B for Bandhavgarh

6 friends (Dipti, Hemant, Jigna, Jaydeep, Ramkrishna, Sonal) ...
5 safaris ...
4 days of isolation from the mainstream world ...
3 shivery mornings which froze us from hair to you know what ...
2 royal sightings ...
1 experience of a lifetime!

Frankly speaking I was not expecting so much of fun in this trip. Reason being I didn’t know 2 people (Jigna and Sonal) joining for this trip. But I got pretty much sure about the unlimited fun for this trip when I had to give directions to Sonal and Jigna to come to Chandni Chowk in Pune. All of my friends who have come for roadtrips with me would speak for my direction sense... but this time ... Ooh la la ... Somehow I managed to find them near Sinhagad road overbridge and managed to show them Chandni Chowk as well. :)

Other 2 punekars – Dipti & Ramkrishna (RK) – were gonna meet us directly at railway station while the 6th and the most important member of the group – Hemant – was supposed to meet us up at Katni. Our train to Katni (Nearest major railhead to reach Bandhavgarh) was Darbhanga express and it definitely managed to भंग the ice for us. We were gossiping in top gear as if we knew each other for ages. Regular dosages of Chai, Bhel, Cutlets, Parathas helped us maintain the same momentum for gossiping. On the other hand, Hemant was getting irritated at Katni as his train reached there before time and our train got delayed by over an hour. Finally, we reached Katni at 1140 hrs and immediately packed ourselves in Santaram Express (Tavera for Katni to Bandhavgarh journey marshalled by Santaram dude). Jigna managed to catch some sleep in the road patches full of potholes as well. Wah bhai wah!

Our stay was arranged in Mogli resort at Tala (Bandhavgarh). Mogli is one of the better managed resorts in Tala and currently has a total of 30 cottages. We set off to evening safari almost immediately after dumping our baggage at Mogli. An open top Maruti gypsy was waiting to take us for the safari. At the main gate of the reserve, Ramnath Yadav was assigned to us for the safari. With Vikas at wheel and Ramnath’s expertise in tracking tigers, I was excited to have some royal sighting. Pugmarks, calls from animals like chital and monkey are some of the key elements to track tigers.

Chitals’ intense calls ... Followed by monkeys’ calls ... Sure sign of tiger being around ... All gypsies on the move to park themselves to get a good sighting ... We wait ... 5 minutes ... then 2 more minutes ... Nobody is moving ... Not even whispering ... All the gypsies have taken their positions and playing a patient game ... ‘n then Ramnath whispers, “Vikas, Gaadi ghumao. Jaldi. Pichle wale raste pe jayenge. ” For a moment I thought, damn here goes a chance of a sighting. But then, we had to trust Ramnath’s instincts. So did us. Nobody spoke anything. We came on a route which we had previously travelled on.

Krrrr... Chhh... Vikas stopped the gypsy all of a sudden. ‘n there came the moment which we were eagerly waiting for. Mirchani tigress was about to cross the road with her 2 cubs. Hemant pulled out his Canon EOS 400D and I took out my new Panasonic FZ28 to get some fantabuluos shots. There she came. Man I can’t tell how beautiful that scene was. Her cubs were only 18 months old but looked like fully grown tigers. Marvellous! Class one!! डोळ्यांचं पारणं फ़िटणे म्हणतात ना तसं! Wow! “Ramnath rocks!”, everybody said. Our safari ended shortly after that sighting as we had to hit back to the main gate by 1745 hrs to avoid any penalties. Our bandhavgarh venture couldn’t have had a better start than this. (INW: Click here)

Evenings at Mogli were chilling and we had to put on some extra clothing to keep ourselves warm. Uno, cards, songs, gossip, skyy ... Evenings were no difference to the fun gear that we were engaged into.

