Jungle, the Best Story Maker!

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“To learn something from you, the forest silently observes you and quietly listens to you! If you want to learn something from the forest, do the same thing!” …  Mehmet Murat ildan.

Once again, the man from Turkestan is there to help me for power-play of my sharing (sorry, IPL term, it means start of the game i.e., sharing) as his philosophy about nature, especially forests amaze me as to my knowledge his country was & is never famous for wildlife (at least real wildlife) yet he has treasure of quotes about forests which shows his understanding about this aspect of nature! Well, summer is in full bloom & actually is the best time to Central Indian forests only if you are ready to face dust (lots of it), scorching heat, long travels & of-late the rains which pours down any day out of the blue (literally). Since last year (for may actually three /four years) even in the months of April, May, the sky has become cloudy & rain pour downs especially in the afternoon safaris which are the best chances of sightings (of tiger, what else!). This is so repeatedly happening that entire pattern of nature cycles seems to be changed as a decade back, from February to June , nearly five months were used to be like heaven for wildlife sightings in Central Indian forests  but in recent time it has rained nearly every month, making it difficult for guides as well gypsy drivers to locate those yellow black stripes for the tourists which are ever demanding (with the kind of money one has to spend for wildlife tourism, no wonder, but that’s different aspect of sharing) for tiger sighting & with water all around the park there is no reason that a tiger will come in open on some particular water hole! Though a tiger is an animal of habit is what by now we know from the studies & this characteristic is its biggest enemy also (easy for the poachers to predict its movements) yet it does help us to sight a tiger in the vast expanse of the forest is equally true & good for the tourists.

Another aspect of summer times in the forests is, if you are able to bear the heat & ready to wait then the thirst which is the basic need of all the wild animals (and birds too) make you witness wonderful stories as every animal has to visit the water home around, once or twice in summer times! And it's so interesting the way animals approach water holes, knowing its biggest risk as either the tiger must be in the water itself or laying nearby & its at the time of drinking water you are the easiest target for the hunter! Especially, watching deer or sambhar, they took all the time to come to water, literally progressing inch by inch checking for the tiger's presence & then advancing to the actual water body to drink! So, this time what I did was not to write a usual continuous sharing but in small stories I came across & trust me in the forest every hour becomes a story, all one must do is, be patient & become part of that story by being a good observer!  So, here we go…

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Summer Thirst & Tadoba!

It was a full day in the forest & those who have visited Tadoba Core in mid-May can imagine the heat & the way it drains you! Among the four of us we have consumed nearly 30 water bottles & it was just early eve! At such times the only thing you can do is visit every water hole as on road hardly any living thing moves! On such a round suddenly, we saw two black objects moving in-sync & I could not believe my luck they were two sub adult sloth bears, though sloth bear sighting isn't uncommon in tadoba but at this hour & two sub-adults together isn't common, so I could only hope to come them in open as clicking them in the bushes is just wasting your shots! They are a shy animal & these are not grownups yet the thirst overcame fear & poor fellows came in open at a small pond with little water but they needed water & on other bigger water holes around there sure was presence of tiger so could not risk those; this is forest life as when you are weak, you have to accept whatever comes to your way! I was happy for being able to click two sloth bears in one frame & was happy for them being able to fulfil their thirst! ...

 

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Sleep at peace, Mom is there to watch over you!

 

May it be in the home or in the forest, a mom is a mom! At one place we saw four tiger cubs sleeping at peace while the mom (female tigress) was keeping an eye on her cubs when they were taking a nap post meal! She was awake & looking straight into my camera, warning me, "I am watching you, don't disturb my babies while they are sleeping"! May it be humans or animals, a mom is a mom, making the life  of her babies comfortable by accepting her own sufferings!

(Light was very low as the mom tigress has chosen a spot where even sunlight can't disturb her cubs; more to post of this series soon) ...

 

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How much more Close-Up shots do you want? 

