Our Weekend Trip to Dudhwa : Day 2 Part V - TIGER Kishanpur

←Day 2 Part IV - Machaan at Jhadi Taal, Kishanpur

Day 3 Part I - Misty morning in Machaan→

Our Weekend Trip to Dudhwa : Day 2 Part V - TIGER Kishanpur

  After climbing down from the lakeside Machaan of Jhadi taal, we climbed back up onto the jeep for continuing with the jungle safari. The route continued along the edge of lake, with the lake to our left. There were several other ground level hideouts along the lakeside. Our guide said that they were for research purpose and departmental use and not open to general tourist. There were couple of more Machaans too but they were in a dilapidated unsafe state, in fact there were workers working on one of them to repair it.

   Continuing along this path provided us a good look at the lake. As we were parked in the pathway to one of the machaan, clicking some birds, we surprisingly heard some wooden-like striking sound. At first I thought it is the sound of some lumberjack axing down a tree, imagine illegal logging so openly. But no, the sound seem to be coming from the lake, tracing the sound we were astonished to see two handsome Barasingha stag engaged in a horny dual😊, lucky us.

Barasingha stags engaged in a dual

  

   Click on the video below to see their engagement

Swamp deers fighting in Swamp

  Another unique feature of the Jhadi Taal, as you may have noticed in the pics in previous post too, are the numerous isolated small island, which provide a good conglomeration site for the fauna. 

Lounge Islands

   It was amazing to Barasinghas (Swamp Deer), Muggermachch (Indian Marsh Crocodile), egrets and variety of birds crowding nonchalantly on these small shared space. 

A wildlifers delight

   Stags are known to decorate their horns with algae as a part of mating behaviour, you can see a decorated one in the pic above.

   Soon we left the banks of the Jhadi Taal and briefly got into the grasslands on its side before re-entering the wooded forest. This grasslands appeared a very promising tiger territory, so we rode forward slowly with hope laden breath, alert ears listening out for any alarm calls and  watchful eyes looking out for tracks. But alas, not a whiff of the elusive national animal. Well, we were pretty much satisfied with just the forests itself and had had a good outing with excellent sightings of Barasinghas and crocs and other species too, but then a Tiger is a Tiger, no when was really complaining.

In the grasslands on the shores of Jhadi Taal

Setting Sun caught in the Grasslands

   In the jungle, there was a temple below a banyan tree, there used to be a baba from adjoining village who had set up his hermitage here.

Jhadi Baba Temple

   The heritage Kishanpur Forest Rest House

Kishanpur Forest Rest House

   Dudhwa has five out of the seven deer species of India. Black buck is not one of them, well black buck is not a true deer after all. But, rather unnaturally, we spotted a black buck too, close to the Forest Rest House.

Wow, its got Blackbucks too

   Well, after the rest house, the guide wanted to take us to some other part of forest. But we kind of liked the Jhadi Taal, so we requested him take us again to it and on the path around it. I wanted to just stop and enjoy the grassland as it gave me a pretty Tigerish feeling with the long elephant grass and all.

   We did not get down at the Machaan this time but continued driving along the lake as we wanted to spend time at the tigerish grassland. But obviously couldn't help but admire the fauna of Jhadi Taal, albeit from the jeep itself this time 'round.

A pretty exemplar specimen of the Purple Heron

   So, we reached the grassland on the far side of the lake and just stopped for 5 odd minutes to just soak in the jungle feeling. We were hopefully listening out for some alarm calls too but unfortunately there were none.

Sun-drop, a drop of sun

Hide and seek

   To give an idea of how tall the grass was, in the pic below, imagine our vehicle top frame to be reaching till about the greenline of grass. Another way is to gauge the scale of pic from looking at vehicle tracks and imagine a jeep over it.

Tigerland

   After sitting around and enjoying the feel for some time, we decided to call it quits and continue on the path to reach the rest house and then hit the straight road out to make it out of the jungle in time as per the rules of the jungle.

   The family was chatting around with the guide regarding jungles and tigers, while I was looking out keenly on the road as the vehicle was leisurely rolling forward. The wife was mockingly complaining to the guide on not having shown us a Tiger and was offering him a home made besan laddu (an Indian sweet) as a sweet and good omen. While he was explaining about how sighting a tiger is purely luck etc.

