Nagarhole National Park, Kabini - Mar '21

I have mentioned in my previous blogs that wildlife is not my primary genre. However, India being the land of tigers, I got an urge to visit the tiger sanctuaries in India. I had been to Tadoba but was extremely unlucky in sighting the tiger. I have heard a lot about Nagarhole Tiger Reserve, Kabini and when India Photo Tours announced a trip I decided to join them. The reserve is about 5 hours drive from Bengaluru city / airport.

Nagarhole National Park, also known as Rajiv Gandhi National Park, is a wildlife reserve in the South Indian state of Karnataka. It is one of India's premier Tiger Reserves along with the adjoining Bandipur Tiger Reserve and Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuary. This park was declared the thirty seventh Project Tiger, Tiger reserves of India in 1999. It is part of the Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve. The Western Ghats Nilgiri Sub-Cluster of 6,000 km2 (2,300 sq mi), including all of Nagarhole National Park, is under consideration by the UNESCO World Heritage Committee for selection as a World Heritage Site. The park has rich forest cover, small streams, hills, valleys and waterfalls. The park has a healthy predator-prey ratio, with many tigers, Gaur, Elephants, Indian Leopards and Deer (chital, Sambar etc). Together with the adjoining Bandipur National Park (870 km2 (340 sq mi)), Mudumalai National Park (320 km2 (120 sq mi)) and Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuary (344 km2 (133 sq mi)), it forms the largest protected area in Southern India, totalling 2,183 km2 (843 sq mi). Once a private hunting lodge of the Maharaja of Mysore, Kabini was a popular hunting hotspot for British Viceroys and Indian royalty. Now it is considered to be one of the best Wildlife National Parks in India, famous for its spectacular wildlife and bird life.

Source : Wikipedia / Google

Travel Date : 3rd March ’21 to 7th March ‘21

Company : India Photo Tours led and mentored by Mr. Dheeraj Paul

Our stay was at Kabini River lodge, a joint venture property with Government of Karnataka. There are different type of rooms available. The room where I stayed was just okay so you may want to check out the room quality before booking. But then the entire focus was on sighting the big cats and hence the quality of the room didn’t bother me much. After all I didn’t go there for a relaxing holiday !!. Totally we did 6 safaris including one boat safari starting from 4th evening. The park doesn’t have a full day safari. It’s for about 4 hours in the morning and 3 hours in the evening. This probably might change depending on the weather seasons. It may be worthwhile to check with the concerned authorities before booking the safari. The safari jeeps are provided only by this hotel. And this is definitely a big advantage. There are many resorts around the park where one can stay, however I am told that the jeeps will have to go from Kabini River Lodge.

Every safari is like an Alfred Hitchcock movie. One starts the safari with lot of expectation.s. And being a photographer the expectations are way too many – sighting of big cats, the cat should look into the lens, lighting should be good, background should be good, ….., and these in spite of knowing the fact that in a jungle nothing is in your control. Our first safari was a boat safari. We spotted quite a few birds. At the end, where the boat could not go further we just waited whiling our time. All of a sudden we saw a tiger walking across on the banks of the river. The majestic walk without being bothered by anything around was an absolutely unforgettable sight.

We had one more sighting of tiger. But the highlight was sighting of the black leopard, Saya, the lone black leopard in Nagarhole. He was majestic with a shiny black coat, visible leopard patterns and sparkling eyes. Pictures of the panther have gone viral and have been tweeted by international media organisations like BBC. As we were waiting in the jeep with all our equipment ready to fire, he walked in front of our jeep, gave a sarcastic look at us and went inside the forest. We felt great, happy & satisfied and thought he was gone. But he came again and a drama unfolded. Saya was fast to climb the tree and got into a face-off with another male leopard sitting on top of the tree. I was lucky to watch the entire drama and capture images from just a 100 meter distance. Reason for the face-off as narrated by one of the jeep driver – Saya has a female partner. The male leopard got into a relationship with Saya’s partner and hence got into the tiff. Well, no way to validate this !!

Video Credit / Source : HILLZ LIFE VLOGS / YouTube

PC : Dheeraj Paul

Overall, it was a satisfying trip with good sighting of the big cats, birds and also a few landscape images.

To view the album ---> http://nagarhole-national-p.gopsview.com/