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Wednesday, April 13, 2016

Corbett Tigers in Summer 2015

During the first tour in the month of April 2015, Dhikala was not fruitful as it rained most of the times. Though we had 2 sightings, but they were more of glimpses over a very long distance. Rain continued to chase us in Bijrani too; however, we got some sun during the last safari and as expected, a grand sighting too. Barely 5 minutes into the safari and we got Sharmili sleeping under a tree on the track at Jarpahar. 45 minutes of drama followed which included a head-on walk for almost a kilometer by her.

It is extremely important to give space to the wild subject so that one gets to observe and photograph them in their natural self. The subject remains relaxed and the photographer too gets a chance to experiment with different camera settings and compositions. No wonder, telephoto lenses are a must for wildlife photography!








My second visit in April 2015 was fruitless as I didn't get to make any decent tiger image over the 4 days of stay. However, May 2015 balanced that out and I could get some stunning moments to capture.

The list starts with Dewani Ram. No introduction required for the people who have visited Corbett. For others, this big male had killed and partially eaten a forest department guard (temporary) named Dewani Ram, in the monsoons of 2012 and hence the name. Generally, tigers in Corbett are seldom named. Gypsy drivers and guides say that " agar ye road pe samne se mila toh turant jhariyo me ghus jayega, ya fir seedhe Gypsy pe charge kar dega" which means if one gets him head-on then either he will immediately move inside the bushes or else will come charging at the Gypsy. Big males in Corbett are extremely shy and hardly comes out in open in front of humans.

My story goes like this. While on our way back to Gairal FRH one evening, we saw a Gypsy stopped near the High Bank. On asking, the driver said that he saw a tiger move into the bushes. It was summer, so we expected the tiger to move down to the Ramganga river bed, a usual habit of the Corbett tigers during these months. By that time another Gypsy came and all 3 of us moved to High Bank to check the river bed. After waiting for 10 minutes, we decided to call it off as we couldn't see any movement or hear any calls. Our driver told us that we will again check the point where the tiger has disappeared and then move back to the FRH to reach there in time. And as soon as he started scanning the particular area, whispers came "wo baitha hai tiger" (tiger is sitting there)!

We saw a huge male, relaxing under the "piloo" bushes, and at times looking at us. He was quite close and I could manage only this image with the 400mm in fading light. As I was standing on the front seat of the Gypsy and looking at him through my lens, I started discussing with my driver about the tiger's identity. It is Dewani Ram's territory and I don't know why but to me it looked him. When I said that to my driver, he said "fir toh charge kar sakta hai" i.e. then he can charge! That was enough for me to get down and take my seat, but still kept my view through the lens locked at him.

Then we heard another Gypsy, coming from behind, stopping, driver telling his guests "tiger", my view still locked through the lens and tiger turns his head to check the new visitors, a red spot light falls on it's eyes, and then a flash and then "ghaooo-ghaooo-ghaooo"! The Gypsy which was behind was now in front of us, the driver so nervous that his one foot was on accelerator and another on break, rest everybody scolding the lady for flashing at the tiger and the tiger gone down the hill towards the river bed (barking deer alarm calls had started by then).

It took 0.5 seconds for Dewani Ram to reach the Gypsy charging through the bushes and another 1 second for him to vanish out of our sights. Those few seconds will probably be etched in my memory for ever!

The sighting which happened next day will be termed more as just a glimpse and a record shot. We heard Spotted Deer alarm call near Jhirnajali, on our way to Dhikala for the morning safari. On a close inspection we saw a male tiger climbing up from the river bed. We expected it to cross the main road, but even after some wait we didn't get any success. Hence, we decided to move on towards Dhikala.

Our 3rd day was pretty eventful. We got 2 males and 1 female in the morning safari. Big males in Corbett are rather shy and elusive, moving away inside the thickets on hearing the vehicle sound from far away distance. Getting a photograph of them is extremely tough and one needs to be super lucky, especially if they are from the areas like Gairal, Sultan, Sarpduli etc. We got this big male crossing an open nullah (locally called barsati sot) where it had no other option than to reveal himself in front of the camera. Photograph has been taken from quite a bit of distance, hence image quality is not that good. It gave us only 2-3 seconds time before sprinting away towards the forest, rolling and falling on the boulders.

It will be interesting to note that, while we were photographing this big male, there was another one sitting right beside our Gypsy in the bushes. Apparently, we were waiting there for that tiger itself which too saw us and went inside in a flash!

After this sighting, we moved towards Dhikala and on reaching the campus we got the news that a female has been spotted at Gethia Rao water-hole the previous afternoon. It seems that she has made a kill and chances are that she might come back again to that place. Hence we decided to spend rest of the time at that water-hole. Patience paid off and we were blessed with some stunning images.


Sighting of this female, known as Paarwali, continued at the same place the next day too. Undoubtedly, this tigress will be considered the queen if the sightings are considered in Dhikala zone during the summer of 2015. Being a very bold female, she does not hesitate to walk in open in amidst the crowd, very unlikely the other big cats of Corbett. With a little different structure and a little different walking posture, she is one interesting subject to follow!




It was time to move out of Dhikala and check the on-goings in Bijrani. Bijrani has seldom disappointed me. Out of 3 days I got Sharmili on Day 1, Pandit on Day 2 and Pandit / Virat on Day 3.



Next was again Dhikala on the cards for me. This time there were no sightings on first 2 days in Dhikala. However, on the Day 3 we had 2 sightings, a male in the grassland and then the Paarwali at Gethia Rao.

As we were waiting near Mota Saal, there were frantic alarm calls of Spotted Deer from Car Road. On reaching Car Road we saw few Gypsys already waiting there and looking towards the grassland. A herd of Spotted Deer too were looking at that particular direction. On a close inspection we saw the black and orange creature inside the tall grasses. It crossed the track and moved towards the forest after a failed hunting attempt.


After the failed hunting attempt it was pretty evident that the tiger will come to water and then will move to the forest as the sun will heat up the grassland. After a wait of nearly 20 minutes, most of the Gypsys left. After another 5 minutes when these two were leaving, the tiger came out and started walking on the track which leads towards the waterhole. Patience paid off!

After this sighting we checked out from Dhikala FRH and moved towards Bijrani. However, on the way we decided to check the Gethia Rao water-hole once. As we took the turn from Khinanauli, a Gypsy coming from the opposite side told us that the female is sitting at the water-hole. Tigers love Water. Be it any season, tigers love to spend time in the waters. However, summers are the times when the requirement of water is much more, and hence chances of finding a tiger near the water too is high. If the tiger has made a kill, then chances of it spending quality time in a near by water hole is also pretty high as the raw meat which it consumes generates too much of heat inside it's body, forcing it to be in the water for long duration.



After getting out of the water-hole she crossed the track, defecated for quite a few minutes and moved towards Ramganga amidst the tall grasses. My driver in Corbett once told me "agar aap tiger ke aankho me dekhoge, toh aapko samajh me aayega ki usme kinta power hota hai" (once you look into a tiger's eyes, you will understand how powerful the animal is) and I have found it quite true!

Our next stay was in Bijrani and as expected we got to see tigers on both the days there. Though the sighting on Day 1 was towards the fag end of the evening round and fetched no images, Day 2 morning was excellent where we got Sharmili walking on the tracks, from Chirchoti till Raitapani.

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