Kanha Tiger Reserve

Once again wildlife trip with Nature India - A trip to Kanha: The Tiger Reserve National Park. Like all other trips we were excited & the recent Tal Chappar trip has been a very good revision to start with Kanha trip.

We reached Jabalpur station at 6:00 a.m., where we met our entire group participants. Manasi, Bhatia Uncle,  Gauri & Vidyanand Joshi, Joshi Uncle, Dr Geeta,Gautam Rathor, Rama Maam and her son Suraj, Nidhi & her Aunt, Adesh & Mandar(Group Leaders).We took a short break for breakfast and then head towards Kanha. At the breakfast point we saw house swifts and their nest inside the dhaba. The road to Kanha is all surrounded by Palash trees (flame of forest).It is named as flame of forest because of its bright orange color flowers whose petals are grown in the form of flame. Kusum trees which has red color leaves & Mahua trees which was in full blossom. Its flowers are used for making alcohol after fermenting it and we found many women were collecting them, but the fresh flower has multiple medicinal benefits.

We reached Kanha at around 10.00 a.m. Our stay was organised in the Mogli Resort just 1 km away from Kanha park. The resort ambiance was very cosy surrounded by Palash trees, Mahua trees, Sal trees, gerbera plant, lemon grass etc. There were good photographic opportunities inside the resort.

Day 1: We went on first evening safari. Entire group was divided in three jeeps. Our jeep members were Bhatia uncle, Manasi, Ameet & me led by Adesh. We were all eagerly waiting for the gate to open outside the park expecting to see some excited sighting of Tiger.The park is all surrounded with flowering Sal trees & we were lucky enough to catch its flowering time.We saw spotted deers, bulky Gaurs & Jackal, Brown Fish Owl,Shikra, dancing peacocks trying to attract spotted dear,Swamp deers(Hard-ground barasingha) which has just come out of being extinct and now found only in Kanha Park. Jackal gave us good photographic opportunity. But we could not see Tiger. Second Jeep who had Lucky Joshi Trio along with Dr. Geeta & Suraj got a majestic sighting of Leopard crossing the road. Mansi & I felt bad not because they got to see Leopard which is very rare sighting but because we did not got it so were little bit envy.



Shikra




Jackal




Swamp & Spotted Deers





Brown Fish Owl




Swamp Deer(Hard-ground Bara Singha)



Day 2: Morning Safari was led by Salim Bhai who works as guide in Kanha Park, while waiting outside the park gate at 5:30 a.m. I was wishing to see leopard & tiger both. We entered the park & saw spotted owl and within few minutes we got to see our first exciting sighting of Leopard. She was relaxing far on the huge rock surrounded by Sal trees. She had her kill nearby so she was sitting there to keep an eye on it. There were many langurs playing on the tree, jumping from one tree to another & were trying to agitate her. After sitting for a while she moved away probably towards her kill. We all were happy to see her. Then we saw spotted deers,Female Gaur feeding her child,Gaur family,black faced langurs.



Spotted Owl


                                             

Gaur with her baby



Gaur Family




Spotted Deer




Leopard





Black faced Langur with her baby



Every safari was also accompanied by one guide from the Kanha park. Day2 evening safari was led by Mandar and also accompanied by Rakesh Yadav (Park’s guide). First we saw Indian scops owl, spotted deers, wild boar relaxing near the small pond. While talking to Jeep Driver & guide we spoke about our wish to see Tiger & they were like “apne abhi tak Tiger nahi dekha to hum appko usse aaj dikha ke hi rahenge”. And within couple of minutes Rakesh Yadav spotted Tiger’s Male cub (grown-up; about 1.5 year old) sleeping in the bushes just 30 feet away. We waited there. One jeep was coming behind us. We thought not to tell them about the sighting because we felt the jeep had noisy crowd & so we started pretending as if we are looking at the bird on the tree by looking at opposite direction but later we showed the spot to all other jeeps. We took many photographs of him in the sleeping position but did not get a chance to capture his face clearly. So we were waiting for him to wake up and hoping to give us full frame front view shot. And finally he woke up but had very much attitude; he just walked away without even looking at us. Still we were happy to witness his majestic existence. Day2 was really blessed with Leopard in the morning & Tiger in the afternoon followed by racket tailed drongo, shikra, crested serpent eagle,steppe eagle. Starting the day with Owl sighting seemed to be lucky for us. At night we also took a trail inside the resort hoping to see Nightjar. The sky was glittering like diamond spread all over the galaxy. We did not see any of the bird except fire flies & two tailed spider. But still it will be memorable night walk with the glittering sky.



Indian Scops Owl



Tiger's hypnotising eyes reminds me the final scene of movie Jeepers Creepers where the film ends with Creeper leering at the audience, with Darry's brown eyes, through Darry's empty eye socket and the song plays in the background.

                                  "Jeepers Creepers, where'd ya get those peepers?
                                   Jeepers Creepers, where'd ya get those eyes?"



