MISSION TADOBA

Every journey is meant to be memorable and my recent trip to Tadoba was not an exception. When Nikhil told me sometime in Jan, that Wild Rangers are planning a trip to Tadoba, without even thinking for a second, I told him that, “Yes, I am in”.

The trip was scheduled for 18-19-20 April 2014. We were supposed to depart from Mumbai on 17th April night and arrive in Mumbai on 21st April morning. Initially, 12 people were confirmed and all the mandatory bookings were done well in advance (Courtesy Nikhil & Prashik). We started planning for the trip and our discussions started about which lens to be carried for the safari, which clothes to wear, what snacks to take, what to do in free time, and many other things.

As days were passing our excitement and expectations were also getting higher. Suddenly, I got the news that the yearly sales meeting of my organization is postponed on 17th & 18th April and that too in Anand, Gujarat due to elections. I was disappointed initially but later I thought for some time and decided, at any cost, I have to go to Tadoba and I am going to Tadoba. Now it became a Mission for me. Mission Tadoba!

I started exploring plan B, to reach Nagpur by 18th April morning, at any cost and the only option was to catch a flight from Gujarat. Luckily there was an early morning flight from Ahmedabad to Nagpur via Mumbai. I immediately booked tickets and also convinced my management to allow me a leave on 17th April night to catch a flight. However, I had to skip the idea of getting a lens on rent and decided to borrow a lens from one of my photographer friends, Mandar and he was also kind enough to give his lens.

5 people were depending on me for the safari inside as I was their leader for safari and hence my presence was inevitable. So, the only change in the plan was that all the other group members will be leaving on 17th April to Nagpur via train from Mumbai and I would be joining them on 18th April morning near Airport.

But here comes the twist in the story once again. On the evening of 12th April, just 5 days before the tour I got a message from Jet Airways that the flight from Mumbai to Nagpur on 18th Morning is delayed and rescheduled at 2:00 pm on the same date. I was laughing at myself, after so much effort and hard work of convincing my managers for allowing me to leave on 17th April night, making all necessary arrangements, it all summed up in this situation.

Now here came plan C and once again I started finding the flight options and could find only one Indigo flight from Mumbai at 6:35 am reaching Nagpur 8:00 am with only 4-5 seats left. I needed to reach Mumbai Airport on 18th April before 5:15 am to catch the flight. I called Nikhil at around 5:30 pm and told him the issue. We both started checking on the IRCTC site for the trains which can drop me to Mumbai around 4:30 am.

It was around 6:00 pm and suddenly we got an idea to call our friend Siddhesh from IRCTC (who was also coming to Tadoba) with us for that trip. So, I took him on con-call and told him the entire story. He also suggested some options. Nikhil suggested that there is a train from Vadodara at 10:30 pm reaching Mumbai at 4:00 am. So, I booked the ticket and I also managed to book one more ticket for the train from Anand to Vadodara.

It was 6:30 pm and we were done with the booking. On 16th April, I left Mumbai to attend my meeting and left Anand on 17th April evening. Now I was praying that all my trains should come and reach the destination at least on time because any delay in any train means I miss the flight and the tour. But by god’s grace, I got all the trains on time and reached Mumbai on 18th April at 4:15 am. I rushed to the airport and checked in at 5:15 am sharp. Phewwwww…….

The flight was on time and I landed in Nagpur at 8:15 am. The happiness and satisfaction of reaching on time were “Priceless!” So far, I just shared the first part of the tour. The more fun, more excitement, more enjoyment, more friends…. were yet to come……Tadoba!!!

I met Abhi, Pooja & Sachin near the airport and waited for the rest of the team. They arrived at around 9:00 am with some wonderful “Upma” breakfast, thanks to Nikhil. The climate was HOT and dry but no sign of any fatigue or stress of travelling may be Tadoba was calling.

Nikhil, Shraddha, Sheetal, Namita, Bhushan & cute Purvi, the friends whom I already knew were there in the bus welcoming us. I met Abhishek for the first time and there were 5-6 more friends whom I was meeting for the first time. We reached our place at around 1:00 pm, a wonderful dormitory for 20 people, and everybody was excited to stay there.

Prashik, Siddhesh, and Aditya were already there at Mohurli for the last two days, greeting all of us. We got freshen up and ready for the wonderful lunch at Suleman Bhai’s house. Had tasty homemade food and here we were ready to take off, for the very first safari of the season.