0500 hrs, next day morning (5 Dec ’08).. Man it was so damn difficult to get off from the bed and get ready for the morning safari. But we managed somehow and reached the main gate at 6. Again, Ramnath was gonna be our guide for that safari. I was getting ready to spot tiger once again. ‘n so were the other guys. Hemant and Ramnath briefed us about the B route and tigers around that area. Hemant spotted some birdies as well for us. Shrike, Malabar pied hornbill, Magpie, Kingfisher were some of the birdies which we could manage to see. We heard a lot of strong calls but couldn’t get a sighting in this particular safari. We were told that there’s a tiger sighting muhurat at 0905 hrs for that day by a pundit. For the first time in my life, I got to know there could be muhurat for sighting a tiger as well. His prediction went totally flop but we enjoyed knowing this funda.
We went for Bandhavgarh fort visit after this safari. The fort is huge and has history associated with it from Ramayana days (More). We went to 3-4 scenic spots, Ram mandir and Kabir’s mandir before having packed lunch there on the fort itself.

Evening safari (5 Dec ’08).. This time we got Mukesh Burman as our forest guide for the evening safari. Mukesh is a good friend of Hemant and Mukesh only had arranged the stay and safaris for us. We again went on different routes looking out for tigers. Some villager had seen B2 in the afternoon in nearby area. Sometimes we travelled back ‘n forth on the same route multiple times. But no luck. It was getting dark. Almost 1710 hrs. Hardly 35 minutes we had in hand to reach back to the main gate to make a timely exit. But then suddenly we heard calls from chital. Mukesh decided to take us on a certain route. We stopped and positioned ourselves. 5 minutes go by. Clock was ticking at 1720. It was getting darker every second. n Mukesh said, “B2”! Everybody tried to see what Mukesh’s expert eyes had spotted. Yepp, it was B2 – The most dominant male tiger in the area open to tourists in Bandhavgarh reserve. He was very far when we first saw him. But he was walking slowly towards the road. We were hoping to get a closer look. As he took each step and inched towards us, we couldn’t stop admiring his beauty. What an animal! The king! I can definitely tell you guys its an awesome sight watching a fully grown male tiger in action. And B2 didn’t disappoint us at all. He crossed the road right in front of our gypsy. Hemant and I were always in two minds – whether to admire his beauty through naked eyes or to capture it in camera lens. He coolly crossed the road and walked into the grass on the other side. He didn’t care about the people watching him, he didn’t care about anything actually! Guess that’s what makes him the king! Once again - डोळ्यांचं पारणं फ़िटणे म्हणतात ना तसं! 1735 hrs. We had to rush back to the main gate in 10 minutes and we did exactly the same. But we just couldn’t stop talking about B2. (INW : Click here)

We couldn’t see many animals in last 2 safaris of our trip (safaris on 6 Dec ’08) though we did a good amount of birding. Every time you go inside a forest you get a different experience. We thoroughly enjoyed each of our 5 safaris in Bandhavgarh – Thanks to Ramnath, Mukesh, Vikas and of course Hemant who shared his knowledge and also 2 wonderful documentaries with us.

Nobody was in the mood to return back to city life when we woke up on 7th Dec. But क्या करें, पापी पेट के लिए करना पडता है ... We packed ourselves into Santaram’s Tavera to reach Katni. As we reached Katni, we got to know that our train, Patna – Pune SUPERFAST, was running 1 n half hours late. But neither of us had any complaints as we were having great time together. Train journey became very much memorable coz of Mendhicoat! Sonal, RK and Dipti’s team played exceptionally well and didn’t give my team (Jigna, Hemant, Jd) any chance of loosing :)

Well, that’s it guys in this particular travelogue.
Picture gallery: http://picasaweb.google.com/jaydeephingne/BandhavgarhDec08?locked=true#

Sharing some links for those of you who want to visit Bandhavgarh –
1) Bandhavgarh – Reserve, Project Tiger, Fort, Other info - http://www.bandhavgarh.net/
2) Bandhavgarh Tourism Routes (Tala Range) - http://www.bandhavgarh.net/bandhavgarh-tourism-routes.html
3) Photographs posted by Hemant at INW - http://www.indianaturewatch.net/view_cat.php?tag=Hemant+JB