Wildlife safari is an addiction. The more you do, the more
you get hooked into it. This was our 3rd wildlife safari tour in the
past one year. After covering Pench and Tadoba, two major tiger reserves in Central
India, third one on radar was the mother of all, Kanha Tiger Reserve. Kanha
comprises of around 940 sq km core area and 1140 sq.km buffer zone spreading
across Mandla and Balaghat districts in the state of Madhya Pradesh.
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| 12289 Mumbai Nagpur Duronto at Igatpuri |
One needs to do prior safari bookings 60 days in advance.
Chances of getting current safari bookings are negligible hence it is always
advisable to book it beforehand. The same can be done online or through travel
agents specialised in wildlife packages. We were booked on Mumbai Nagpur Duronto
Express for both the journeys. Well, to talk about this train, its one crack
superfast covering a distance of 835 kms between the two cities in just 11
hours. The best part about this train is that, it has minimalistic halt
structure. So there is no disturbance of passengers alighting and boarding all
through your journey. This makes the journey more peaceful and enjoyable.
All 4 of us got RAC tickets which meant that we had to share
our berth. The up side was the berth we got was a side lower. My favourite when
it comes to train journeys. It is fun to watch through the huge windows of LHB AC
coach while the train passes through small country side stations at top speed.
It is hard to sleep with the vibrations, jerks, honking and the clattery sound
of the tracks, but we had to manage some sleep as the next day was going to be
long and hectic.
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| Route map from Nagpur to Kanha |
We pulled into Nagpur station at 7.30 am late by 10 minutes.
Well a delay of 10 min is negligible on IR. Our ride to Kanha was waiting
outside the platform. We rushed into the car and in a few minutes were on our
way to the land of tigers. We halted at MHKS highway plaza for breakfast at
8.55 am soon after joining NH 44 on the outskirts of Nagpur. This is a decent
place to have food and has clean washrooms. A quick breakfast and we were back
on the road by 9.25 am. We had a long 4 hour journey ahead. The distance
between Nagpur and Kanha is around 253 km and takes approximately 5.5 hrs. The
route from Nagpur to MH border is undergoing upgradation. So there are multiple
diversions which puts a brake on the speed. Few newly laid patches are butter
smooth where you can easily ride over 100 kmph. The road from Manegaon tek to
Kurai (around 30 km) is a 2 laned highway with uneven surfaces. The road beyond
Kurai to Seoni is again a well laid 4 laned highway. Some traffic bottlenecks
can be observed as one needs to pass through Seoni town. Post that, it is a
well laid 2 laned state highway right upto Kanha. Once the road contruction get
completed, it would be a butter smooth drive to Kanha and would bring down the travel
time by a significant amount.
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| Khatia gate: Our entry point to the park |
We had already informed our driver that we had to make up
for our afternoon safari which was supposed to start at 2.30 pm. Our driver was
a nice chap who managed to take us to our hotel by 1.30 pm. So we had an hour’s
time to check in and get freshen up for the safari. After a good meal we sat in
our assigned gypsy by 2.30 pm. Though the gates open at 3.00 pm for the
afternoon safari, you need to be present at least 30 min prior at the
verification counter. Here they check your bookings, verify ID proof and assign
you a forest guide. It is mandatory to have a guide and driver for the jungle
safari. Everything is done manually on a FCFS basis. So always plan to be among
the first 5 vehicles to enter the forest when the gates open. The probability
of sighting some rare animal is higher if you enter the forest first. The logic
is quite simple. The core zones are deprived of any human
activity during the non-safari hours. So all the wild animals roam freely without
any human disturbance. The forest is untouched before the safari and hence
there are high chances that you may find a tiger or a leopard walking down the
pathways in front of you. Once the animals feel the disturbance of the vehicles
and voices, they quickly move deep inside the dense vegetation and hence become
difficult to spot.
The afternoon safari starts at 3.00 pm and ends at 5.30 pm.
There are 4 core zones at Kanha viz Kanha, Kisli, Mukki and Sarhi. If you are
booked at Khatia gate, you can access all 4 zones. For us, it was Kanha zone.
The forest appeared without any movement for the first 30 mins except a few
spotted deers and Sambars crossing our way. Most of the activity inside a
forest happens during the golden hours. Kanha is blessed with huge meadows. Being
there makes you feel magical. Vast expanse of yellow grass with kaccha road
tracks cutting through it, herds of Chitals and Sambars grazing at a distance,
gives a unique hue to the overall landscape.
