2012-02-11
A village on the way to Kanha
Our friends Manohar Dev and Vinita drove all night from Indore ( 400 km) to meet us at Jabalpur. They got there at 3am and at 9am we were ready to make the adventure journey to the Kanha National Forest to see the tigers. Kanha is the biggest Tiger preserve in Asia and second largest in the world ( first being in Africa) .
Manoher was my class mate in the engineering college and at that time he was the student body president ( meaning in charge of all the strikes and other things that constantly went on with the one and only engineering college , .an arrogant one, in the area) . We had little communication except during finals or big project submissions when he would come over for some help or for “ borrowing” my home work. But, we are very good friends now specially because his home has Peacocks among other natural things. He is a big who’s who of Indore and may be the whole state ( you will see later why I am saying all this) . He reads a lot and is very knowledgeable about almost everything except sciences.
So, we drove through the town of Jabalpur towards south east for Kanha. Since we were all new to the area ( including the driver) we had to ask the directions for the main road. A typical answer was , “ go straight and before you see the high court , turn right, go a little way and at the square with Nehru Statue ( which we had hard time recognizing because it was just the bust_) turn left and then ask someone there. This repeated over and over till we started seeing signs for Mangla ( the direction we were heading towards) . In case you were wondering, there is no GPS in India and no one knows of the maps of these medium cities ( population 1 tp 5 million people.
Anyways, onwards towards the right direction, we drove mostly on a single lane road with canopies of mango trees , intermixed with Tamarind , Guava and other big green trees . There were jungles of Tendu tree ( they make BIDI ..indian version of cigarette with no filter whatsoever and also they use it to make plates and bowls used for eating on) We passed many cute villages not much traffic at all. Journey was very pleasant and that’s when I remembered the story of five blind men and an elephant. ( not sure if you know the story but in short it is about the five blind friends trying to describe an elephant and bet on what it looks like. Fist one feels the trunk and is convinced that the elephant is just a snake. Second one touches the foot and is sure that the Elephant must be like a strong tree….you get the rest I hope) India is like that. It is so diverse and so big that it all depends on where you are, who you are and what you and your friends do .
When we got to Kanha, we met Manohar’s friends who had not only reserved three different options for us to stay in but also had the tea snacks as well as fresh lunch ( made to order) ready for us. We looked at the three options and decided to stay in the one that is inside the park. Here is where Manoher’s background information as well as the elephant story comes into picture: All these lodging and dinning are for VIP and VVIP ( very important and very very important) government officers likes of Rajiv Gandhi and others. We are being treated as royalties. No one is allowed to stay inside the park except the said VIPs and VVIPs. As far as I know none of us was ever a government officer…but again in India who you know counts more than anything else and your previous KARMA ( like helping fellow students) always comes in handy ( I should have done lot more helping but I was not “wise” enough….) . MAnoher must have very strong KARMA .
We had four VIP safaris prebooked through the park. In the evening they take you for two hours ( in private open jeeps with a driver and a guide) and for 6 hours in the morning starting at 6 am. So, we took the evening safari and are totally amazed by what we saw. It is a preteen jungle teaming with all sorts of animals and birds. But, it is NOT a zoo and it is NOT even anything like African safaris. Manohar has done the African Safari ( I have not…so I have o reference but I know about ZOO). The main difference ( according to them) is that this is a real jungle where you have to look for animals whereas African Safaris have become lot more civilized. You do see more animals there but not the rare , shy and lonely tigers. There are 197 tigers in the area.
We were given the VIP safari guide and the driver but the animals do not know that. But, we had the good KArama with us so we did see the Tiger , first in the meadow far away and then slowly coming closer and closer..amazing is the right word. But, we also saw many varieties of birds , surprisingly no crows, looks like they got exported to the Silicon Valley” along with the software engineers. A typical meadow here looks like : Herd of Cheetals ( Indian small spotted deer) along with peacocks, monkeys and Barahbingha ( big Indian deer only found in India) , they all look out for each other and for the Tiger. Monkeys are the watch dogs and as soon as they see the Tiger , they give out a call and the deers also warn each other by there own call but nothng moves much , just a warning. The guides listen for the “calls” and then rush towards that direction.
The cabin in the jungle are rustic but have everything and are clean. We are staying in the VIP one next to the VVIP but I like this location. There are Cheetals and Monkeys all over.
I think this is all for tonight. I will sleep well with the sounds of the animals all and no sound of traffic or bollywood or religious chants….Good night
what a wonderful experience, seeing all those animals - and the tigers up close!
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