Tadoba : back to the land of tigers

Jungles are amazing places , they are like a live movie , a world within another. What makes jungle complete is presence of an top predator. Jungle with tiger is like cherry on top , you can always feel its presence but not always you are lucky to see him.

I have been travelling in indian jungles since last 5-10 years , looking for the tiger , we even went to tadoba 2 years back but were then few of those unfortunate souls who dont get to see the tiger even in tadoba.

This time its was different though , first sight of a tiger is like a dream come true , however having seen the animal i am now left wanting for more , so anxious to get back to tadoba and see the tiger again and again.

Was bit disappointed as even with 300mm lens wasnt able to get good enough photo of the tiger , but something for the later visits.

                              "You just dont see the tiger , you feel its aura!!"

Just half an hour into the first safari and the first animal we see this time is the tigress maya with her cub , its the later part of the day , too hot to do anything else but to take a dip in the pandharpauni lake and cool off

Area around tadoba lake is good for birding , hunting birds like this grey headed fish eagle are always on prawl , at this place death can strike from air , land ( tiger) and from water ( crocodiles ) 

Despite of the high risk , water is a daily need all animals need to have it atleast once a day

Watchful eye of the crested serpent eagle 

The day 1 ended with Sonam , she was on the other bank of the telia dam but was against the light hence far away from even a mentionable photograph , but her reflection in the lake was mesmerizing , such a majestic animal , there are few things in the world that should  be enjoyed with the eyes only keeping camera aside , she looked way hotter than the sonam kapoor for sure :)

Sonam was our companion on day 2 as well , first thing in the morning , here shes away from her cubs looking for a hunt , she is huge, well built but becomes almost invisible in this brown grass , she has seen something nearby which we humans couldnt , they have eyesight 6 times better than human eye , its a saying in the jungle that before you have seen the tiger , tiger must have seen you atleast 25 times and there is no sound in the jungle which tiger hasnt heard.

unfortunately for sonam and us , she coudlnt find any descent kill , our experienced guide and atul knew that now as sun has come out shinning she wont be looking for the hunt anymore and will get back to her cubs , we were waiting at telia dam for about an hour , she came back to her cubs and treating us with a sight to cherish for entire life , sonam and her 3 cubs. One here in this photo is the most energatic one , other two are hidding behind the bushes , they are still shy of vehicles , we were on the other bank , bit far away for 300mm lens to get anymore closer

While we were waiting for sonam to arrive , this honey buzzard was looking for a breakfast , belongs to the eagle family is bit larger than the kite , these are frequently seen near the waterbodies.

Afternoons in tadoba are pretty hot , too hot for this aging legend , Waghdoh male , said to be asia's biggest tiger , he is the father of sonam and maya. at 14 years he is now too old to hunt and is a rare parenting male. In afternoons he cools himself with a bath in the artificial watertanks , sure sighting for tourists , we waiting for almost 2 hours for him to get up so that we can see his full frame , alas he was in no mood to get out of that cold water 

Day 3 - morning safari in buffer has been cancelled , some VIP has popped in and all the vehicles are under his service , so we decided to have a walk on the main road adjoining jungle  and enjoy the sunrise 

pied kingfisher near the erai dam backwaters , a walk is a great opportunity to get upclose which is otherwise not possible with the gypsy

Indian Roller , otherwise its a average looking bird but when in flight it shows its true colors

in the afternoon safari we had glimpse of maya again , we experienced the fear she instills in other animals , she was sitting away but still none of them dared coming for the water , once she left they started coming forward still with caution , tigers are ambush predators , never know when they will attack 

Best example of how humans one day will destroy these jungles , even though plastics are banned in tadoba and all the guides keep a close watch on tourists , few still manage to litter , for us its just a piece of plastic but for this deer it can be life threatning

Changable hawk eagle , one of 4 eagle species found in tadoba , smaller in size as compard to serpent eagle but accurate killer nonetheless 

Indian gaur

Next morning and our last safari was in agarjhari buffer area , erai backwater have turned this into a beautiful marshy land , birding is good here , we missed Madhuri though by a whisker , madhuri is mother of sonam and maya and now has 2 cubs of her own as well , she is said to be the boldest of all tigresses