Black faced  Langurs




Peacock



Day 3: Morning safari was again led by Mandar; we took blessing from Indian Scops Owl to see close up shot of Tiger & Leopard but too much greediness tends to give nothing but we still got to see couple of Shikra flying here & there, oriental magpie robin, coucal, grey hornbill, black hooded oriole, green bee eaters,long tail shrike,jungle babbler,little egret,red-wattled lapwing,yellow-wattled lapwing etc. While returning back we saw jungle cat which is again a rare sighting but did not get an opportunity to photograph it. We were accompanied by park guide who was very talkative & bombarding us with his old park stories. There was spotted dear call in the Kanha meadows so we waited for him at one spot hoping the Tiger will come out but he did not came out from that spot where we were waiting & came from other where again the lucky Joshi Trio’s jeep led by Salim Bhai were waiting. Our guide was not smart enough to anticipate the spot from where the tiger will come out. We wished if we would have been behind the Joshi Trio’s jeep we would have got that opportunity to see him from front. The hunger to see him again & again will never go. Day3 Morning session was not that bad at least we got to see jungle cat.



Crested Serpent Eagle




Long tailed Shrike




Oriental Magpie Robin




Coucal



Day 3 evening session led by Adesh.We thought of taking blessings from Owl but he was not sitting there on its regular spot so was little bit disappointed. But still the very first sighting we got of crested hawk eagle with a mouth open for panting and was close enough to get some decent shots. Since it was afternoon, we thought Tiger might come near the pond so we waited at one spot which was little bit far away the pond we saw white breasted waterhen,wood sandpiper & pond heron. Nice evening light was falling on the Sal trees and cool winds were passing by. We heard couple of spotted dear matting calls. Suddenly the climate changed & heavy winds started flowing which changed the entire environment. Sky turned pinkish-violet in color. While returning back to resort it rained heavily with hails and we were completely soaked.



Crested Hawk Eagle




Wood Sandpiper




Green bee-eater




Indian Roller

Day 4: Earlier it was planned to have a short walking trail for birding in the park off course not deep inside but nearby the park’s entry gate. Since the day before yesterday it had rained heavily so that plan was cancelled and we thought of doing birding inside the resort itself. I did not carry my camera and just walked with the binocs. We saw many birds inside the resort flower pecker,Common Rosefinch,Common Iora,Oriental White-eye,Rosy starling,Bhaminy Starling, Golden Fronted Leaf Bird,Brown-capped Pygmy Woodpecker,Yellow-crowned Woodpecker,White-naped woodpecker,black-rumped Flameback,coppersmith barbet. I was sad I did not carry the camera but enjoyed the features of every bird & also were surprise to see so many birds inside the resort which I had not seen in the last 3 days.

Overall the trip was good but the sad thing is that the count of our national animal, Tiger, is decreasing and if it still continues one day will come soon when they will be extinct and our children won’t be able to see them. Poaching need to be stopped immediately. Our country should take some smart action. Instead of putting restriction on tourism, which actually keeps an eye on sightings, they should appoint sincere young guards armed with weapons who can keep an eye on poachers.

The Nature India’s every trip has always been full of knowledgeable sessions. They ensure that everybody takes back home some knowledge by revising at the end of the sessions. They take care of each one’s interest & grouped them accordingly. We liked the way they manage the trips & their arrangements, food, revision sessions etc. Looking forward for more such enlightening trips.

The list of birds which i saw.Our group saw more than 100 species of birds.

i)Indian Peafowl
ii)Brown-capped Pygmy Woodpecker,
iii)Yellow-crowned Woodpecker
iv)Black-rumped Flameback
v)White-naped Woodpecker
vi)Coppersmith Barbet
vii)Indian Grey Hornbill
viii)Indian Roller
ix)White-throated Kingfisher
x)Green Bee-eater
xi)Common Hawk Cuckoo
xii)Rose-ringed Parakeet
xiii)House swift
xiv)Crested Tree swift
xv)Indian Scops Owl
xvi)Brown Fish Owl
xvii)Spotted Dove
xviii)Red Collared Dove
xix)Yellow-footed Green Pigeon
xx)White-brested waterhen
xxi)Wood Sandpiper
xxii)Yellow-wattled lapwing
xxiii)Red-wattled lapwing
xxiv)Oriental honey buzzard
xxv)Crested Serpent Eagle
xxvi)Shikra
xxvii)Steppe Eagle
xxviii)Crested Hawk Eagle
xxix)Little Egret
xxx)Indian Pond Heron
xxxi)Black Ibis
xxxii)Long-tailed Shrike
xxxiii)House Crow
xxxiv)Black-hooded Oriole
xxxv)Large Cuckooshrike
xxxvi)small Minivet
xxxvii)Greater Racket-tailed Drongo
xxxviii)Common Iora
xxxix)Oriental Magpie Robin
xxxx)Brahminy Starling
xxxxi)Rosy Starling
xxxxii)Red-vented Bulbul
xxxxiii)Grey-brested Prinia
xxxxiv)Oriental White-eye
xxxxv)Purple sunbird
xxxxvi)Common Rosefinch
xxxxvii)Golden-fronted Leafbird
xxxxviii)Tawny-bellied babbler
xxxxix)White-Rumped Shama
xxxxx)Jungle Babbler