This year was going to be an
exciting summer. Not only had I planned my jungle trails in advance, I had not
one but two jungle trips planned. One would imagine what a summer it was going
to turn into with trips planned to two large Tiger abodes - The Ranthambore
National Park and the Jim Corbett National Park.
Well, to be honest, the original
plan was to go to the very famous Tadoba Tiger Reserve, however, do to
unavailability of safari permits, we decided to go to The Ranthambore National
Park. A tiger lover paradise, the Ranthambore National Park is one of the
largest national parks in northern India. This approximately 400 sq km forest
is said to have housed around 50 Tigers once, however, that number is lower now
due to poaching - an activity witnessed in almost all big and small forests in
our country. Not just the density of tigers, but this park is also known for
housing some of the most ferocious wild cats, that have fancy names and even
more interesting stories. For instance, one of most recited stories of this
park is how Machali (T-16), the royal tigress, fought with a 14 foot long
crocodile. And mind you, this is not the only story that you will hear about
Machali or the tiger reverse.
This was our first group trip to
a jungle; hitherto we had always booked private jeep safaris for the two-three
of us friends. However, this time around we decided to join a group being led
by one of our most trusted wild life travel arrangers - the guys at Junglelore.
Over a long weekend, these guys were taking two groups of around 25 individuals
each in a canter (roofless bus) for a group safari. While we were a little
anxious and apprehensive in going along with so many people - for a number of
reasons: a) it is simply inconvenient to take photographs with 20 other people
trying to do the same, b) the canter is generally higher than a jeep and thus
you cannot photograph the animal from the eye level, c) more people = more
noise (or chaos), and d) we feared that not everyone may be interested in wildlife
other than the tiger and that would spoil our chances of photographing birds.
Thankfully, none of that was true and it was a fun group to be part of, with
enough opportunities to photograph birds and animals alike. In fact, we think
that these group trips are a good way to ensure that you can do multiple jungle
trips in a season on a tight budget.