Corbett Tigers in Winter 2014-15

Winters have always been my favorite time to photograph tigers. Many may think that tiger sightings are better in summers, owing to the fact that shortage of water makes them hang around the last remaining waterholes and dried out thinner density of foliage provides better visibility. But as per my experience, Corbett has been an exception. Among January and February 2015, I visited Jim Corbett Tiger Reserve, Uttarakhand, India on total 12 days and was blessed with tiger sightings on 11 of those days.

Finding a tiger in Corbett during the winters is an easier task. The tigers become very vocal and remain active throughout the day, prefer to walk on the wide tracks & nullahs and bask in the open during the daytime. Tourists (who have got a night stay booking in Corbett) too get almost the whole day to roam around in the forest (generally it's and hour's rest between the morning and afternoon safaris, which tourists can spend on a watch tower too) which maximizes the chances of tracking a tiger. Unlike summers, light remains pleasant throughout the day, which helps in avoiding burnt out highlights and dark shadows in the image. Typical winter foggy conditions in Corbett can provide the photographers with that certain mood to the image.

My initial days during the January 2015 tour did not yield much in Dhikala (one of the tourism zones of Corbett), though sightings happened almost everyday. But most of those sightings happened in the grassland area, where grasses are quite tall during these months and hence, provides lesser photographic opportunities. I generally will not prefer the grassland area during the winters; but this time due to certain constraints had to restrict myself to it, mostly. Bijrani (another tourism zone of Corbett), however, was a different experience altogether and I could make some nice images.

It rained heavily on the first day in Bijrani; and during the afternoon safari, we got to get a glimpse of one of the female cub, towards the fag end of the safari. The light was very low and outcome was a blurry image.

The female cub vanishes as soon as she spots our vehicles

The  next morning safari was the most productive where we could get the same female cub in the same area for quite some time. I got a very pleasant back-lighting for most of my images which helped me to create a very unique mood for the images. Later, the female cub went to one of the male cub, it's sibling, and shared some wonderful nudges. However, I could not document those moments as they were too close for my 400mm prime. Hence, I had to come back with just a close portrait of the female cub.

The female cubs walks across a monsoon river bed

After walking for some distance, she stops to check back us

And then she starts walking again

The close portrait of the female cub

On the last day, during the afternoon safari, we saw the male cub again, relaxing inside the thickets. However, he was in a small opening and I could manage some close portrait images of it, before saying goodbye to Corbett for next few days.

Am a Corbett Tiger!

If the Dhikala grassland disappointed me during my January 2015 tour, it became the action hot-spot during my February 2015 tour. On the very first day itself, during the afternoon safari, we spotted this female (actually other vehicles has already spotted it, we reached the places few moments later) which was on a hunt. Though the hunt was not a successful one, I could manage some nice frames, during the 20 minutes action packed drama.

The female looking at us

After crossing the track, she took position again for the hunt

The hungry tigress

The female looked to be a bit inexperienced in hunting technique. Though she could manage her composure for almost 15 minutes, a slight movement of her tail alerted the herd of Spotted Deer. We thought that she had abandoned the hunt, and prepared to move to the watch tower to check if she can be tracked in the tall grasses. But to our surprise, she sprang from the forest, right in front of our Gypsy and started chasing a deer. However, the deer were faster and this attempt resulted in a failure. Generally, a tiger is successful once in approximately 20 attempts of hunting.

The tigress runs behind a deer in a desperate attempt 

After the failed attempt, tigress looks for an alternative

After this, we went to the watch tower immediately, expecting the tigress to come to the water hole for a drink. During the hunting attempt, the heart beat of a tiger increases by many folds and the body gets heated up, forcing it to come to the water for cooling down. Grasses were tall, and hence though we saw the tigress, I could not make any good image. We saw tigers on next 2 days too, but none of them resulted in good image making opportunities.

Next on the list were some day visits to Bijrani and Jhirna (one more zone in Corbett). I generally do not prefer these day visits, but then this was how the client's bird-watching activity was planned. First morning, the safari in Jhirna went cat-less! We missed the tiger by few minutes as we were busy photographing some birds. Quite a lot of tourists did see the big male of Jhirna for over 20 minutes. We had to come back only with loud roars. However, the evening round in Bijrani was the game-changer which resulted in the sighting a male cub in Bijrani, during the fag end of the safari.

