While the tiger occupies a special seat in Indian mythology as the mount of Goddess Durga, for most of us it is no less than a goddess (or god) itself. This incredibly potent combination of drop dead gorgeous looks, indescribable feline grace, raw power and regal poise cannot be classified in the realms of regular beings. For every time this amazing animal grants you an audience, the first reaction is always one of awe, no matter how many times you've seen one before. Anyways, no prizes for guessing that I'm an unashamed tiger-devotee. For me, one of the finest temples to sight this magnificent deity is Ranthambhore National Park in Rajasthan. A place that we visit unfailingly every single year for our annual pilgrimage, usually in the middle of summer.
Day 1 Morning - The Noor
and Noorie show
But first we came across
another (rarer) inhabitant- a Sloth Bear. He was right in front of us,
feverishly working on a termite nest, blowing and sucking in equal measure to
get his early morning meal. So engrossed was he that he didn't even look up at
our vehicle for a second. The light wasn't great and we didn't want to
interrupt his meal, so we headed further on, hoping for a tiger or a telltale
sign of one- a parked gypsy. And a few minutes in, we found some of the latter
near a waterhole and duly, our first tiger came into view. It was one of
Ranthambhore's Queens - Noor or T39. She lay in the water, head behind a large
rock and didn't move at all for the few minutes we were with her. She clearly
wasn't in the mood for a photo session, so we headed further and came across
her recently-separated daughter Noorie, at another waterhole. Noorie was easily
more cooperative, more willing to indulge the amateur paparazzi and she gave us
a few poses before finding a more shaded area to settle in for the late morning
heat. She looked thin and under-fed and Hemraj was a bit worried about her
ability to hunt for herself. We carried on to try and find T60 and her lone cub
but she continued to live up to her nickname of 'The Ghost' and save for a
fresh pugmark or two, we saw no signs. And that ended the first safari.
Day 1 Afternoon - Arrowhead
provides an audience
That afternoon plan was to
look for Arrowhead, the ruler of the Lakes, Ranthambhore's prime real estate.
Otherwise the park's most sighted tigress, motherhood has made her slightly
cautious and highly elusive. She was sighted near Malik Talao on the fringes of
her territory that morning and we were hoping for a good afternoon with her
family. And we drove to the dam at one end of the lake and through thick bush,
we could see all three in the middle of their afternoon siesta. It was the cubs
who rose from their slumber first and they tried their best to keep us
entertained under an unforgiving summer sun. One of them tried, clumsily, to
climb a tree and the other attempted to stalk a passing chinkara. They would
take turns trying to nudge their supine mother to awaken but with no luck. Just
as it seemed like we would end the whole safari with nothing more this distant
sighting, Arrowhead finally woke up, probably out of embarrassment at keeping
her audience waiting. She quickly grabbed a drink of water and then paced
up and down, as if deciding which way to head. And to our immense delight she
chose to come to us. The three of them passed within metres of our stationary
jeeps, all filled with starstruck humans. And we allowed them to walk on to
their next destination, hoping to see them on our full-day safari the next day.
Day 2 - Full day. Full On.
Krishna, daughter of the
legendary Machali, occupies a large territory in the hilly regions of Zone 4 in
Ranthambhore. This makes her particularly difficult to find at times. And this
time we found fresh tracks of the entire family on the main road and they
seemed to head in every direction, so we started with her usual haunts, the
valleys of Semli and Bhakola, both of which were empty. Bemused, we came back
onto the main road and headed into one of the side paths which look down upon a
rocky valley. Here, we were joined by a few other vehicles as we all looked
high and low for this family. And then one driver spotted them in a valley
further down and we all headed there to get closer. We got there in time to see
the two male cubs cross over a nallah into thicker shrub. The female cub sat
under a bush, enjoying the attention while mother Krishna sat and groomed
herself. And then they all disappeared out of sight. And then all the vehicles
began a game of 'where will they emerge?' as they all dispersed to the location
of their choice. We stayed put to try and sense some activity and then Rajesh
recommended that we head to the Adi Dagar valley.
Adi Dagar is a beautiful
valley, characterised by an almost sheer rock face and a green pool under it.
And every time we drive down into the valley, we pray for a tiger in the green
water. Like most times, this time too there was no luck. For, the luck was
sitting a few metres higher! On a ledge in the rocks, sat the majestic
form of Krishna. Sitting there, she looked so much like her legendary mother,
Machali and that too in her mother's favourite spot! It was a special half hour
that we spent with her, and reluctantly we left to head to other parts of the
park. And the next special sighting was not a tiger but a banyan tree full of
fruit bats, thousands of them resting in the mid-morning heat. While the tiger
always occupies pride of place in the pantheon, it is even more special at
times to see other less celebrated, but equally important animals that make up
the circle of life. And saying another goodbye, we headed back to the gate to
pick up our lunch and head back to the other parts of the park.
