Tracking Tigers IN BANDHAVGARH N.P.

INTRODUCTION

Whether you see a tiger or not is 90% down to the tiger. If it does not wish to be seen then you will not see it. I've watched a tiger, from a distance, lay down low in the grass at the sound of oncoming jeep traffic. Once the jeeps have passed, the tiger has risen and carried on along its journey. Another time, a tigress took evasive action after spotting waiting jeeps. She simply had a good look around, turned aside, and walked to another more secluded water hole.

With a tiger's intelligence and unpredictability against you, you are well advised, if travelling to the National Parks, to enjoy them for their unspoiled wilderness and wildlife diversity. Please don't go with the single objective of seeing tigers - it could be a real disappointment. Bandhavgarh is probably the best place in the world to see wild tigers. But there are times when no tigers are seen at all for maybe 3 or 4 days. I've met too many people who visit for 1 or 2 days and leave utterly deflated when they've failed to see a tiger.

Enjoy the park for all its beauty and diversity. Sighting and photographing a tiger should remain a remarkable bonus. As a professional, I’m the first to be guilty of being single-minded. However, on my most recent trips I learned to relax and enjoy the park as a whole. True, I was there for 3 weeks so the pressure was off, but I still enjoyed the park far more, bringing back some fantastic memories and great photographs of deer, birds, monkeys, and views of the jungle habitat.

Alarm Calls

Apart from recent eyewitness accounts, alarm calls are the primary detector used to locate tigers. The key species that guides listen for are sambar deer, spotted deer (locally known as chital), grey langur and macaque monkeys.

A sambar deer, being so large, will only make its distinctive alarm call in the presence of a tiger, leopard, or for a pack of wild dog. A sambar may rarely see a tiger but will certainly smell or hear the approach if the tiger is not extremely stealthy. A chital will also call for these predators but may also call for a wolf, caracal, or even wild boar. Most amusingly chital have been known to make an alarm call for a brightly clothed tourist! Monkeys, peacock, and jungle fowl all make distinctive calls for all the aforementioned predators but will also call for the lesser predators such as jackals and jungle cat

The guides must differentiate between the calls to estimate the type of predator and the direction in which it is moving. A persistent and prolonged sambar alarm call on its own or combined with chital and monkey alarm calls is almost a guaranteed sighting of a tiger or leopard… or as good a chance as you are likely to get! Your guide will then have to judge its direction and try to be in the right time and right place to encounter the predator.

The Physical Evidence

Tigers leave distinctive physical evidence along their path. Sometimes we are able to use this evidence to judge their path and destination. Pug marks (footprints) running either along or crossing a road can be assessed to give an indication of what created them and when they were created. Sharply imprinted marks with the dust discoloured by damp paws, for example, are a good sign that the pugs were left very recently. Marks that are rounding and the same colour as the road are older but can still be useful in assessing the likelihood that a tiger is active in the area. Pug marks also enable guides to differentiate between male and female tigers. A male’s pug has rounded toes, whereas a female’s are pointed in shape.

The only drawback with the pug marks is that following them can be a wild goose chase, especially if there is more than one tiger active in the area. On more than one occasion we've passed along a track, turned around 180º on;y to discover fresh pugmarks on top of our tyre tracks. In these situations you just have to sit back and smile. It's not a bad thing to be outmaneuvered by tiger!

Other physical evidence includes fresh urine, scent marks, and scat (tiger faeces). These are often accompanied by scrapes in the earth, particularly visible on the dusty tracks. Again these can be assessed to give a rough time of when the tiger was present. Along with pugs this evidence has particular relevance as tigers are extremely territorial. Their boundaries are closely guarded and maintained with scratch marks and scent marking on prominent trees and other landmarks.

A male’s territory will overlap a few females but will not tolerate another male's intrusion. Whereas a tigress may well allow her daughters/sisters to share the borders areas, but if they encounter one another it can be a rather terse affair, especially so if one or the other has cubs.

Jeep Safari

The usual way to see the park is via a 'Gypsy'. These are small 4x4 open-top jeeps built by Maruti and they are seemingly the safari vehicle of choice for all India's national parks. Currently, the Forest Department hasn't set a limitation on the number of jeeps it allows into Bandhavgarh per day, although this is something they are considering. Ranthambhore, for instance, has a maximum of 14 jeeps per morning or afternoon drive. However, Ranthambhore is much smaller and far busier due to its proximity to Delhi.

You can even take your own vehicle into Bandhavgarh as long as it has 4-wheel drive and is petrol powered. Some tourists have been taking advantage of the frantic nature of the holidays seasons and have driven into the park in small city cars. These put the occupants at risk as the terrain of Bandhavgarh can be extremely rocky.

If you are travelling independently, you can book jeeps in advance through your hotel. Most tour groups will have already arranged jeeps for you. Every camp or hotel at Bandhavgarh will have access to jeeps whether their own or hired from private owners based in Tala. You can fit 6 adults into the back of a jeep but it's a tight and uncomfortable squeeze, especially when you consider you will be rattling along dusty, bumpy tracks for 3 or 4 hours.

If you are a photographer, I suggest you pay and exclusivity supplement and have a maximum of two passengers in the back. Its amazing how much room your camera bags and equipment take up. If you are wildlife watching or your equipment is limited then you could have a maximum of 4 people. Bare in mind that you will already have a driver and park guide. If you have a naturalist as well then that is another seat gone. The naturalist will often sit in the front passenger seat so the park guide will be in the back with you or hanging out on the back of the jeep.

There are two 'drives' each day, one in the morning and one in the afternoon and the park opening times vary according to the season and hours of daylight. In winter (November thru January) the gates open at around 6:30am and close at 11:00am, then open again at 3:00pm and close at 6:00pm. In the summer (February thru April) the gates open at around 5:30am and close at 10:00am, then open again at 4:00pm and close at 7:00pm. You can enter at anytime within these open hours, but once you have left, you cannot re-enter.

Park Rules

At the beginning of the 2004 season, the Forest Department introduced a new routing system to help ease congestion in the park and to ease the pressure on the tigers. Previously it was a free-for-all and all the jeeps sped immediately to wherever the elephants were and simply sat and waited. Now, the rules state that you have to spend at least 1½ hrs on your specified route and you are not allowed to deviate from it. After this time the jeeps can then pursue alarm calls throughout the park. My observations contradict this however. If there are alarm calls, most jeep drivers will abandon the rules and chase the calls.

The rules are changing subtly every year, but this is generally what happens. Before the gates open and even before the sun has even risen, jeeps start queuing outside the main gate in Tala. Drivers collect their guests from the hotels and head for the gate as early as possibly in order to enter the park ahead of the cue and to be the first down your specified route. You route is issued to your driver on arrival at the main gate.

Every jeep is required to carry a park guide in order to enter the park. In essence, they direct the drivers to where they think a tiger will be. However, many of the drivers have been doing this for so long, they know more about the park than the guides. The guide’s English is normally quite limited but some are fully conversant and can answer many of your questions regarding the wildlife and history of the park. If truth be told, the main reason they are there is to stop tourists doing anything stupid! And they do, believe me!

There are more than enough accounts of tourists behaving extremely irresponsibly and dangerously, putting their own and other people’s lives at risk. One example is the account of two American women that climbed out of their jeep, to sneak around to the front of a group of jeeps on foot to get a closer look at a large male tiger. It could well have been the last thing they did.