucky to see them together; got a feel how dangerous the pack would be - when all of them hunt together. Our guide also told us that this was only the second time in his 9 years' career he has seen such a big pack. He told us an incident he had heard - a big pack of Dholes - 24 of them - attacked a tiger. The tiger fought bravely and was capable enough of kill 18 of them but the rest of the Dholes killed the tiger!! |  |  |
| |
 |  |  | Right after the Dhole episode, we saw a Peafowl on an interesting perch. While coming back, met a Sambar family and took a couple of shots. The Wild boar shot was taken under extremely low light. |
| |
| Though we didn't get to see any tigers or leopards on the first day, it was a good day for us - there were some good sightings in the jungle near Mukki area. |
| |
| |
| Day 2 ~ May 3, 2009 Sunday ~ Meeting the King |
| | Go to Top | Your Comments |
| The Second day started with lots of hope. We decided to go to Kanha meadow area and on the way we heard that a tiger was just recently seen in that region. Somebody told leopards were also seen in Badrinath area. This was a very encouraging news for us. Our guide drove straight towards the meadow. As we approached the meadow, one of the safari vehicles informed us that they saw a sloth bear. They also heard alarm calls near Badrinath area and Tank no 9 area. |
| We decided to go towards Badrinath. While we were approaching the meadow, we saw quite a few safari vehicles lined up in a queue. Suddenly our guide speeded up the vehicle and told us that he saw the tiger. I was surprised and asked him where it was? He told me there was a Tiger near the area where all the other vehicles stood. They were still far away and we drove very quickly towards them. When we reached that area, I could spot the tiger right beside the road - in front of our vehicle! |  |
| |
 | Oh my - it was a huge male tiger. Probably he is now the new ruler of the meadow area. He was not at all bothered by the presence of so many safari vehicles. We were pretty close to him - within 12 meters. He crossed the road and came into the meadow. |
| |
| We spent around 15 minutes; the tiger crossed the road again and went into the highlands. Within few minutes, it crossed the road and came back to the meadow again. Then he went into thick bushes far away from the safari trail. Before going off, he gave us some thrilling moments to enjoy. It was the first tiger sighting of the trip. :-) |  |  |
| |
| | Well that was not the end of our luck :-) !! Once the tiger went deep inside the forest, we thought of trying our luck around Tank no 9 area. We drove back; on the way found a vehicle; they were looking at the trees far away inside the forest. We came close by and had a look - OMG! There was a Leopard on the tree!! It took me quite a few seconds to spot it. Almost 80-100 meters away, high up in the forest canopy was this leopard seen. I was looking with my bare eyes and soon realized I was missing some majestic moments to capture. I quickly setup my tripod on the seats of the jeep. I stood up on the side bars - thus getting my level of sight effectively around 9 feet above the ground. This was required as there were distracting bushes, huge undergrowths and branches in front. I took utmost care of my own balance and my camera's. |
| |
| The leopard was not in mood to sit on the branch; it went on moving back and forth; within a couple of minutes, it came down from the tree. I took this opportunity to add a 1.4x TC to my lens; thus getting a better reach. We realized later that there was another leopard on that long branch - was not visible before due to some distractions. It also came into the position where we could see properly and sat down in a relaxing mood. Thanks to a fellow safari mate, we shifted to a new position; went back some 25 meters and that place gave us a clearer view. |  |  |
| |
 | We spent around 10-15 minutes more at this place before the leopard decided to climb down and was not seen thereafter. |
| |
| Then we headed towards the Badrinath area hoping the leopards would come there. Unfortunately they were not seen. Spotted a Lesser Adjutant Stork nearby, had a go. |  |
