Just when I thought I’ve had enough
I know, I know everyone will hate me after reading this, but here goes…
While coming back from safari today evening we noticed a mongoose cross the main road and slip into a small hole. After coming back to the resort, me and malini (naturalist intern) went back to this spot in my car to see if the hole was its den. We got to see the mongoose and got some decent shots too. Just when we were about to turn back, a jeep come by and they told us they had seen a tiger some 10KM down the road.
We said we’ll try our luck and rushed to the spot. Luckily we actually got to see the tiger through the bushes with heavy lights etc. While we were watching this tiger, a van come by and the folks in that van tell us they saw a tiger 5KM down the road towards our resort. Since this tiger had already gone into the bushes we decided to go see the other tiger. After a short drive, we suddenly see some activity on a trench on the left of the road. In a split second we realised it was a tiger pouncing on a large sambar. We stopped and by the time we stopped, the tiger left the sambar and stood 3m away, still visible. All this was on the left of the road. We left the head lights on and the tiger just stood there. The sambar was hurt really bad and was trying to cross the road but kept on falling off.
Though I have seen tiger’s before, most of them were far away and they were during the daytime. This was so close and the fact that we saw a kill happen right in front of us freaked me out. I was shivering and could hardly move after that. I was tempted to shoot, but I knew the flash will scare away the tiger. So I just stood still and waited for the tiger to make the next move.
It never did anything though. We waited for almost 10min and the tiger just stood there looking at the poor sambar which was trying it’s best to cross the road over to the right. I was scared the tiger would go away, so I switched off the head lights, hoping the tiger will come on the road to claim the sambar. In less then 10 seconds, we hear sounds on the right of the road, and I immediately switch on the lights to see the tiger already on the right of the road with the sambar. I was freaking shocked. Without making a single noise, this tiger crossed the road 10m away from us and took away its catch. After it crossed, it stood there for about half min and then dragged the kill into the thick vegetation.
Two tigers in less then 30 min and I actually got to see the tiger take down a animal right in front of my eyes, less then 10 meters away. I have never been shaken so much in my life . I was so scared, I wanted to close the windows of the car, but the windows were the electric ones and the sound would have disturbed the tiger. The way the tiger pulled the sambar was amazing. Cannot believe this animal can pull such a large prey into the bushes. As I type this, my heart is still beating twice it’s usual speed and I’m jumping all around this place like a rabbit.
Peace. I don’t think I will sleep tonight.
Surely, that must have been a frightening experience.
Be careful, Kallu.
– Swaroop
http://www.swaroopch.info
Be careful man. The tiger u met was very patient that he waited for 10 mins long but not everybody is lucky (Roy Horn), btw things seem very interesting on ur end.
I know, I know everyone will hate me after reading this
Why hate you?? Everyone’s seen this gore on TV. Just that when you see it in real life, that close you’ll get psyched out to an undescribable level
Looks like you finally saw what a tiger for its living. Though it would have been a particaulrly disturbing sight, now you know the tiger better and perphas will have more respect for what it is capable of.
/me echoes the same !
-enrdy
blessed u are to witness nature in such raw form.. take care .. freak u’rself out but do it in a good way.. thanks a lot for sharing .. me will think twice now before I attempt a hike at night in leopard/tiger territory … I will think more than twice just to take a piss at night when camping in tents from now.. hahahah
may u be blessed with more adventures kallu maharaj :))
I think made an interesting point about respecting wildlife.
After some amount of association with wildlife people start assuming they are predictable and thats when disaster happens.The only probable exception is if they are reared while they were cubs.Though I think even in those cases there is chance of trouble.Exercise some caution.
Digressing from that..from your posts it looks like the wildlife of BRT are getting more and more used to humans.
Just adding to this…
>The only probable exception is if they are reared while they were cubs.Though I think even in those cases there is chance of trouble.
Siegfried and Roy
Be careful man!
I am sure watching wild animals is cool and all that. But don’t you think you should just leave the beasts alone? In the last incident, in particular, you were actively hindering the tiger in getting to its prey. And then there is the matter of your own safety. Just some thoughts.
