At about 5 I left for taking our bus (the real devil of the beautiful trip).I was joined by 3 of my friends whom I admire the most for their dedication towards nature. Well i cant stop myself from describing each of them.First the youngest and the most influential Rohit Chakraborty 16yrs of age but has knowledge about any and everything in nature a perfect blend of an innocent naturalist and a youngster with ummmhhmmm I guess he knows what m talkin about hehe..just kiddin ..one of the most fantastic people I have ever met and is like my little brother to me.He is the one who got me the fantastic opportunity of my life to do my bit for what i have always admired.. nature..he has also given me the gateway to fantastic hobby that bird watching is.Then comes his elder brother Rohan Chakraborty also like a little brother to me, this raptor crazy man is really interested in everything that concerns raptors, the best part bout him is he knows how to live the finest moments of one's life..and how to recognise those moments. I know a bit more about him but this blog would be a small place to write about this cartoonist cum photographer cum artist cum casanova cum mistakenly put into the dental profession man.Jay Kulkarni again my bro, has got a fantastic chemistry with his college buddy rohan and has a fantastic sense of humour.He raps and composes songs for his forthcoming films haha just kiddin ..a nature lover a composer and basically a man with a good heart. Bus rohan ke sath reh ke thoda kamina hota ja raha hai hehe just kiddin !u2. and ya we met a new nature interested guy Neeraj Gade in the tour hes crazy bout tigers and m yet to know more about him just that hes equally interested in nature as we all are thats what created the bond.
Now to get on with the real trip. so we boarded the bus by about 6.30 because an uncle who was the organizer's close friend couldn't move his fat ass up in time.(sorry uncle but every comment u made has to criticized to the word d). So after the puja of the bus we left Nagpur for tadoba which is about 210kms from Nagpur and is near Chandrapur. The crowd seemed to be a hopeless bunch of people with only a few people interested genuinely in nature.The organizer i felt had lost the naturalist in him to the work he had done in the past, also the crowd had a very rustic flavour to it which was not something new since I was used to it in my father's family. But it made the other group members really uncomfortable. Which should not happen actually coz these are the kind of people we will have to deal with as we grow up as a group.Our journey started and my eyes got glued on the road to see hundreds of black shouldered kites perched on trees, wires, poles in the morning... they looked like wearing a rakish black goggle and wearing a beautiful grey blazer with a white shirt looked like a secret agent on the hunt. It hovers beautifully when it hunts.
Then came the phase when i was talkin openly to this girl who sat in front of me.Whom i hardly knew but her life is definitely a survivor's tale and I will always remember that (before i forget her name madhavi) a girl with a smile on her face very very rustic which was a turnoff but at 18 had already proficiently learned bharatnatyam,kathak. Gone through the worst tragedy that life can give any one she lost her parents at 5 lived with her aunt. Lost her twin sister too,has a heart problem with already 2 heart attacks at 18yrs and to top it all fell from the third floor of a building.But shes lucky to have an aunt and uncle who look after her like her parents. She knows she has little time but lives every moment but she was very irresponsible when it came to behaving with nature and her language was a turnoff too.Had a lot of life and I hope will survive every test of time that her fate puts her through.
So after watching the road listening to some crap by the public and some good humour by jay and ya a near death escape from a dangerous situation the half asleep driver got us into we reached the coal mines area of chandrapur its a very famous area and if i had kept the windows open for a few more seconds I would also have been famous as the blackest man alive coz theres was coal dust all around us big hillocks were formed by the material dug out at the site.we had to reach moharli gate by 11am coz it would then be closed for any traffic till 3pm and that pathetic driver as he proved to be for the rest of the trip for once didn't falter and we reached there at 10:58am whew!!.An elephant was tied and another roaming free near with chains in his legs just made me think how pathetic we humans are but practically its a symbiotic relationship between the man and the elephant but one thing that i found unbalanced was that we needed him to serve us he didn't need us for his food so it was another example of dadagiri(bullying) by us humans.
