News From Bandhavgarh    February, March, April 2007

The Park During the 9 weeks in the park the overall impression was the flowering of the major flora. The sal trees covered their branches in masses of off-white filaments which produce a strong smell and carpet the forest floor as they fall. Red sil cotton trees punctuated the forest with patches of brilliant colour. Of more significance was the flowering of the bamboo, which happens every 20 years or so. The bamboo flowers resemble spiky balls attached to long shoots in the bamboo ringals. They gradually collapse outwards spreading the plant. After the bamboo has flowered it dies away, taking a few years for the next generation to grow. If the majority of the bamboo does this, the park will have a different appearance for the next couple of years.
Sal tree in flower	Bamboo flowers
The elephant camp at Ama Nalla has now been permanently closed. From the remains of the building that used to house the mahouts, it looks as though the elephants were allowed to throw their weight around a little before they left. A new camp has been built near northern perimeter of the park closer to Tala, and most of the elephants will now be based here. The large male Inderjit and one female are now based near Hardia gate, and used for tracking. The “nursery” camp with the youngsters remains as it was. The newest arrival is doing well, and becoming increasingly boisterous.
There seemed to be an awful lot of works going on around the park. Principal among these was the digging of trenches that are supposedly to improve drainage and control the off-road movements of vehicles. The depth of these is such that some small mammals and insects will not be able to cross, effectively putting a fence around some of the eco-systems within the park. Hopefully a good monsoon will degrade the effects of these trenches. In addition, a section of road across the main meadow has been “repaired”, which has had a major impact on the butterflies that used to be seen on the old rough surface of road.
Most disappointing for me are the changes being made at Sheshaiyya. After having stood for a thousand years, the authorities have decided that the statue of the reclining Vishnu needs “protection” from the elements. To this end workers have cleared the vegetation from around the pool where the statue sits (itself a unique environment found nowhere else in the park), and are in the process of building a shelter over the top. The local people are in uproar and various legal challenges are attempting to stop the work. I can only hope that they are successful, or else what was a special place will be spoiled.
A bare Vishnu at Sheshaiyya	A white breasted kingfisher at Sheshaiyya
Less frequently seen this year were sloth bears. Normally at this time of year the fruit from the mowa trees encourages the bears to come out and feed, but they were only seen on a few occasions. Unfortunately, one of the villagers had a encounter with a bear that left him seriously injured, missing his nose some of the area around his lip. The wounds have healed, but left him disfigured. A plastic surgeon has volunteered to perform the surgery free of charge but money was needed to pay for the medicines and aftercare. An appeal was made for voluntary contributions, and for our groups raised over Rs 25,000 (approx. $630). A big thank you to all those who helped with this. The treatment will need multiple operations, and I will try to keep everybody up to date with the progress.
For those of you who know Rosie, the near blind dog who lives at Tala gate, she was looking thin and the worse for wear as the year progressed. I decided to take matters in hand and asked some friends to bring out some food and medical shampoo. After a few meals and a good bath to remove unwelcome visitors she is now much better. One of the locals has been paid a retainer to continue the baths to make sure she is well looked after until the autumn.
The tiger sightings were spectacular. From past experience, sightings are normally split fairly evenly between jeep and elephant. This time, however, most of the sightings were by jeep. This didn’t detract from the quality, and actually made it easier for photography. I also managed to see my first leopard in Bandhavgarh, making this visit especially memorable.
Chorbera Chorbera and her two cubs, who were 14 months old in February, proved to be the centre of attention during our visit. This was both because of the number and closeness of the sightings, and a tragedy that occurred soon after we arrived.
On 22nd February a tiger killed a local woman who had gone into the forest with a group of villagers to collect wood. We think that the female cub actually killed the woman with the male cub playing a secondary role. The mother was not with the cubs at the time, and this may have caused the cubs to be frightened by the villagers and defend themselves. Two things need to be clearly stated. Firstly, the villagers were on foot and knowingly in a place where they should not have gone. Secondly, the tigers are not man-eaters. The usual hysteria developed in the aftermath, with claims of missing limbs etc. being made, and the animals being labelled as “naughty” tigers by many of the guides and locals. I found this extremely irritating. Claims of the body being eaten are wholly inaccurate, and the tigers did not in any way “misbehave”. This was simply a natural reaction for them. Any suggestion otherwise only serves to draw attention away from the fact that this was a sad loss for a family. Although the circumstances would not normally warrant compensation being paid by the Forest Department, in this case it was paid as a goodwill gesture. Hopefully, this will help prevent any retaliation against the tigers.
In the weeks following, the decision was taken not to show Chorbera’s family from elephant and one of the park routes was closed for a while, the intention being to make them less habituated to human contact. The elephants regularly monitored their whereabouts in the afternoons. Fortunately the situation has now calmed down.
