The game heats up! – Day 2 in Corbett

The alarm failed to alarm us. It was by chance that I was up around quarter past five and sounded my alarm to bala, “we are late”. Of course, we were late for our rendezvous with tigers and we hurriedly dressed and packed. It transpired that bala had set the alarm for 5 pm. A couple of pictures and videos here and there followed as we checked out and it was quarter to six when we checked out from gairal gates.

Early morning happens to be the best time to do “walk the talk” with tigers. Irshaad showed us lot of pug marks of male and female tigers all around but was still not willing to press on accelerator. We even saw a sambhar deer in an alert pose and irshaad was able to guess that the tiger was somewhere near. Meanwhile, hari’s jeep overtook us while we waited at a spot. Soon hari’s jeep came in full reverse mode and they excitedly told us about the spotting of a tigress which had crossed he track and run into the grassland. My heart was bleeding! If only we had maintained some decent speed, we would have spotted the tiger and taken few quick snaps. That was not to be! We all did a turn around and chose to wait near the grassland wherein a tusker was merrily roaming. Some more sambhars were in an uneasy state, these animals have a knack of smelling dangers. Hari’s jeep quicky left the scene while we waited there in hope of spotting the tigress. Alas! We decided to proceed further. As we carried on, a colleague of the driver with foreign tourists was waiting beneath a tree and we learnt that this party spotted the very same tigress after couple of hours. Indeed it is all game of passion! We had missed our best chance.

The previous we were in a dilemma as to whether we should leave early to ranikhet by bus or continue with the safari in the afternoon since we had paid and then take a car to ranikhet. The afternoon safari made things clear about the prospects of tiger sighting. Hence, we had decided not to take the afternoon safari and proceed by bus which was around four hour journey.

Clueless as to where the tigress might appear, we proceeded towards dhikala, to the reservoir area through a different track. We also visited the poppy fields and crossed ramganga river

and went further and saw more beautiful birds. We had our breakfast at dhikala (Maggie and butter toast) and lazed around by clicking monkeys. At dhikala we saw a beautiful bird in pink Capri and she made our day. She was traveling in the canter which is yet another option to see Corbett which operates from 6 am to 12 noon. Canter, is typically meant for those who do not have reservation within the park. We next hit the sambhar track and stopped at the machan (tower). Hereafter, we were on our way to dhangari gate, kissing goodbye to the forest. Bala had yet another agenda which he pressed, “bhaiya, let e drive the jeep for some time”. The driver did not budge and cited some administrative reason. By 11 am we were out and I left the forest promising “I’d be back to see the tigers”. Bala, once on the highway, again pressed on his agenda and this time irshaad gave the vehicle. Thankfully, bus to ranikhet cut short the drive and we boarded the bus.

This was my first visit to a wildlife sanctuary and Corbett forest indeed obliged us by revealing various flavors. We narrowly missed tiger spotting, ran into wild tusker, saw beautiful birds, enjoyed the coolness of sal trees and fragrance of poppy plant, ride on various tracks were exciting and view of ramganga and grasslands was riveting. But is it right to disturb the forest and animals natural habitat? This is so because we humans do not take lightly when tigers or leopards stray into our boundary.

Travel advice is book accomodation inside the park in advance and tourism department always routes accomodaion through agents in order to gain commissions. Try to stay atleast for 2 days and morning safaris are the best time to spot tigers. Try to get placed at dhikala which happens to be the heart of corbett. Gairal's disadvantage is the distance and also it does not have elephant ride option.

Before I wrap up this piece, more news about tiger population has flowed in; panna has zilch. Apparently tranquilizer overdose for collaring has been cited as reason which made poaching more easier. Some allied news: recently, jairam ramesh, the Minister of State for Environment and Forests, visited Corbett to assess the situation and in his first visit, he spotted a tigress. Given the sycophantic attitude of the forest officials, the tigress had to show herself before the minister. The “pug mark” method for counting the tiger also came under sharp attack. The project tiger stands disbanded and national tiger conservation authority has been set up. Committees and authorities are well known for chai and samosa discussions. It requires someone of indira gandhi’s stature to save our national animal. Can mr. singh save his needy counterpart?

Tiger poaching is a complex issue having wide web; the demand: for use in chupas (traditional vest coats of Tibetans, the poachers: paid by men like sansar chand and the savers: belinda wright , valmiki thapar to name a few. And of course the forest officials, rangers and other staff complete the picture. Click these links to read more:
http://www.indiatogether.org/2009/feb/env-sanchand.htm
http://www.newsweek.com/id/134268/page/2 http://tehelka.com/story_main38.asp?filename=Ne120408tale_tiger.asp

Game of Passion! - Day 1

…was the cliché phrase which we encountered throughout our jeep safari at Corbett from irshad, our driver. Of course, me and bala were there to see the ‘tiger’.

