Charge of the Tigers

As we all sat finishing lunch at Bijrani, we discussed who all would go for the elephant ride among the eight of us. The elephant was the best way to see the jungle and the chances of spotting a tiger were best from one. Finally it was decided that Kookie, Valerie, Arnab and Vasu would go as the rest of us had already been before on earlier visits. Actually Romel hadn’t been before but said he’d rather be with Shayne, Suryo and me in the Gypsy. The Gypsy is a four wheel drive. A lady in Delhi had been kind enough to lend it to us for the trip.

So, with lunch out of the way and nicely rested, the two groups set out on their respective rides. We left a little after the elephant rides had gone but were still the first vehicle to enter the main forest. As we drove very slowly down the jungle track, everyone spoke in hushed tones. The late afternoon sun gave the forest a very warm look with a lot of contrast between the dark and light areas. The area we were driving through was very green and the path we were on actually lead to Sasi, where we were staying on this trip.

The weather was perfect with the warm sunshine balanced by a lovely cool breeze.

As we rolled on on this seemingly perfect day, we discussed the coming new year which began the next day. We were now entering a slightly more dense part of the jungle and we noticed something small and dark absolutely in the middle of the track. On getting closer we saw it was out first hint of the presence of a tiger in the nearby vicinity. It was scat or in other words, tiger droppings. We looked around in all directions from the Gypsy and noticed where the pug marks of the animal came out of the bushes and undergrowth onto the track. We began the process of moving on very slowly, simultaneously tracking the tell tale signs of the progress of the most beautiful animal in these jungles. Although, sometimes one feels the leopard gives the tiger excellent competition where good looks are concerned.

From the pug marks we could make out that it was quite a large specimen. Although none of us were expert enough to be able to tell whether it was male of female. The tension and excitement was now rapidly building. All chatter had completely stopped. Sign language was now the primary means of communication. Soon we came upon a fork and followed the track to the left, sticking with the prints. I could make out that the prints now were very fresh as the edges were very sharp and had not yet been dulled by the effect of wind. This sent the expectations in everyone’s heart of spotting the tiger soaring higher than ever before. Then all of a sudden, the animal seemed to have taken a sudden turn to the right and gone straight into the thickest part of the jungle which even sight could not penetrate. We contemplated what we should do. Should we retreat a bit and wait. Maybe it had gone into the shrubs when it heard us approaching. We were just discussing what we should do when we heard a monkey give a warning call from the jungle further right. This confirmed the presence of the tiger but seemed to be further than we had estimated. We wondered what to do when Shayne said it would be worth a try to back-track a bit and take the other path from the fork. We all thought this was a good idea since it seemed pointless to wait here. The tiger was obviously not hanging around and moving away from us.

We were soon on the other path to the right from the fork with all eyes peeled for any kind of movement. Nothing moved. We stopped and waited a while to listen for any clues. No sounds at all. Even the monkey had stopped warning the rest of the jungle inhabitants. We moved on slowly and after fifty yards or so, suddenly came upon the same pug marks. Once again emerging from the bushes and onto the track. Shayne drove very slowly keeping a keen lookout ahead while the two in the back seat scanned the jungle to either side. I kept track of the pug marks. We came up to some scratch marks on the path where the tiger had scratched the path and dug up quite a bit of dirt. It looked fresh. Really fresh. Just then Shayne called out in a low but very clearly audible voice," There, up ahead !!" I desperately searched the area ahead but initially saw absolutely nothing. " There !!!" Shayne said to me almost in desperation since I was the guy with the camera. The rest of us still couldn’t make out. Then it moved. When it had stood perfectly still, the dance of the warm sunlight and dark shadows had completely camoflaged it. Now we all saw it. It was a beautifull tigress. She was huge. As we stopped and watched her in total awe, she decided we weren’t a threat and came back to the track and began climbing the hill ahead. I can never forget that sight. She looked so incredibly powerful from that angle. As she went around the corner, we waited a while before restarting the engine and creeping slowly in persuit. We saw her as soon as we rounded the bend. She was still walking down the track and had gone around 50 yards ahead. Since the path ahead was visible for almost another fifty yards or more, we stayed in the same place watching this most amazingly graceful, beautiful and powerful being move majestically down the track. We again watched her disappear around the next bend. Repeating the same procedure as before we approached the corner after we were sure she would have gone a good distance ahead. We wanted to ensure that we didn’t startle or irritate her by getting too close all of a sudden.