This is what the road from moharli to tadoba looked like.The scorching heat at 45deg cel had left the landscape scarcely dressed but this is a part of the natural cycle which includes end of the weak and survival of the fittest in nature like the land which looked barren but there were nice green trees in the middle of the dense jungle away from the road which survived the heat.The noise made by the bus made me wonder whether we were creating a menace in this beautiful forest.
We reached the tadoba checkpost by 12.30 and as soon as I got down in front of the dormitory nature got me a glimpse of a bird which I had only seen and admired and wondered if I could ever see in real life, I saw a BLACK NAPED BLUE MONARCH FLYCATCHER(nilmani).It had this black line on its blue head and neck and blue back had a black cap on its head,white belly looked beautiful but was very flickery I could only manage a good back view of this one.then there was a Browed fantail flycatcher.
I almost forgot i had to take a bed in the dormitry. Rohan got my bags I called upon rohit to take some snaps of the bird and then went to the room to get a bed.I just threw my luggage and came back to the tree we saw another rare bird there BLUE WINGED LEAF BIRD or cloropsis couldnt get a pic but was very satisfied on having a glimpse of the beautiful bird.We then saw white breasted water hen,common wood shrike, oriental honey buzzards,white eyed buzzards ,there were atleast 10 resident males in diffrent plumages, lesser flameback, maratha or yellow crowned woodpecker, great tit, jungle crow,spotted dear,langur families.We then went to a place near the lake where the entry to common people was barred. We had our lunch actually we were in no mood to have lunch we were just too eager to get into the jungle. But then the real problem started the people with whom we were were acting very irresponsibly they gave the leftovers to langurs and washed the plates in the lakes and no one opposed it absolutely no one. Rohit got a secret pic. It was embarassing to see naturalists being so irresponsible.It is this behaviour of ours that has now forced langurs to attack us for food on some places.Oh I forgot to tell we had a opening cermony to mark beinging of the camp the only nice part in it was they introduced cloth bags to avoid plastics in the forest.
So next we went to the lake to have a glimpse of what was in store for us and nature just told us its gonna be real fun .We spotted a grey headed fish eagle on the bank opposite to us which was too far.
At around 3.30pm we went for our first nature trail in the bus which made a sound that could scare everyone off the forest but luckily we spotted a few birds and animals.Some of them were RED JUNGLE FOWL, which we saw flying and it looked majestic.Just when we were thinkin about it the most dumbest question was asked by the man who is responsible for the garbage dumping in city during festivals the one who was late and the one who like others washed his tiffin in the lake the ques was "ISKA(red jungle fowl ka)SWAD ALAG REHTA HOGA NA?". I felt like cutting his fingers and make him taste that.Stupid question it shocked everyone to the extent that rohan just said isko khana banned hai uncle.Next we saw a booted eagle,crested serpent eagle,barking deer,spotted deer.
We were at an open grassland after an unsuccessful safari to spot a tiger.the grassland looked like something i had seen of masaimarah or savanah grasslands on discovery..and it had some groups of spotted dear with some sunrays which escaped the cloudy cover.
We then came back from the jungle at around 6.30 to watch the mesmerizing view of the lake.Which had its own scent a humid weather which relaxed us.as grew darker we went to the canteen and saw something moving in the dark a black outline and were instantly sure that it was a civet.we regreted not having a powerful torch but couldnt do much bout it see how nature protected her child.Then after having a fantastic dinner we were on our way back tot he dormitory when neeraj flashed the torch in the lake and something reflected the light back it was a crocodile's eye and it was moving smoothly over the water. It would be a nightmare to go near the water now and get a taste of the ambush powers of this big reptile.Who has won the race of time and survived for so many years. Hats off to his adaptability.
