SO finally the cliché of the visit. Earlier four accounts- Bhangarh, Kankwari, Neelkanth and the Birds were quite fascinating and actually different from usual routines of visit to the national park. But then what about the wild inside you? Bhangarh might not haunt you but not sighting a tiger in the tiger reserve is certainly going to haunt you to a certain degree for a considerable duration of time. Purely on that terms Sariska has been third time lucky for me. My first trip to Sariska was almost thirty years ago when tiger safari was not a fancy idea, and second one 17 years ago when tiger was always second in my thought. (What was the first?) But then as I have always said that though its always fascinating to watch a tiger in the wild, but not watching it doesn't creates a sort
Read MoreTag: Tigers
Its International Tiger Day and tigers are all over in the news for last few days. From missing of tiger Jai in Maharashtra's Umred Karhandla wildlife sanctuary to debate of inflated tiger count in India's tiger reserves... but for the tiger lovers, there is nothing like a good sighting of a tiger in the wild. But there are times when in wild you know that tiger is there around you but you are not able to see it. Those are the very thrilling but also very frustrating moments. A look at such moments, when tiger sighting ends in agonising wait or... extraordinary thrill. With a pug mark so fresh... you know you have missed the tiger just by... but then who know that. He or she might be still around, watching you! When, all you have to remain contented with is these marks on the ...
Read MoreTiger is a solitary animal, it likes to be alone in its territory along with his female partners. Often tigers get injured, many times fatally in territorial fights. Even two brothers will search for different territories once they are adult enough to hunt and feed for themselves and hence eventually their mother will leave them. As I mentioned in my last post (Read: Returning to the tiger in Panna) I was fortunate to watch two cubs on play. Mother was around but we couldn't see her as she was down in a nullah at a cooler place. Cubs don't look like cubs as they were almost more than a year old, but were still with their mother. We and the few other tourist vehicles located this family on a grassland right on the banks of the Ken river. Ken river flows through Panna Tiger reserve. So he
Read MorePanna tiger reserve has a special place personally for me. I have three personal firsts associated with this national park. It was here that I had my very first tiger sighting in the wild. This was also the place where I had my first and only tiger sighting while sitting on an elephant. Lastly, this is the only tiger reserve where I visited twice and had tiger sightings on both the occasions. And this time around, it was fortunate sighting of two cubs (photo above and below). Unluckily though, their mother remained elusive, although she was around. The gap of almost eleven years between these two visits to Panna had been a period of turmoil for this Tiger reserve. The story of Panna Tiger Reserve has not an ordinary one. A story of all hopes lost to an extraordinary resurrection. By
Read MoreHowever close you watch a tiger in a zoo, you won’t get that excitement. But you won’t be able to contain your anxiety on the thrill of watching a tiger in wild, in its own territory- however distant it might be. Am I wrong? You won’t say so, when you see satisfied faces coming out of tiger reserves after end of every safari, especially in India- home to most of the tigers in world in wild. Its different every time- the thrill, as I have felt in my all sightings of tiger in wild. This one was no different. So, can you spot the tiger in this photo below, taken on my very recent visit to Panna tiger reserve? Have a closer look- Tough, isn’t it? Spotting wild cats in the wild, especially the elusive ones, need a sharp pair of eyes and a powerful camera to shoot. But even a 400mm tel...
Read MoreThis might be a very rare happening in the history of wildlife conservation. A gene mutation has become something exotic and an aberration is been celebrated. Perhaps, beauty of a white tiger has lot to do with that. So fascinating that we have gone very far in actually preserving and breeding that mutation. That has brought us to a point where we have world’s only white tiger safari at Mukundpur in Satna district of Madhya Pradesh. The safari was thrown open for public this Sunday. I was there at that occasion. Why Mukundpur? White tigers have association with this region. Although Mukundpur is in Satna district, it borders adjoining Rewa district. Erstwhile royal family of Rewa has been the corner stone of conservation of white tigers. Actually, fact is that there has been no ...
Read More30 per cent rise in Tiger population since 2010 Tiger population in the country is estimated to be around 2,226, a rise of over 30 per cent since the last count in 2010, according to the latest census report. The total number of tigers were estimated to be around 1,706 in 2010. Tiger population had dipped to an alarming 1,411 in 2006 but has improved since then. Termed as a “success story”, this phenomenon notes that while the tiger population is falling in the world, it is rising in India. Unique photos of 80 percent of tigers Most of the tigers in the world are presently in India. 70 per cent of the world’s tigers are now in India. India has the world’s best managed tiger reserves. India also has unique photographs of 80 per cent of tigers for which around 9,735 cameras were bei...
Read MoreThe population of the Amur tigers in the Khabarovsk Region National Park has reached 10. This is approximately three times more than it was three years ago, when the "North Tiger" project was first implemented, the Amur branch of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) of Russia reports. The Amur tiger is the strongest felid and the only one managed to adapt oneself to life in the taiga snows. In the early 2000-ies, the population of the Amur tiger was notably decreasing in the Far East. Creation of a special Fund for Protection of the Amur Tiger in Russia helped to solve the problem of preserving and increasing the population of these rare animals. According to the results, it was decided to extend the project. Earlier, the Russian government approved the "Strategy for the preservation of rar...
Read MoreWith an aim to strengthen the tiger conservation campaign the second global tiger conference is scheduled to be held in Dhaka on March 4-6 which is a follow-up of the first conference held in Saint Petersburg, Russia in 2010. The Department of Forest in Bangladesh along with Global Tiger Initiative, the Global Tiger Forum is jointly organising the Second Global Tiger Recovery Programme stocktaking conference among the tiger range countries. The conference will mainly focus on tiger conservation activities taken by the different tiger range countries and asses the advancement of the initiatives taken up in 2010. The global leaders of the tiger range countries had taken decision to double the number of tigers in the world by 2022 on the basis of the tiger population in 2010 when the n...
Read MoreOnce believed nearly extinct in China, the Siberian tiger, the largest member of the cat family, is making a comeback, the result of a decade-long effort to restore its natural habitat by banning logging, hunting and trapping. Chinese have been amazed not only by the apparent growth of the tiger population but also by how far the felines have spread. It made headlines around China this year when tigers were seen near Jiamusi, a city 140 miles from the Russian border. In China, the number of Siberian tigers living in the wild (far smaller than those in captivity) has been listed in government statistics at between 18 and 22 for some years. Nobody knows the exact number, because the Chinese don't have tracking collars on the tigers, but there could be as many as 40 now and that the popul...
Read More