Sunday, March 8, 2015
to Jim Corbett in search of the elusive beast..
this trip to Jim Corbett had one mission same as any trip to Jim Corbett: to capture the Royal Bengal Tiger.. we started early in the morning and crossed Muradabad in good time. on the way we stopped for the now customary breakfast of aloo berwi at Garhmukteshwar..
after Muradabad, Google asked us to turn from the highway. that's when the ordeal began. the road from Muradabad to Kashipur was badly broken.. the potholes were sometimes bigger than our car.. it took 2.5 hours of really slow and bumpy driving to cover the 23kms till Kashipur. mostly we were driving on the other side of the road or in the ditch beyond it.. after Kashipur, suddenly the road became smooth and awesome. we finally reached the Mahindra Resort in Jim Corbett after 7 hours of driving.
in the afternoon we had booked our first safari and the car came at 3pm sharp to pick us up. we had booked the safari in advance and the guide had arranged the permits for us. we entered the national park with great anticipation. but for the first hour we saw nothing but a couple of deers and a fox.
the jungle scenary..
suddenly we saw another safari jeep racing in the opposite direction. Our driver also turned around and started following it. 2-3 more jeeps followed us.
at one point there were many jeeps standing and everyone was looking into a bush. someone told us that there was a tiger behind it. we too stopped and waited. half an hour passed and no movement.. then a group on an elephant safari came. the elephant walked right into the bush. this, our guide told us, was to make the tiger run towards the road. but apparently the tiger had already run away. disappointed we moved on. we reached a water hole and the guide suddenly became excited. he said he could hear the monkey's chattering, signalling that a tiger was nearby. this time our wait was fruitful and we saw yellow and black stripes moving in the bushes. the tiger went and sat behind the bush near the waterhole. we couldn't see it clearly but we could see movement in the bush so we knew it was there. we waited for an hour for it to come out in open. once the guides even claimed that its mother was also coming but this dint happen. finally it was almost time for the reserve to close, so we had to return. we had "spotted" a tiger but weren't satisfied. we had booked another safari for next day morning, may be our luck would be better than..
at night it started to rain.. we woke up at 5am for the safari and it was still raining. we called up the guide. he said that the safaris will still go, so if we wanted we could wait for some more time and then decide. finally at 7am we decided to go inspite of the rain. the trails in the forest were full of slush. we started our search from the waterhole where we got the glimpse of the tiger the day before. nothing there.. we drove around for half an hour but no luck. there is a watch tower where all safari cars are supposed to come. if any car has sighted a tiger, they report the location to the others here.. we went there and waited..
waiting at the watchtower. this is the only place where the tourists can get out of the car..
after almost an hour a report of a sighting came. we were told that the tiger was walking on the road and they had watched it for a good 45minutes. we rushed to the spot but the tiger had moved. we waited there for some time, but it seemed unlikely that the tiger would return. we asked the driver to take us to the other side of path which the tiger had supposedly taken. all the way we kept scanning the thick forests for any sign of yellow. on the other side also we dint find the tiger. we were driving around when we saw many jeeps clustered together ahead, blocking the road. everyone was looking towards the top of a small elevation next to the road. there in between the branches was our quarry..
we clicked to our heart's content. then we decided to go back. but the tiger seemed in a mood to be photographed. it got up and started to walk down the elevation.. the cars followed.. it came at the road level and was standing barely 10feet away. our car was nearest to it.
then it got bored and walked away into the jungle. we too were getting late as it was time for the park to close. if the safari cars dont exit on time, they are fined and even barred from future entry. so the driver drove back at full speed resulting in a very bumpy ride. but in our elation of a good tiger spotting we barely noticed.
next day we returned to Delhi. this time we followed the advice of the locals and took a different route.. it was longer but in much better condition. there were patches of bad road but these were small.. it was raining all the way and weather was really nice. we joined the Muradabad highway at Dhualatpur.
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