Tiger trails from the land of Rajputs

Ranthambor National Park - Tiger Reserve, Rajasthan

Ranthambore National Park is a vast wildlife reserve near the town of Sawai Madhopur in Rajasthan, northern India. It is a former royal hunting ground and home to tigers, leopards and marsh crocodiles.

Entering the forest reserve on the first day of opening and that too the first safari gypsy entering a particular gate, its even more exciting. That’s what my experience with RTR has been, 1st of October as the gates opened in RTR, our safari gypsy was first to enter the zone where no safari was done for last 4 months (closed due to rains). Looking for the pug marks, tracking the tiger via smell, looking at the common waterholes amidst the greenery was really an experience. Subsequently I have visited the parks some other times also and have seen tiger mostly in each of my safaris. Let me elucidate on one such encounter in detail.

It was around 9:30am, we had been in the jungle for about two and a half hrs. The only eventful incident was on of our vehicle got stuck in a muddy puddle which had to be pushed out by forest officials, scary part was, it was at a location which had tiger sighting 24 hrs back. Nevertheless the search continued. Some movement was reported near "charai " ( an elevated grassland ) but not confirmed , gypsies rushed there. Patience is the name the game in jungle to find these elusive big cats. Another 15 mins of wait, time was running we had to move back towards the gate. Suddenly the was an alarm call of a Sambar deer, it came from a distance. The guided was sure the tiger was moving and it will come out from the ridge where we were waiting, but driver had other opinion and drove the gypsy up in the charai to track it from there. Reaching there it looked the tiger had already crossed the place and was walking towards the ridge, the driver took a reverse gear and driving towards the old location at a breakneck speed, already 4 safari vehicles had stacked up there. Pin drop silence, occasional bird chirps and suddenly there was an alarm call from a spotted deer and simultaneously a sambar’s call …. splitting the silence. Surly the tiger was there, right behind the thick green canopy was a glimmer of yellow strips, but it vanished. Then the majestic Bengal tiger emerged , peek-a-boo-ing from the bushes. We saw Ladali coming to the visible zone ( the first picture in the gallery).

{ Ladali -A shy and dominant tigress of zone no. 6, 7, and 8, is one among the three cubs born to T-5 Kachida, tigress and fathered by T-2. . She was the smallest of her three siblings and shiest. Her mother’s favorite and hence her name was given, (beloved- Ladali) }.