Close Encounters with the Wild Kind

Somewhere towards the end of 2014 my husband and I started planning our first anniversary celebration. Since the anniversary was in the month of February, a time when the winter is on the verge of ending, we decided to take a trip to the north of India to enjoy the fading glory of the cold months.

After looking at a lot of options, we decided upon Nainital and Jim Corbett National park. We figured we could mix a good relaxing time along with some adventure and may be get to see a tiger or two while we were at it. After zeroing down on the places, other arrangements were made and thus began our journey towards the Jim Corbett National Park.

Jim Corbett national park is India’s oldest and most prestigious national park. It spreads across 1288 square kilometers approximately and is considered the second largest park in Asia. However, only 10% to 11% of it is open to the tourists for the safari.  It is a part of the Uttaranchal tiger reserve and this park is where the Project Tiger was launched.

It houses different species of deer, birds, raptors, trees and, of course, tigers. Currently there are around 360 Tigers roaming free and wild in Jim Corbett National Park.

  There are different gates through which one can enter the vastness, which is the jungle to become one with nature. There are jeep safaris and elephant safaris that take you around inside. In order to control the animal human ratio there is only a certain number of jeeps allowed twice a day, once early in the morning and once in the evening. Accommodation outside the park is exciting (which is what we chose), accommodation inside the national park is something else altogether (which we couldn’t dare to choose).

Protection of the tourists is taken care of no doubt, but no one can really predict animal behavior and hence the whole safari experience is a success only if there is a perfect blend of a sharp and quick driver, a knowledgeable and experienced guide and most importantly a tourist who respects the entire experience and pays close attention to the do’s and don’ts put forward to him/her in the beginning.

Since we were at the national park for a close to three days and two nights, we decided to take both the morning and the evening jeep safaris.

The early morning safari starts at 6 am in the morning. That is, you have to be at the gate (whichever you have chosen) at 6 am sharp which is when the said 30 jeeps are allowed inside the park. We had the permits for Bijrani gate. The gates are so named due to the names of the rest houses within the park (inside accommodation).

The first thing that hits you when you enter the park is the quiet and calm. No noise whatsoever. It feels like the entire jungle is asleep and currently engulfed in a waking dream of some kind. The air is cold and it keeps hitting you in the face as the jeep slowly moves ahead on its said path. It is as if the wind ensures you are awake and alert all the time.

We were enjoying the ride which was a mixture of the quiet that was the jungle and sounds which was that of the morning birds and our guide trying to make us more knowledgeable about the jungle and its residents. We saw various birds, trees, deer (sambar, barking deer, and spotted deer), monkeys and also a peacock. But all these living creatures did not scare us as much as when suddenly the guide showed us the pug marks of a tiger. Those marks meant there would be tiger nearby somewhere. Until you see some proof, it is human tendency to ward off stories as nothing but just that, stories. Anyways, the pug marks were seen in quite a few places indicating, the tiger(s) have been busy.

We came to a clearing with a huge machan (watching tower) built in the middle of the jungle, where we were “given the permission” to get out of the jeep and go all the way to the top. After a couple of panorama pictures, selfies, DSLR experiments we were off again. 

A few meters ahead, we came across another jeep, the driver of which told us, they heard animal calls indicating a tiger nearby. Our guide, using all his experience, asked the driver to make a U-turn and we rushed back down the road we had just crossed. And, a few meters ahead, walking in front of our jeep, not caring about the world around her was a full grown tigress. It is really difficult to explain the plethora of thoughts going on inside our heads. May be we weren’t really thinking about anything at all, so amazed were we at the site before us.

We had to capture this moment in the camera, at the same time we had to keep our calm since we were watching the tigress in her natural habitat, hence minimal control by any humans around. There we were, in a jeep, quietly following the tigress as she moved ahead, with our cameras clicking away like crazy, we, the most superior of the species, and yet, the tigress seemed to be in control of the situation.

If the animal starts getting aware of human presence, it either runs away or attacks. Fearing the latter, we left her alone on her walk and quickly moved out of there.

That was the first encounter with the tiger at such close quarters. It seemed like the entire travel of all those miles from the west of India to the north of India had been compensated in those 15 minutes. Keeping the part with the overbearing danger imminent, this right here was an experience of a lifetime.

We had an elephant safari (in what they call the “buffer” area of the jungle, where most of the outside accommodation exists) and also had an afternoon jeep safari during our stay. We were lucky enough to see a tiger on each of these safaris.

The safari on the elephant exposed us to the tigress completely. All we had was an elephant and his “mahout”.  We had the glimpse of a tigress who was resting under a thicket, probably having just had her afternoon meal. I thought I was lucky that she didn’t feel like moving much that afternoon.

The afternoon safari exposed a very different forest to us altogether. Unlike the morning safari, there was a sense of activity this time around. More animals, more noises, it’s as if everyone was aware there are predators and humans in the forest as well. The weather decided to join in on the noise, with a sudden thunder and lightning making its presence felt all of a sudden. The jungle transformed itself into a different world altogether. Again as the morning before, “we got wind” of a tiger in the vicinity. We rushed to the possible spot of the sighting. We waited, patiently. But the animal had hidden himself nice and cozy in a thicket of bushes. The weather decided to play spoil sport in its plans and it started pouring. Lucky enough for us, the animal started moving. Since our movements were governed by that of the tiger, we moved as well. We came to a clearing where we saw a family of deer out to enjoy the rain. The sudden panic felt by the deer was also felt by us as, not far from them, in the bushes, was the tiger, in hiding, waiting, listening…

Slowly, it came out of the bushes and was exposed to the deer and to us. The deer started with their warning calls and started moving. We remained stationary. Luckily, the tiger started to slowly follow the moving object not caring much about the almost 30 jeeps that were watching it at “play”. I remember thinking; I would hate to be a deer right now knowing that a tiger is slowly but surely following me. After sometime, the deer and the tiger disappeared out of sight. We were informed that this one was a 22 month old cub, and all my beliefs of a tiger cub being cute, were destroyed right there.

The resort we were staying at is also worth a mention. “Camp River Wild” owned by a field biologist, Mr. Ansari & his wife, it was a lovely resort with 6 log-huts, luxury – I might add, overlooking the Kosi River and the jungle beyond it. Being off season, we were the only occupants of that resort, except for the host family. Meals were abundant, staff was friendly, hosts were welcoming, and a few surprise visitors in the form of birds and spotted deer were also thrown in the mix.

Evenings were relaxing, since, having nothing much to do in the middle of the jungle, there was a lovely campfire set up with chairs around it. Mr. Ansari (the host), a man with a lot of years of experience of this jungle and its habitants (15 to be exact), accompanied us at the camp fire and what followed was a combination of the jungle around you, a campfire in front, a sudden call of a deer or a peacock in the distance, pitch darkness around, the wide open night sky above, and wild stories of tigers turning man-eaters and their consequent capture.

All in all, my experiences with the wild side of the world were fruitful (in the sense that we got to see some tigers), thrilling, exciting and most of all humbling. The jungle, its vastness, its peace, its fear, the beautiful co-existence of the ecology all blended together in a perfect symphony was the experience of a lifetime which is Corbett National Park.

Visit the animals in their territory, and then watch them play.

If you aren’t already humbled by the nature around you, visit a jungle or a national park, it will surely do the trick.