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| Photo by Mihir A |
By the time we came back from the safari, it was almost
dark. So, we decided to have an early dinner and call off for the day since
every one of us had a considerable amount of travel fatigue. The morning safari
starts at 6.30 am. So we had to be at the verification desk before 6 in order
to be among the first 5. As the night advances, the mercury takes a plunge. We
slept with a triple layer of clothing and a thick blanket to cover us. Everyone
woke up a little before 5.30 am. Brushing teeth on the chilled morning seemed like
a herculean task. But no one had any complains. We were here to experience the
extreme. We left the comforts of our warm room a little before 6 well equipped
with our photography gear. Took a parcel of packed breakfast from the reception and
waited in queue for our turn. Being a Sunday, the number of vehicles to enter
the gate was the highest. We had to cover Mukki zone for this safari. Our guide
told us that different tigers can be seen in different zones as every tiger has
its set territory and it seldom crosses into a different territory. Tigers here
have their local names. Munna, Chota Munna, Dhamangaon male, Neelam,
Dhavazhandi female, Bajrang are few of the regularly seen tigers. The guides
and drivers are so trained that they can identify a tiger just by taking a
glance at it.
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| Kanha meadows. Photo by Mihir A |
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| Spotted deer |
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| Barasingha or Swamp Deer |
The hunt for the tiger continued throughout the safari but
we had to settle down watching Chitals, Barasingha, Barking deers, Peafowls, Jackals and a couple of birds. Barasingha or the Swamp Deer is a species unique to this reserve. Once upon a time only a handful of these species were
left when the government rated them under schedule I of the Wildlife Protection Act. Since then, a separate fenced area was reserved for them devoid of any
predators where a strict breeding and conservation efforts were carried out
which led to an increase in their numbers. Today over 500 Barasinghas live in
the safe monitored environment of Kanha. During our third safari, we could hear
strong calls of Chital, Sambar and Langur. It continued to come from a densely
covered hill area. Multiple gypsies patiently waited there with a hope of
sighting a predator. The forest fauna behave in a specific pattern. It is
essential to understand this behaviour to be able to read the forest. Whenever
a predator is around, all the animals of the lower part of the food chain start
giving alarm calls. Each animal has its own unique alarm call. The frequency
and time interval of these calls enables you to predict the location of the
predator around. For example, whenever the herbivores see a tiger in motion
they start giving calls to alert their species that there’s a danger around. On
the other hand, if a tiger is sitting at a particular place, you would hear no
alarm calls since they know that the predator is not in any mood to attack.
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| Tiger pugmark |
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| Star gazing |
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| Bay backed Shrike |
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| Jackal |
The next evening we had a friend come over to our room to
share his experiences in the forest. He works as a Naturalist at a resort
nearby. It was fun to listen to him, some of the instances shared gave us goose
bumps. It made our cravings to see the ultimate predator more intense. Our
friend agreed to accompany us in the next morning Safari to Kanha zone. The
rest of the night was spent experimenting long exposure shots to capture the
stars. We could overcome the extreme weather just because the thrill of getting
to see a tiger in its natural environment was very high. An hour into our next
safari and suddenly we saw an animal with black stripes on a golden yellow
coat. It didn’t take over a second to realise it’s a tiger walking in front of
us. There were a couple of gypsies with us who were lucky this time to spot
Munna or T17, a dominant adult male. The grace of this animal is so intense
that you just fall in love with it. To us it appeared as if this guy was on a
morning walk marking his territory with urine spray and occasional scrapes on
tree barks. We got to see this majestic animal in different poses.
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| T17 aka 'Munna' |
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| Munna |
Our guide
told us that he has been seeing this particular male for the past 8 years and
mentioned that he has taken over many male tigers in territorial fights. Everyone
present there were awestruck. We clicked as many pictures as we could of this
national animal of our country. After following Munna for some 15 mins and
observing his acts in detail, now it was time to say good bye to this big cat
and continue with our safari. The rest of the safari was uneventful but we had
those exact moments rolling in front of our eyes for the next few hours.
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| Our happy faces after head on with Munna |
Completely satisfied, we packed our bags this time with sweet
memories and promised to come back to this beautiful land of tigers after a
short city break. The journey back to Nagpur was again long before we could
board Duronto back to Mumbai.
