Two Days of Wildlife

Third time lucky I guess.. After Dooars and Kaziranga got cancelled due to various reasons we finally got our luck clicked this time, thanks to Dad’s presence of mind during booking. If not he had been asked for the dormitories in the last moment we wouldn’t have been though it. And finally we are going for a wildlife trip to JimCorbettNational Park in Ramnagar, Uttarakhand ..WOW!, superrr exited, actually to be true its very hard to describe the excitement.

The main motto is to look out for any handsome Kumayun Tiger in the forest, and for that one needs to enter the deepest part of the National Park, around 35 km from highway and around 55km from Ramnagar – THRILLING! One can stay in hotels in or around Ramnagar and can do Safari to the National Park in morning and\or evening. Or one can stay within the National Park and do Safari’s from there itself, but it is necessary to do pre bookings from the forest officer’s office in Ramnagar or else one won’t be allowed inside.

 There are five tourism zones in the Park with separate gates. We got our booking in the Dhikala Zone which is the most well known zone of the CorbettPark that means we are going to spend two days within the National Park, amongst the wildlife and beautiful nature. What could be better than this?? We will be getting two safari rides per day, one in the morning and other in the evening. But as we will be reaching by evening we will actually get three safari rides, that doesn’t matter though, as long as we are seeing any handsome Kumayun Tiger.
                                               
                                          

So as the sun prepares to wrap up the days schedule, we headed towards the Dhangari Gate along the PatliDunValley along which the river Ramganga flows. Dhangari gate is .the entrance point towards the Dhikala zone, which is located 35 km within the National Park. Two gypsy cars and 11 people with a strangely nervous feeling and excitement entered the Dhangari gate. We obviously had two drivers who are from Forest department they will guide us thought the safari rides and some rules and regulations of the National Park. And as we enter the gate we could see a board along with the basic rules within the National Park.

As the huge gates of Dhangari got closed behind us and we headed towards deep down forest, a sudden change of atmosphere, surroundings, feeling and thoughts caught us. We got silent at that point of time, may be because of a strange feeling inside or because we read the rules and regulations carefully. The Gypsy’s also didn’t have any noise as they run in around a speed of 30 kmph. The silence of the forest, the chirping sound of the birds, the humming of strange animals or whatever and the rustling of the leaves made the atmosphere magical. We were sitting in the gypsy with our eyes playing out in search for different animals and a keen hope in heart to see a TIGER.

                                             

In our very first safari towards Dhikala, we came across the most common animals of the forest, the various deer’s, and the peacocks but no luck about the Tigers and Leopards in our first safari. So we reached Dhikala by the dusk and the safari ended, for that day. We are now amongst the wildlife, deep inside the national park, out of reach from the whole world. A silence, a lively feeling and no tension at all, the place was making me feel alive. With a lively heart and exited mind, we headed towards our Log Hut.

The Log Hut is actually the dormitory of Dhikala zone, with two rooms adjacent to each other. Each room consists of twelve beds. The washrooms being outside, a little away from the log hut gives the camp feeling.

After settling down to one part of the log hut, we thought to freshen up and relax a bit to overcome from the long and hectic journey up to CorbettNational Park. The dinner we had to take there was pretty different from the usual meals and very ahead from the usual time as well. As the place has got only one shop cum cafeteria kind of a thing, where one can get most of the necessary items, and foods.
The very first day we fed ourselves with instant noodles, and the next day with Roti’s, one Subji and Curd. All those items over there are pretty expensive as they need to be brought from Ramnagar.
By the time my watch ticks 9 o’ clock, every one were under the blanket snoring. Me being a little insomniac by nature, was struggling hard to read my ‘Feluda’ book under a very low light (the only Light) of the room. And after some hour or so, I kept the book, closed my eyes and those unknown sounds of the animals and birds outside made me fell asleep.
We were supposed to start our morning safari by 6.30 am, but being a traditional Bengali we abide by our rules of being late and thus started at 7 am. By the time we were running towards our jeeps everyone at Dhikala has left for their respective safari.

This morning I woke up with a gut feeling that we might be able to spot a TIGER. Don’t know why but I was feeling that we will be lucky enough to see one. They say that not every people who come to Corbett or Dhikala are lucky enough to spot a Tiger. Many of them leave the place without seeing a Tiger.
……. And my gut feeling was cent percent right. After a few 10/12 minutes of the safari, out driver spotted some fresh Pug Marks (Tiger’s foot prints) along our way, and informed us that the marks were barely half an hour old, which means we were on the right way. Not wasting a nano second our jeeps ran through that path towards the hope of spotting a TIGER.

