Euphoria

I have always felt jealous about those residing in and around Nagpur. Apart from being the central place of India, it also is a central place to approach variety of wildlife sanctuaries. This is a city which enjoys the company of Pench Tiger reserve, Nagzira wildlife sanctuary, Navegaon national park, Tadoba Andhari Tiger Reserve (TATR) around it. And each of them has its own importance in Indian wildlife. Though Madhya Pradesh harbors two most famous tiger lands in the form of Kanha and Bandhavgad Tiger Reserve, Tadoba Andhari Tiger Reserve (TATR) has its own place in the 28 Project Tigers being managed in India.

Spread over about 625 sq. km of area, this is a land defined by dry-deciduous Teak forest and Bamboo thickets with few lakes encompassed in it. Mercury rises to; perhaps, the highest level in this region and hence utmost care needs to be taken while dealing with such a hot weather.  43 tigers (excluding at least 8 cubs), about 25 leopards, Indian Bisons, Spotted deers, Sloth bear, Wild dogs, Barking deer, Four-horned antelope, Wild boars, Jungle cats and variety of birds  inhabits this special forest.

After my first ever jungle visit to this very place in April 2007, I again visited TATR in 2^nd week of June 2010. Being my first ever visit in wild along with my Aai and also the first major outing with my new, dream lens – Nikkor 300mm F/2.8 VR I, I was quite excited. And my goodness… the tour indeed offered some exciting moments. Striped beauty – The Royal Bengal Tiger – no doubt was the most desired subject, but sighting of Leopard was something special. Believe me, Leopard sighting in wild is not common, as Leopard have greater fear towards human beings and will try to hide themselves or run away – making its sighting harder than that of a Tiger.

It was a pretty good outing with real testing time to cope-up with extremely hot weather (max recorded temp 54.9 Deg C on 11^th June … no exaggeration) and acute water scarcity at Kolsa range of TATR. We could use just about 1 ½ bucket per person in 2 days to clean ourselves off in that hot and quite a dusty atmosphere. Such experiences make us mentally stronger…such experiences make us seriously think about the resources we have been using in city area … it makes us feel pity for those poor residents who have to live with such things for days & months together… and of course those animals who struggle in dry jungles just for their survival !!

Here are some of the images taken during my recent visit to this special Tiger Reserve – The tadoba Andhari Tiger Reserve!