So after a long discussion on whether to sleep outside we decided to sleep inside. I had a restless sleep like everyone else I woke up at 1 coz it was too hot went out to fill my water bottle of course with a torch,coz it was pitch dark outside and as i moved the torch around i could see some scattered red spots reflecting the torch lights moving as my torch traced them in the dark they were all spotted deers.
So the second day dawned we woke up early to see rohit's well planned visit to the toilet before anybody else could wakeup, I guess he went to sleep thinking of that haha. After being so fond of any kind of animals I was shocked to both rohan and rohit afraid and almost hysteric of the common tree frogs and house geckos that shared our place. So we were ready by 6 and I went to the tree to see yesterday's black naped blue monarch flycatcher and he was already on a breakfast frenzy. We heard a white breasted waterhen near the lake we then walked along the lake road having torch since it was a bit dark. Suddenly Neeraj spotted a green bird the beautiful Indian Pitta on a tree branch and it swiftly vanished in no time. we also saw great tit, maratha woodpecker. Then it was the time for a second nature or should i say tiger trail. Everyone was interested in spotting the tiger but we were interested in spotting everything else than a tiger coz we felt the more secretive tiger can be the more are the chances of him living longer.so my, rohits rohans jays and neerajs eyes all glued to the windows. We were looking for a glance of the wild. Rohit spotted a painted spurfowl as we reached one of the water hole.and it was great to see that there was no tiger there.We saw some fresh pug marks of tiger along the road though. Next we went on to another water hole before which I spotted a ruddy mongoose bout which rohit had told me a day before on the dinning table it had a fluffy black tail.The joy on rohit's face made my sighting special and as soon as the damn bus wallah was ordered by the ignorant crowd to move on i missed my pic and the mongoose disappeared in the woods.These people were getting more and more irritating.Everytime we would si
ght something they would stop the bus and waiting for not more than 10secs would start the bus my camera took 2.6 secs for a pic and other atleast 8 secs to take it out and focus this irritated us. After the water hole two we passed on to 3rd hole which was a beautiful swamp.We also saw a big and I mean a huge wild boar.We then went to a place in the opposite direction passing our dormitories to spot a tiger. No one seemed to be interested in wildlife other than the tiger.The forest where we went was a dense one with sambhars and cheetals and barking deers everywhere. Unable to spot a tiger we came back and as decided were divided into 2 groups and went in opposite directions for a nature walk and a birdwatching trail.
We had 2 enthusiastic guys kaustubh and aditya in our group and an irritating aunty and 2 kids. We were going to place called panchdhara for the trail it started from a small man made pond from where there was this small stream of water flowing around which a lot of langurs were playing and we disturbed their silence but they excused us and let us share that wonderful dense part of the forest.The water had red algae which I had seen for the first time the place had so many paradise flycatchers white and ruphous both. They literally made the place look like heaven. The arrogant people were shown teeth by the monkeys for looking into their eyes. While we just passed them silently without looking at them. Looking at monkeys into their eyes makes them think we are challenging them same is the case with any wild animal.
