Tadoba – Into the Forests of Kipling’s Jungle Book

Telia cubs in water

“Welcome to the Real Land of Tigers” – so proclaims the banner at the Moharli Gate of Tadoba-Andheri National Park.  Our first safari justified this statement.  We saw more tigers – five, in fact - than any other animal.

During winter, the safari experience in Tadoba is quite different from other National Parks.   As majority of the park is closed due to road repairs (the roads get damaged and water logged during monsoon), most of the safari time is spent driving on the main tarred road, with a few diversions to visit the water holes within the forest.  The tigers oblige by frequenting the main road and the few accessible water holes. 

Telia lake within Tadoba

After an exciting start, the next few safaris proved an anticlimax.  No tigers, and bird life was conspicuous by its scarcity.  In fact, we saw more birds during our drive from the resort to the park entrance than within the park.  As the resort – Serai tiger resort- was situated near the shore of a large lake and surrounded by grassland, both aquatic and grassland birds could be seen nearby.  We regularly saw bronze winged jacanas, open billed storks, buzzards (white eyed and honey), kestrels, prinias, bushchats …

Scaly breasted munia

Predator and prey: plain prinia and
insect on same grass stalk.

Plain prinia feeding its chick

On our penultimate day, the photogenic Telia cubs* decided to put up a show.  Armed with the knowledge that the cubs had been tracked near the MTDC resort (a government owned resort situated near the Moharli gate) the previous evening, we headed in that direction during the morning safari.  And there the cubs were.  Right next to the road was a small clearing in the forest, beautifully lit by the rising sun.   In this clearing, two of the cubs started playing without a care in the world – running up trees and jumping down, sharpening their claws, coming close to inspect the forest ranger’s bike and scaring the wits out of the people in nearby jeeps…

Telia cubs

But, even after all these safaris we had not seen the father of the Telia cubs, the legendary Wagdoh male, reputedly one of the biggest tigers ever seen.  Before our last safari, we got the news that the Wagdoh male had killed a bull in the buffer zone of the park.  Apparently, the bull had successfully deterred an attack by the mother of the Telia cubs, only to be taken down by the father, right in front of its horrified owner.  Since the kill had occurred in the buffer zone, the owner would be reimbursed by the forest department.  The tigers dragged the carcass to a secluded spot within the park and we could not get a sight of the kill.

Mouse litter

After finishing the last safari we had a surprise waiting for us, back at the resort.  While packing our suitcases, we found a mouse hiding between clothes.  We somehow got the mouse out of the suit case, only to find that it had given birth to a litter of three young amidst the clothes.  We left the young ones covered in some clothes.  Hopefully the mother would have returned and moved them to a safer spot.

Thus, our stay in Tadoba came to an end, starting with the animals at the top of the food chain and ending with the ones at the bottom.

Photos:

Video:

Some more information regarding our trip to Tadoba:

Route: Bangalore to Nagpur by flight; Nagpur to Tadoba by road.

Stay: We stayed at Serai Tiger lodge, which is about 4 kilometers from Moharli gate.

Safari:  The safari timings are 6:30 to 10:30 in the morning and 2:30 to 5:30 in the evening.  The sun sets at around 5 pm, hence there will be little light by the end of evening safari.  All our safaris were arranged by Manish Varma.

Temperature:  Our trip was in the month of November.  The mornings were chilly, requiring the use of jackets, and the afternoons were sunny.

* Cubs of the female whose territory includes the Telia lake.  In Tadoba, the tigers are named after the regions which they inhabit.