Wildlife & Wildlife Photography- ArrowHead T-84, Ranthambore Tiger Reserve - December 2016

One of the Nature Guide shouted, "Nalleh me jayegi, Nalleh me". (She will move to the stream ahead)

 

Ranthambore, the land of tigers! My 1st National Park on the wishlist, and I did it in two years. Ranthambore National Park is different from the lush and evergreen forests of South India. This was my first time in Ranthambore, it was all together a different experience. It is different from the lush evergreen forests of South India. It has a different terrain from the South Indian jungles. It is a deciduous forest, which is quite open and rocky. It has got some beautiful landscapes, which one cannot miss. It has two mountain ranges meeting each other - Aravalli & Vindhya hill ranges, thus creating one of the best landscapes in India.

Ranthambore is one of the largest National Parks of India. It is spread in 1700 sq area, of which 20% comes into the tourist zone. The tourist zone are is divided into ten zones, out of which one to five zones are core zones. Those five zones are where the activities of predators can be seen regularly. Third zone is a beautiful zone with three lakes, namely Rajbagh, Padam & Mallik. The Mallik lake also share the border with fourth zone. The total no of tigers present in the park is 55 tigers, out of which 30 tigers are in the tourist zone. Apart from tigers, the park has Leopards in the predator category, while there are Sloth Bears, Spotted Deers, Sambar Deers, Blue Bull or Neelgai, Indian Gazelle or Chinkara, & Hyena. The birds include Kingfishers, Owls, Buzzards, Vultures, Eagles and many more. Crocodiles can be seen in all the lakes and there are instances where there has been a fight between crocodiles and tigers. Macchli the legendary tigress, is the one who is responsible for regeneration of the tiger population. She is the most photographed tigress in world! She killed a 14 foot long crocodile, after which she was declared the Queen of Ranthambore, and this title is given to the tiger/tigress which controls the three lake zone. 

Ranthambore is one of the best places to spot tigers in their habitat and they can be seen everywhere in park. The best months to be at Ranthambore is in May & November. May is the last month of summer season & in summer the water is scarce, so they come out to the water holes to drink water, thus increasing the chances of sighting. November again because it is the start of the winter season, also because its just after the breeding season, where we can see new fauns and cubs as well. 

Ranthambore is situated in Sawai Madhopur district of Rajasthan. It is well connected by road, rail & airways. Nearest railway station is Sawai Madhopur 11 kms away, Nearest Airport is Jaipur 160 kms away & 110 kms from Kota.

There are various hotels in and around Sawai Madhopur and I stayed at Ranthambore Regency, which had lovely food and stay.

So I reached to Ranthambore on 13th December and my first safari was at 14:30 hrs. Mr. Sharad Sharma was our guide for all the safaris. Within 15 minutes into the safari, we saw few gypsies hovering around a place. Once we reached there, I saw a faint figure of tigress, I knew I was in for treat.

One of the Nature Guides shouted:" Nalleh mein jayegi, Nalleh mein" , still I did not know, what next is going to happen, as it was quite possible it could go more deeper into jungle where we cannot go on gypsy or it could just come in front of us. So I was waiting to see, what drama will unfold in front of me. She was watching a group of wild boars unaware of her presence.

Then she vanished into the ruins and I thought now we might not see her again. Whatever happened next was in fraction of second, she just leaped on her target and kaboom!!! She had the piglet caught by it's neck. Tiger or predators normally catch the prey by it's neck, thus strangling its breath and eventually killing it or first they catch the prey by it's neck and then comes a paw thrashing on the prey's head thus giving it no chance to fight back. Next, we had her for 15 minutes giving us the images of lifetime. She was none other than Tigress Arrowhead (T-84), one of the famous tigress from third litter of the dominant female tigress T-19 or Krishna. She is a sub adult tigress and has a brother by name Pacman. Their father is the dominant male T-57 or Star. She is very bold and is fond of cameras. She then went towards the canal and from which it did not come out till that day.

This was the best sighting I had ever had of tigers and the cherry on the icing was the hunt process. She gave us the demo on hunting process. She is very beautiful and the arrow can be seen on it's forehead. After that safari, I did not see her again till the end of all the safaris.

Wildlife and Wildlife Photography - Grey-headed Swamphen, Goa 2016

Goa, the place to enjoy the life to the fullest, and that even reflects from the lifestyle of the people of Goa (me included). Yes, my whole education, graduation, first job & PG has been from Goa, I have spent my 12 beautiful years here. I love Goa because of it's people and the beautiful place it is.