Safari 1 Afternoon 18/04/2014: All of us were very excited and hoping for good tiger spotting. We started the first safari at around 3:00 pm. 15-20 min. after checking on the first post we heard that we missed one tiger by 3-5 min. we were disappointed but not leaving any hope and continued the journey. The first sighting was the herd of spotted deer. Many animals and birds were coming across the safari but we were still talking about the missed opportunity to spot a Tiger. In the course we spotted, deers, Herons, Egrets, Indian Rollers, Langoors, Indian Bison, Sambhars, Peacocks, Crocs by around 5:30 pm and we left the hope of any sighting as it was time to wind up the safari for the day…

And suddenly there was a change in the mood. We saw 12-15 jeeps standing and watching out for something. Our guide and driver hurried and reached the location….. and there it was…. a beautiful Leopard, calm and composed…. seating next to the road…. perfectly camouflaged in the dried leaves fallen on the ground….it was a real beauty! This was the first time I have seen a “Wild Leopard”, face to face in my life and it was a mesmerizing experience. It was a dream and yes there were dream breakers too. Somebody from other jeeps shouted and it frightened the cat. Suddenly from nowhere 5-6 more jeeps appeared and that made the leopard quite nervous. He immediately rose up and with the same calmness he started penetrating the jungle and within 10-15 seconds he was disappeared….pheww…. the entire day…. a stressful day…. an eventful day….. ended with such bliss!

We came back to the dormitory, got freshened up, had tea, and started with the game of UNO. After having a blasting couple of games we went to Suleman’s house for dinner.

Walking through a jungle for about 200-300 meters at around 10 pm, had a delicious meal on the terrace of his house. The sky and the terrace…both were full of stars.

Safari 2 Morning 19/04/2014:  Everybody got up early in the morning despite the hangover of the last night. The safari started by 6:00 am and again we were hoping for a good spotting.

Started our Safari by spotting a Nilgai, Eagles, Spotted Deer, Egrets, Crocs, Open-billed Storks, Black Drongo, Sambhars, Red Headed Ibis and suddenly there was a silence, our driver and guide got a message that there is one Tigress spotted near a lake. We quickly moved to the lake and saw already 20-25 jeeps were waiting for glimpses of the beauty.

Yesss…..there she was…. Almost 300 meters away…..seating near a tree…..taking her daily sunbath……we could see her….we could see her movements…..for us the time was frozen….. we were just observing her…… then she got up……and suddenly there was a continuous sound of camera shutters…. there were at least 100 people with almost the same number of digicams and everyone wanted to capture a good pose of her…. Maya….. they call her! Yes, she was “Maya” who hypnotized us with her pure….. grace….. beauty…. elegance…. and….. and her eyes!

WOW! We were there for at least an hour only observing her movements and still, we felt that we didn’t have enough of her. What a moment! Though we continued with our journey “Maya” made a long-lasting impact on our minds and on our souls too…. after that we also got a chance to see and Asian Paradise Flycatcher, Buzzards, Woodpeckers, the Ghost Trees, Green Bee Eaters….we concluded the most memorable Safari…

Safari 3 Afternoon 19/04/2014: Our expectations have already touched the sky and we were more excited to see more tigers. This was again a wonderful safari that we experienced, which started with Wild boars, Spotted deers as usual and suddenly we saw a small pack of Wild Dogs…. there were not more than 6-7 including a couple of sub-adult cubs. They were feasting on spotted deer which they must have killed a few minutes back and everyone in the pack was fighting for his/her share, of course, the younger ones had the privilege of making the first move. But it was a wonderful site watching these wonderful predators….they are among the rarely spotted carnivores in the Tadoba jungle.

Yet another fruitful safari. At the Moharli gate, we saw Ganesh, a young elephant, son of Lakshmi & Gajraj playing along in the backyard…. Ganesh is innocent, beautiful and of course a mischievous boy…..adorable and loveable….you can’t take your eyes off when he is around….. Everybody was tired when they reached the dormitory but everyone was happy.

Meanwhile, at around 7:45-8 pm, Siddhesh and Aditya came to the dormitory and told everyone that there is one Sloth bear entered a jungle near our dormitory. Again everybody got charged and went off to see the bear. Not taking any risk everybody got into the bus and we saw a bear…fully grown male bear….standing 100 meters away from our dormitory. He was searching for food but didn’t notice us….he just crossed the road and disappeared in the darkness of the jungle within a couple of minutes….

Safari 4 Morning 20/04/2014: After 3 wonderful safaris for the last 2 days, we all were charged up for our last safari of the season and we were now hoping too much to carry at the end of the day. But it was as expected and we couldn’t spot any tiger or leopard or any other star animal. But yes we did see Mongoose, Peacocks, Golden Hooded Oriole, Black-shouldered kite, Changeable Hawk Eagle, and barking deer. This safari was coming to an end and there were no chances of any sighting and suddenly there was a spotting of a tigress near Telia lake.

We immediately moved towards the lake which was at least 20-25 min. away from us and we thought by the time we reach there we would miss the tigress. We reached there and heard that she had just gone inside the jungle but may again come outside, so we waited there for half an hour and she came outside only for a couple of seconds, we could see her but couldn’t capture her…but yes we sited one more tigress.

So all in all, my “Mission Tadoba” was accomplished and that too with a BANG…!

It was a memorable trip… once again I promised myself, that no matter what I will keep on coming to this wonderful land of Tigers in the future as well…. Tadoba…. I am coming soon!!!