Friday, May 10, 2013

A day with the Prince!




I had never counted the number of times I have gone to the forest, but every time when I pack my bags, I can feel a rush of adrenalin bettering the previous occurrence. Sighting wild animals in Tamil Nadu is a herculean task. I have read articles from people who have experience matching my age who argue sighting is not by chance but by sheer understanding of terrain, animal behavior and tons of patience, but I would beg to differ. I would rather say luck 90% and the rest with all those above put together. Expecting the unexpected would be the best way to describe wildlife sighting. Few years ago I had in fact trekked from Thengumarahada to Siriyur via Thulakampatty without even seeing a Chital.


Hungry Elephant

Lets have a drink... Photo Courtesy - Hariprasad Lakshmanan



Behind Bars :) - Photo Courtesy - Hariprasad Lakshmanan



Last December, we had plans to visit the Singara Range in North Ooty forest division. I think we were blessed that time, the moment we left behind the villages, we came upon 4 elephants (2 female and 2 babies) and with favorable wind we ended up filling our memory cards with some beautiful shots. Little did we realize that we would be a part for the greatest display of wildlife congress to unfold in the next 30 minutes.  A Male Gaur, A bull elephant and a pair of female sambar all in a single frame made us go gaga for a long time. Luckily we had spare memory cards and we ended filling that too.
Congress!!! 

As we all know night stay inside the forest is not that comfortable. After an uneasy night stay, we started our 20km hike. After a hour or two we were on top of a mountain. The wind was cool and we decided to take a short break. It was a breathtaking view of the Seegur plateau. All of a sudden we heard a mating call from quite a distance. We had no idea if it was a Tiger or the leopard. Our guide leapt on his feet and made a dash towards the sound. I was pretty sure we wouldn’t see anything like the million similar instance I had been before. But curiosity did make us move with the guide and finally we spotted a feline figure lying on top of a rock on edge of a cliff overlooking the plains below. We weren’t sure if it was a tiger or a leopard as it was quite far. We had been fooled by such figure earlier as it normally turns out to some discolored rock or fallen log.

Spotted!



I took my new weapon, the SX40 to confirm if we had hit Jackpot. Yes, finally a leopard! It was a huge male matching the size of a full grown female tiger. We spent close to an hour or two capturing various moods of the “Prince”. One small movement of my friend and the leopard spotted us and disappeared into the thicket. We made up our mind to follow the “Prince”. Half hour of trek through the worst thickets I have ever gone through led us to the place where we spotted the leopard earlier. We found him lying few meters from the spot enjoying the warm breeze rising from the plains below. The breeze was so strong that it did silence our noisy approach and suppress our scent from the otherwise vigilant cat.

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Sitting just 15 feet away from the Cat with nothing between us made me overlook the hardships I have faced just to get a glimpse of these magnificent creatures. I have spent countless hours driving, trekking and planning a hike inside the forest and also buried our egos just to get permission for a stay inside the jungle. All the suffering came to an end right away that was the power of the forest dweller. We were in awe for the next 20 minutes. I wanted to stay put for eternity, but we wanted to return the favor by not disturbing him. We retraced our steps back to the point from where we first saw it. It had by then gone into deep slumber.
We started our way back to our camping place with memories and lot of photos (obviously) for a lifetime. I know a repeat is next to impossible, but hope is what which makes the wheel spin.

I only peck...but u cut trees...

Dream of a bird watcher - Great Hornbill

Campers paradise!

Sunand

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