We slowly moved around the corner, expecting to see her around another fifty yards ahead. We were in for a surprise because she was standing only around 20 yards ahead and facing us. As she saw us come around the bend, she moved off into the bushes by the left side of the road. We initially stopped for a moment but decided it would be better if we drove past. We had been honoured with a brilliant sighting of over 20 minutes already and didn’t want to disturb her into a bad mood. As we came abreast with the bush she had gone into, we peared in trying to see if she had gone up the hillside covered with bushes or whether she was waiting for us to go by. Initially we felt she must have gone because we saw nothing but twigs, branches and leaves. Then we saw the eyes. They were the only part of her that was visible. The rest was hidden by the most amazing display of camouflaging any of us had ever seen. Just then we heard a lot of noise from behind us. Around a hundred yards behind was a ten seater jeep with more than twenty people coming towards us. Most of the people were half hanging out and screaming at the top of their voices. I think I remember one of them singing too. We were absolutely horrified and decided the best thing to do was to quickly reverse and stop a bit away from the tiger. We pretended to be looking for something inside the Gypsy because we knew that if these people saw the tigress, it would be chaos. We could see a few people had small sticks in their hands and somehow had this strange intution that these might be flung at any animal to create a spectacle. I think the driver had seen where we had been previously parked and was a little suspicious of what we had been doing there. He parked exactly two feet from the bush, the tigress had gone into and asked the guy hanging out of the left side to check if he saw anything. The guy peered straight into the bush, his face almost brushing the leaves. He saw nothing. We were just planning to warn them about the danger when I guess they decided we hadn’t seen anything and were just hanging around for nothing. As they moved off the guy to the rear left, I think as an expression of disgust or maybe a last ditch effort to make sure there was nothing there, flung a small stick into the bush. We decided the tigress must definitely have moved up the hillside for them not to have seen her or for her not to have reacted to all the provocation and irritation.

As the din of the jeep and it’s passengers disappeared over the hill, we contemplated where we should head for next. We needn’t have bothered because out of the very same bush came our miss world. She turned and gave us a glance and then headed slowly up the path towards the bend between her and us. Soon she was out of sight to us. We all waited with abaited breath to see if she would come back on the path or whether she had taken some trail leading up the hill. I focused the camera on where I expected her to come out, if she did, and sat ready with my finger on the click button. Nothing happened. Half a minute went by and still nothing. Then I told Shayne to take over the camera as he had a better view of the area where she would come out, since he was on the right. Almost the very next second I heard him whisper."she’s coming !". He had seen her just peep around the corner and take a quick look at us. I heard him click a snap and saw him lower the camera to get a direct look at her. The moment he did that and made eye contact with her, he saw her flatten her ears, get a wild look in the eyes and suddenly pull away out of sight again. I looked in the direction he was indicating but my sight was obstructed by the hillside around which the track went. Suddenly, I felt the camera being shoved into my hands and Shayne was all movement. One hand was going for the ignition while the other handed me the camera."She’s coming for us ! I can’t see her but she’s upto something !!" I quickly focused on the spot I had before around 30 yards ahead and waited. Mistake !! Suddenly there was a roar that sounded like it was emenating from a quadraphonic system in a discotheque. It was louder than anything i’d heard ! Then she came around the bend just fifteen feet ahead of us at a speed that blurred the vision. Even running at that speed she kept so low that she seemed almost painted on the ground.

She was coming straight for us! Teeth bared and with fire in her eyes ! Shayne was also a blur of movement as he turned the ignition key and simultaneously tried to find reverse. In the chaos his elbow bumped the horn and there was a short beep just as the tigress was about to pounce. I think this kind of startled her, as instead of coming straight for us, she just deflected herself off the front and went to the right. The impact of just this deflection was enough to lift the rear tyres of the Gypsy off the ground. The jolt made my finger press the shutter release of the camera. This photograph turned out to be just a flash of green inter-spersed by a few tell tale signs of black and white stripes. The entire time lapse, from the moment she came around the corner to the point where she entered the bushes below to our right, could not have been more than two to three seconds ! We watched her move through the bushes away from us, finally coming back on to the path ahead and continuing on to climb up th hill to the left.

We all sat there for a couple of minutes just excitedly looking at each other’s faces. Nobody managed to say a word for a while. Too much adrenaline !! Then we calmed down. I wished everyone a happy new year. Then we moved on. We went down the hill ahead and came down to a river bed. Here we came to a T-junction and decided to turn left to head back and pick up the others. As we had gone around a hundred yards down the sandy track, I saw a leaf rustle around halfway up the hillside to the left. Around twenty yards ahead, I asked Shayne to turn the Gypsy around and stop. As we watched, we saw a few more leaves on the bushy slope move. The line of movement was aimed straight at a point just fifteen feet ahead of us. Two minutes later, there she was again! As she came out, she stopped and looked at us once more. I’m sure she recognised us. Without any sign of being bothered, she turned away and walked down the path. Soon she turned to the left and headed across the grassland that lead up to the river. We moved to a spot from where we could see her going. If we wanted we could easily have followed her but I think we’d seen enough and all realised that it would be wrong to persue her any more. So as she walked off, we drove back to pick up the others.

We had thought of breaking the news to them, about our most amazing experience, slowly that night but none among the four of us could keep it inside us for even a minute. So we all cackled away simultaneously. Much to the disgust of the others who had gone on the elephant only in hope of spotting their first tiger in the wild. For us, it was an experience that still makes the goose bumps rise. Not out of fear but out of envy, admiration and awe for this close to perfect being the world calls a tiger.