Then we went t
o the best part of our walk a densely wooded area and i saw a raptor flying firstly i thought it might be some honey buzzard or serpent eagle but as we moved forward we spotted it. I had a little idea this was going to be the spotting of my life. It was a brown fish owl a nice big about 60 to 70cm in ht bird perched on a green branch.sensed us and flew in about 1 min to another tree where we spotted another owl I guess a juvenile of the same specie.These guys gave us the opportunity to picture them until our hands pained we literally slept on a wooden log to take its snaps. I felt so humble that nature let us photograph it with such calmness and serenity. My heart was filled with a feeling of reverence for mother nature thats when I realised what I was getting from her.With our heart filled with the great moments we got back to the dormitory speculating what rohit and jay spotted and they gave us some great ne
ws. They had spotted a grey headed fish eagle its nest and its juvenile and even had photographed and they even saw a wood owl.That was a great day. We then came back after a fantastic lunch And it started to drizzle a bit,which was followed by a strom and heavy rains and nature gifted us with the her beauty in rain too. Jay got wet in the rain the kid in him always is a joy to watch. I too got a bit wet and as we told rohan, rohit and neeraj bout how refreshed it feels to get wet rohan uttered the golden sentence of his life , 
he said "maa nehlati hai to aisa hi lagta hai". reverence for nature in every word he uttered was something that will make this sentence something that i will remember for long now. So the rain stopped and the organizer in a hurry told us that there was a good chance to spot(disturb) the tiger and would go on a trail in the jungle. So We went on for a trail it was really getting humid and we wondered why would the tiger head to a waterhole in this wheather. my eyes as usual glued to the window of the bus which was travelling at rocket speed inside the jungle which defied every logic. But ab tangewale ko ghode sabhalte nai aate to hum kya kare to baithe rahe. Hoping to spot anything that we could.As we approached the first water hole I spotted a wild cat sitting beside the bam
boo shrub in a mood to take a nap. everyone was relieved that atleast the saw WAGHACHI MAUSHI(tiger's aunt) as it is called locally. So we moved to the first waterhole to no avail. On road we stopped for something and the organizer said this bus wont stop now until we spot a tiger. Dimag kharab ho gaya humara. we were like ready to burn him down. His logic made us think we have to come to this place one more time. We decided we wont tell about any spotting and prayed they dont see the tiger still thinking what would the tiger do in such environment in a water hole and we also spotted another wildcat in on road but didnt tell anyone bout it. As we approached the second water hole we saw Mr.M.S.R.Shad i have to write about him a lot.waiting at the hole and we also heard some calls we had already visited this hole once in the same trail but we returned to it as we heard dear's call. to everybody's surprise a tailless tigress showed up she looked quite hefty and frightened but was not threatened so drank the water for about 5 mins and disappeared the the woods nearby. We then heard calls of her cubs 2 of them we have heard shad sir led the carvan of vehicles and some other arrogant ignorant people were so bloody excited that they didnt shut their car engines one of them had music in his car. the tigress crossed the road for about 2 times and had to walk about .5 km extra to cross it because of us.I felt really sorry bout it and wished that the trip would have been the same without a tiger spotting also. I also felt that our practical in field knowledge about animal behaviour was not that good coz the tiger actually showed up in the least favourable conditions as we thought them to be but the organizer was right. They gave undue importance to the tiger sighting actually it was just like watching the tiger in a zoo frightened and used to tourists. Felt bad about it. It would have been better if we could see a the wild part of her rather than the frightened part and her cubs didn't even show up.Then on our way back we scared a group of bisons and saw male dears fight for proving their supremacy in the herd. a great sight. But to irritate us further some aunty in the group threw a plastic from the bus window neeraj saw it an immediately the guide got down and brought it back. These people didn't have the basic education on how to behave in the jungle and what to see. Irritated to the word E we came back from the trail after scaring a herd of dears who went to drink water at the pond near the grassland we visited yesterday. It was about evening time and all of us sat at the lake, where I saw nature at its best as rohit had told us before we saw nightjars coming at the lake getting down near the surface of the water on the lake having a sip and flying over our head felt lucky to see that coz we could only see it at evening time. After the storm there was no electricity in the dormitory so we decided to sit by the lake till dinner and we also had to interact with Mr.M.S.R.Shad.yes i must write about him now.
Mr.M.S.R.Shad a very very very down to earth man even after being amongst the top most photographers in the region and every other pic in tadoba library was taken by him. He has this peculiar sentence which he always uses to puzzle us ,if u compliment him saying "sir apki pics bohot achi hai". He would immediately say "meri nai hai birds ki pics hai maine to bus camera se photo li hai" a role model for any naturalist i would remember the interaction we had with him distinctly for a long time. Fantastic man I feel lucky when i meet people like these. He made a point very clear that the change is happening in people's attitude towards nature the process is slow but its happening all we can do is educate more and more people about it.and take some efforts like gifting a tree on someones birthday.Fantastic man one of the key great things that happened on this trip was interaction with shad sir.
