Tiger
Trails in the land of Jim Corbett
Shikar was one of
the most popular recreational
activities during pre independence age
of India.From kings , princes, and to the British Indian rulers were proud of
the size and nature of the hunted beast. The remains of their hunting
legacy can be still found on the walls of ancient bungalows
in the form of stuffed animal heads. Most of the kings and noblemen used to
shoot at the animals without adequate knowledge and understanding about the jungle or its methods, guided by then experts, only to fire bullets. But in those times, existed men , who used to wander through the forest
all alone and dared to shoot the dangerous
animals from their bases.They understood
every nook and corner of the forest and animals as their own hands and they later turned in to
environmentalists and animal lovers. Kenneth Anderson and Jim Corbett
are the big names among such jungle heroes . Both of them were very good
writers and their books still inspire all the generations
Their
adventures and enthusiasm in hunting was also well captured in their
writings. Their writings drew a picture
of the forest of that era in the mind canvas of the reader. Moreover, both were
renowned writers, their writings had an impact on the forest
conservation activities during that period
 |
| Jim Edward Corbett (photo courtesy Wikipedia) |
The dreams that I've been chasing for
many years was to walk through the forests of Himalayan valley that Jim
Corbett's stories told and to hunt
tigers with my camera. My dream finally
saw light when I landed at Jim Corbett national park.The park is about 13 km away from the town of Ramnagar to reach the main
entrance of Dhikala zone of Jim Corbett National Park from where you have to
travel about 35 km to the guest house of Dhikala. From the main road as we
enter Dhikala, Jim Corbett welcomes you with his smiling face in the form of a
statue and it will remind you of the flesh eating cannibals of Rudraprayaga and
Kumayoon. We may hear sudden gun shots
and animal roars barging the silence of the jungle,after all we are moving
through Jim's land.The land once ruled by him...
To be at the Jim Corbett's soil, is a
dream come true for a forest adventurer. Earlier booked gypsy picked me up from
Ramnagar in the early morning. Within half an hour, we reached the main
entrance of the Dhikala and took another half an hour for checking .At seven
thirty the trip in Dhikala started .Our next four days will be in Dhikala. The
driver Sajid Shah is a good driver and tracker .He has a good idea of the
biodiversity in the forest and also a good photographer friendly safari driver.
Sajid gave us a brief account on the river Ram Ganga and why it is favorite to
the Corbett National Park.
Whether
land or forest ,it’s survival is based on rivers and that is why rivers
are known as the cradles of civilization .Even Corbett depends
on certain rivers .Corbett 's lifeline is river Ganga, and it’s
tributary Ram Ganga. In 1936, India's first national park, Haily National Park
came into existence .It was named as Ram Ganga National Park in honor of Ram
Ganga in the 1954 -55 period, and it clearly shows the dependence of Corbett on
Ram Ganga. The park was renamed as Jim Corbett National Park after the death of
Jim Corbett. Apart from Ram Ganga, there are other two rivers also irrigate
Corbett. Kozi River is another lifeline, which is active only during rainy
seasons.
Sona river is another lifeline, it is
named as Sona river Wildlife Sanctuary after this river. The Sona river
Wildlife Sanctuary is an important part of the Corbett Tiger Reserve which is
an integral part of the Corbett National Park. Apart from this, tributaries of
Ram Ganga, like Mandal and Palaine, have maintained the biodiversity of
Corbett. The rare species of Masheer Fish, the Gharials, the otter, various
kinds of tortoises, crocodiles, are also living along these rivers.
 |
| Elephants in Ram Ganga river
According to the IUCN(International
Union For Conservation Of Nature) Gharials are
Critically Endangered species and are considered to have a total number
of survivors in the world below 250 and many of them are having their homes in
these rivers. The wildness of corbett
opens up hopes and expectations as we move
forward to explore much more
.Elephants are the symbols of Dhikala. Elephants grazing in the vast grass
fields of Dhikala, Sal trees in arch form , intertwining twigs c and elephants
walking under them was a framed dream. But the dreams were beyond this ,and it
was to see the tigers in the land of Corbett, to see the descendants of heroes
and heroines of the so called shikar stories . Sajid testified that Corbett had
not been having cannibals there for some years.
He remembered the last man-eating tiger was shot in 2012. A few pictures of Khaleej Fesant ,a bird of the poultry category, was seen while crossing the river .On the way a gypsy driver gave some signal ,and when reached closer the two drivers spoked something The gypsy leaped in first gear, and Saajid told in between that Paru was spotted at the river side. Paru aka Parvathy is the most famous tigress in Corbett. There are eight tigers in the Dhikala Zone.