On 30th april we boarded the ranikhet link express from the old delhi railway station. Before we could leave to station, we received last minute safety sermons from my mom and my two aunts; one of them remarked, “do not tease the animals” and I replied, “are we allowed to tease girls?” Bala had retained his meru cab and we reached the station around 9:30 pm. The driver was chirpy fellow and I enjoyed brief chit-chat. Bala’s digi came out and he clicked the beautiful red building. This was my first time at old delhi station; the drizzle and the crowd at the platform made me sweat more. The station was fully occupied; people like me carrying baggage’s, others readying themselves to sleep on the platform. Also the station has peculiar method of numbering the platforms and we could not decipher the system and had to chase coolies. I was quiet frustrated and the delayed train added more perspiration. The train rolled in 30 minutes late. We boarded the train, chit-chatted, had fanta and bala went busy on con-call. I watched the train pulling out us from roads, river, houses, tensions, deadlines….

We were to reach ramnagar around 5 am and we arrived bang on time. Ramnagar station was small and neat station. Autos and open jeeps arrived in frenzy and picked the passengers. We too boarded an auto for Corbett motel and in five minutes we were dropped. We were given a room and we dozed for a while because the papers to enter the park would be ready only by nine. We met the proprietor of the motel, karan bhai, a wild life enthu and we were charmed by his reels of encounters with tigers and celebrities while we had our breakfast. The jeep also arrived late and it took another 15 minutes to obtain the papers.

(On way to gairal)
Quarter past 10 we entered the park through the dhangari gate. Our mobiles had ceased to catch signals long back and we were out of leash. One hour drive took us to gairal wherein bala had booked a room; en-route, irshad introduced us many birds especially the sound of laughing jackass. We came across wild elephant and deer’s and with these immediate sightings, we were optimistic to run into tiger. We checked into our fan-less room and hot air was blowing. We had our lunch at the canteen and headed towards the ramganga river. The receptionist had instructed us not to hit the river and bala did just that. I followed him in order to keep his within my sights. The river was not abundantly flowing but water was enough to sustain the wildlife. Few quick snaps and I dragged bala back to cottage.

Bala wanted to carry on with the safari for it would take time to reach the other gate at dhikala and starting at 1 would give us more time. The park has its fundas of timing for the well being of the animals. The driver was taken aback when bala suggested that we start now and refused saying that, ‘it is rest time now’ and bala wondered 'who’s in-charge?”'

(river ramganga)
Back at room, we were wondering how we would survive the hot air blowing across and wondering so, we slept for we were energy sapped. We woke up just in time and hunted irshad out of his bin and we started hoping it would be “jab we met tiger!” moment. A guide too accompanied us for the safari since the charges include guide’s fees too. The pace of the jeep was slow right from the start and I felt quite frustrated. We stopped at a view point to spot a baby gharial (specie of crocodile) and then we were introduced to an owl and some eagle. Around 4 we were near dhikala, heart of the park and we were on our way to the ramganga reservoir. The landscape changed dramatically from cool sal trees to grassland; indeed a riveting experience. We spotted a herd of elephants playing merrily in the grassland. The reservoir was quoted as tiger spotting place since deer’s would flock there. Indeed we saw a big group of deer and a young sick elephant (tusker). The tiger still eluded us but the reservoir area is to be seen. The driver bluffed that the area was under water till couple of days ago however the soil gave no indication of being so wet.

Next we hit the ‘sambhar deer track’ which was said to be the tiger’s favorite track. Even here we spotted nothing. Next we were shown the track leading to kaanda (another accomodation place) located at an upper region. While we saw more new birds, the fragrance of poppy in the air was mind blowing.

We crossed a small wodden brigde over ramganga of which karan bhai had talked off when bala questioned the prospects of crossing over the river. I am sure bala must have imagined something much more spectacular. The watch was referred to and now we were traveling at full speed towards gairal because of the time restrictions. This urgency of our driver was absent during the whole day. On our way back, we heard a lone deer bark and our driver sensed it as a ‘call’ and we stopped for a while to realize that it was a ‘false alarm’. We were indeed disappointed that we could not sight a tiger and bala was now wishing for an encounter with wild elephant as our driver had narrated couple of encounter stories wherein a tusker had toppled jeeps and canter.

We were only five minutes away from gairal when the drama unfolded. Two jeeps before us had been stalled by a youngish tusker; soon 4 more jeeps piled behind us. The tusker came down the narrow lane and we hit the reverse gear. The tusker was in no hurry and he stood, ate leaves and played by the pool of water. Our driver, who had been narrating tiger encounter stories during the day, went pale with fear and our guide invoked lord ganesha. It was nearly seven and was pitch dark. The tusker slowly started drifting towards the river and the first jeep driver, rizwan, managed to escape. This act of his, however, was not taken well by the tusker’s huge ego and he charged towards us again. More waiting followed and the tusker moved towards his left, into the grass. The jeeps roared into life and sped away and I saw the tusker giving a chase to the last jeep.

We all assembled inside the compound of gairal to conduct autopsy of the incident and fixed the blame on rizwan. Electricity was to remain available only for couple of hours and we hurried to re-charge the batteries of digi. We chatted with our neighbors for a while, hari and pravin, who had come from delhi like us but with no arrangements and were solely riding on their luck from train to accommodation. We had our buffet dinner and chatted for some time and hit bed around half past nine after fixing an early alarm. Bala was dead tired and he faded into dream-o-sphere quickly. Electricity went out at 10; I finished off the remaining mazza and lay wondering as to when sleep would find me. It did finally….