Goa is a small state of India, located on the western side and adjoining the Arabian Sea, which is popularly known as the Konkan Coast. Konkan area starts from the Maharashtra side to Goa to the North Karnataka. Since, it is a part of Western Ghats, the biodiversity has to be there of birds and animals.There are many birds you can find in Dr. Salim Ali Bird Sanctuary, a lot of variety of birds can be found including the state bird of Goa - Yellow Throated Bulbul.

This Ganesh Chaturthi, a grand festival where we bring home Lord Ganesha with all pomp and grand celebrations. Every household brings the idol of Lord Ganesha was one and half day, three days, five days or full ten days, depending upon the reverence or vows you have taken while bringing the Lord Ganesha home. After the set days, the idol of Lord Ganesha is immersed in the water, so that he can return quickly next year, This festival is celebrated all over India, but mainly in Maharashtra & Goa.
So this year's Chaturthi I was at home in Margao, Goa, though we do not bring home the idol of Lord Ganesha, but we go to friend's home or relatives who bring lord home. So I decided to go to the nearby Curtorim lake to spot some beautiful birds and took my Nikon D7100 with Nikkor 300mm lens with me.

Curtorim lake is few kms away from my home and it is very vast & beautiful lake, the first bird I got was Grey-headed Swamphen. Grey headed Swamphen is a subspecies of Purple Swamphen and it can be found in Middle East, full Indian Subcontinent and China as well. It is a very beautiful swamphen with red beak, purple-greyish body. It makes loud chuckles to impress the female swamphen. The taxonomy has been just changed from Purple Swamphen to Grey-headed Swamphen, it has been divided based on the different types of colour of Swamphen, found in different countries of World.

When I was trying to spot my first bird of the day, this colourful bird appeared from nowhere and I could not stop admiring it, till I got a call from dad stating, there is one more nearby and I thought wow! this bird just made my day. When I saw it, it was just curiously staring at me and my camera. I thought it might get disturbed, but it was quite bold and beautiful and was still there only after I left.

Check the image here:

Wildlife and Wildlife Photography - Elephants, Bandipur 2016

All eyes were trying to spot the National Animal of India - The Tiger, when one of them whispered a beautiful pair of Elephants! The eyes moved in the direction where this beautiful pair of Elephants were dancing looked like..............

Bandipur has always been one of my favourite wildlife destination, and yes I spotted my first Tiger here. It is a forest full of wildlife diversity and people love coming here, especially those who are wildlife and photography enthusiasts.

Bandipur Tiger Reserve is situated in Mysore, & Chamarajanagar districts of Karnataka. Kabini and Bandipur are separated by the Kabini river, which plays an important part of thriving the wildlife in the forests of Bandipur, Kabini and Wayanad. Bandipur has been a place where the tiger sighting has been regular and not to forget the Prince or the Alpha male tiger, which will definitely meet you the next time you go. Leopard and Bisons are also quite regularly sighted along with birds like Crested Hawk Eagle, Crested Serpent Eagle, Hoopoe, Shikra and many more. 

This is about the encounter I had with the most mesmerizing mammal - Elephants. Elephants are the largest mammals living on land and are divided into Asian Elephants & African Elephants. They can be found in Africa, & South East Asia. Asian Elephants can be divided into Sumatran, Indian, Srilankan, & Borneo. 

Elephants are herbivores and they normally prefer to stay near water and tend to move away or avoid to cross paths with the predators like Tiger, Lions, Leopards or Wild Dogs. This is because, the new born calves are more vulnerable than the adults. So even if any body nears their calves, they either charge or move away from that area. Elephants socialise in groups and in such a way that new groups can get mixed into the other group and thus they adjust themselves. Everyone helps each other and they are lead by Matriarch . The males separate once they reach puberty and then they go with other males. The group first makes calf safe and then they deal with danger, such is their culture and they do not stand any nuisance. It is said that they can run 1 km  while chasing someone.

I and Elephants have a history, for my first visit to Bandipur and the first animal we encountered was of a family of Elephants which had a baby just one week old. We were just admiring the cutie when some flash caused irritation to them and the Matriarch just made the calf and mother safe and charged, unfortunately our jeep did not start, luckily ti was just a mock charge! Phew! it was very close. That was my first wild encounter of Elephants and such an adventurous welcome to Bandipur I received back in 2012.