Parvathi is the most famous in the
Dakala Zone. After some time we saw the parked gypsy and together a few more of
them. I couldn’t control my enthusiasm so I asked the first person I saw about
Paru. The enthusiastic explanation from them that she passed the river with a
bleeding face was a shock to my excitement. The scene must have been of aftermath of a hunt . Felt
disappointment, a visual treat had been
missed in a matter of few minutes.It was a close call
Be at the right time at the right
place or wait for the right time to happen is the law of the forest.
Sightings in the ghat are like that,
especially tiger sightings. Previous
experiences always testify the same. My past jungle trails have shown me that tiger either
walks one step ahead or one step behind me.The tiger always showed its
presence only through its pugmarks and fresh scats. Between all these our paths
crossed in the wilds of Karnataka and Tamilnadu .But it took quite a
few trips. It is not easy for someone like me to get to Corbett which is far
away from Kerala. Will you disappoint me Jim’s tigers?
 |
This time the guide named Dhyani
joined the team. Dhyani’s love for the wild made him leave his job in a private firm in Delhi and presently pursuing his work as a guide here . Dhyani assured us about the sighting of Paru today .We wandered through savannah and
river side to get some shots of elephant herds .Sajid told that we have go to the swimming pool at about four .When
summer comes Ram Ganga becomes thinner. Separated from the flow of the river,
some pits will be filled with water. Tigers and some other small animals used
to quench their thirst from here .The largest of such places is known as the swimming pool, "If we don’t
go now we won’t get a good parking place to get a good view,” Sajid reminded us
We reached there by 4.30pm and there
were other vehicles too. Sajid parked Gypsy in a vantage point to get the best
possible vantage point to get photographs that could capture the beauty of the area. I realised that this was the best
position to capture with my single focal
length prime lens that is unable to further zooming in or zooming out .
Continuous contact with visiting photographers, and thanks to his keen observation skill,sajid knew the
requirements of the photographers. It has been 45 minutes, and there were no
hopeful movements. The camera was focused to the birds in the nearby trees to
get rid of the boredom. "It will
happen in half an hour, Dhyan and Sajid combined with their explanations, Paru
had crossed the river in the morning,and
will be returning to the pool for her drink and bath".
My imagination was running wild of
excitement and I had already started seeing
the tiger having bath in the
water lit by the golden rays of setting sun and another 15 minutes had passed.
Suddenly there was a commotion from deep
inside the forest,the cries of monkeys and deers, it is an alarm call by the animals
when they feel presence of tiger. I
could see my dream come closer to me Sajid cautioned me to keep my camera rolling. Next few minutes, I could see
many fingers from nearly vehicles pointed towards a tunnel that opened in to the pool.I suppose Paru is
here, all but us had seen her , we are not in a position too see her
vividly from the angle I was standing ,the
atmosphere was suddenly filled with the
sounds camera shutters that continuously working in high speed mode .
On the other hand Paru enters with a style , sat on a rock for
about two minutes and started licking water in a meditative mood , then stood
up to cool off herself. I captured the dream moments in the camera. My old 60D
camera with 400mm 5.6 couldn’t compete with the latest lenses. But it did not
reduce my enthusiasm of witnessing the imaginary frames which had crossed realms of my mind
and was happening right in front of me. After
staying in water for a while with
just head and tail above the
surface for a minute she then swam gradually to the other
side, and she did not care about the men
in the vehicles watching her and cameras
tracking her. The cameras keep tracking
until she walked slowly and hid in the grass.
Tigers make calls, probably the very
loud calls, in the breeding period inorder to communicate with its mate.The
loud courtship call of male tigers attract female tigers. Sajid and Dhyani were
both happy,it was already the second tiger in the morning session itself. After the tiger sighting in the
grassland ,Sajid had an intution to go
to the pond area and just if were to find a thirsty tiger, as the pond is a potential
drinking spot of tigers in the area, we agreed with him with a big yes when he
shared his thought . The result was an unbelievable sight ,there the gentle male tiger of Corbett ,one of the two males in
dhikala area. He was returning after
drinking session . I took as many sudden shots as possible and in between he
turned around and gave a pose for a few seconds ,as if knew he is being photographed, and walked
away in his gentle style. It was really unbelievable for me, I had saw three tigers in two days ,the most magnificent
sightings I could ever have..
Sajid fixed our next target in the morning itself ,it was 'Bachawala Tiger',a
mother tiger with two cubs. Both Sajid and Dhyani were making plans. This safari made us witness the tiger tracking expertise of both of them. We spent
a one and half hour with the elephants, as the morning sun gradually warms up, the possibility of mother and cubs coming out of its hiding place is really high .We
photographed the elephants crossing the
Ramganga river in the morning and started pursued our tiger
trails.We carefully observed all sounds and signs and moved very slowly.
Sajid stopped the car and pointed to the
footprints that were carved in the dusty soil, big and small .