So we had our dinner which was again fantastic in dark and then after a late night interaction with shad sir we went on to sleep coz we had to go birdwatching early next morning.
On the third and final day we got up rohan had a disturbed stomach and his fantastic sounds as soon as he entered the toilet would fill the whole dormitory he asked me to check for frogs in bathroom and made sure there were none there. and then in candle light he let his stomach loose.hehe enough of the gross description now hehe. we got ready quickly and went on a trail along the path which wa
s followed by the other group yesterday.It was early morning and hardly any raptors in the air. along the road we saw a black ibis,and a few other birds before we saw a grey headed fish eagle fly just above the water. It landed on a tree and in the binoculars we could see his white legs and a grey head. It really looked like a strong but worried bird. After admiring it from the distance we moved a bit further to watch it closely and I couldn't control my adrenaline rush and was behaving like a crazy man wanting to go near to the bird going off the trail and near to the lake which was quite embarassing but I really felt I woouldn't get a chance like this again coz the camouflage was perfect there and I even got a bit angry on everybody trying to stop me. But i knew it was fine even if I didnt get a pic and it was fine even if i got one coz mom had already given us all a lot to cheer about. So watching it from there till it again flew to another destination. At the next point where we spotted him rohan got a video of the big guy shiting out probably his dinner. then we moved on to the area where we went yesterday just a few guys who were genuinely intrested accompanied by that irritating uncle and another one.At the place I got a chance to picture black headed golden oriole for the first time on the trip.Next a forest calotes entertained us with his push ups. Then we were in the area where we had spotted the owls yesterday. as i tried to go inside where we were sleeping yesterday i had the scare of my life i saw something moving behing a bamboo shrub and immediately took a photo which looked like there was a tiger behind it.F*** i was so scared and did a terrible mistake as i was pretty nervous showed my back to the so thought tiger. Guide went on to check it and confirmed that there is no tiger. But i felt it was good that I was frightened by it. But felt bad that i didnt act aptly and didnt apply my knowledge that how could it be a tiger it didn't even growl. After all this was my first time in dense forest.Felt like a FATTU..but enjoyed it now i knw how does feel to be watched by a tiger behind the bush, no doubt on why the cheetals are so active always.
K so we left the place as we had to leave by 11am according to the first plan (though we left at around 1).As we went to our dormitories someone had complained we didnt see a snake so mom just drpped it from a tree near by.It was a bronze backed tree snake which i came to recently is a rare sighting.This small snake could maintain perfect balance with 3/4th of his length in the year and it moved its neck so beautifully we could hardly believe our luck. So we had our last lunch in tadoba it was very very good as always. We thanked our guide for his efforts, and ya i felt really sorry for them coz one of them told me he was on daily wages for the last 20yrs and the government didnt even increase the wage. I wonder how these guys maintain their families at rates 20yrs old and the value of the work they do certainly deserves much more than this I would like to do something for such families someday.
So this was the end of our trip to mom's lap "nature's lap". i was filled with a feeling of reverence and satisfaction as we left tadoba. Felt very humble when i thought how co operative nature had been to us it almost took us as her part. Pictures of this trip will always be fresh in my mind and it has also given me the strength to work for the protection of our mother nature.
I would request all of you to gift ur frnds trees and make sure they are planted and looked after with care.Coz after what nature has given to me in 3 days i dont ever want it to be bare without trees that would be a shameful and a heinous crime.
Also I feel some basic education should be given to the people who enter the forest.
lastly
THANK YOU MOM(both of my moms nature and my mommy)
THANKYOU GUYS FOR MAKING IT A MEMORABLE JOURNEY
THANKYOU
Jay,Rohan,Rohit,Neeraj
u can watch my, oh extremly sory, the pics of wildlife at tadoba by me on
http://flickr.com/photos/7269217@N03
