Day 3: Bandhavgarh National Park
Our sleeper train made it into Umaria at around 6 am and we were picked up to be taken to the lodge where we would be staying. We had 4 days at Bandhavgarh to give ourselves a chance to see a tiger and the many other animals that exist here. I had been visiting national parks in India since I was a child and had only gotten a look at a tiger once. This was at Rathambore back in 2000. It was an amazing thing to see a tiger in the wild and it is definitely not a common occurrence due to their endangered status. I was hoping Gowri could also see one. If not, we'd still get to see the amazing forests of central India that are full of many amazing creatures. Bandhavgarh is in the state of Madya Pradesh and is one of the places Kipling based the Jungle Book on. There are ruins scattered throughout the park which have now been over taken by jungle. We were originally scheduled to stay at another lodge but the tour operator switched us at the last minute to the Mowgli lodge due to lack of availability at the other lodge. We were quite concerned since we weren't sure if they were putting us in some dumpy lodge. Also, naming the lodge after the Jungle Book character Mowgli made it seem like it may not be a first class place to stay. We were wrong. The lodge turned out to be great and in addition, we were the only ones staying there so we got all sorts of attention. They gave us the kind of food we wanted which was delicious. For the safaris they could always send us in our own private jeep! Below is our room at the lodge. This was all for just $70 per night.
As soon as we got there they were ready to take us out on the morning Safari. Here we are in our private jeep with Pavan, our driver/guide ready to take us into the park. He turned out to be a great guide.
We came to Bandhavgarh with some upgraded photo equipment. We purchased a 300 mm F4.0 Canon lens and a 1.4x teleconverter. This was quite an upgrade from the 300 mm F5.6 lens we had. The clarity of this lens became clear quickly when we saw the first of many Sambar deer. They are one of the favorite prey for the tiger.
We also saw a jackal which is almost as rare as a tiger at Bandhavgarh.
Many amazing birds are in this forest. The Indian Roller is actually fairly common throughout India.
They are even more impressive if you manage to see them in flight!
We returned to the lodge and had lunch. We then rested until the evening safari. We were told that some people had seen B2 the dominant male on their morning safari. We hoped we'd get a chance to see a tiger as well on one of our upcoming safaris. We made our way out on the evening safari and saw this Long-tailed Shrike among the grasses. Apparently tigers often hide in these grasses as well.
A majestic Crested Serpent Eagle was also spotted. He is named after his prey which is primarily snakes.
Beautiful Langur Monkeys were common and they are also prey for the tiger. Apparently Sambar Deer and Languish work together to thwart the tiger. The Sambar has a great sense of smell. Languor have the benefit of being able to climb tall trees to act as look outs. They often hang around together to give warning calls if a tiger or leopard is in the area.
After a full day at Bandhavgarh, we never got close to seeing a tiger. We were a bit worried since we had gotten our hopes up after hearing some others had seen one in the morning. Reality hit that even in the park with the highest density of tigers, seeing one was no guarantee. We were told that if we got up really early the next morning, we could obtain a ticket for an elephant safari. If a tiger was located in the morning, one could take an elephant to approach the tiger inside the forest (as opposed to the jeep which is restricted to the roads). Tigers rest in the forest in the day time hours. To ensure a ticket we were told to be ready by 4 am.