We were back in Zone 2,
said a quick hello to the sleeping forms of Noor and Noorie, and headed to the
far reaches of the Guda area to look for T60, her single cub and the hulk T57,
the dominant male. T60 had made a kill when the male came and appropriated her
hard won meal. And he'd apparently polished off the bulk of the carcass and
sauntered away while the poor lady had to scrap with the leftovers. We hovered
around the kill till a jeep came up and said that mother and cub were in a
nearby waterhole till a few minutes ago. After a quick check at the waterhole,
Rajesh estimated that with the male gone, the tigress might come back to the
kill. And as we came back, our driver Kantar saw the tigress sitting under a
tree near the road with her little cub pottering around. We silently moved out
of their field of vision and waited for them to cross the road to the kill. And
at that very moment, another vehicle approached from the opposite side. We
frantically motioned them to stop and to their credit they did so at once. But
even that had spooked the little cub and it scampered back into thick bush with
a despairing (and I daresay very hungry) mother following it.
It took a while for the
tigress to coax her cub back towards the kill and by that time there were 4
vehicles on the road, all at a respectable distance to give them the room to
access the kill. The mother sauntered across but the little cub showed its
nervousness by dashing across the road to sit near the kill. And that for us,
was enough; we didn't want to hang around and cause even a little discomfort to
them so we decided to go further and see if we could track the male. We drove a
few minutes to the Gandhra waterhole, a natural pool with a mound of earth
around it, so one really has to drive up to the mouth of the pool to see
inside. I had no hopes whatsoever but as the water came into view, so did a
large and very 'stuffed' male tiger; his lordship T57, recent purloiner of a
sambhar kill.
He looked very, very
uncomfortable after such a large meal on a scorching hot day and he evidently
hoped immersing his stomach in water would help digest his whopping meal. And
even with the afternoon sun directly beating down on him, he did not move for
the next 3 or so hours. We stayed with him in the vain hope that he would come
out and walk for us but all he did was to stay jaw-deep in the muddy waterhole.
We left him to his recovery and drove back to look for Noorie; we saw her in
wonderful light and a full stomach and got some decent pictures. Then we looked
for Noor and saw her still supine in the exact place we'd seen her earlier. She
had been virtually immobile for 2 days now and we were a bit worried about her,
especially given she'd had a fight with T57 (thankfully she was OK the next
day, much to everyone's relief) We closed an epic full-day safari (10 tigers!)
on the banks of the Rajbagh lake where the resident male T86 gave us a distant
and uninspiring sighting but a small flock of Indian Skimmers more than made up
for that with a superb flypast. Seeing Skimmers in Ranthambhore in the middle
of summer was unusual and hence special, to say the least.
Day 3 - Blanks on Zone 6,
redemption on Zone 1.
Day 4 - Half Day. Full value
The last day began with a
surprise for my daughter. She thought we were headed to Zone 10, but we'd
sneakily booked a half-day safari. The goal was to spend more time with Krishna
and her cubs. After a quick check for Arrowhead (absent) we headed again to Adi
Dagar. While the tigers (again) weren't in the green water, we saw the male
cubs in a valley from the lookout point. The two brothers were bathed in
brilliant light as we got some satisfactory, if distant photos. And as they
headed into cover, we moved forward to the Berda valley to check for the
others. There was no tiger in the valley but we saw male pugmarks and remnants
of a porcupine kill - quills and some blood. We followed the pugmarks, hoping
it would be the dominant male T74 but lost them after a bit. And we were at a
loose end, wondering what to do...
In forests, things can change in
an instant. One moment, we were wandering about hopefully and slightly
aimlessly, and the next moment we had a tiger in front of us. As we rounded a
bend near the Semli valley, two parked jeeps were staring into a nala. And as we
got there, a tigress stepped out, walked towards us and crossed the road right
in front of us. It was Shakti, Krishna's daughter! She gave us a wonderful few
minutes and wandered off to spend the day in more peaceful surrounds, no doubt.
She is the most independent of the litter; her brothers stay much closer to
mum. 
Buoyed by this unexpected gift, we drove into Semli and our driver Himmatji said "tiger" and in a bush right next to the road sat a male tiger. Again I hoped it was T74 but it turned out to be 'Blue Eyes' or T104,
recently radio collared after an unfortunate encounter with a villager. He
eventually got up, walked about and then climbed into a cave where we got some
good eye-level shots. And then we left him to enjoy his snooze and headed back to
Rajbagh where we had our breakfast on the banks of the beautiful lake. We still
had time to head to Zone 2 to check for the local residents, but none seemed in
attendance and we left the forest at noon, with 5 tigers under our belt.
