Greens & Yellow - Monsoon Love 💚 July 2019
It’s always rejuvenating to take timely breaks from our monotonous concrete lives and I exactly did the same last week by venturing into the woods of a forest where I was “Reborn in the Wild” - Kabini.
Earlier the same morning, I started the game drive scanning for footmarks of cats and the forest was silent... with no big cat movement nor any alarm calls to give us leads it started raining by 7.45am and the hopes of having a sighting just vanished, our driver continued to drive around, seated on the last seat of the Jeep I was literally hallucinating and suddenly I see two dark substances of yellow stripes amidst the bottle greens and my eyes lit up only to whisper.... “Tiger Tigerrr Tigerrrrrrr” and the next few minutes were magical & something which bought life into me.... A female Tigress seated next to the safari track with a 4month old cub peeping from its moms back... a few minutes later another cub showed up and the next thing was to seeing the Male Tiger of the family bringing all 4 together.
It’s very rare to spot an entire family of a Male, female & cubs together at the same Tiger and I feel blessed to witness & document some amazing tiger behavior where the male & female are cuddling each other and the cubs popping from behind all the time.
With spirits high as sky the afternoon safari began and we missed the same Tigress crossing the road in her territory, I was prepared for a dry game drive as it rained again during the afternoon safari, last 30mins into the drive and our Jeep driver Chota decided to take a stroll around the forest, with light fading quickly we passed the famous Tiger Tank as a ritual, just a minute before we were to reach the Tiger Tank, I felt a Deja vu sensation that I have relived this moment in the past & I am about to see a tiger at Tiger Tank & it exactly happened the same, I again whispered “Tigerrr Tigerrrrr Tigerrrrrrrr” and the jeep stopped & we saw the Biggest Male Tiger of kabini sitting on his throne on the Tiger Tank Bund like a King, quickly making some frames and we left the king by itself to exit the forest !!
Thankyou for reading, I hope I was able to reconstruct the experience by my words and literally took you there in my Jeep through my narration 😊

Leopard from kabini

Dhole (Indian wild dog) | Kabini

The is the bold and beautiful Balle tigress of Kabini whose sightings are few and far between.
Spent a long time in her company when she made all efforts to bring her two cubs out and make them cross the road in tourist presence. Three rounds of back and forth and one cub peeped out, took a couple of steps, saw the vehicles and moved promptly back into his safe space.
Luckily for them safari time was over and we had to move out. Finally they got their entire space to themselves.

THE CLAN - Other than Tigers and Leopards live the Dholes (Indian wild dogs). This highly social animal hunt in group- call it a “pack” or a “clan”; It is no different for Dholes what it is for Wolves.
In Rudyard Kipling style- “NOW this is the law of the jungle, as old and as true as the sky. And the wolf that shall keep it may prosper, but the wolf that shall break it must die.
As the creeper that girdles the tree trunk, the law runneth forward and back;
For the strength of the pack is the wolf, and the strength of the wolf is the pack!!”

Gentle whispers: A dhole pair enjoying a tender moment. Shot in Nagarahole National Park during a trip there this September. Wild dogs have a reputation for being cold killers and can take down a tiger or bison by repeatedly attacking as a pack. This picture shows an entirely different side of these enigmatic creatures.