The male cub crosses the Gypsy track

Next day was 14th February, the Valentine's Day. And I got a gift from my girlfriend, Sharmilee, the mother of those cubs I had photographed earlier in Bijrani. I had been dreaming of an image from quite a long time, image of a Corbett tiger in foggy conditions with the stunning backdrop of the Terai landscape consisting of the monsoon river bed boulders and tall grasses. And on the 14th Feb 2015, the Valentine's Day, this Corbett tigress did make it a point to present me this gift! I hope that I have been able to do justice with the image.

When you see a Tiger, it's like a Dream!

Eaglenest - Some Birds and An Award

It was the 3rd prize for the Saevus sponsored Himalayan Hill Birds Photo Contest which gave me a chance to participate in the first Arunachal Bird Festival at Eaglenest WLS from 2nd to 4th February 2014. Apart from the participation in the fest, the other attraction was to get a chance to visit the famous forest of the north-east India and photograph some of it's star birds like Bugun Liocichla, Ward's Trogon, Beautiful Nuthatch, Wedge-billed Babbler, Blyth's Tragopan to name a few.

The photograph of 3 Tibetan Sandgrouse in flight clicked by me at Tso Kar, Ladakh, J&K, India which won the prize.

The fest was well organized, with the prize distribution and many other performances, speeches etc. hosted well by the Bugun Welfare Society and the Forest Department.

Receiving the Saevus prize from Eaglenest DFO Millo Tasser at Eaglenest during the Arunachal Bird Festival 2014

Next in agenda was some quality birding and bird photography. Over the next 3 days (I got an additional day due to a curfew declared because of some communal tensions in Arunachal Pradesh and Assam) I covered the famous areas like Ramalingam (my base camp), Lama Camp, Alubari, Eaglenest Pass, Bompu Camp, Sessni and few other locations. Though I was able to get a glimpse of the star attraction Bugun Liocichla (Liocichla bugunorum) on the Day 1 itself, photography could not be done as it remained inside the thickets. However, the Ward's Trogon (Harpactes wardi) obliged me with a quality image. Glimpses of Blyth's Trgopan (Tragopan blythii molesworthi), Beautiful Nuthatch (Sitta formosa) and Grey Peacock Pheasant (Polyplectron bicalcaratum) made my trip. There were few more species which I could photograph.

Whiskered Yuhina

Ward's Trogon

Fire-tailed Myzornis

Eurasian Sparrowhawk

Rufous-breasted Bush Robin

Stripe-throated Yuhina

Olive-backed Pipit

Maroon-backed Accentor

Some random images clicked by my mobile during the birding excursions:

At Eaglenest Pass

View from Eaglenest Pass

Birding team at Eaglenest Pass

A random view of the forest type

Typical Ward's Trogon habitat

Eaglenest Wildlife Sanctuary is a protected area of India in the Himalayan foothills of West Kameng District, Arunachal Pradesh. My travel route was Sealdah (Kolkata) to Guwahati by train, Guwahati to Tejpur by bus, Tejpur to Tenga by share jeep where organizers had arranged for a vehicle to pick me up for my further travel into the WLS.

There are only limited options of stay inside the sanctuary. Basic camping facilities are available at Ramalingam, Lama and Bompu which have tented accommodations with common toilet facility. Best way to travel inside the park is by a 4WD SUV. Trekking is one another option of exploring the WLS, but beware of the elephants. March-April is the best season to explore this birding wonderland. Inner Line Permit is required for Indian nationals to enter Arunachal Pradesh.

Rakshidi: a Birdwatcher's heaven

Rakshidi is a place where the amalgamation of forest land and plantation happens. 12 kms from Sakleshpur town this place houses some big coffee plantations. And the plantations houses a wide variety of bird life, few species endemic to Western Ghats!
Myself and Chandu were blessed to be the first birders to explore the virgin land (27-28 Feb 2010). The place is pre-dominantly a tropical evergreen forest which receives massive rainfall during the monsoons. It is a very interesting fact that this happens despite the place being located in the rain-shadowed slopes of Western Ghats!
We stayed in the bungalow of Dr. Javid who owns a huge coffee plantation there and it was his mail only which gave us this wonderful opportunity to explore this part of the Western Ghats. Also thanks to Chandu this was my beginning in the field of "serious birding".
Photographing in this kind of place will always be a challenge. The canopy is so high that firstly you would not get the desired background for your subject and then your neck will start giving up. We were always trying to get into an elevated place from where we can manage those "eye-level shots". My Canon 400D body was churning out real noisy images as I was forced to use a minimum of ISO400! And I was really missing my 3 legged friend! Even my Canon 400mm f5.6L USM lens was not able to cope up with the humongous working distance and every-time the subject was like one tiny dot in my frame. I guess a fast body which can perform well at high ISOs and a minimum of 800mm focal length on APC sensor is a must there!
We also visited the tea estates of Kadumane where I could manage some good shots of the White-bellied Treepie, a Western Ghats endemic. This cutie was teasing us all the while with its electric guitar like call and finally on the last leg of the journey I managed to capture some frames of it.
Apart from the birds, the reptile variety of the place will also attract a lot of herpetologists. I encountered 2 cobras, 1 rat snake and a beautiful creature named Draco or flying Lizard!

