Trip to Kanha

Day 1

It has been a long wait but it has finally come, I am finally going to Kanha National park. I went back in January, but this was my reward for finishing my exams! This trip was a solo trip for a photography workshop my a very good photographer by the name of Sudhir Shivaram. I went to him to learn and improve my photography and take it to the next level.

I started the trip on 1^st June, the very day after I graduated. This would be my first trip alone and I was very excited to finally travel alone. My flight was with Singapore Airlines. I was traveling on SQ 406, a A380-800. The flight took around 17:10 to Delhi and the flight time was approx. 5:30 hrs. This time, I got to choose my seat and I choose the very last seat on the upper deck. This decision proved to be a good decision as I was one of the very first to get on and I had the seat next to me vacant. I could easily spread and sit and enjoy the two seats.

For the dinner, I choose the international selection which consisted of chicken, roast potatoes, salad and ice cream. In my opinion, the food was good. I finished the food within 5-10 mins. While on the flight, I watched X-Men Apocalypse and days of future past

. Overall the flight was smooth and there were no issues and very less turbulence. In between, I was viewing the flight path and saw that the piolet took us over land instead of over sea. He took us over Malaysia, Thailand, Myanmar and Bangladesh before we entered India. This was surprising as typically the piolet fly over the Indian Ocean. Maybe that’s the reason why the flight lacked turbulence.

By 8:30 pm IST I landed in New Delhi IGI Airport. The first thing I immediately noticed upon landing was the thick smell of smog. It is very sad what India is doing to the environment. No matter how hard everyone try, it is very difficult to have an impact on the environment. The government should really make a greater effort to improve the environment.

For Dinner, my grandfather had gotten food from a local restraint called Rajinder Da Dhaba. This restraint is very famous for Muslim Indian food, especially their kebab called the  Galouti kebab . This is made from minced goat meat mixed with green papaya. I should say that it is a must try but in moderation and it is quite spicy. It is best eaten in winters.

This closed day 1 of the trip.

Day 2

The second day of the trip I woke up at 6 and took my camera to my grandfather’s roof to look for birds. I was hoping to see a few black kites but I had to settle with one. The birds which I saw were : black kites, rose ringed parakeet, black kite, house crow, rock pigeon and purple sunbirds. I managed to photograph everything apart from the sunbirds and parakeets.

Mid-day we went to a temple near our house. I took my grandfather’s old film camera and nothing else. There were a good number birds which I sighted which included the green bee-eater, jungle babbler, house sparrow and house crow. It was quite a nice trip as we could escape the noise of Delhi. By 11am we were back and had to get my Pan card for investment. This was the most annoying part of the entire day as burecarcy in India is very ineffective. It took us 1.5 hrs. just to submit our application. The location itself is suppressing as the office space is smaller than a shop and is in the middle of a residential area.

Luckily afterwards I had the entire day to myself and in the evening I went back to the roof. This time I saw all the birds which I saw in the morning plus a rufous tree pie and yellow footed green pigeon. I was quite pleased to see the pigeon to end the day  and it added to the number of green tree pigeons which I have seen.

Day 3

Today was a very long day of travel. I got up at 6 for my flight at 10. Unsurprisingly by flight was delayed by 40mins. Because of this we only arrived at the lodge at 6pm. Luckily there was still light and I managed to see a few lizards, golden bellied leaf bird, jungle babbler and female purple sunbird.

Day 4

Safari 1

I was very excited today as we had to go for our first safari. We got up at 3:00 and left at 4:00am so that we could be the first group in line when the park opens at 5:30am. We had a very long first safari as the gate closed at 11:00am. This safari was a mixed bag as we managed to see a distant tiger. I could not get any good shoots as it was too far and shy. I got a few record shoots but. Afterwards we waited at a pond area as the guides knew that there were 4 tiger’s cubs there. On occasion one cub was popping its head out but not for long. We waited there for 3 hours for the tiger but ended up shooting the langurs, spotted deer, oriental honey buzzard, wild boar and crested serpent eagle. I should say this safari was good even though I did not get a good shoot of the tiger.