This time we saw a huge tusker just on the way to Bandipur's forest gates, unfortunately the images were not good, but as we moved in on the evening safari, So our eyes were itching to spot Tiger, when the naturalist whispered Elephants! Our eyes moved to the direction where he spotted a mother and calf dancing as it look like ............... Or She was trying to tell them that "we need to welcome them as they are admirers and not the killers, they are our defenders and not the destroyers. Welcome them baby, C'mon do not be shy!, " We need to save them, they are on verge of extinction, I would like to tell you all, please do your bit in saving these beautiful creatures.

Please see the image here :

Next we moved little further after trying to get the calf to welcome us, and we saw another lovely herd of Elephants again, now it was a huge group with adults and calves all together taking sand bath and trying to cool them from teh scorching heat. These mammals will not do anything, if you do not harass them and people take them in wrong sense and then they perform atrocities on them and thus these beautiful mammals are on verge of extinction.

Please check the image here:

The next day evening safari, we were trying to search the mother and calf pair, when we spotted calf's father as well with them and they were standing to welcome us like the last day, this time they were more cautious, but it was Kodak moment, relish the image here................

Bandipur has lot of resorts and forest guest house as well. The best option would be Jungle Lodges & Resorts , they have their own jeeps and canter to take around the wildlife enthusiast to the forest and the Forest departmetn has the facility of canter to take around the wildlife enthusiasts around the forest. The duration is the difference, the duration or timings are morning from 6:30 to 9:30 hrs and evenings 16:00 to 18:30 hrs and JLR's jeeps and canter take you around for the full 3 hrs in morning and 2.5 hrs in evening, while Forests department's canter will take you around only for 1 hour round and will bring you back. If you wish to take the Forest department's vehicle, book the ride in advance to avoid last minute hassles. The Forest department's website is tariff plan and safari plan by the Forest department.

Wildlife and Wildlife Photography - Wild Dogs, Kabini Dec'15

Kabini is a heaven for wildlife photography and photographers. It has everything you need for a good photography. It has greenery, beautiful birds, predators, elephants and the weather. It has got three predators namely, Tigers, Leopards and Wild Dogs.

Wild Dogs are called Dholes in India. They remain in packs and make sure they do not get left out. Their thinking is "United we stand, divided we fall". Whatever they do, they do it in their pack. When they are united, no one can touch them and they are ferocious, but a singular is afraid of the predators lurking around.

Their way of hunting and strategy, one needs to learn from them. They always have a strategy to hunt and everyone co-operates. One who does not, he/she will have to leave the pack. The leader is an Alpha male or the dominant Wild Dog. Everyone needs to follow his orders.

This was a group of 15-20 wild dogs playing on the Jungle Track.

jungle_tales - Nimit Bhatt

Nimit Bhatt - 500 px

Wildlife and Wildlife Photography - Wild Dogs, Kabini Dec'15

Wild DOgs - Kabini December 2015

Wildlife and Wildlife Photography - Yellow Footed Green Pigeon, Kabini Dec'15

Yellow Footed Green Pigeon - State Bird of Maharashtra - a state of India, Mumbai is the capital of Maharashtra and Financial capital of India.

These birds are very cute, well We (my parents & brother) were on our family trip to Kabini in December 2015. Kabini is a very lush green forest and known for its wildlife. Kabini is known for leopards, it is said you visited Kabini and could not spot a leopard - no chance, so we did spot leopards both in morning and evening safari. We could not spot Tiger - once again.

We were trying to spot Tiger, though it was early morning and fog had set in - bad situation for spotting, we came across these Yellow footed green pigeon. Lovely and attractive birds they are, there were total 5 of them, and then a pair flew and sat on a branch.

Another addition to my Wildlife and Wildlife Photography Blog

YFGP - Nimit Bhatt (FB)

jungle_tales - Nimit Bhatt

Wildlife and Wildlife Photography - Yellow Footed Green Pigeon, Kabini Dec'15

Wildlife and Wildlife Photography - Bandipur Trip, March 2016

This was at Bandipur, March'15,we were into our fourth safari, and we got a tip that there is a sighting of leopard. We immediately sped off in that direction and we saw this leopard on the tree having breakfast of deer and it was there for almost 30 mins and gave us good time for photography. As soon as more vehicles dropped it went down into the bushes.

Our naturalist said to wait and it will come back, all the other jeeps and buses went to the other place. We waited and to our surprise this leopard, just jumped from the bushes onto the tree and vanished into the bushes on the other side.

