A Trip to Ranthambhore National Park, Rajasthan, India - A Photo Essay #3

While travelling, one observes things of myriad hues. One sees people, culture, sights, environs and one also feels the aura of a place. Everything cannot be presented to a reader through words without losing the advantage of brevity. So, this is why I am preparing this Photo Essay so that you can have a deeper insight to all that I saw when I was in the Ranthambhore National Park. 

The first set of pictures includes images of the deer population of Ranthambhore. Ranthambhore National Park is blessed with numerous variety of deer namely Spotted Deer, Sambhar Deer, Barking Deer, Nilgai etc.

Ranthambhore National Park possesses a rich variety of birds. I was able to capture only two though. The Peacock and the Magpie!

I was lucky enough to capture a reptile on camera. It was basking in the sun near the Kacheda Reservoir, Zone 5.

I love the hilly landscape of Ranthambhore National Park. Combined with it's flora, it makes for great viewing. This is a sideshow people often forget to enjoy, in their quest to see the elusive Tiger!

Often, man made interventions have had to be done in order to sustain the fauna population in Ranthambhore. This water tank in Zone 6 is one such intervention.

Jungle paths have to be carved for safaris but also have to be blocked if mothers give birth to animals very close to the paths!

( This is the third in the series of articles I am writing about my visit to Ranthambhore National Park in Feb - Mar 2018. Due to a hectic schedule I was unable to complete it. Now due to the pandemic, with zero travel opportunities, I am revisiting my former trips which I had documented and photographed with the intention of blogging but never did. So, I will be naming this series of retrospective posts as 'From the Vault' posts. I hope you like them :-) )

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A Trip to Ranthambhore National Park, Rajasthan, India #2

A Herd of Deer in Zone 5

My two safaris were incredible experiences. That said, in a jungle, only two factors can spoil your fun. One, if a predator confronts your car or two, if the people you are traveling with, misbehave by not following the etiquette of traveling in a safari. 

Vast Landscapes of Zone 6. It provides good photographic opportunities to click wildlife from a distance.

In Zone 6, the biggest charm was the flatlands which we saw. It made me feel as if I was having a safari in Africa or something. The biggest highlight of the day though was a series of tiger pugmarks we saw on the trail. A tiger had crossed that trail to head somewhere. I was able to see a Sloth Bear in this safari and some deers.

Pugmark of a Tiger, Ranthambhore National Park

The Kacheda Reservoir. We visited in late Feb.

In Zone 5, which we visited the next day, I got to visit the Kacheda Reservoir. I was disappointed to see that it was almost dry. Yet, I was able to spot a crocodile, which was basking in the sun at some distance. 

A crocodile, on the other side of the bund at Kacheda Reservoir

It was in this safari that I heard the barking of a deer (a warning signal that a predator was nearby) which was then followed by a bellow which was let out by a tiger. We were quite some distance away when we heard the roar of the tiger, but it shook everyone in the canter. But, as we were 'in' the canter we knew we were safe. Trust me, we would not have been as confident of our chances had we been on our own in the jungle!

Jungle Safari Trails taken by Canters and Gypsies

Our canter raced to look for the spot from where the roar came and very soon we reached there only to find a gypsy quietly waiting for the tiger to show itself. But, the predator had decided to sit amongst the foliage and so we could not see anything. 

Whenever wildlife is spotted is expected to be spotted, canters and gypsies accumulate at the spot.

Within 5 minutes of us reaching the spot from where the tiger had roared, all the gypsies and canters stormed in, to get a look at the tiger. Within a few minutes, the powerful roar of a tiger had turned a secluded part of the forest to resemble the parking lot of a popular mall in New Delhi. I realized that now, the tiger would not come out even if it wanted to. Tigers are shy animals.

I was, though, very satisfied with my experiences in both the safaris and will be planning to visit Ranthambore once again, the moment it is possible.

Overall, my experience of visiting Ranthambore was very good. The hills, forests, wildlife, and the natural beauty of the place make this destination a must-visit. My resort was small in scale but I was happy with the cleanliness of the room, the meals which had a homemade gue to them (something I greatly appreciated), and the evening campfires. I am more than willing to go there again!

Beautiful and Serene. A View of the Resort from the Entrance of my Cottage.

