Saturday, June 13, 2015

Tigeress in the Ethereal Morning

I asked the guide to move through Salghat a low lying mountain with lot of Sal trees hence the name. It was a beautiful morning at Kanha National Park and as usual I was with my foreign guests from Courtyard House. A cool wind blew past us as me moved along the incline.

"Salghat?" 

"Yes', I said.

Driving very slowly we had  reached the cross road, I asked the driver to move towards Badrinath and head straight towards Sarvan Taal at Kanha Zone. We crossed over the striking grasslands of Kanha meadows and then reached a water body called Phuta Taal.  We continued.  

The transformation was electric, before we could see the tigress the drama unfolded. We found monkeys scurrying up the trees and then the hollow alarm cry of the spotted deer began. We knew there was a big cat on the way and rightly so. It emerged from the shadow of the trees neighboring the lake and headed straight towards us.   

The spectacular display of the swamp deer and its raucous cries was a rare event to witness as the tigress cut across the road past us. She continued to walk graceful emerging from thickets accompanied by dulcet roars. She came out in the open and then went into hiding behind the bushes. 

The event unfolded as she continued to move back past Phuta Taal at a graceful place totally ignorant of us and the frantic life all around her. The jeeps started arriving as we signaled them but there was no hurry, the big cat was aiming for a long walk and that it did. 

All the jeeps had rushed towards the Silyari Lake since Munna the male tiger was sighted a day before in the evening. I knew that there would be an undisturbed ground for the tigress to amble free...and so it happened. My guests from UK clicked merrily amazed at the turn of events.  Completely Zapped.
Tigress - Dinesh Makhija

Swamp Deer - Dinesh Makhija