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 - Mudumalai Tiger Reserve - August 2016

I was totally disappointed with the safari arrangements made at Mudumalai Tiger Reserve and tourism department of Tamil Nadu needs to develop it as they take you in canter and will drive a round of say 5 kms and back! If you get anything it is your luck and duration depends on sightings. The employee's reply itself says that they are doing us a favour by taking us on wildlife safari. So it was like wastage of time and money both though charges are not much. I was so disappointed and my friends who accompanied me were visiting a wildlife safari for the first time and they also were also not happy from the safari we had and we then decided not to take anymore safari here at Mudumalai Tiger Reserve.

So we were returning back to our home stay De Rock, when I saw elephants walking on my right side and told Rohit to halt the car and there was commotion about something and police was also present. After sometime I saw police apprehending two people and putting them into the car, after which the traffic was cleared by the police, then I got the chance to click both mother and baby elephant and then it struck me that she was protecting her, hence she trumpeted to warn the people who were walking up to them to click their images. The Mother Elephant was very angry and was trying to hide her baby calf, but I did click an image where the baby calf just came in between mother’s four legs. Take a look here: 

Since the light was less, I could not get better image than this and it was clicked with Nikon D3200 and Nikkor 70-300mm lens. She was so angry and the baby calf was afraid even to come out because of us who are educated and still do not understand that they are wild animals and they are not governed by rules, hence if they attack out of self defense no one can help you in this case. Hence make sure you do not break forest rules and try to enjoy the sighting from a safe distance. 

I would like to narrate an incident which took place when I visited Bandipur for the first time in April 2012, I was with my family and into the first safari, where we spotted a herd of Elephants with a calf of 7 days and I could feel that Mother Elephant was uncomfortable with us watching them, now in my jeep there was a couple who had put on a strong perfume and had forgotten to switch of the flash. These were the two reason for the Mother Elephant to charge towards us, though they were mock charges, but what if she had given a real charge and our jeep driver was also frightened which could be seen from the way he started the jeep and in a hurry to drive it out of elephant's reach the jeep could not start, now I was all the more frightened, but those were mock charges hence we were safe! This little experiences teach us about do's and don'ts of Jungle Safari. Every briefing about the wildlife safari will be about the do's and don't's , one needs to pay full attention to it, and learn from other's mistakes. Do not tease wild animals and they will not harm you is the basic rule and one needs to keep that in mind every time you are in wild.

I'm really sorry, could not get many images, but I promise next trip will have amazing images to mesmerise you all! Next trip is to home in September, Goa where I can get Kingfishers, Weaver birds & many more. See you till the next time. For more stay tuned !

Wildlife and Wildlife Photography - Brown Fish Owl, TATR, Dec'14

Tadoba Andhari Tiger Reserve is India's second most tiger population, after Ranthambore National Park. Its a heaven for wildlife photographers. Tigers, leopards and even many birds you can spot. It has a huge area and many gates from where you can drive in. The timings are 6:00 hrs to 11:00 hrs and 15:00 hrs to 19:00 hrs, depends upon the season.

Tigers as they say are spotted regularly. Wildlife has been flourishing since December 2014. Two years and many new cubs are born and this year's summer has seen an amazing wildlife being spotted and also in new generations of rulers of the Central India's forests. New wildlife sanctuaries have come up like Bor Wildlife Sanctuary, Nagzira Tiger Reserve, Tipeshwar Wildlife Sanctuary and the most flourishing one is Umred Karhandla Wildlife Sanctuary, these are in Central India. Sathyamangalam Wildlife Sanctuary is yet to open to public, but it has started and few farm houses nearby do give facility of Jeep Safari. Sathyamangalam is from Tamil Nadu and shares the Nilgiri Bioreserve.

Brown Fish Owl is a nocturnal owls like others, but can be seen in day as well. It has ear tufts coming out like horns on its head. It normally preys on fishes, but can feed on lizards, rats, snakes and sometimes large rodents as well.

It sits on tip of the tree and focuses on prey and then pounces on it. It is not very easy to spot them as they are best camouflagers and can easily camouflage sitting on a tree. One might not be able to spot because their eyes are closed and that's even fools it's prey and predators. .

Now we were in the morning safari, when we saw the sub adult Brown Fish Owl giving various poses and it looked as if it was angry with us and was showing off and was sulking even. The images will itself speak ..........................

Wildlife and Wildlife Photography - Wild Nimit

Wildlife and Wildlife Photography - Nimit Bhatt 500px

Wildlife and Wildlife Photography - Nimit Bhatt