As long as you remain in a jeep (or on the back of an elephant) and leave enough room to allow the tiger to go where it wants to, it is possible to observe them safely. Sometimes it is possible to get quite close, though individual animals have their own limits.
Chorbera and her cubs occupy the area on either side of the Charanganga River, extending all the way to the northern edge of the park. On occasion they have been seen both along the boundary fences and the main road (which usually causes a traffic jam). The most common places to see them are the sides of the gorge leading to Sidh Baba and the meadow beyond. On many occasions we were able to stop and watch them sitting relaxed at the side of the road, and road crossings were a regular event. Two occasions in particular stand out.
The first was an evening where we parked next to the shrine waiting for the cubs to cross from the meadow to the hillside. The female duly crossed, and went up the hill but the male decided to stay put. Finally most jeeps decided that they had waited long enough, and left for the nearby park gate. We decided to wait the last few minutes. As soon as the massed jeeps drove away and the noise level dropped, the male tiger duly came out of the grass and crossed the road, but instead of climbing away after his sister he decided to a ledge at the side of the road and pose for a few photographs.
The second was very early in the morning where we immediately found the two cubs on rocks overhanging the side of the road. Over the next two hours we were privileged to watch the cubs as they moved around, presenting us with a variety of poses. At one point, one of the cubs appeared to stalk some of the jeeps. We wisely kept our distance. In the beginning there were a lot of jeeps on the narrow road, all clamouring to get a better view, but by the time the cubs crossed the road to their mother (who we think had been there unseen all the time) only a few remained. We then saw a highly amusing encounter between mother and cub. Chorbera had a small kill that she was eating, and made it clear to the cub to stay away. The cub then lay down and repeatedly rolled around as though playing, gradually inching his way towards the food.
Jhurjura Jhurjura’s two cubs have matured into healthy adolescents, and are starting to spend most of the time away from their mother. The brother and sister are starting to establish a territory either side of Rajbehra dam. This includes the meadow area to the north and west, plus the wooded hillside to the south and stream to the east. This meant that the area became one of the focal points during the tours and we were rewarded with many good sightings.
One shot that I had been waiting for over the last three years finally happened – that of one of the tigers walking along the top of the dam in the early morning light, shooting from the upstream side so that the reflection can be seen in the water.
The two were often seen in the evenings around the dammed stream to the east, the perfect place to catch the warmth of the sun. Most of the time they were too distant to photograph, but one afternoon we found the female dozing on some rocks next to the water. We watched for half an hour as she lay stretched out, the light getting softer as the sun headed for the horizon. She then stood up and stepped gingerly into the water before swimming across to the bank on our side. She shook herself off, and we followed her as she began to walk through the forest back towards Rajbehra.
On the way she treated us to another sight that I hadn’t seen before. Tigers will stand on their hind legs to leave scratch marks on trees for territorial markings, but this time she leapt a couple of metres clear of the ground to leave her marks. The reasoning is that the higher the scratch the bigger the tiger, so the next passer by will measure their size against this and probably think they’re dealing with a giant!
We left the park and headed west for Gohni gate so that we could be out of the park before closing time. On the other side of Rajbehra we came across the brother appearing out of the grass. He began calling for his sister as he walked back toward where we had left her, the loud “arrooom” calls carrying through the dusk. As an encore we parked our jeep on the side of the road whilst driving back to Tala in the dark, and witnessed the amazing sight of the surrounding fields and trees covered in masses of fireflies.
The last sight of the two was again with the female. Our jeep had a developed a puncture and we finally parked by a rocky slope on the road approaching Rajbehra dam, knowing that one of the tigers had crossed the dam and was on our side. She duly appeared on the rocks, and not being able to change the tyre we sat in the jeep and watched her while she sat on the rocks and watched us. Superb!
One possible concern was that by the time we left in late April, Jhurjura had not been seen for three weeks. In the past the family has sometimes proven difficult to spot, but have always “reappeared” unscathed at a later date. Hopefully this is the case this time around.
The Males Last year I spent 10 weeks in the park, and unfortunately didn’t see B2 once. I was hoping to catch up with him again this spring and he didn’t disappoint.
On the first morning back in February, the elephants found him in the forest close to Ghorademon, and the jeeps parked at the side of the road to wait. After a short time he got up and walked across the road in front of us, before descending down the steep side of the gorge to the waterhole on the other side. Giving the onlookers only a sideways glance, he crossed the lip of the waterhole and strode away up the opposite hillside. That same afternoon, we found him again walking down the road away from us. At one point he crossed over a culvert and, having sniffed at the ground, he turned to us and gave a flehmen gesture testing the air for scent. Twice in one day!!