Day 4 Afternoon - Beaten by
a smarter adversary
The afternoon was supposed
to be reserved for rest, but Hemraj brought news of a tigress with a kill in
Zone 10. Naturally all thoughts of a rest were shelved and we proceeded with
little reservation, this time with a local expert, Mukesh. We entered the zone
harbouring thoughts of spending three hours clicking a tiger eating a kill. But
the cunning feline took us for an almighty ride. Till the time we left, she
didn't even come near the kill. We saw her a couple of times as she came for a
drink but that was all. I'm sure she laughed till her stomach ached at how she outwitted these silly humans.
Later that evening, on our
comfortable coach in the August Kranti Rajdhani, we reflected on that as well
as on yet another spectacular trip to the home of tigers. We came home with 16 different tigers this time,
including special sightings of 3 new cubs. And with hopes of Krishna, Noor and
Laadli producing their next litters in the coming months, the next season
promises to be very very exciting indeed.
Ranthambhore Trip Guide
Getting there
Ranthambhore is arguably
the 'most easy to access' Tiger Reserve. Sawai Madhopur (SWM), the adjoining
town, is a major junction on the Mumbai to Delhi/Jaipur trunk line hence train
connectivity is excellent. From Mumbai, the Delhi August Kranti Rajdhani is the
best option (leaves Mumbai at 17:40 and reaches SWM the next morning at 06:30)
and on the way back it leaves SWM at 20:45 and gets into Mumbai at 9:45 the next
morning. There are a number of options to Delhi, including the August Kranti.
Jaipur (140 kms) is the
nearest big city and airport, a comfortable 3 hour journey on largely good
roads.
Stay
Ranthambhore has it all.
From budget hotels to home stays to mid range to full-on opulence, you can get
the whole nine yards.
For those who prefer a
home-like ambience, the best is Tiger Home, an 8 room place
(www.ranthambhoretigerhome.com) built by Hemraj Meena, a local who is one of
the park's finest naturalists. A personal friend, Hemraj's dream had always
been to have a place of his own where he can host wildlife lovers. And Tiger
Home does exactly that. It's a really comfortable 8 room house with
air-conditioned rooms and all the mod cons. Excellent home cooked food and very
helpful staff make you feel genuinely like you're at home. And the best part is
the company, Hemraj's experiences are incredible and you could well hear all
about his stories with Ranthambhore's amazing tigers.
At the mid-level, the
Ranthambhore Regency is a superb option. It is comfortable, offers facilities
like a pool and a bar and has some awesome food. And the hospitality of the
Jains is incomparable.(www.ranthambhor.com).
Another great option is Aditya Singh's Ranthambhore Bagh (www.ranthambhore.com)
The luxury options include
Taj Hotels' Sawai Madhopur Lodge, Oberoi Vanyavilas and Amanbagh.
Safaris
Ranthambhore offers two
types of safaris - gypsy (6 seats) and canter (approx 20 seats) Unlike most
other parks, here the bookings are on a seat basis, so you can book individual
gypsy or canter seats without having to pay for the whole vehicle. All bookings
need to be made on the website (https://fmdss.forest.rajasthan.gov.in/)
Please do book well in
advance, especially if you need gypsy bookings. And always carry your ID proof
with you, since there might be some checking at the entry gates.
In addition to morning and afternoon safaris, you can also do half and full days in the forest, though it is restricted to very few vehicles. If you're up for it, they're well worth
Other attractions
Ranthambhore Fort and the
Ganesh Temple - one of Ranthambhore's most distinctive features is the huge
fort that looms over the park. This medieval fort also has Rajasthan's oldest
Ganesh temple, which attracts thousands of visitors, especially on Wednesdays.
There are village visits and homestays - Hemraj's village Bhuri Pahari is an example where there are some comfortable stay options. You can explore and experience village life and also spot some interesting birds, especially in winter.
Other Tips
Ranthambhore can get really
hot in summer, so sunscreen, comfortable clothes and headgear are a must. It
can get equally cold in winter, so carry a thick jacket for sure.
The full day safari is a delight but it also takes some getting used to. Please carry a bag or haversack with sun-block, adequate water and also some dry snacks or fruit if you get peckish during the day.
While a gypsy can take 6 people, it's advisable for a full-day (or half day) safari to have no more than four people. 6 is a tight squeeze and manageable for a 3 hour safari, but to spend 6 or 13 hours like that is not recommended, definitely for your sanity!
Another factor is the dust,
so if you're troubled or allergic, a face mask will come in handy.
