oe striped ceoemcrm elt 210 Lad Bee eigelel Dr PV Subramaniam photographs by and to boot, jus Nagpur. the past walis have sent us ‘When we decided to flee Mumbai king ta suchas Thekkad) fe Dandeli and were on the lookout for an offbeat erswould bea destination, and an Internet search wtmemory. Have people for brought up Pench. The website oftheseeingthe tiger in thewildisbotha __devastatingassault on nature Itissuch special privilege and alucky bonus, and a splendid system of nature, where life we had been truly fortunate that throbs, everythingis recycled and a moming, nillion creatures find sustenance, Far ‘We had fallen deeply in love with from our anthropocenttie world of Pench, and the joumey back tocamp consumption, destruction and waste, passed in ablur—perhapsour eyeshad refreshing Pench reassuringly stands welled up atthe thought ofleavingthis out as abeacon of hope, and we ow pristine refuge. Truly, aforestis where toourselves and to the future tore through the uneven forest floor at afrenetic pace. We could hear the frantic alarm calls ofthe chital and the langur building up into acrescendo. Evenas we hung on for dear life, the mahout pointed out co sinuous form ‘one gets the primal feel of what life generations to protect and preserve musthave been before man’s such treasures of nature moving purposefully just ahead of us, and announced sorto-voce, “Tiger!” ‘The tiger truly an awe-inspiring animal —itisno wonder that man travels halfway around the world for just aglimpse ofthis endangered, fabulous feline. Imbued with awesome grace, the siger arouses a primeval fear hidden deep in our genes. A single encounter isallittakesfor one to begin to understand the charisma ofthis lethal lord ofthe jungle. The splendid male monarch of Pench marching ahead of us was being herded by two other elephants, but seemed oblivious toall cheattention. He didn't break stepashe nonchalantly strode through the tll grass. One moment he was right there, the next, he had r othe grass ~ we were dumbstruck by this mastery of camouflage. As we desperately sought him out, he emenged at a distance and without a second thought, plunged into an icy stream. He swam across and leapt onto the steep opposing bank, compl hoodwinking his petulant pursu ‘The entire encounter was over in the n The most convenient place to stay is the blink ofan eye, andwe had nochance | Bagh Van Lodge at Pench, en enterprise of Wild india camps. of raining our cameras on our elusive subject from our perilous perch. We ‘would have liked to spend a lifetime gazing at the tiger, but we realised that Pench is 92 km (2 hours) north of Nagpur. Jet Airways operetes a daily flight to Nagpur from Mumbai, and to Mumbai ely from all the major metros and other towns across India, For more information contact Wild Indie Camps Pvt Ltd, Tel/Fax: (11) 51600006, Mobile: 9810730239, E-mail suhail@wildindiacamps.com, or visit: www.wildindiacamps.com 80erspark, but Shuniti asked us to be patient ~one needs to be really fortunate to see the tiger in the wild, and that too only when this supreme predator ‘condescends to reveal himself In fact, most visitors tothe park clamour to see the tiger, and inthe process, ignore the magic of the jungle, which has a ‘multitude of wonders on offer Sure enough, apair of jackals crossed our path (literally), and we followed their sojourn down adry streambed. One jackal settled onto a favoured rock and gazed skywards before letting off long, mournful howl, reminiscent of the Hound of the Baskervilles Welefchim two air his canine grievances and moved on towards the Torladoh reservoir a large lake formed byadam over the Pench river, which ccuts through the eponymous park. The 54-sa-km expanse of shimmering blue water invited us to explore its charms. The reservoir was envisaged to serve human needs, and ended up submerging large tractof virgin forest, which originally was the setting for Rudyard Kipling’s angle Book. Water birds now scand vigil over Mowg's sunken workl, and we spotted a few cormoran8, herons, and. solitary osprey lrding over his watery iefdom. A row-boat was unhitched, and we scrambled onto the craft after donning some very comforting life jackets. It wasa placid ride through the limpid waters, withonly:an occasional ‘thwack!' of the oars breaking the quiet. We daydreamed through the short chukker, and before long, were back on terra firma, and into the reassuringly shady canopy of the jungle. ‘We moved on to the elephant camp at Alikatta, deep in the forest, where a small village once existed, but has now been relocated outside the park. We were formally introduced to Pench Bahadur, an adorable six-month old elephant calf: His mother, Saraswat got him to first drink his milk befoce meeting the quests, and he emenged with amilk-moustache. He seemed to bean innocent angel, till we saw him throw an elephantine tantrum. His 78 sewmiss apa zone keepers later told us that he is actually alittle rascal, and they were wary of his pranks! ‘The other camp elephantshad been deputed to track the tiger and were out somewhere in the forest. At last count, there were more than 50 tigers in Pench and we felt hopeful of bumping into atleast one of them. We headed out in the general disection of the trackerelephants, and prayed