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( This is the second in the series of articles I am writing about my visit to Ranthambhore National Park in Feb - Mar 2018. Due to a hectic schedule I was unable to complete it. Now due to the pandemic, with zero travel opportunities, I am revisiting my former trips which I had documented and photographed with the intention of blogging but never did. So, I will be naming this series of retrospective posts as 'From the Vault' posts. I hope you like them :-) )

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A Trip to Ranthambhore National Park, Rajasthan, India #1

 Ranthambhore National Park (near Sawai Madhopur, Rajasthan, Western India) is one of those rare wildlife sanctuaries where the odds of you spotting a tiger is more as compared to other parks like Corbett and Kaziranga (despite them having a far greater tiger population). Moreover, the park gets its name from the 1000+ years old Hill Fortress of Ranthambhore (which is also a UNESCO World Heritage Site) which was brutally sacked by Ala ud Din Khalji (in the late 13th Century) and Akbar's (16th Century) forces. 

A Ranthambhore Fort Gate in Zone 6 of Ranthambhore National Park

This park, which was formerly the hunting grounds of the Rajas of Jaipur was nurtured by the conservator, the late Mr. Fateh Singh Rathore. It is chiefly due to his (and the forest department's) efforts that the tiger population of the park has risen to 65-70 as of February 2018.

Rugged Landscape of Ranthambhore

The dry deciduous vegetation of this sanctuary ensures visibility in the range of 50 to 200 meters from zone to zone. It is due to this factor that tiger sightings are more common here.

My visit to Ranthambhore, the second one in total, was chiefly due to fond memories from my first visit and also so that I could visit the fort this time (although it's another matter altogether that I canceled out the fort at the last moment to book another safari). 

My trip was a lovely one, my hotel (a small resort) was nice and offered a view of the Sanctuary from the porch while the safaris were lovely!

Unlike the majority of people who visit sanctuaries only to ‘see the tiger’ I, having made multiple visits to the Delhi Zoo (while bunking college) and having come across the tiger multiple times (so much so that I started avoiding the enclosure due to visual fatigue) was more keen on checking out the vegetation, the wildlife and the forest in general and try to grasp the aura of the place.

A deer amongst the foliage

Magpies, basking in the Sun

I went to Zones 5 and 6 for my two safaris. I insisted on booking the safaris online and also insisted on going to the sanctuary office to collect my Canter Boarding Passes myself. Both the activities were quite an adventure by themselves as while the online booking portal offers limited options to pay online, the drivers of canters and gypsies were at their rowdy best (in the Sanctuary office), yelling, breaking the queue… Nonetheless, I got the boarding passes without any issues and as I mentioned earlier, had memorable safaris!

A Post of the Forest Rangers in Zone 6, Ranthambhore National Park

The trip all in all was a wonderful one and it left me fighting a bout of post-travel depression yet again!

To know what were my experiences at the safaris and to know whether I came across any presence of the elusive tiger do read my next post!

(to be continued....)

( This is the first in the series of articles I am writing about my visit to Ranthambhore National Park in Feb - Mar 2018. Due to a hectic schedule I was unable to complete it. Now due to the pandemic, with zero travel opportunities, I am revisiting my former trips which I had documented and photographed with the intention of blogging but never did. So, I will be naming this series of retrospective posts as 'From the Vault' posts. I hope you like them :-) )

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International Tiger Day 2019

Paw Print of a Tiger

A Trip to Remember

I have travelled to, and continue to travel (in spits and bursts, I have to admit) across India. I have been to three Tiger Reserves—Corbett, Sariska and Ranthambore. My first trip to Ranthambore though was a memorable one. I went as a part of a media group, on a FAM trip organised by Aircel for their Save Our Tigers campaign.

Learning about Tigers from the Specialists

In this trip, we got to see the good work done by Aircel (through their Save My Tigers campaign). We got to interact with the main forest officer of Ranthambore National Park and with Wildlife Specialist, Dr. Anish Andheria. It is during one such interaction with Dr. Andheria that I asked the question 'What was the tiger holding capacity of India's forests ?'. He thought for a moment and gave an estimate of 6000 tigers.

Tiger Numbers going up a cause for celebration

Yesterday (on International Tiger Day '19), the Prime Minister released the All India Tiger Estimation Report 2018. It stated that the number of Tigers in the country had reached 3000 (2967 to be precise). This leads to a sense of jubilation amongst the people and why not? The number of Tigers had dwindled to less than 1411 until 10 years ago. This was from a high of at least 20,000+ tigers at the turn of the century. So, it's a matter of celebration no doubt.


Sparing a thought for the lost gene pool

That said we cannot forget that, as a result of Tiger numbers going down, a vast gene pool of healthy tigers has been lost. The tigers of today carrying only the genes of the 1411 tigers who survived by 2008 into the future. They would not carry the genes of the more than 20,000+ tigers who were there at the turn of the century.

