Thursday 3 July 2014

The growl of Munna at Kanha National Park

Well I could count myself amongst the lucky few to have had a firsthand experience of watching the majestic and highly celebrated tiger of Kanha National Park.


We took the Jabalpur express (garib rath) from Bandra terminus in Mumbai till Jabalpur. It was an overnight journey and we reached Jabalpur station by 7:00 am. We had pre-booked cars which took us to a hotel in Bhedaghat. The place is a famous tourist attraction for its naturally occurring and imposing Marble- Rocks on the Narmada River and the Dhuandhar waterfall. What few people don’t know about this place is its important historical background. It is a treasure trove for the fossils of dinosaur eggs. Another impressive and a fun activity would be to take the boat ride in the Narmada River at Bhedaghat. For those who understand hindi do not miss the commentary of the guide during the boat ride. For those who don’t understand the language, don’t worry the marble rock structures are sure to mesmerize you. (this visit takes hardly half a day so don’t miss it)

After lunch we left for Kanha National Park and arrived at the resort in time for evening tea. The resort in which we were staying was the Wild Chalet Resort. It’s a charming place with individual huts having a modern décor on the banks of a river. We were warmly welcomed and shown to our rooms. Post snacks we had an acclimatizing session on wildlife and we strolled down to the river bank. Here we got to hear the crystal clear calls of the nightjars and of the birds going back to their roosts. The session was really helpful as most of the people were going to go for a safari for the first time. The normal dos and donts were mentioned which had to be followed to the T. We called it an early day and retired to our rooms post dinner so that we could cope with our exhaustion and be prepared for the following morning. A little information about the park is that there are 4 major zones in Kanha national park namely Kanha, Kisli, Sarahi and Mukki.


We woke up in the wee hours of morning got ready had tea and biscuits. Our safaris arrived to pick us up at 5:00 am sharp. We were all excited and bursting with energy as it was our first safari. All were in high spirits despite the early wake-up. We arrived at the gates where we had to get our ids checked by the authority and wait in queue to get our guide. Once the gates opened we proceeded to our zone which was the Sarahi zone. Well I would like to note a fact here that we were told not to expect a tiger in the first safari we should keep our eyes open for the birds and other mammals. So we were busy training our eyes on the birds and trying to put names to their voices. We got some pretty pictures. We happened to come across a huge herd of the Indian Guar mistakenly called as Bison. Their sheer size was enough to make us feel afraid. We were taking in the sights and smells of the morning in the beautiful forest. We saw herds of the famous Barasingha which is restricted to Kanha National Park then we reached the patrolling guard’s tower inside the forest where we could get off stretch a bit and get refreshed.


We then started back to the gates and suddenly we were confronted with the loud kileee kileee kileee kileee of the stork billed kingfisher. It is a large bird with impressive colors which are hard to miss. It took us a few minutes to realize that it was trying to shoo away another handsome raptor the changeable hawk-eagle. We were really happy with these sightings only to come across the mightily shy and really adorable barking deer a little further down the trail. We moved ahead and we were talking in excited whispers when suddenly we heard something like a roar and a growl. It was repeated again, so we reversed our jeep and low and behold to our right were two huge sloth bears fighting over territory. It was my first time to have come across a sloth bear during a safari in my last four years of travel. So I was one happy traveler, and to get to see two of them fight was as good a bargain as possible. After the bears retreated back we had to hurry to the gates in order to be avoiding penalty. We were all excitedly talking in hushed tones and showing pictures to each other and showing a few Mahua trees whose flowers are a delicacy for the sloth bears. When suddenly our driver just slammed the breaks right in our path sat Munna (MU1). Sighting a tiger in the wild is an experience in itself, something which cannot be expressed but only felt.
         




Yet here he was this majestic creature sitting like a king in the center of the road with no care in the world. After a few minutes he got up and walked into the grassland as we overtook him. He then turned around gave a hair raising growl and walked back to the road. His walk was captivating and demanded everyone’s attention. The sheer fact that he was just merely a few feet away was enchantingly scary. His muscular stature and his signature spot marks on his head which spell “CAT” are something that one cannot miss. This tiger is lovingly called as Munna and is very famous and well photographed male tiger of Kanha. After walking on the road like royalty he then headed into the woods and disappeared, but his sighting was something which has been etched into my memory forever. We were undoubtedly lucky to have sightings of the Sloth Bear and the Tiger in our very first safari. Our introduction to Kanha National Park was simply unrealistic and absolutely fruitful. 


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