Andaman - The wild side

"Heavy rains lash Chennai, airport closed" screamed the headlines in the news.  My mind went back a a few days, when I had been in Chennai on my way to Port Blair.  A silent prayer was on my lips, thanking God that I had made it.

Ladakh – Where Heaven and Earth meet

Ladakh - A land of extremes, one of the few places on earth where one can get sun burnt and frost bitten on the same day , where sand dunes meet snow capped peaks and the hills defy gravity*.

Bhadra in Action - A photo essay

kuk kaya kaya kuk ...

The call of the grey jungle fowl welcomed us to the River Tern Lodge at Bhadra wildlife sanctuary.

Situated right next to the Bhadra dam, the rooms in the lodge have a spectacular view of the backwaters.  River terns (the presence of which has given the lodge its name), striated swallows, doves provide ample opportunities for "arm-chair birding" from the room.  On the farther shores, an elephant or even a black panther may make a surprise appearance 

Room with a view	Striated swallow

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.

Gudavi – Malnad’s Hidden Wonderland

Black headed ibis

Deep within Malnad *, where the district of Shimoga meets Uttara Kannada district, there exists a seasonal lake surrounded by dense forest.  Every year, from August to November, this lake plays host to hundreds of nesting ibises and egrets.  The lake and a portion of the surrounding forest form the Gudavi Bird sanctuary.

Tiger Tiger Burning Bright

A cub making its way to mother

Imagine a heavily wooded valley with you on one side and a family of tigers, feeding on a kill, on the other.   This was the scene which greeted us on our first safari into Bandhavgarh.  A few minutes later, the mother tigress’s call reverberated through the jungle, making the cubs – which had wandered off – to move back towards the kill and reminding us of where we were.  We were in Tiger Country.

Ranganathittu - A Birder's Paradise

On the banks of river Cauvery lies a gem of a bird sanctuary.  Though less than a square kilometer in area, Ranganathittu has a very high bird count, both in species and in numbers.  In spring and summer, aquatic birds like spoonbills, river terns, open bill storks, pelicans, painted storks nest in small islands in the river, while terrestrial birds like Tickell's blue fly catcher, fan-tail flycatchers, peafowls, tailor birds flitter about on the river bank.