Forest Chowki inside Ranthambore National Park

The Challenges Ahead

So, coming back to the present, we must make efforts to double the tiger population of the country from 3000 to 6000. For that we need to deal with factors like Poaching (Sariska), construction of Tiger Corridors (so that Tigers can move from one sanctuary to another), Creation of new Tiger Reserves, etc. Work on Tiger conservation has to continue as this is a job, only half done!


Congratulations to the Conservators!
 
In the end, I would like to congratulate all the agencies and individuals involved in the tiger conservation program. They have worked hard to achieve this milestone! Great Job!

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A Safari to Ranthambhore

My visit to Ranthambhore, the second one in total, was chiefly due to fond memories from my first visit and also so that I could visit the fort this time (although it's another matter altogether that I cancelled out the fort at the last moment to book another safari). 

 Sawai Madhopur Railway Station

I went to Zones 5 and 6 for my safaris. I insisted on booking the safaris online and also insisted on going to the Ranthambhore forest booking centre to collect my Canter Boarding Passes myself. Both the activities were quite an adventure by themselves as while the online booking portal offers limited options to pay online, the drivers of canters and gypsies were at their rowdy best (in the Ranthambhore forest booking office), yelling, breaking queue… Nonetheless, I got the boarding passes without much issues and as I mentioned earlier, had memorable safaris!

Vatika Resort, Sawai Madhopur (the resort where I put up)

To know what were my experiences on the safaris and to know whether I came across any presence of the elusive tiger do read my next post!

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Tourist Safety and India - A Long Distance Relationship?

On Sunday, October the 22nd, a young Swiss Couple who were visiting Fatehpur Sikri (a UNESCO World Heritage Site near Agra) were brutally attacked by 5-6 boys after they, allegedly, refused to click pictures with them. The Swiss female received fractures and gash wounds while the Swiss male suffered from a fractured skull, hearing loss and a clot in the brain. Reported by the national papers on Thursday, October the 26th, this event impacted the conscience of many citizens of the country.

               Let's try to be Incredible for good reasons!
(Pic Courtesy - Ministry of Tourism)

This incident revealed the pathetic condition of the minds of every Two out of Three Indians involved in the tourism and hospitality industry who look upon tourists (be it foreign or Indian) as means of earning an 'extra' buck or two by either fleecing them, fooling them or by some other unfair means. Such people, neither respect the monuments around which they stand nor do they respect the people who visit them.

Such an attitude displayed by touts, false guides, hooligans etc only serves to spoil the experience of the tourist or traveller who has come down to India to see the monuments or attractions which belong to one of the oldest civilizations in the world.

The notoriety of touts in Agra, for example, has been observed by me (Came across a character who chased me from the door of the train till the time I sat in a shared auto heading to Agra Fort). I have heard worse stories from Fatehpur Sikri, where my friend and Travel Blogger Merwyn was threatened with physical violence when he refused to take the services of a guy masquerading as a guide. Even in this case, it was only when Merwyn dared him to lift a finger did that guy leave him alone.

So, when an Indian can face such a threatening behaviour in his own country what would a foreign backpacker go through is anyone's imagination.

While the police at Fatehpur Sikri have arrested those culprits but it is imperative for them to realise that mass sensitisation programs need to be seriously considered in order to educate people about the value of tourists and how to behave with them. As long as the attitude of people towards the tourists will not change, the country will continue to get bad word of mouth publicity from tourists who visit India.

One should reflect upon this point - What experiences are this couple going to relate to the people and media in Switzerland when they go back?

There was also this other incident (some years ago) of a Swiss Couple (on a cycling tour) being attacked and the female being gang-raped by criminals in feudal-minded Datia (Madhya Pradesh). My point is this, is there any sense in sinking millions of Rupees of taxpayers money in the Incredible India Advertising Campaigns (in the manner in which it is doing currently) while many continue to disrespect tourists with impunity?

A proposal for a Tourism Police has been repeatedly  ignored despite the fact that such an entity is required in a country like India more than anywhere else. In my opinion, the protection of tourists has to be accorded an equally important priority if not the highest priority as compared to the Incredible India campaigns. The sooner the government realises the better it would be for the prestige of the country which keeps taking a hit everytime a tourist is fleeced, robbed or assaulted - physically or sexually.

Another interesting aspect of this entire story was that it was the external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj who first took cognizance of this event and not the (usually loud) tourism minister K Alphons.

In the end, it would be better if we pose this question to ourselves, that in 'the manner in which we are treating our guests, would we ourselves like to visit India if we were non-Indians'? In the answer to this question, we would find the answer to another very important question, and that is,
'IS INDIA A SAFE COUNTRY TO TRAVEL IN'?

