Nagarhole - 17th,18th Nov'07

Well this is 'First' in many ways... my first blog, my first Tiger image, my first essay.. Lets see how this goes..




It was a cold Nov morning when fellow INW(http://www.indianaturewatch.net/) members Phillip and Siva came to pick me up at 4:30am. I had returned quite late the previous night and had slept for only 3 hrs. But the joy of going to a forest needs no incentive to get ready. Well if I had to go to the office it would have been a different matter!

We did a non stop drive and hit the Veeranahosahalli gate at 7:30am and were welcomed by a pair of Hoope as we had our break fast. We slowly drove into the jungle and hardly few meters into the forest we saw a female Elephant and her calf grazing by the side of the road. They were least bothered by our presence and we took good images of them.

The next hour and a half passed with sightings of many species of birds and we reached Nagarhole office at 9:30am. We stopped for a few minutes and headed off to Kutta where we had booked a home stay since Nagarhole was full.

‘The Green Resort’ aka Manu Estate, is owned by Manu. I must say we had a wonderful stay at Manu’s place. I highly recommend this place if you are staying in Kutta because the estate itself has amazing bird life apart from the hospitality provided. We saw birds like Little spider hunter, racket tailed drongo, velvet fronted nuthatch, flame backs, to name a few. You can call and book with Manu on 08274-244254,244854, Mob: 9449982854.

The first afternoon after a heavy lunch we drove towards Nagarahole from Kutta. We took Manus Jeep as the roads were bad.

We saw a solitary Wild Dog cross us near the Ammale Road junction( for the ones who are not familiar of this place, it is approx 3km from Kutta towards Nagarhole, this is where you find Banyan trees on the road side, there is a chain gate next to this).

We reached Nagarhole Office at 3pm (Safari starts at 3pm in the afternoon and 6:30 am in the mornings). We picked Das, our guide for the safari and went into the forest. An hour passed without any much excitement, apart from sighting a single elephant which charged at us.

We were almost near Nagaraja Road, Bison Road Junction when another vehicle from the opposite direction came. We were told they had just seen two tigers near Bilikal (close to the mainroad). We were just a minute away from that place and we rushed in anticipation to catch a glimpse. Much to our disappointment we had just missed our chance. We waited for an hour in the safari but had no luck in sighting any tigers. Another hour passed before we drove through Bison Road, Tiger Road, went to the main watch tower and headed back to the office.

Yet we did not give up. It was almost 5:20pm and we decided to take a chance on the main road, drive on Metukuppe Road and come back. We had just driven for two kms from the office when the clutch of our Jeep failed. I some how managed to drive for the next two kms when we came across two wild dogs on the road just before Kalhalla.

I stopped the jeep and we observed them for a few minutes when another vehicle came from behind. Well that’s when I realized the Jeeps clutch wasn’t working and we need to give way for the other vehicle. I put the vehicle in first gear after much trial and error and perfected the art of driving without a clutch. We again parked the vehicle by the side of the road and waited for these dogs to come out (just in case they decided to). Call it our luck they did just that. The vehicle movement was happening regularly and they used to go in and come out. They were getting used to our presence and we enjoyed their company by following them for almost a kilometer for the next half an hour.

Suddenly we heard Cheetal (Spotted Deer) alarm calls; we kept our fingers crossed hoping to see a hunt take place. The dogs were after the deer, we made few photos of both in single frame. To our dismay another vehicle came along and they abandoned the chase and disappeared into the forest.
All this while I had forgotten about the fact that we needed to reverse the Jeep to go back to Kutta. We drove till Kalhalla took a left near the office and reversed (the road does a small up hill climb, hence managed easily). We couldn’t do Metukuppe Road because of the vehicle’s clutch. The next hour was exciting driving a vehicle without a clutch. We had great fun every time a vehicle passed us or when we overtook one. We managed to reach Manu’s place in one piece.

It was one heck of a day and since I hadn’t slept the previous night and with all this excitement, we decided to call it a day at 11pm after a heavy dinner.

