A Visit to Pench National Park
Being Whole Food Plant Based for over 10 years has taught our family compassion towards animals and nature as a whole. So while I was planning for a family vacation and my son’s growing affinity towards tigers made me think of a Tiger National Park. The whole idea was to show him not just the tiger but the environment around it. My daughter/wife supported this idea and were the driving force to make it happen. Ultimately they are the decision makers and as always I ensure their demand is met. As I’m always late in planning, I made a few quick calls and with the help of Sonali Shetty and Mihir Mahajan I was able to book a package at Pench National Park. A special mention of our stay Pench Jungle Camp for providing plant based meals.
I was very keen on seeing tigers in the national park and expected some great sightings. However, the anxiety of sighting a tiger was thrown out of the window in my first safari as we did not have a single sighting of the big cat. When we returned to our room I realised that in the anxiety I forgot to look at the nature and the guide was great to explain a lot of details about trees, birds, boars, bisons, langurs, deers, sambars, etc. To top it all my camera caught some virus and deleted all photos I had taken of nature.
The next sightings I promised myself to not put pressure on watching the big cat but also watch the forest and how animals interact in the natural habitat. One thing for sure, you definitely need a good guide and a driver who know all details of the jungle and we were blessed to have both. These guys were really fantastic and got to details of the various species and tracking mechanisms of the big cat. We ourselves were well versed with how to differentiate between fake and real calls of nature to sight the big cats.
There is a story to each and everyone and so do the nature and the animals.
Landscape – Seems like the forest has a healing nature. The numerous species of trees was a sight to watch A ghost tree is one which was all white and grows in rocks. It also grows over other tress right from one of its branch, stem, etc. We saw a lot of teak wood trees which were tall and a perfect ground for these animals for shade. The rivers, waterholes, lakes were sight to watch multiple species of animals at one place. The tiger when around makes everyone disappear. The rocks, trees, rivers, lakes, animals and bids are a treat to watch in their natural landscape.
Birds – we saw quite a lot of species and can hardly remember all their names. We saw one which was on the ground next to a rock and was really hard to sight. The guide was real best at all these sightings. The owlette inside the bark of a tree, another big owl turning its head 180 degrees was something the nature around showed us. We saw Vultures over dry trees one day and the next day we saw them circling around an area. We wonder where their prey was. Lots of crows pouncing on every flesh they could find. The sweet sounds of the birds “coo-ee”, “brain fever”and “want more water” and hundreds of others made the jungle a live concert without any decibels hurting and thumping your hearts. The mellowing sound was relaxing and sweet to the ear.
Peacock – We heard the mating calls, the dance and alarm calls. We found quite a few following the peahens and to top it all we found a few peacocks actually flying around. It was a great sight to see. They spent their days grazing the fields and quite a few times crossed the roads. We also saw a peacock dancing in its full glory in the middle of the road.
Deer – We saw lots of them and were a perfect example of how to live in harmony with nature. I say that because we always found langurs near them. The langurs signal the deers if a predator is near and help them fled away. We found all signs of how the langurs helped a herd of deer to run away from the near sighting of a big cat. The deer are amazing sprinters and can beat any gypsy with their top speed and jump. The head of the pack does look after the family and have a picture of one looking out for the herd where everyone else is grazing.
Langurs – What an intelligent relative we have. They alert the whole jungle when a predator moves in and live in their community. They have their own groups and we saw one group fighting out another one to capture an area. They’re just like us fighting over property. However, watching a mother holding its baby by the chest and moving around seemed similar to our motherly instincts. What a sight it was to see them jump from one tree to another, just looked like they were flying over.
Boars – Reminded me of Pumba from The Lion King movie. They were grazing all the time and had a great shot of their Mohawk style hair.
Bulls – How strong can they be. Our first sight was of a dominant male chasing away another one from his family. They are quite strong and muscular. Was just amazed by their size and strength.
Jackals – They move in pairs. Were quite a few moving around and cubs playing all the time. The jackals are the smartest and was quite a sighting to see them running around.
Wild dogs – This one was an experience as I saw one dominant male wild dog hunt a deer fawn. The deer was alive while the male was tearing into its inside. The male made sure that the fawn could not move and brought the insides on the floor next to it. Once it was sure that it would not move, it went on to call its family. Everyone came and had their stomach and heart full while the male sat at a distance to keep a look out for the other predators. Once the wild dogs were done the crows and the wild boars followed and finished off all the leftovers. This showed that the animals clean up after themselves in nature.
Leopard – It’s very hard to detect this wild cat in nature. We were just moving in our gypsy when we saw one moving very close-by, seemed like it was going to cross the road towards a water hole. It just sat down seeing us and we were caught in an eye to eye sighting. The cat was looking right into us and did not move at all. It sat for a while and the guide asked the driver to move back so it could cross. I was taken aback by the knowledge the guide had of these animal’s instincts. Right then a few gypsies came in and it turned around and hid beside a tree. Everyone else could barely see this male leopards back. It just sat there and we decided to move on and let it carry its course of life. The second sighting we had was from a distance while it was moving on its trail. This was a great sighting too where we could see it get lost in the grass while it was laying down. Thanks to the discovery of binoculars which made us look at it from up close through the lens.
Tiger – What a magnificent creature to watch. Just seeing it up-close gives you goose-bumps and the whole jungle moves away as if to give way for this queen/king. The first sighting of the tigress moving towards a water-hole and crossing the roads between vehicles was a sight to watch. What we realised was that it had been badly bruised through one of its fights with other younger tigress. Langdi, the tigress went to the water-hole and sat back first and laid there for quite a while. All the vehicles stood there and had a heart-full time of pictures and videos. We later heard that it was attended by a vet. We barely missed her second sighting when we changed our course to watch a leopard. We were waiting on her path and missed her by a few minutes before she crossed the road. The other sighting we had was of a young male cub who had just separated from the mother by himself, moving around into the glory of the wildlife. He was excellently tracked by our guide and we came within a 5 meter distance when it crossed our vehicle and ran into the tall grass around. It just sat there into the bushes and was not sighted at all. There were around 30 jeeps waiting for him but he did not budge and kept himself hidden for quite a while until all of us left. The tracking of this male was a skilful art displayed by our guide.
Well, this trip made me realise the effect of nature and a skill of writing which I thought I did not have. Looking forward to many more adventures and definitely a better camera lens and lessons of photography. The right way to shoot animals in their natural habitat.
