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-   -   Crouching Tiger, Unaware prey - Hunt and Kill: TATR - Awesome, Incredible, Amazing!! (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/travelogues/122286-crouching-tiger-unaware-prey-hunt-kill-tatr-awesome-incredible-amazing-7.html)

This is some real bad news. RIP Panderpouni & her yet unborn cubs. Almost all suffer from plagiarism and you are no exception. Feel bad for that too.:Frustrati

Updating this thread after a long time. I had left it midway, i guess was just too lazy and caught up with other things to be able to complete it.

Taking up from where i left it.

2nd Safari on 01/06/2012.

We had finished the morning safari with another photoshoot of the Panderpouni cubs at Ambept waterhole.

For the afternoon Safari we had decided to goto Telia range to try and catch the Telia cubs and Wagdo male. Since we were not staying near Moharli gate
going to Telia range involved a good 20 odd KMs from our gate and we started a little early in the sweltering heat.

On reaching Telia range - we were roaming around looking for the cubs when we heard that the King and the big daddy Wagdo male was at Taanka #2 saucer - reaching there we saw him lying down in the water at the saucer. It was very hot and the Tiger was just lying down cooling off. There were forest guards regulating the gypsys and that meant an orderly line with each one of us getting some 5 odd mins to see and click pics. We did two rounds and clicked some pics. Even though the saucer looked near to the road - it was quite some distance away and with the king lying down - we could not get the immpresive full body shots.

Waagdo male - the grand daddy of them all. One of his eyes is damaged due to a fight with a Bison they say

Inquisitive?


Laying down










Majestic



Having had our fill - we decided to go back as it was getting a little late and there were little chances of catching the cubs. On our way back - we spotted this male sloth bear - another first for us - munching away.

It is notoriously hard to click good pics of the sloth bear specially in full sun and harsh lighting, managed some decent shots though

Sloth Bear - normally shy, did not mind us though and went on with its business




Bison


Some more shots of our favorite cub at Ambepat -

Sleepy









Seems that the cub is also looking for us - where are you?



Spotted dear - with great antlers and the huge Telia lake in the back ground




Buzzard - at telia lake shore




Crocodile - wading into the lake




to be contd...

"Awesome" is all I can say Sachin.. Some amazing moments and equally amazing photographs that you clicked. The event is any photographer's dream come true :)

I even hadn't heard about Tadoba till now, but your pictures and description have compelled me to google it and find more details. Would appreciate if you can provide more details about how to reach, where to stay, tariff & road conditions etc..

I'll wait for further set of pics to come, hope you have finished processing them by now :)

Thanks Nonstop-driver.

Tadoba Andhari Tiger Reserve is around 130 odd kms from Nagpur. We took a flight from Delhi to Nagpur and from Nagpur to Tadoba on Taxi.
We had stayed in a resort called Svasara. This is a new resort located at the Kolara gate of the reserve.

It is a good resort - though a little expensive.

Other options of stay are at Moharli gate - this is the more famous gate of the reserve and there are some budget resorts near this gate. You can search for the different resorts at Moharli gate on the net.

There are 4 gates of the reserve - Kolara, Moharli, Kolsa and another one near a village (dont remember the name of this gate).

Kolara gate is famous for Panderpouni, Katezari family of tigers, Yeda anna among others. Moharli - for Telia and Wagdo male. Kolsa range for a huge male called - Shivaji. It is said that this male tiger only hunts Bisons as that is the primary prey base in that range.

Safaris can be arranged by the resort that you stay in - or by tour operators if you book through them.

I had booked through a tour operator and he had arranged my drop from Nagpur and also the safaris.

Drop me a note if you need more details and i will be happy to help you.

Pls note that - Napgur also boasts of other WLS nearby. These include - Pench (the Jungle book story is based in Pench). Pench has 2 parts (for want of better word) - One in Maharashtra and other in MP with Pench river forming the boundary between the two. MP part is more famous with stay options where Maharashtra is upcoming. Pench is also a birding paradise with a lot of birds to be found there. You can check my log on Pench -

http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/travel...-park-may.html

for more details.

Othe WLS is Nagzira - this is a new upcoming WLS and i dont have information on this.

Thanks Sachin! Thanks for the information :) I've visited Pench, the MP side when I was staying at Gwalior (and adjoining Shivpuri too). I could do with more details for Tadoba and hope I can drive through from Noida sometime this year.

And the name is Neeraj Sinha. :D

Came through the following article in HT about a innovative scheme for protecting snow leopards started by a herder in Nepal. Interesting and thought provoking.


It does go on to also show how common man can make a change. Sadly i dont think this can be done in Indian forests where villagers take livestock into jungle for grazing and get compensation by the government in the event of it being killed by a Tiger!


http://www.hindustantimes.com/Travel...e1-980923.aspx

It is indeed a very good step, while it always easier to take an eye for an eye, the difficult part is to find a solution and way to harmonize the situation to the best of the possibilities available.

What Sherpa understood and realised (later definitely) was that the Snow Leopard committed no crime and just followed her natural instinct to survive and help her cubs grow.

We have a long way to go.

Nice set of fresh pictures from the TATR collection. Wagdoh seems to be getting old. My favourite - the croc wading into the lake..

Sachin,
Are you aware that your Tiger-Boar has made it to a wildlife video compilation, featuring at 13:23 minutes, on link below.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...v=tLa9PTvV3UU#!
Regards,

Yes Fazal bhai, but other than getting high BP, cant do much about it :(