The list of birds I could manage to capture(record shots included) are as below:

1. Ashy Drongo
2. Ashy Woodswallow
3. Asian Fairy Bluebird
4. Blue Caped Rockthrush
5. Booted Warbler
6. Bronzed Drongo
7. Brown Capped Pygmy Woodpecker
8. Common Flameback
9. Crested Serpent Eagle
10. Dark Fronted Babbler
11. Eurasian Golden Oriole
12. Gray Wagtail
13. Green Bee-eater
14. Hill Mayna
15. Jungle Mayna
16. Large Pied Wagtail
17. Large Woodshrike
18. Lesser Yellownape
19. Malabar Grey Hornbill
20. Malabar Parakeet
21. Malabar White-headed Starling
22. Nilgiri Flycatcher
23. Orange Headed Thrush
24. Pale-billed Flowerpecker
25. Plum-headed Parakeet
26. Pompadur Green Piegeon
27. Racket-tailed Drongo
28. Red-whiskered Bulbul
29. Scarlet Minivet
30. Spotted Dove
31. Western Crowned Warbler
32. White-bellied Treepie
33. White-cheeked Barbet
34. Yellow-browed Bulbul

Well there were a few more which could not get identified, a flycatcher was one among that :)

Malabar White-headed Starling

Bronzed Drongo

Draco or Flying Lizard

White-bellied Treepie

Dark-fronted Babbler

Malabar Grey Hornbill

Ashy Woodswallow

Large Pied Wagtail

‘No entry’ back in operation at Bandipur National Park

The high court on Monday stayed withdrawal of the ban on night movement of vehicles along Gundlupet-Sultan Battery National Highway 212 and Gundlupet-Ooty National Highway 67, which pass through Bandipur National Park. On June 9, the government withdrew the order issued by the Chamarajanagar district administration on June 3, banning movement of vehicles through the park from 9 pm to 6 am. The ban was supposed to come into affect from June 10. Advocate L Shrinivasa Babu filed a PIL in this regard alleging that the ban order was revoked within six days due to pressure from some quarters, ignoring the safety of animals. The high court had earlier directed the government to file its reply to the petition. The ban order was issued after a number of animals met with accidents on the roads at night. Vehicular movement was driving animals from their natural habitat, thus causing man-animal conflict, environmentalists had argued. After the Chamarajanagar DC ordered the ban on June 3, transporters and members of the public opposed it citing inconvenience. The ban was withdrawn after the CM’s intervention.

Source:TNN

The Hungry Tide's diet

This is a comparison through which I want to depict the amazing play of tides in these mangroved forests of Sunderbans. It is the shot of the same place, one taken in the evening when there was low tide and the other one next day morning when it was high tide. This place is adjacent to the watchtower in Sajnekhali tourist lodge and should be almost 250-300 feet away from the river bank. Actually the water goes much more inside the islands during high tide and goes back again during low tide. And this is what happens there everyday. Half of the day the land is under saline water. And when the water recedes, the muddy soil is left behind. I wonder how wildlife is thriving in these kind of harsh conditions and that too since ages. Isn't it amazing to know that we have such kind of habitats also in our beautiful country!

9th Awareness Campaign in Bandipur

As we reached Kekanahalla check post around 11 in the night, we were greeted by a tusker who was happily grazing at the place where we usually park our car (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uQJ3tdw5mfE). So we decided to park it opposite to the check post. Rakesh stopped the car and as soon as I got down fellow volunteers started flashing torches at us. It took me seconds to realise that I am standing right next to another elephant. Jumping back to the car we parked it right outside the check post away from the elephants. When we got down and went to the cottage the guard showed us 3 more elephants who were close to our vehicle but we didn't notice them at all. How silent they can be!!!!!