You are blessed, and lucky. 😐 I’m wondering whether why the tiger was waiting for the car’s lights to be turned off.
>>>whether why the tiger was waiting for the car’s lights to be turned off.
OMG, can it think that much??I have no idea…
Anywayz, that must have been a great(?) experiance, may be thats what they call “once in a life time”…
exactment, my thoughts. I thought tigers were very sensitive animals that would even go on hunger instead of being asked to do things in front of others. (Hint: ‘Life of Pi’).
gree green green …my color that is..
u already have got enough advise about “security” ..
might be a hacker at heart … but keep yourfirewalls up & running:)
might be a hacker at heart … but keep yourfirewalls up & running:)
Translation: It is fun to hack electonically. Make sure u dont get hacked literally
Humans are not tiger prey.
even reared as cubs they aren’t predictable. instinct doesn’t go away.
ROTFL!
Yep.For that matter I know cases where DOGS have acted weird.
whoa! am J!!
(noticed how most of my responses to ur posts start with that!:P)
u *do* need to take care kalyan. wonder how aware u r of it!!
sometimes, it’s okay not to take pics…
That’s an amazing experience. You came back with your life in your mouth, but I’m sure that leaves a good taste!
I think you’re lucky to witness what you did, and lucky to have respected the tiger in its habitat. No habitat is perfect these days, and being in the tiger’s habitat as a harmless trespasser means you might have to put up with some catty behaviour. Looks like this tiger was not the kind to be scared off, or maybe it was really hungry. But I appreciate your concern for the tiger and its way of life. If you had done something stupid like saving the sambar, as some PETA morons are likely to do, I would have lost respect for you. But I noticed your sensitivity — in little things like turning the lights off, not rolling up the windows, etc.
There are some times when you just can’t use a camera. You will just have to respect it as a way of life. I’m no photographer, but I recall a time once when I was at sniffing distance from a jungle cat making a kill of grey jungle fowl in the Nilgiris, and I was out of film. I just sat back and enjoyed it and, trust me when I say this, I recall it all the more vividly today.
I’m also reminded of an anecdote that Rajesh Bedi once shared in an interview. He was taking pictures of the Gangetic Gharial (you have probably seen his famous pic of a gharial hatching out of its egg) and had a long-range telephoto lens attached. Without warning, a gharial came up almost within touching distance and lay there, offering a splendid photo op that he could do nothing about because he wasn’t prepared with the lenses for the shot. In the end, he was philosophical about it.
A Night moment!
That must have been shocking! Reminds me of the scary scenes in Night Shyamalan’s movies.
Well i know that and u know that but does the tiger know that :p.
Nopes. We were never in its way, never used head lights and never would do anything to disturb the tigers normal way of life. Even last night, I had a lovely chance to shoot the tiger, but I would have had to use the flash, which the tiger will not like too much. I didnt want the tiger to leave the kill and go away coz of me.. so I just decided to enjoy the sight and not shoot.
Believe me, they do 🙂
repect the tiger and the tiger will respect you too. Works everytime out here.
One thing for sure. I am more scared of tiger’s then I was before. I never thought I’d freeze like that ever
Re: A Night moment!
I swear man. As I said, I don’t remember the last time I was this freaked out.
Maybe you should think of staying in a machan the whole night.Instead of going by jeep.
Well , I think already too many people have written so much to ask u to take care, so no need to emphasize that any more :-)…. but btw to ur comment : “repect the tiger and the tiger will respect you too. Works everytime out here.” , dont expect this everytime… u need to go through Khushwant Singh’s short story “The Mark of Vishnu” ;-)…. but anyway I find very exciting the things u are doing these days.
A tiger in action eh??…
Really.. Can it get better than this?
Reading your blog is like catching one of the National Geographic Series live!
Thanks for the vicarious thrills.
Add me too to the long list of green-faced people.
You have had an amazing couple of days. You have been very lucky with tiger spotting so I wish you spot some more.
Spotting two tigers in one session is very good considering the fact that their numbers are going down. Is there a process of tagging them there to keep track of their numbers?
Green?
