班迪普尔
BANDIPUR has always been special to me.This gaur was killed by a male tiger in an open field near border road.I got the information at 7.30 pm on wednesday night.I was at the spot Thrusday morning at 6.40am...saw the kill but no tiger.waited for more than 3 hrs..lot of alarm calls around indicating the presence of the tiger, but it did not come out.Thrusday evening a leopard was feasting on the kill amidst lound alarm calls from langur and chital ....hearing this the tiger comes rushing to defend his kill..leopard runs out of sight..we see the tiger for 2 seconds inside the lantana to our right..i click only to get the lantana in the foreground in focus.Next second the tiger dissapears searching for the leopard in the direction of the alarm calls.Missed!! i curse my luck.Next day morning i reached the kill at 6.25am ..a gypsy belonging to a pvt resort reaches the spot 2 mins before me sees the tiger walking in to the bushes...gets no pics.We wait for more than an hour ,but the tiger who had his fill by then, decides to sleep inside a dry nullah right behind the kill and does not come out...alright.. so no luck the third time.I sit down and decide to change the routine ...in the afternoon we reach the spot an hour before other jeeps .As per plan we switch off the engine about a quater km away and reach the spot..the willy tiger which still manages to hear the rattle of our approaching vehicle stands right next to the kill..at the first glimpse of our vehicle [which was around 300 feet away] he retreats in to the lantana..but stands still watching at our approaching jeep..as the jeep stops about 150 feet away ...i instantly click pointing my camera towards the tiger..in about 5 to 10 seconds i manage to get atleast a few record shots of this huge male tiger which remains to be identified.With extreme satisfaction of atleast getting a few record shots...all my feelings of not having got him feasting on his kill vanish.I silently take a video of the kill and wait at the spot...thinking that it was all over. vultures sitting around hover around the kill but refuse to land,probably sensing the tiger.Suddenly from our left two wild dogs appear on the scene...and cautiously approach the kill..but sensing the tiger around they too dissapear from the scene.As the other jeeps start pouring in i decided to exit from the scene aware that the tiger being shy [not used to vehicles and people] would not emerge.As i return back i was blessed with an sighting which was perhaps more rare than a tiger!! A sloth bear with two cubs piggyriding on her!! We also got to see herds of elephants,a tusker,and groups of gaur too. More than i asked for!! I will be posting the images and videos of the tiger , wild dogs,vultures and the bear cubs with their mother.Keep watching.here is short video of the scene showing the dead gaur and other gaur watching it in the rain.