| |
 | We drove back to Mukki. At Sondhar Tal area, we saw a tiger tracking elephant. The Mahut informed us that we could get to see a female tiger; but she was sitting inside a thick bush - so, there won't be any good photographic opportunity. Still we decided to give it a try. We went ahead; saw the female tiger from quite a close distance. Got a few record shots. |
| |
| That was a fantastic safari for us. First tiger and within 15 minutes, we saw leopards and then before the end of the safari, saw another tiger - couldn't ask for more! :-) |
| |
| |
| Day 2 ~ Afternoon Safari |
| | Go to Top | Your Comments |
| |
| I was prepared for a completely "no sighting" safari in the afternoon. Since we knew that the female tiger was in Mukki range; we decided to spend the afternoon around Sondhar Tal area. On the way, we got a few close shots of Gaurs. |  |
| |
 | Got this encounter shot, too. But low light and the distraction spoilt the image. |
| |
| We came to Sondhar Tal. Saw group of Sambar deer drinking water. There were strong alarm calls going on. The other safari vehicles confirmed that they had also heard alarm calls in that area. |  |
| |
 | Got to see some Barking deers. These are extremely shy animals. We were far away, yet the slightest movement of the car was making them alert. |
| |
| I have never been able to take a snap of a Greater Racket-tailed Drongo perching on a completely open area. We were waiting for a big cat to come near the water body and got this guy! Lucky me! Unfortunately this chap had lost one of its "Racket-tail"s. :-( |  |  |
| |
 | Got a record shot of a Tree-pie at the same place. |
| |
There was an Indian Peafowl near the water hole - next to the perch where we saw the Greater Racket-tailed Drongo. A Red-wattled Lapwing was disturbing this guy - probably it was a fight for food! |  | | |
 | While coming back, we got to see some Gaurs in great light. :-) |
| |
| We were slightly disappointed not to see any big cat in the afternoon safari - but it's all about your luck. The second day was fabulous from an overall perspective. We enjoyed a lot! |
| |
| |
| |
| Day 3 ~ May 4, 2009 Monday ~ The Royal walk |
| | Go to Top | Your Comments |
| |
| On Day 3 morning safari, we went straight to the Kanha meadow area - heard some alarm calls and we started following them. But unfortunately we couldn't spot any biggies. We went to Badrinath area and waited for around an hour in that region. Intermittent alarm calls were going on and off; we waited and waited. In the meadow region, we met the tiger tracking elephants. The mahuts told us that they also didn't spot any tiger. |  |
| |
 |  |  | Kanha meadow looked so nice then - only thing missing was a big cat! |
| |
| Got a flight shot (record only) of a White Throated Kingfisher, and then saw two Changeable Hawk Eagles. Got a closeup shot of an Indian Peafowl, too. |  |  |
| |
 | After our unfruitful wait near Badrinath area, we decided to come to Sondhar Tal (Mukki area) area; wanted to try our luck there - heard a tigress was seen and was tracked for time in the morning. We drove back to Sondhar Tal. Waited there for some time; heard from other safari vehicles that there was indeed some sighting in the early morning; but the tigress went inside the bushes and could not be tracked further. |
| |
| It was thus a rather disappointing morning safari session for us with no luck at all. It was hard indeed to take it for granted; but this is how your luck plays a crucial role. I wished all the best to myself for the afternoon safari! |
| |
| |
| Day 3 ~ Afternoon Safari |
| | Go to Top | Your Comments |
| |
| Afternoon safari started in a calm note. We decided to go to meadow region again. While going there, saw a colourful red jungle fowl; stopped for a couple of minutes to take snaps. |  |
| |
 | Again sambar! :-) :-) This time got them inside water, with an upright tail - showing signs of alarm. |
| |
| We waited there for a few minutes; saw big groups of Sambars & Chitals - quenching thirsts. |  |  |
| |