Dude, I am actually happy for you. I am not like this, I should be jealous. But for some reason this is sublime. I have spent a few hours running up and down a forest road and not see a thing. Not to think of the times spent roaming in a jungle considering the resources and all. This is plain amazing.
WTF???
WTF??? We leave and then this happens the same night??? We should have driven down the road on the 1st and to hell with tiredness. Maybe we would have seen something. Anything.
Re: WTF???
heh. I presume this is karthik ?
Re: WTF???
Yep it is, sorry I missed out the signoff.
But the other trek and activity after that made up for it somewhat 🙂
Enjoy!
just fabulous…
I don’t know if you will get to the 36th comment…but your life at BR Hills seems most eventuful…if you could send your email id to me I could send you a pic of 20 tigers together…..NOT shot in a zoo, either…but on a serious note, I think you have been quite lucky so far, in both your sightings and the fact that you have not been attacked. I hope you keep it up, and the tigers keep it down!
Re: just fabulous…
Heh. I’m not too eager to chase tigers no more. Want to find more birds and stuff. Ofcourse I will never miss a chance if the tiger comes in front of me 🙂
Ur Just Amazing!
Hi Kalyan,
Im Kountinya, a wannabe naturalist like you. I was in kabini on the 6th & 7th of March & was fortunate enough to be taken by Sarath himself for one of my game drives. He told me abt you, very very exciting stuff! Again the last week of March i was in Bandipur, stayed at Tusker Trails ( cdnt get acco at JLR), but went & met up with JP at Bandipur safari lodge & he put me onto some forest officials & we drove down in the forest track from bandipur to the opp end of Kabini River Lodge, the other side of the bank. we had some amazing sightings on the way. The plan was to reach the other side of the bank at abt 3:45 & JP wd page the Kabini guys to pick us up, but we were charged by an elephant, & waited abt 30 mins for him to chill & cd reach only by 4:15 only to see the boats leaving for the safari.
Is there another direct way to write to you? My email id is kountinyaramanujam@gmail.com
We followed a pack of wild dogs in bandipur for 2 hours following a sambhar deer. Missed the tiger & a leopard by a whisker. Im not yet fortunate to see a cat in the wild. Lets see when i get fortunate, meeting you will definitely rub your “big cat luck” onto me. Looking forward to your reply!
Did this particular tiger get a Ph. D in philosophy to know that? 😉
Hey may not kill you, but even a friendly pawing can leave some nice marks.
Then you only have to watch out for the tree-climbing leopards. 🙂
WOW!! WOW!! WOW!! DO YOU HAVE AN EXCITING LIFE OR WHAT????
i didnt realize i was on the edge of my seat while i was reading your write…
man!! can excitement improve one’s skills too!!!!
lucky guy you!!
i’m impressed!
i love animals, be it wild or tame ones..
and the fact that you got to see nature’s occurence so upfront and close, you’re so lucky!
i wish i cud be anywhere close enough to witness such incident..
watching stuffs like this over the Discovery Channel itself is enough to make me go “wwooooohhwwwwwww..”
i can only imagine the feeling you felt upon eye-witnessing it.
so happy for you!!
btw, just going thru LJ and came across ur page.. hope ya don’t mind..
*waves*
Re: Ur Just Amazing!
Mr Kount it takes time and and no of times u visit the forest.
U cannot be lucky to see a leapod in ur third or fourth visit.It also depends on the vastu of the place u stay like that of dotcom.
😉
Well we have u now,sure to get close to wild life
Hello Kalyan,Im the bangalore wild boar,in love with wild life and a frequent visitor of bandipur NP.Now we(me and a friend) have already cancelled two trips to br hills and now repenting and nail biting,now we would like to come there some time and spend some time with u.Im also plannin to undergo the two day jlr course so that permissions are easy.I need to talk to u on a couple of wild life issues,so if u could gimme ur mail id on mine which is praveenmac@gmail.com i shall fix it up with u and come down to brh to discuss,Khub jamega rang jab mil baitange teen yaar,may aap aur wild life.
Pls give the wild life a chance(i told u i was a wild boar of bangalore)
Any ways my mob no is 9845223287.
Praveen Dwarkanath
I sell computer hardware the hard way;).