Safari 2

After the first safari, we took a break and went for the second safari. We left around 3 and gates opened at 4. We went to kanha zone, the same as the morning and managed to see a tiger at the same pond in the morning. But it was heavily blocked by bushes. Other than the tiger we managed to see a family of jackals and swamp deer. This safari is typically shorter and I was not suspired with the lack of sightings.

Day 5

Safari 3

Today we had and left around the same time for the gate. This time we went to Mukkhi zone which was the furthest zone from us. It was quite uneventful this safari as we mainly saw birds. We saw an Indian Scimitar Babbler, wire tailed swallow, red jungle fowl, crested serpent eagle, red wattled lapwing, little cormorant, little grebe, Indian spot billed duck, cotton teal (both morphs), greater thicknee (calling), black headed oriole, rufous tree pie and Indian roller.  We just missed an Indian Scoops owl pair.

Safari 4

This safari was the best safari I had in this entire trip. There were dark clouds looming and it did start raining. We were in Kanha zone again and were heading to the same pond as earlier to see the cubs. This time we took a different route through a field which barley had any trees. While we were passing it briefly started raining but then stopped. The rains got the colours of the jungle to come beautiful. It was an amazing scene with  dark clouds in front, the sun behind and golden green fields around. I wish I took some landscape shoots to remember. But we did get very good pictures of gaurs, peacocks and my very first blackbuck!

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In the meantime, the other jeep from our lodge passed us while we were heading toward the pond. They told us that they saw a tiger cub walk out, sit for a while and then go back in. They were the only car to see it and they managed to get some nice pictures. Even though we were disheartened, we continued to the spot anyway. By the time, we reached many other cars had arrived upon hearing the news. All jeeps were waiting for the cubs of T8 to appear from behind a lake, but we decided to not wait as these cubs were very shy without their mother and would hide when a lot of jeeps would surround it. Luckily this decision  to continue forward helped us to see the sloth bear!

Even though it was a brief sighting, the sloth bear was walking confidently  on the road and we could get clear shots. After we saw the sloth bear we drove further in. I was sitting on the back seat on the right corner. Next to me was our guide as one of the persons on our jeep went and sat in the guide seat as he was not feeling well. I was looking to the left and was talking to another person in the jeep when the guide was looking to the right and yelled tiger. We passed right infront of the tiger within about 5m because it was thick bush as we could not see from far. When we passed the tiger, it came out and stood for a few seconds. I took a picture but the setting was wrong. By the time, I change the settings it had already started to cross the road and it was too close to get a shoot. This was a fabulous sighting and if I stretched and put my hand out I could touch the tiger, that’s how close it was. It was too close to get a full body shot with my lens.

Honestly, even though the sightings were brief, it was very memorable. After we left the tiger we started heading towards the gate where we saw captive elephants used by the forest guards, gaurs and 3 species of vultures feeding on a dead faun. The vultures were the Asian king vulture, Indian Vulture and White romped vulture. These vultures are classified as critically endangered mainly due to the Indian Vulture crisis. Around the early 2000’s there was a rapid decline in all vulture species in India. It was found out that certain medication given to livestock would be harmful to the vultures when they consumed the circus. This caused a rapid decrease in the population of these vultures and caused the status of most species to be changed to critically endangered from Least concerned. More can be read about it here.

Day 5

This was our las safari here. I was already getting a bit tired from the lack of sleep and the long safaris. Today we had khisli zone which was right next to the secondary entrance gate. While driving to the secondary entrance I feel asleep. We were the third jeep, the 1^st jeep was going to kanha, the two jeeps in front and behind us were also going to khisli. Between the secondary gate and where the road splits to go to the different zones is a field. To the left of the field was our zone. As we were driving through the guide in the jeep behind started yelling  to our jeep and the jeep in front that there is a tiger. From that moment on our three-jeep rushed to the point and low and behold 2 tigers! These tigers were mating and have been in that area for nearly a week so we could easily see them.

We saw them for almost the entire duration of the safari. I only got good shoots initially as the tigers went up to the hill on the left side of the road from the field. While waiting a family of 3 adult boars and 4 piglets started walking up the hill. Little did they know that for some of them it would be the last place they go. The male tiger killed and ate 2 of the piglets. Unfortunately, no good shots.

In between we stopped for breakfast and managed to see the orange headed thrush and red napped ibis.

I thoroughly enjoyed this safari and would like to return.