Well we started with our campaign. But our agenda was different this time. We planned to study the night traffic pattern and thanks to our volunteers, we could gather much data which I am listing below:

1. Trucks carrying flowers from Ooty to Banglaore ply at night. They are plucked in the evening and have to be transported over the night to keep the freshness intact.
2. SKS has 2 buses plying every night, one plying from Kerala to Bangalore and other one Bangalore to Kerala.
3. 20 Karnataka Government Buses ply every night: 10 from Bangalore and 10 from other States.
4. 9 Kerala Government Buses ply every night: 5 from Kerala and 4 from Bangalore.
5. 8 Tamil Nadu Government Buses ply every night: 5 from TN and 3 from Bangalore.
6. Thursday and Friday nights experience heavy interstate truck movements carrying Rice, Sugar and Vegetables.
7. Vegetable Trucks on Saturday from Manjari (Kerala) ply towards Hassan travelling in the night to reach morning Sunday market.
8. Trucks squeezed with 1000 of ducks/chickens travel in the night because that causes less stress for the birds and hence less number of deaths.
9. It is tough for the concerned authorities to check these trucks in the night, many travels in the night to avoid payment of Regular Marketing Committee and they can also skip checking of documents in the night.
10. When a road kill of wildlife happens, the guards are generally informed of this by the passing by vehicles. The guard checks the animal and calls the doctor. Postmortem is done and the body is either burned or buried (in case no wood available to burn it). Finally record the road kill in Majjir (we did not get this word; assume some kind of record book). It is very difficult to track the offenders.

Not bad considering one night job!!!!!

At around 2 in the night we spotted a herd of sambars very close to the last cottage. After spending some half an hour they crossed the road and vanished inside the thickets. Well I remembered this is the same place where we saw 4 tigers too!!!! Really Bandipur Rocks!!!! Some spare time in the morning gave us opportunity to do some monkey shooting :-D

Early morning was safari time for us and it was not a very eventful venture. The only first time sighting for me was Common Blue Kingfisher and few un-identified birds. Lastly we spotted a lone wild dog running across the road while on our way to JLR for breakfast.

Followed by a breakfast in JLR we went to check out Bala's guest house which is in the close proximity to Mudumalai Tiger Reserve. And to our surprise his property was visited by a huge male tiger couple of nights back. We checked out the pug mark right adjacent to a small stream. Also saw the Forest Dept's tusker who was in a "musth" stage. Prakash and Vasanth enjoyed a nice horse riding session. We also saw Malabar Pied Hornbill and a Indian Giant Squirrel in the property.

An immediate reaction to the closure of Bandipur highway - The Press Release

It was welcome news for all of us. The entire team which was a part of Wildlife Road kill Awareness Campaign and everybody else at Kenneth Anderson Nature Society were very much delighted when the breaking news "Vehicular traffic on NH-67 (Ooty-Mysore Road) and NH-212 (Mysore-Sultan Battery Road), through Bandipur National Park, will be closed between 9 pm and 6 am to help conservation and avoid accidents involving animals" was published in the media. From past 8 months under the leadership of Soumyajit Nandy (a Founder Committee Member of Kenneth Anderson Nature Society) and Rakesh Gupta (another Founder Committee Member of Kenneth Anderson Nature Society) the team was trying to create awareness among the commuters on Mysore-Ooty road passing through Bandipur Tiger Reserve about the ill-effects of wildlife roadkill due to irresponsible driving habits. The concept was developed by Center for Wildlife Studies and KANS is carrying out the campaign on ground. In that last 3 months the team were more focused on the night traffic as that was the main time when most of these accidents happen. During this period the team has encountered almost 300-450 vehicles on an average travelling both ways between 9pm and 6am. And this was the prime time when many of the nocturnal creatures were on the move, including tigers.
We at Kenneth Anderson Nature Society hope that the rule will be implemented strictly and only the prescribed vehicles should be allowed between 9pm and 6am. It has been a great initiative by the Karnataka Forest Department and successful implementation of it will help a lot for the wildlife conservation as Bandipur is considered a prime habitat of endangered Bengal Tiger. Being the flagship species and the apex predator, if we are successful in preserving the tigers, the animals down the food chain and their habitat also will get preserved to a great extent.
Shall we stop our campaign here? The answer is NO!!!!!! There will be few issues following the closure. And one of them will be increase in day traffic by many folds and that will need more and more efforts on creating awareness and educating people. And animals do move across the highway at daytime also and because of increase in traffic, chances of man-animal conflict and road kills may increase. So KANS will still carry out the campaign during the daytime and keep on trying to educate the commuters on that highway. We are looking at a long term solution of the problem and one of them is creating the awareness about the importance of wildlife among the public. We should understand that "Our very own existence depends on them"!