The foot prints were seen along the
edge of the path for a short distance
and then vanished. Roads are sidelined with tall bushes. And so we guessed that
the tigers must have gone beyond the bushes to the pond and we felt there are chances to see the mother and cubs
were high. Gypsy speeded up to the pond and it took 15 minutes to reach there.
Another safari vehicle was parked there
in front of us and they signaled us to reduce the volume of our vehicle and to
keep silence,someone from the vehicle pointed to the left of the road .As we looked
closer we could see golden colour and black stripes moving in the bushes and
Sajid whispered ”Bachevaala” They are trying to cross the road.
I realised that I couldn’t capture
anything with my 400mm prime lens as
they were very close. I suddenly replaced the lens with Tamaron 150-600 mm zoom
lens and put the maximum wide angle .That time was enough for me to prepare for
the shot. The mother, looked at both
sides of the road and made sure it’s safe and entered the road
alone,keeping the cubs safe behind the
bushes . We were ready tocapture a family photo of mother and two cubs together and planned for
such a shot ,but the mother was playing a safe game,she had different plans.
She kept moving through the middle of
the road with confident steps, the proud
mother of corbett national park ,she walked ahead of us and took a deviation
towards the pond at the opposite side of the road from a point very near to
us .The tigers are in the top position of
food chain and thus doesn’t have enemies
in the wild , they only have the role of hunters. Their ecological importance
is to control the number of herbivores in the forest to maintain an ecological balance of the ecosystem.
Tigers have the confidence in their strength and have a clear undrstanding
that they have no enemies in their kingdom,that they used to stroll in
jungle in open tracks without any fear. Now it was the
turn for cubs, the first cub crossed the
road without giving enough chance to us, the second cub took a sudden move without giving
much time to get a good shot,it crossed the road hurrily, “it’s a girl
she is a bit shy “said Sajid. Three of them by now reached the other side and will be there in the pond at anytime.As the
bushes around was very long ,more than a man’s height we couldn’t see the moves
of the tigers. All eyes were in the pond and in the next few minutes the mother tiger emerged from bushes.
She watched the surroundings very
carefully and then moved towards the pond , she gazed into her reflection on the water for a few
minutes like a mirror image.She then started drinking in her own royal way and then returned back to the path she had
came from.The little one, as if it was
waiting for its turn,arrived then and started
drinking. Sajid and Dhyani are sure that it’s a boy., they both observed that
the cub is developing the body language of a male tiger in his behaviour.
Now its the turn of next cub(Most
probably the girl) she came into the pond as fast as possible and rushed back. It
was all on a sudden ,as if drinking for the sake drinking. It seemed like she
was scared of us. My wish was to capture the picture of the whole tiger family
drinking water together, but we are not the ones who frames the laws of
forest.It was just our third day in Corbett and we already saw six of the
tigers,both Sajid and Dhyani looked at us with pride .In the Dhikhala zone,according
to statistics, there are a total of 8 tigers including two kids.
Everybody was happy as we completed the third day of our trip successfully. On
the final day last safari we were to have was only in the morning session as we
will be saying goodbye to Jim Corbett National Park and leaving to Ramnagar in
the afternoon.
As we are strictly directed to arriveat the main gate before five ,things
may not go as planned ,safari will be like a farewell .But I don’t have any
regrets ,Corbett had given me much more than I expected.The ambience of
the last day was just usual, sightings
of elephants and some birds transformed
mood to another level.
Afternoon is the return journey from
dhikkala, we were all in a mood to say farewell. I realised gone are the
days,the days of lifetime memories,magical sightings and minblowing experiences
.The tiger trails in the land of Jim corbett, the elephant scapes in the
savannas of dhikala some rare birds that gave me a glimpse to my camera. Even
so , I have to go, I must to go just to come back again. When we crossed about
half the distance ,the alarm calls again, chitals, monkeys and birds made their
chorus ,the entire forest is echoed with the wild orchestra,and the is moving
inside the forest area parallel to our road,giving us a clear indication that
tiger is moving inside parallel to our way . During the journey Sajid told us
that this was the territory area of another male tiger.
Chances are there to pursue our tiger
trails again. On the way saw a hornbill,
as it was not expected in Corbett I tried to take some pictures but was in
vain. I couldn’t get a clear image as it was hiding behind the branches of the
trees.Left the place and moved on, within
another kilometer we saw a vehicle parked on the way, the men in the vehicle told us
that a big huge male tiger appeared on the road and and moved to bushes just a
second ago and they have been waiting him to reappear.A just miss sighting, the
hornbill made it to miss.We have no time to wait. Rest of the views in Corbett
has to be kept for the next trip, there forest is a never ending shore of
views. As we go deeper and deeper in this magical world,we will discover much more and
all the discoveries will tempt us more towards the jungle….A
traveller will keep all his travels for the forest….