 | We started off towards the meadow from there; took the bison road. We saw chitals, gaurs, sambars on the way - but no alram calls. We were driving fast; so didn't see any other safari vehicle around till we saw one on the bison road. That safari vehicle was seen to enjoy seeing some animal close-by. We came close to them and our guide suddenly alarmed us - "Tiger"!! Every time I heard such alarms, I fail to locate the tiger instantly and take some time to spot it. But this time, I didn't take a single second’s time to see this beauty - hardly 5~6 meters away from us!!! |
| |
| What a luck! With only one more safari vehicle around, I was really happy for the fact that we had a chance to spend some time this is handsome hunk. In a less than a minute's time, he got up from his relaxing pose. I won't say he got irritated by our presence - as I could see him looking at the chitals, sambars and gaurs all the time. He was hungry and thirsty.He started walking; he was within 6 meters of our vehicle. Gave us a cold stare and went ahead. |  |
| |
 | He was looking around and was in search for its prey. Our guide did a great job by carefully following him. The tiger never seemed to be bothered by anyway; he continued his walk. We got a few close shots of the new emperor of the Kanha meadow. |
| |
| The tiger was walking almost parallel to the road. He was ahead of us and two safari cars were slowly following him. |  |  |
| |
 |  |  | He came close to a tree to scent-mark his territory; our guide took this advantage and drove past him - thus the tiger now headed towards us. I thoroughly enjoyed the front view of the Royal walk and I thank my guide for giving me the opportunity to take close up snaps of the emperor from front. What a royal moment! |
| |
| Gradually few more vehicles came around us. We were sure of his intension; he looked real hungry. There was a gaur nearby; he stared at him. Somehow the gaur became alert. |  |
| |
 | We were close to Shravan Tal. The emperor thought of quenching his thirst. He gave us a pricessless stare before going towards the waterbody. |
| |
| We drove towards the other side of Shravan Tal - just to have a look at him drinking water. The rule inside the park is that you can neither come down from the safari vehicle nor get the vehicle off from the safari trails. When we reached the other side of the waterbody, we could see the tiger, more than 200 meters away from us. My extender helped me to have a decent reach. |  |
| |
 |  | He drank water; cooled himself off and relaxed for some time in the bank. Stood up suddenly - he might have heard some chital or sambar's call closeby. Then again sat down. It was getting late, we started off for the return journey. |
| |
| What a scintillating and thrilling afternoon! I couldn't ask for more! We were late and our guide decided to come out off the park through the nearby Kisli gate. We were happy to do so. We relaxed for some time and had some snacks in the nearby MTDC lodge before we took the road from Kisli to Mukki (outside the park) to come back to our hotel in Mukki. It was a cloudless night; the buffer region looked majestic under the moon-lit sky. This one and half hours journey was very much relaxing, enjoyable & memorable! Thus Day 3 was the most enjoyable day for us overall. |
| |
| |
| Day 4 ~ May 5, 2009 Tuesday ~ the final encounter |
| | Go to Top | Your Comments |
| |
| We started early on the last day of our trip. Reached the gate well before opening time. We wanted to go to Badrinath area to try our luck. We drove fast to the Badrinath area through the Kanha meadow without stopping anywhere. The meadow was calm. No alarm calls. We waited near the Badrinath area for some time. Heard a few intermittent, low intensity alarm calls. While we were waiting at the Badrinath area, saw this Changeable Hawk Eagle on the other side of the road. |  |
| |
None of the other safari vehicles saw any tiger till then; one of the vehicles told us that they saw a leopard crossing the road before the Badrinath area. We drove to the same area and waited for some time - but no luck. We came back to the meadow and saw there was no activities, too.
