2012-02-14
Happy V-day from Bandhavgarh. You have to figure out where in the world this place is because I have very slow internet connection so I am not going to put the map up till another three days. Sorry…
We woke up to the sounds of howling monkeys, peacock calls and bird songs (remember the story about blind men and the elephant) . This is another side and sounds of India. The Safari person was waiting outside our rooms at 6am and the tea and biscuits were served at 5:30am, off we went in the park for another adventurous day.
As soon as we entered we heard loud “calls” of the deers followed by the calls of monkeys and followed by louder calls of Samber…than we heard the ROAR and series of them. It was were exciting. It was so loud and clear that I could feel the vibrations of the sounds in my body. Our guide said the Tigress and her cubs are here and are probably eating and playing. We was the mom come by , cross the road and went in the other direction. It was beautiful. But, just a few yards more, we heard another loud call and sure enough a regal, fully mature and self assured tiger strolled by and walked gracefully in front of our Jeep going ahead of us. We followed him for a while, he looked at us and kept on going as if telling us something and then he just went off to the other side.
Not sure why we got so lucky but we have been six tigers in three days and people come here from all over and many times stay for a week and not see any tiger. About the Bandhavgarh National Park : It is lot smaller than Kanha , may be one third the size and there has lot less animals. It does have all the animals Kanha has just in lesser numbers. But, it is more mountainous, prettier and lot more rugged. The safari is in four wheel drive, open JEEPS ( see the pictures) with no seat belts, no guards or rails or any protection at all. The terrain is very rugged and the trails/roads are almost none exsistant. It is an adventure sport ( sort of) and not for the faint of heart. If I think about it some more: none of these guides and the drivers have any communication device to the head office , they do not carry any protection for emergency ( like tiger attack) and they took our mobile phones before letting us enter the park . Like many things in India , you have to have one of three things : 1) Total faith in KARMA/GOD/FATE 2) or An adventure sport enthusiast or 3) A crazy person like me ….
In spite of all this, I had fun and I will recommend this to anyone wanting to go through the adventure. It is not cheap either but you have to pay the price for protecting the priceless. Between Kanha and Bandhvgarh, I would recommend Kanha just because it has more animals and less Tourists. Banghavgarh is easily accessible so more western tourist come here.
This is all I have to say about Tigers and National Park….Good night saroj
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