   And while they were busy chatting, I saw this huge animal walking on the centre of the jungle path ahead. Its unhurried and carefree gait fooled me for a second or two before the recognition hit home that it was a TIGER!, I remember clearly that at that moment the guide was facing his audience with his back to the front of vehicle and the tiger, and was saying that one may see a tiger may be right now or may be never at all, while the kids and wife and even the driver were looking towards him engaged in the time pass conversation. And I coolly exclaimed "...And see, there it is...". They, including the guide thought that I was fooling, even on seeing the tiger, the guide too like me, took few seconds to realise and accept that there really was a hell of a huge male tiger which had suddenly appeared in front of us like an apparition. There were absolutely no alarm calls or movement, the jungle as was still and silent as it had been for the past few minutes.

   The Tiger continued walking on the jungle road for some time, and in spite of my hushed request to maintain distance, the guide kept goading the driver forward in a forced whisper. While I wanted to keep distance to allow the tiger some space so that he continues his leisure walk along the path and thus prolong our sighting, I was as it is getting nice composition with my 300mm dx lens. But the guide in his rather foolish exuberance thought that we were afraid on seeing the tiger, least realising that we had seen our share of all type of wildlife, and wanted to offer us a closer sighting. Also underlying was his intent of getting the tiger nice and clear in his mobile!😖

   Thus, our closing in possibly made the tiger ditch the road and he graciously made way into dense undergrowth on our left. I had guessed by its mannerism that it indeed intended to proceed along the path and had gone in only to avoid us. Going by the lay of road and the clearances in vegetation I was hopefully certain of the point it would re-emerge on the path. My quickly formed game-plan was to go well ahead of that point and wait for it to re-emerge and possibly click few head on shots. But alas, the guide again thought that we wanted to get away and held the jeep abeam the point where the tiger disappeared and kept scanning the bushes. 

   There was insufficient time to argue around and I rightly allowed the guide to be the boss. And the tiger reappeared on the road, satisfyingly close to the spot I had mentally predicted and fixed my gaze onto. And then again the mad game of tail gating the tiger was put into action. Well, perhaps annoyed, he disappeared hurriedly into the undergrowth on the right this time.

   Here is a video compilation of our lucky sighting that evening...

Tiger in Kishanpur

   We continued parallel to him on the road, catching fleeting glimpses of him through the undergrowth for some time, before losing track of him in the undergrowth. We then moved forward and stopped in the hope of him reappearing on the path. But something told us, perhaps the way he slinked away, that he was not coming out in a hurry. Luckily we were the only vehicle who had seen the Tiger. That's the beauty of Dudhwa being 'non-touristy', a happening unlikely in the celebrated central Indian parks.

   Soon, two more vehicles appeared on the scene. On learning of our sighting, they too expectantly posted themselves on the spot. By the excited clamour which they were creating, the chances of the tiger reappearing were slimmer now. As we had had our fill of sighting and adventure, and were nearing the park exit time, we decided to scoot home.

   Here are the presentable photos of the sighting

Huge...

 just look at those front paws, neck and face

   Details of the pics below reveal that I had to actually zoom out to 240 mm from the maximum available 300 mm to keep the frame composed... 

Gracefully Royal

Into the bushes

Full Stretch...

And it reappeares...

....and soon disappeared

   On our way back out, due to the paucity of time we followed back the Jhadi Taal route instead of the initially planned rest house route, giving us the opportunity to once again enjoy the beautiful lake.

Stags going home...?

Extremely low light shot

   We later in the night, learnt of interesting happenings, wherein one of the two vehicles who we had left close to the tiger spotting site, refused to restart when that group finally decided to set course back due to failing light after an unsuccessful wait. All the tourist were accommodated in the other vehicle, and the guide from  this vehicle too got into the broken down vehicle to give company to its driver and guide and to accommodate the tourist into the working vehicle. As soon as the vehicle left and the winter darkness grew, the tiger started growling in deep base rumbles. To top it, as the vehicle was not starting they couldn't switch on the headlight or sound horns for the fear of battery draining out. They kept chatting rather loudly to keep their fear at bay. Finally by about 8 o' clock after a wait of nearly two hours they were picked up by another vehicle, the tiger was still reported to be growling. We heard this tale over the dinner at the canteen.

   We soon hit the sack but not before celebrating the eventful day.

   Hope you enjoyed going though this post. Request continue following and sharing our pics, posts and logs to motivate us keep posting...Love and regards.

#kishanpurwls #jhaditaal #barasingha #swampdeer #endemic #threatened #vulnerable #muggercrocodile #indianmarshcrocodile #elephantgrass #banyan #blackbuck #purpleheron #tiger #endangered #upforestdepartment #upecotourism #incredibleindia


   PS: Please contact us, in case you want a higher resolution copy of any of the pics posted.


←Day 2 Part IV - Machaan at Jhadi Taal, Kishanpur

Day 3 Part I - Misty morning in Machaan→