Even better was to come on the next to last day in the park in April. The mahouts had again found B2 lying in dense brush, and we quickly got on the elephant to go and see him. Lying awake, we were just able to see his head among the bamboo, and returned towards the jeep happy at having seen him. However, things were about to get very interesting. The message came back that B2 had begun to move, so our feet literally touched the jeep and we were straight back on the elephant. We were then privileged to spent 30 minutes following him as he walked along a streambed, alternating between the banks and in the stream itself. Completely at ease in his territory we could not help but be in awe of the power and beauty of this incredible cat. We then rejoined our jeep and followed him towards Ghorademon, where he descended to the waterhole and rested out of sight in the cool shadows.
In the afternoon we went back, and waited in case he came out. Occasionally we drove around a short circuit checking for pugmarks on the tracks, and became increasingly convinced that he was still where we had left him in the morning. Time passed and half the jeeps left. The rest of us waited the last few minutes……. and were rewarded by B2 appearing over the lip of the gorge into the fading light. We moved a few yards along the road and he passed right by the waiting jeeps. No doors, windscreen down, and a 600 pound male tiger walking past 10 feet away with nothing between you and him but thin air. Very difficult to put into words, but you really feel alive !!
Boka is very much in residence in the western side of the park, and at 7 years old (3 years younger than B2) he is very much in his prime. Very handsome, he is unfortunately camera shy, so though we had good sightings of him the photographic record is sketchy. It will be interesting to see how the balance of power shifts over the next few years as B2 moves into his later years.
Chakradhara There appears to be little contact now between Chakradhara and her last set of cubs, who are now full adults at well over 2 years old. Three of the tigers remain together (2 male and 1 female) in the area traditionally occupied by their mother. Gupalpur waterhole is a favourite haunt, with frequent sightings made there. The two males are also pushing away from the main meadow back towards Sidh Baba, into territory nominally occupied by Chorbera. At the moment, Chorbera should be able to hold her own, the extra years of experience matching the younger males bulk, but that will change over time. The other female is more often seen between the main meadow and the fort hill.
Highlights from these tigers included a crossing at the road junction in the main meadow, one of the males jumping the stream nearby, and the female scratch marking a tree one morning while looking to camera with a “look what I can do” expression.
Chakradhara should now be ready to mate, looking to bear what would be her fifth litter. Assuming that she mates in May (probably again with B2) the cubs should be born sometime in August. Hopefully there will be a new litter of young cubs in the park by the time I return in November.
Banbai Sightings of Banbai and her cubs were regular, though not as frequent as her sister Chakradhara. This is due in part to the more hilly terrain in the southeast part of the park around which she has her territory. Several sightings were had of the family by road, but the highlights for me came from two elephant rides.
For the first, we saw one of the cubs drinking from a stream in a beautiful sunlit spot after which she crossed the stream and began to walk through the forest. As usual, the elephants have to follow the tiger so that they know where to take the next group of tourists, so if you are on the elephant at the time you can get an extended ride through the forest. This was the case here, and we followed the tiger until she met with her two siblings. As they mingled, one of them suddenly became aware of something and moved quickly away. We were then treated to the three tigers loosely stalking two wild boar (the boar knew that they were there) with the tigers approaching from different directions and the boar dashing around trying to escape. The tigers are an ambush predator, but this approach looked to be relying on confusion, and you could easily envisage a confused boar losing track of one of the tigers and being caught.
The second came on the last day in the park, and was of Banbai and one of the cubs resting in the shade on a leafy hillside. From their position, the elephants were able to get very close without causing any disturbance. A nice peaceful way to end.
Durga By now six months old, Durga’s three cubs are growing well. Their territory is on the western end of the park, with many areas of dense bamboo forest for them to hide in. Being away from the main gate, they are less visited than most of the other families, and they are not as used to humans. Taken together this makes them more difficult to see. To track the family usually takes a couple of days, but fortunately we get the opportunity to do so as each group has an extended stay in the park. We had irregular sightings throughout the period, but some of those were quite close. During this period Durga also killed a sloth bear. Capable of inflicting serious injury to each other, they usually avoid all out fights where possible. One can only assume that Durga saw the bear as a threat to the young cubs and acted to defend them.
Of the four groups that came to the park this spring, all had sightings between 20 and 30 with one lucky group having over 40! Confirmed numbers of tigers in the Tala range were 23. One of the two males from Durga’s last litter was not seen this time, nor was Mahaman female. However, both of these tigers were on the periphery of the park and are not continually seen.
I’ll be back in the park for 6 weeks in November and December. If you have any comments or questions, please drop me an email.
Bye for now!
Pete
7 June 2007
All text and images © Pete Cooper 2007

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