This was definately one of my most memorable trips to this great place and the best national park in India by a long shot. The year 2008, the group-a couple of enthusiasts including me and a friend and some first time wannabes, the time-mid June, supposedly the worst time to visit Kanha National park or for that matter any national park, or so is the general belief.
We set off one fine morning, four of us, the promise-the sighting of the most prized asset in the Indian jungles-The Bengal Tiger. Now Kanha National Park is about 5 hrs drive from my hometown Nagpur and is popularly known as Kanha Kisli. Actually Kanha has two gates to enter the park one at Kisli and one at Mukki which is further away and hence the name as most people enter through the Kisli gate.
Anyone who has been to a National park knows that sighting of animals such as the Cheetal or the spotted dear is pretty much like sighting your street Mongrel while going to work or home. However sighting a bison is a little rare, Tigers are even more rare, and then come bears and wolves and Leopards and the sort. So our trip started of with the usual Cheetals prancing around and with the thick and tall grass and very dense foliage it was very difficult to spot anything other than these animals. You see it had already rained about 5-6 times before our arrival and hence the chances of seeing anything other than Cheetal was very bleak. After our evening round on day one and morning and evening round on day two and nothing to show for return we had all but given hope and were submitting to the fate of returning empty handed. What followed was perhaps the most exhilirating experience and one to be told to children and grand children over and over again.
For our morning round on day three which was going to be our final attempt we went straight to a region of the forest known as the 'Kanha Maidan'. It is a huge clearing right in the dense forest and which gave us the best chance of spotting a tiger. Plus we had recieved a tip off that a tiger had been seen relaxing in those parts the previous evening. So we waited at a good vantage point in the Maidan, when a Mahout pointed to a location where a Tiger was resting. We moved our Gypsy in closer and were staring at what looked like the ear or the tail of the Tiger, but we couldnt say for sure. With clouds threatening above us and the tiger not willing to get up, we were exasperated. After almost an jour of waiting, I spotted a black mass moving in our direction about a km away. The guide confirmed it was a bear!! We couldnt see him very clearly as he was very far away however we got an ok view through the binoculars. The bear was moving seemingly in our direction and kept walking until we realised that he was actually moving in the direction of the tiger. Wow, I couldnt believe our luck, just imagine we were waiting here and out of nowhere this bear shows and we not only get to see a bear but also a chance that he may disturb the tiger who may finally make some movement.
Now anyone who has been to Kanha knows that the news of a Tiger being spotted spreads like wild fire amongst all the tourists and after the Mahout's indication almost ten Jeeps had acculumated at the spot however the impatient lot had already left after some time and we were left alone to enjoy the sighting of a lifetime.
So as I was saying this bear was moving in the direction of the tiger and slowly lumbered up to him after about 20 minutes. This tiger was a male and not fully grown, he was about 1 year old and hence he was not very confident about his abilities as a hunter or a fighter. Now just imagine our luck here we were sitting in front of a tiger hidden in the foliage with no chance of ever getting up, and this bear comes out of nowhere. So this bear is standing in front of the tiger about 3 feet away and suddenly the Tiger gets up to face the bear!!!! What a sight!!! Two great predators standing opposite each other. The bear was a fully grown one but was apprehensive about attacking a Tiger and the tiger being very young was not very keen on taking on a fully grown male bear. They stood facing each other for about a minute after which the bear started moving out of the area. The Tiger followed the bear out of his terriotory to assert his dominance and then finally settled in the foliage again. What a legendary sighting it was.
We also got to see the bear cross the road in front of us in full view just two feet ahead of our gypsy. Boy were we satisfied with our trip or what. Even the guide and driver who were working there for 25 years + said they had never seen anything like it.
And to top this all of when we were returning from lunch that day to pick up our stuff and head home we saw a leopard in the Buffer zone just outside the forest. What a thrilling experience it had turned out to be. Everyone had advised us against going to the forest in June because of the rains, well they must surely be regretting the fact that they didnt join us.
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