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Road Trip to Sadhaura and Nahan

Some trips are born out of planning, some trips are born out of a desire to see a new place, and some trips are born out of a wish to fulfill promises which had been made. This particular road trip of me and my family was born out of a promise my father made at a humble shrine of a Sufi saint, located at the foothills of the Himalayas, right next to a riverbed on the Himachal Pradesh – Haryana Border. The name of the town was Sadhaura (Haryana) and this humble shrine was located on the outskirts of it. 

Zooming across the tree lined NH 44

We set out in our car post filling our tanks, getting a brand new set of tyres (the trip was a long one, almost 250 kms one way, so it made sense to change our tyres especially seeing the fact that it was close to due date of periodic change of our car tyres), stocking ourselves up with cameras, GPS device and (vis a vis my father) memories of the place he had visited 29 years ago.

Thanks to the servicing our car had got we zoomed across the NH44 and via towns of Panipat, Karnal and Shahbad Markanda we crossed the town of Sadhaura. Now this bit we covered with the help of Google maps. The last bit of the journey was a tricky one because the landscape (as it existed in 1986) had changed drastically, to top it all the mountains which were close by had been shrouded in a cloak of mist by nature so it was really tough to fix the location of the shrine. What made it even tougher was that when we asked the locals for directions they kept on guiding us to local shrines which didn’t fit the description. Eventually father and son (the one for whom he had prayed for in the shrine, which is me), after roaming barefoot on the riverbed (the car after negotiating the sandy riverbed with some difficulty, the tyres of the car came to our aid over here, had been parked at a shrine which looked old) my father had a feeling that we were at the right place.

 The Blessed Dargah, which we finally found..

The remaining doubts which he had in his mind (he recalled that there were mountains visible right behind the shrine, something which we could not ascertain because of the mist in the air) were cleared by the young caretakers in the shrine who informed us that One, the shrine had undertaken some structural modifications since the last time my dad came  (which is why it looked a bit different), Two, this shrine was at least 300 years old and thus the only shrine which stood next to the river bed (at that location) and Three, the mountains ‘were visible’ behind the shrine and that they were shrouded in mist which is why we could not see it then (you could remember that one of the memories which my dad had of the shrine was that it was locate at the foothills of Himalayas).

After these doubts were cleared we proceeded to the shrine with an open heart and offered the beautiful chaddar which my father had obtained from a shop next to the Nizammuddin Dargah in Delhi.

The beautifully decorated inner wall, of the dome under which the Sufi Saint rests..

Once the customary pictures were taken we decided to head off to Nahan, to celebrate the fulfillment of my dad’s promise. Now, our car was a 2 x 4 drive but we were confident to take our city car to Nahan (a town in Himachal Pradesh, at an elevation of 3058 ft above sea level) which was at a distance of 30kms from Sadhaura.

Climbing the winding road upto Nahan

Bare hills beside the road to Nahan, it is hill sides like these which are prone to landslides during the rainy season

The road to Nahan took us through the town of Kala Amb. Post crossing the Himachal Pradesh border we started to negotiate the winding roads leading up to the former capital of the princely state of Sirmour. We drove cautiously whenever we saw a truck approaching and never accelerated beyond 30 kms per hour (and that too on an empty and straight stretch of road, which were few to find to be quite honest). 

 Lytton Memorial

Gurudwara Shri Dashmesh Asthan (Nahan Sahib)

Upon reaching Nahan we had lunch and after exploring the British Era Lytton Memorial, which is quite at the entrance of Nahan, we went to the Gurudwara Shri Dashmesh Asthan (Nahan Sahib) a historical site which was visited by Guru Gobind Singh!

A Panoramic view of the countryside, as seen from Nahan

After spending some time here we headed back. After negotiating the downhill mountain roads with the help of our brakes and tyres we hit the NH 44 and zoomed back to Delhi. The trip to Delhi took us around 5 and a half hour.

As mentioned earlier we were in a Tata Nano but that never made us nervous while driving on the Highways as we simply stuck to the Road Safety rules. While driving on the highways we ensured that we drove on our designated lanes, did not attempt to overtake from the wrong side and always yielded whenever a big truck came up. We used the dipper effectively and that helped. My brother and father took turns at driving as a fatigued driver at the wheel is an invitation to accidents.

I was never able to document this trip for my blog (due to certain events mentioned ahead). This trip was special not only because my dad was able to fulfill his promise which he made to the Sufi Saint in the 80’s but also because 10 days post the trip my dad met a terrible accident which led to a surgery and post operative complications. Today while my dad is hale and hearty but (upon medical advice) he can no longer undertake a 500 kms road trip like this ever again.

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