The next morning we were up by 5:30am and reached Kutta gate at 6am (Gates at Kutta and Veeranahosahalli are closed from 6pm to 6am) since we wanted ours to be the first vehicle on road. The idea was to skip the safari, drive Karmadu Road and then go to Metukuppe road. We did the same till 9:30am and decided to head back to Kutta for break fast. The only highlight of the onward drive was a Changeable Hawk Eagle.

We were busy talking, craking jokes; Phillip was great company with his riddles. We reached Nagarahole office checked the sightings book to find no sightings had happened in the morning safari.

We started driving towards Kutta. Suddenly Siva screamed “Tiger! Tiger!” Well, there it was, the beauty standing on the left side of the road.

Our excitement knew no bounds. Phillip and I made a few decent images before it disappeared into the forest. Siva had a sad face as he didn’t make a single frame.
We turned the car and waited with great expectations. Every rumble in our hungry stomachs was mistaken for a roar. With nothing happening Siva suggested we head back but my instinct told me that the Tiger will come back again. We drove for 100mts and took a ‘U’ turn and parked the car by the side of the road. Guess what, we found ourselves again at the Ammale Road Junction where we had seen the solitary Wild Dog the previous day.

We waited for 10mins talking to over selves about the sighting, when suddenly out of nowhere the Tiger was standing right in the middle of the road staring at us.

This time we were at advantage as the road climbs up to the place where the Tiger was standing. Our being at the bottom of the sloping road put us looking eye to eye at the tiger. I was praying that no vehicle comes and disturbs this chance of a lifetime, the Tiger stared at us for a minute and then started walking towards us slowly for around 30ft-40ft, and then she turned left and disappeared again into the forest. All the time she never took her eyes off us. We took advantage of this opportunity and clicked several pictures.

The celebration began that very moment. We were thrilled to have had such an experience, because it was least expected. We couldn’t believe that this had happened and it took quite a while for the experience to sink in. I must say the whole thing was serendipity.

After making 400 + images of the Tiger between ourselves, we must have made 100 telephone calls telling our friends about the experience. I hope every person experiences this high!

After a heavy lunch, we checked out of Manus place and started to head back. We left Manus place at 2:30pm. We wanted to drive up the Karmadu road and Metukuppe road again before we headed back to Bangalore through Veerahosahalli.

We drove past Nagarhole office, Kalhalla without much action. We took the left to Karmadu road and barely 100mts from the left there was a herd of Gaur (8-12 of them) Siva and Phillip made good images while I was driving. We drove a little ahead and came across a Tusker in musth, which allowed us to take a few good shots of it.

We must had driven for a kilometer when I heard rumbling noise on my side. I stopped and switched off the car. The forest was quiet for a while; I told Siva and Phillip it could be elephants. Suddenly there was a cry of a Gaur. Again the forest was quiet for a while. Then we heard heavy breathing, and realized that a kill had taken place. It was just behind a Bamboo thicket barely 50 ft from us. We could hear the drama unfolding but couldn’t see a thing. We wondered what had made the kill, when we heard a roar of a Tiger. We could hardly move. Our adrenaline was rushing, there was this funny fear we experienced. The quiet forest road, only three of us, the Tiger barely 50ft from us and the noise we were hearing. We waited there for 10 min, while we could hear the sounds of the Tiger tearing through the skin and crunching bone. It was an experience of a life time.

We then headed back to the main road to go to Metukuppe road. Just before Murkal we saw a pack of wild dogs. We managed a few images and headed off to Metukuppe road. It was a wonderful evening drive on Metukuppe road although we didn’t get to any wildlife. The highlight of this drive was Phillip and Siva managed to shoot a pair of Brown Hawk Owl’s at eye level.

It was around 6pm when we reached Murkal and decided to head back to Bangalore. It was one of the most eventful trips in terms of wildlife viewing and the sheer experience of being so close to a Tiger made it that much more exceptional. The sightings didn’t end there. A Jungle Cat crossed the road just on the outskirts of Mysore City.

We reached Bangalore at 11pm.