It's only in the peak summer of central India, you can click a male tiger at your will (read as, he allows you to click at his will) as it won't pay any attention to you except unless you make too much noise in the excitement of seeing a tiger! And on that also all he will do is, give you an irritated look & walk away in the nearby bushes to continue his nap & will emerge out again in the water only when he feels its total silence outside! We were wise enough not to make any noise, so this guy allowed us to click him till we kept our camera aside & just enjoyed looking at his nap!... Mowgli was the name of that male tiger.

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Don't make Mumma angry..!!

Sloth bears are hot headed animals & entire Central Indian forests residents (native villagers) are more afraid of a sloth bear than even a tiger as it can charge on slightest of disturbance it feels! Once found all over the country in abundance as well, I even remember sloth bears being used by madari, who used to make the animal play by dressing it in human clothes & earn some money (it's banned now) but now the scene is, with urbanization the poor animal is losing habitat faster than any other species. Even in deep forests sightings of sloth bear is getting rare though most tourists still think tiger sightings are more precious! During this jungle trip a Sloth bear mumma gave us a warning look, telling us not to come close to her cubs...

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Survival of the Fittest, first rule of the Jungle…!

Since long I wanted to click a big male wild boar with tusks; many who are not familiar with this specie doesn’t know, wild boars do have tusk, not as long as an elephant has, but are strong & long enough to make it able to dig deep in earth for food as well to take on enemy such as tiger! But then a wild boar, unless quenching its thirst at some water hole, is not known as camera friendly, so this wish I am carrying for a long time. This tadoba trip, on a pleasant early morning at a cross road we saw a huge black mass walking slowly at distance on the road coming from across, first I thought it’s a sloth bear but then I realized it’s a wild boar & when I took a closer look from the lens, I realized the wild boar was limping as its front leg looked like broken & it could barely use it! That’s why even when our vehicle approached, it didn’t run away like wild boar usually does, instead the poor fellow looked at us & kept dragging its huge mass painfully slow & vanished in the thickset along the road! The guide said, “tiger ko dikha ye to marega bechara”, as other times a tiger wouldn’t dare to take on such big wild boar as in the hunting process the tiger itself can get injured seriously but now with the condition this male wild boar was, it would be easy game for the tiger to kill it! All I could do is pray for the limping wild boar yet the helpless look in its eyes is haunting me even today, this is life in the forest, where only law is, survival of the fittest & on your own!...

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Tiger by the Rope…!!

While waiting at a water hole for a tiger family which was sleeping peacefully in the shadow of tree cover & we were sweating in the scorching heat, a sub adult cub came out of the shadow & walked towards a big tree nearby at which a nylon rope was tied. The cub curiously (I thought so) made a round of the tree then started pulling that rope with all its strength. It was a funny scene, a tiger playing with nylon rope & in some time another cub also came & started doing the same thing taking the rope from the first cub. I was curious at first who had tied a rope to a tree at such a place in the heart of the forest & second why the cubs are so attached to it! Forest always has stories & nothing happens here just for the sake of it, so I asked the guide about the rope thing! He said, Sir, inki jo Maa hai (female tigress) wo injure thi pichale mahine & forest dept ko dar tha ki wo shikar nahi kar payi to bachhoke saath bhuki mar jayegi, so unhone a gau (cow) leke use yaha iss pedse bandha tha, us gau ko tigress ne maar diya aur pet bhar liya aur bachhokobhi khilaya, un bachhoko wo baat yaad hai, isliye dor ke saath khicha tani kar rahe hai!.” Indeed, the memory of a tiger is sharp & the cubs must be having memories of the taste of the food attached to this rope, so they were so much engaged with the rope! I was happy not for the images but for one more story from the forest!

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There are many more stories which I lived during the trip but as Mehmet said in his quote, the forest silently observes you & tells you story at every turn & is ready to make you part of that story as an observer too; I think that’s the best gift wilderness can give you & for that one has to make out some time to be in the forests. I thanked God for giving me such times & making me part of so many jungle stories, which has made be a lot better person & with a promise to return soon as well as to keep doing my payback to this forest named story maker (not just a story teller), I started my journey back to the concrete jungle!

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Sanjay Deshpande 

Sanjeevani Dev.

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