Our guide thought of giving a try at the tank number 9 area. The road that goes towards tank no 9 from the meadow didn't have any other vehicle that time. We drove slowly. Went past the location where we spotted the leopards on the second day. This time we didn't see anything. Further down, we came to a small creek (with no water). On the culvert, our guide stopped the vehicle. He showed us some fresh pug marks of a leopard. They looked to be very fresh and gave us an indication that we may have just missed an opportunity to see them. |
| |
 | I was sitting on the back seat of the safari vehicle. I took my camera and moved my body a bit forward to take the snap of the pug marks. Suddenly I heard a noise (of moving leaves/branches) at of back of my head. I immediately turned back and saw a leopard on the tree - hardly 2 and half meters away!!! It was sitting on a branch which was almost at the top of my head!!! No one in the vehicle noticed this chap before. As soon as I turned to him, immediately he started climbing down the tree; I was spellbound - didn't realize that I have a camera with me and can take snaps of this million dollar moment! I missed to freeze the stare but I will cherish it forever. It took me around 2-3 seconds to come back to the real world before I clicked this. |
| |
| It climbed down and went inside the bushes rather slowly; gave a cold stare at us. |  |
| |
 | For a few minutes we waited there - our guide had a gut feel that the leopard would come back to the road. And bingo! He was absolutely right! The leopard came back on the road. We saw his partner also. The female leopard went ahead and the male followed her. They went on scent-marking the trees alongside the road. |
| |
| This is the place where we spotted these beauties. Fortunately there was no other vehicle on the road. |  |
| |
 | We could spot the leopards after they went inside in the bush again. These moments were the finest moments of that trip and was very very special to me as I had spotted the leopard :-). We enjoyed this wonderful sighting for about 15-20 minutes. |
| |
| Other vehicles came to that place and we waited for some more time. The leopards didn't come back - rather we saw them going away inside the forest where there was no safari trail. |
| |
| Then we took a pause at the central camp. Heard that the male tiger which we had spotted yesterday, had killed a gaur near bison road. There was an opportunity to see it with the kill - with the help of elephant ride. We decided to go for that and asked our guide to book our names for the elephant safari. We had a good 1 hr time to relax and check out the Kanha museum. This museum is fantastic - really worth visiting - provides a lot of useful information on history, topography and environmental aspects of the forest including its various activities and the tribal culture of the surrounding region. It also provides details about the lifestyle of the people who belong to the jungle. | |
| |
 |  |  |
| |
| |
| |
| |
 | We couldn't finish seeing the whole museum before we got a call that we should go to the spot where tiger made the kill. We started immediately and reached the spot in 10 minutes. We saw a big queue of vehicles there. There were three elephants taking visitors to the spot. |
| |
| Our turn came alomost after half an hour. Here is the sequence of pics. |  |
| |
 | There was scorching heat and fortunately there was a very small water patch nearby. The tiger was sitting there intermittently. Big cats are very possessive about their kills (so as everyone :-)) and this guy was no exception to it. Some crows were after the kill; but the tiger came all the way running from the water patch to make sure no one else is enjoying his kill. :-) |
| |
The crows didn't let it go - they came back again. The tiger had gone back to the water patch. He again came running. Then decided to sit very close to the kill. He was feeling the heat - but no way he could let his kill be enjoyed by someone else! |  |
| |
 | The kill was huge and the tiger eventually enjoyed this meal for the next 9~10 days :-) |
| |
| |
| |
| Day 4 ~ Afternoon Safari |
| | Go to Top | Your Comments |
| |
| It was late again and we decided to stay at Kisli gate during lunch to save some time. Started afternoon safari - the last safari for the trip. We thought of visiting the kill place again. As we approached the bison road, we saw the road which leads to the spot was blocked by the park officials. This measure was taken to make sure the tiger enjoyed his meal without any further disturbances. Our guide spotted a tiger very very far away - near the camp in Shravan Tal area. But there was no safari trail towards that place. We saw Changeable Hawk eagle, Chitals, Sambars and a cute little rabbit before we called it a day! |
| |
| |
That was what I call as the best jungle trip I have ever had! I take this opportunity to express my sincere thanks to Mr Rajendra who was our guide cum safari driver. His vast experience and knowledge of the park areas, excellent tracking capabilities and superb driving skills made all these possible. Drop me a mail if you wish to contact him. I will remember this trip forever!
I would be highly obliged if you share your thoughts/comments/suggestions on this report. You can either use the Comments section below or eMail me at Santanu_Banik@yahoo.com |