Before it vanished, I got this shot - Wildlife and Wildlife Photography Blog..................


This was clicked from - Nikon D750, Nikkor 70-200mm lens

I'm also attaching the same Leopard on the tree picture just for the reference - It was clicked from Nikon D4S, Nikkor 600mm lens.

Leopard, Bandipur 2016 - jungle_tales - Nimit Bhatt

Leopard - Bandipur March 2016

Wildlife and Wildlife Photography - Bandipur, March 2016

Wildlife and Wildlife Photography - Sloth Bear , Kabini Trip ,Dec 2015

It was our lucky day as we might say, we were waiting at the Tiger Tank - name of the place in the A zone of the forest of Nagerhole National Park or Kabini. We were waiting for Tiger to come out of the small opening and to our surprise, A Sloth Bear came out and it is shyest animal of all the animals. It is very rare to be spotted, rarest then the Tiger. Many photographers want to spot it, but very difficult to spot.

It came out to have water, while we waited for it to show its face, it was looking as if the bear was angry from us. Then, at one second it showed its face and it was lovely and most cutest animal ever seen (Panda is yet to be seen).

It was black and furry and a patch of white in its face in round shape. Its eyes were shining and within a fraction of second it went away. It was a small meeting, but will remember till the end of my life.

Sloth Bear are very shy animals, they normally do not like to be disturbed and are very lazy as well. Their photography is very difficult to take, but sometimes miracles too happen,

Here is the picture of Sloth Bear - Wildlife and Wildlife Photography Blog ...........

Wildlife and Wildlife Photography - Sloth Bear, Kabini, Dec'15

Sloth Bear, Kabini Dec'15 - jungle_tales - Nimit Bhatt

Sloth Bear - Kabini December 2015

Wildlife and Wildlife Photography - Prince, The Unsung Hero of Bandipur, March 2016

Please welcome the Hero of Bandipur - Prince, a handsome 12 yrs old charming Tiger. Brave and most feared Tiger of Bandipur.

We were on our first safari at Bandipur on 24th March 2016, around 6 pm we were capturing a bird when we saw a jeep and a bus speeding off in one direction, obviously we were curious and wanted to know what were we missing on, we sped off in the same direction. On the way we came to know a Tiger was spotted in one area called Katte.

Now my heart was pounding, as my dream of seeing a Tiger was about to come true and this was around 6 pm in the evening. We were the last jeep to arrive & ahead of us were 3 jeeps and a bus. I was ready with my Nikon D750 70-200m lens to shoot the lovely animal.

Two minutes later, Prince - Tiger, the national animal of India makes the entry in the frame. The light was low and it was a perfect timing where he entered. Lovely, majestic and just out of a muddy waterhole. It was having a majestic walk and marking its territory and gave us a time for lot of photography and I was thrilled and awestruck though I did capture some fantastic images of him. At one moment, he just looked at me and suddenly my hands and legs were stuck at one place in the jeep, as he was just 5 mtrs away from the jeep.

Well after his act of marking his territory was over (of which I have the images), he just retreated in the bushes never to be seen again in that evening.

What an animal ! Majestic and I was like did it really happen ! We cannot go and pinch Prince to see whether he was really there or not. But, that safari I will never forget in my life. It was my first sighting of Tiger ever ! I had missed narrow chances of spotting it in Kabini and Bandipur earlier in Dec 2015.

Again, we saw him on 26th March 2016 eve, from the bushes coming out and then sitting lazily. He made few sounds to call a female as our naturalist said. He then went into the waterhole and was there till we left around 2 hrs. That was the most scenic picture I could have.

My trip ended on 27th March 2016. It was the most memorable one, though my brother was missed a lot.

Prince - the Hero of Bandipur: He is 12 yrs old, has fought five fights and has killed Tigers which were powerful than him. He fought his last fight in March 2015. He was not seen till November 2015. He was weak and had lost his two cannines, which meant he now could not hunt Gaurs which he used to before fight and his favorite food. Now, the forest department officials say, he can survive one more fight and maybe after that we may not see him again.

Now, he is the owner of his territory and two tigers are roaming in the periphery of the Jungle and waiting for him to die or fight him to claim his territory back.

Here are the pictures of Prince our Hero, and we might not know, will we see him next time we go or not ! - Wildlife and Wildlife Photography................

Prince - jungle_tales - Nimit Bhatt

Prince - Unsung Hero of Bandipur

Wildlife and Wildlife Photography - Prince, The Unsung Hero of Bandipur, March 2016