                      

We went to one end of that path, which has a view of the streams where the wild animals come down to have water. All of us were hoping to get a glance of a Tiger drinking water or something like that, but the TIGER buddy had some other plans in mind for us.

The guide at our jeep received some information about a Tiger being spotted near where we were standing. And within fraction of seconds our two jeeps turned around and vroomed towards the same way that we have came from .. and at a little range, we can spot a number of jeeps crowding in a particular spot. There remained no doubt that the Thing was being spotted in that area. 5/6 jeeps with around 30 people remained pin drop silent and let the King of the jungle do its own thing.
There it is!! Its there, there!! … …. …. Whispering sounds from every alternate person made me look carefully through the bushy mushy trees and I cloud notice a yellow and black stripped tail moving out slowly from our eyesight.

Dheit!!! Just a tail??? .. Spotting a Tiger over? Done? Is it only this?? What will I tell to my friends and others when they’ll ask ‘Did u see a tiger?’ all these things were cluttering around my mind at that point of time?

We were about to go back, and our jeeps started and moved forward. The tires just rolled a few times & we saw that an elephant safari is coming over the same way, and our jeeps U-Turned. They say over there that if an elephant enters within the dense forest the Tigers tend to come out to the ways or pathway as they get scared of the elephant.

We followed the elephant and stopped at the very same place I spotted the TAIL. The elephant took left and moved within the bushy mushy forest. We all waited silently for some seconds and then as the Heroes of any Bollywood film makes a grand entry to any premier show, something came out from the bushes with the same pride.

                      

….. yesssssssss a beautiful looking stripped animal, the king of jungle – a TIGER was well in front of our eyes. Aahhh!! What a sight, I felt a strange feeling inside my heart, and no I wasn’t scared, it even dint came to my mind as well. I was tactically balancing myself with one foot in the seat and the other at the jeeps side, one eye at my handicam and other at the tiger to see it live and not through the handicam screen.

                    

                                                So our Tiger Buddy came from left.

                   

Smoothly and silently crossed the pathway with a slow pace, as if it is doing a morning walk and then went inside the grassy bushes to our right.

                  

                  

There were some deer eating their breakfast, it looked at them making a pause, as if thinking ‘what to do with this fellas? Should I run and grab a good breakfast, or should I leave’. By the time the elephant safari went to the grassy bushes from our back and stood around some feet away from the Tiger. Our buddy then realized that there is some huge thing around, looked back and took a glance and without wasting no time leaped from right to left and ran away…..

                   

WE SAW A TIGER!! WE SAW A TIGER!! All were exclaiming, hugging and hi-fying with each other as we came back after few more hours and few more rounds in our safari. We all were soooooooooper (Super) happy, so as were our drivers and guides. They were pretty satisfied with the fact that they made us see a Tiger. Their primary job was done.

                    

The rest of the day spent like a click, we went for another safari in the evening, this time to the core forest area, felt a thrill but not as much as the Tigers. All we were thinking was about the Tiger and thus we hardly felt how the time passed. It was the last night in Corbett before we pack up next morning.

It rained all night with thunderstorms and lightning. There is a certain beauty of those thunderstorms in the dense forest. I was the only one in the dorm who was fast awake and the luckiest one to have enjoyed the beauty of the rain, thunderstorm that came along with the sound of the animals. It was all going good until I told Dad that it’s raining heavily outside and it looks pretty hard to get out from here in this kind of situation.
It was 4.30 am and we were supposed to leave the place by 5 am so that we could reach Ramnagar by 7 am. We were worried about missing our train from Ramnagar for our next destination. While Dad was thinking about what can be done, I was praying to Hanuman ji (sankat mochan) under my blanket. After few minutes Dad was pretty convinced about the fact that we have to miss the train and have to leave after few more hours. And as he decided to slip back within the blanket to have another pretty nap the Rain stopped abruptly. Every one was surprised, but I was happy that my prayers were answered.


                   

Thus in that rainy, windy, cold morning we all were rushing down to pack up ourselves and our baggage. By 5.30 am we were on our way back to Ramnagar, we were hardly half an hour late and our drivers assured us that they’ll make us reach by 7.15 am.

                    

As I left Corbett, I was not feeling good and wanted to stay back, but our driver brought a smile to my face when he said that We were lucky enough to see the Tiger yesterday, because as it started raining the Tigers wont come out until the weather gets sunny and the people who’ll be coming today and tomorrow have 99% of chance to miss spotting a Tiger. . .



***(Special mention – my friend Chris Jones for few amazing pictures)