hard fora tete-a-tete with the striped sultans of Pench. As we neared a densely wooded patch, we were alerted by heavy footfalls—a small elephant rushed outof the tree cover, with a wildly gesticulatingmabout on the edge of his seat. He wanted to take us to where the other two elephants were tallinga tiger ona momingstroll! This litle clephant, Damini, seemed too Petite tocarry usand we hesitated to clamber on. The mahout, however, sisted that we didn'tdilly-dally and we mounted the benign pachyderm, Goad by the impatient mahout, she‘out at several places amidst the green backdrop. Wild flowers abound with their charming colours, and there are several varieties of grasses and shrubs enhancing the landscape. Driving through Penchis truly multi-sensory experience ~apart from the visual treat, there isa certain fragrance in the ais, and the myriad sounds of the forest play outa soothing melody, invokinga feeling of unfathomable peace. Ourreverie cerrupted by a 76 servos ae 2008 flash of brown in the undergrowth—a herd of chtal, disturbed by our arrival, recreated swifily into the inky inerio but not before we caught a couple of these beautiful, placid animals on film, (One stag, in particular stared at us, even as we admired his velvet-covered andlerselistening in the muted sunlight. A gang of agur kept faithful company tothe deer herd, and we learnt that these two species are usually found together in a mutually beneficial relationship. The langur are messy caters, and the leaves they drop from the trees are fair game for the deer. The deer, in turn, watch out with an eagle eye (ifthat's possible) for any predators lurking in the vicinity, and sound the alarm to get the langur to stop monkeying around! ‘As we wound our way towards a hilly portion of the park, the naturalist advised us to be on the alert for the ‘ga as they tend to descend from the lofty heights at dusk. Gaterare not frequently sighted in Pench, and call it the naturalist’ acumen or ourgood karma, but voila! A huge gaerbull stood defiantly in our path, zealously ovetsceinghis 15-strongherd browsing in asmall grassy knoll. We went berserk with our cameras, 2s we had never been given so much bull before! Te was. fitting finale toan enthralling evening, and we returned tothe camp with a warm glow in spite of asharp nip in the air. Cupsof steaming hot tea, popcorn, and apie of cheese sandwiches materialise from the efficient kitchen, and a roaring bonfire emboldened us to step outdoors Like our prehistoric ancestors may pethapshave done, we gazed long into the embers, ruminating over the day's events. A hot dinner fellowed, and thena tumble into bed, pullingall the quilts and blankets over our heads to ward off the bitter chill A sharprapon the doorat dawn startled us awake, and we imagined thatit mustke one of the infamous Pench leopards that we had been wamed about. We tiptoed tothe door, only tofind a fellow human, coffee tray in hand and a large smile on his face. So much for our fecund imagination! Gratefully accepting the victuals, we were raring to go by 6am, We shivered ut of our room with layers of warm. clothing, monkey capsand all, and wondered which animal would be crazy enough to wander out in this weather. Shunit, our affable naturalist, said that he could smell tiger inthe air, and that really got us trembling with excitement. We kept our eyes peeled forthe clliale stripesaswe entered theBagh Van Lodge convinced us that this indeed, was the perfect hideaway Diwali eve found us making a bleary-eyed beeline for the early morning Nagpur flight. A short flight later, we were at Nagpur airport, where the pace of lfe had already slid down several notches anda rustic feel prevailed. We hopped on to an obliging cab forthe 94 km journey across the state border int Madhya Pradesh, We learnt that this isthe only national park in India which straddles a state border, ‘aswe passed through places with guar has Kamptee and Later in the moming we found ourselvesat the Bagh Van Lodge, an enterprise of Wild India Camps. The camp naturalist gave usa brief ‘orientation of the park and its den and whetted our appetite for the afternoon foray into the jungle. The lodge itself had beautiful cottages, set longa stream and surrounded by forest on three sides. It was pien peace and tranquillity and we inst knew this was the right choice! A rejuvenating nap followed a sumptuous Inch, and ac 3 pm, we were bright eyed and jungle-attired, waiting to pounce into the safar jeep. After few entry formalities, we were finally in the ju “The forest was in al its post-monsoon green and bountiful. The only human touch was the dirt road snaking its way through che dense vegetation. As the jeep cruised along at a steady pace, our eyes widened in ‘wonderment at the denouement of the secrets of the forest. We have, for too long, assoctated forests only with wild ‘animals and danger. For instance, we never gauged the sheer variety of trees that thrive in the Pench forest-our ‘uid rattled off names such as saagun (teak), aamla (Indian gooseberry), tendu (whose leaves are used to roll bidis), and many other strange species. In fact, a tree called kullwor the ‘ghost tree’, with its eerie white bark, ‘The naughty and messy Jangur monkeying around, 74 serum area 20