Kaziranga in new ways

 March 16

Today was a lazy day. We did not meet for breakfast until 6:30. — we actually ate breakfast in the lodge dining room. After breakfast we headed out for a game drive, our primary objective being the Hoolock Gibbon, an endangered primate. We spotted them in trees along the highway that runs through the national park. We did not get great views because of the thick vegetation. We did, however see them brachiate from tree to tree. We also got to hear them calling, an infrequent occurrence.  

We left the gibbons, continuing down the highway to the far west entrance to the park. We picked up local rangers that, as usual, go with us in the jeeps. This time, however, the ranger in our vehicle had a rifle. We were told that the rhino in that section of the park can be fairly aggressive and might charge a vehicle. The rifle is used, if necessary, to scare off the rhino if other tactics fail. We saw several rhino, but none were interested in us. Along with rhinos and various birds, we saw Giant Himalayan Squirrel, otters, and Capped Langur. We got a report of gibbons at one of the ranger stations, so we headed off to see them. It was a small family group of a female and two young. We watched them for a while and got to see them walk along a large tree branch. After getting back into the jeeps, we got a report of a tiger sighting. It was off to the races once again. This time we never saw a tiger and as far as we could tell no one else did as well. So who called in the sighting…good question.  

We returned to the lodge. Before lunch several of our travel mates helped to bathe the inn’s working elephant. After lunch, we headed out for a cruise on the Brahmansutra River in search of river Gangetic Dolphins, one of the few remaining river dolphin species in the world. These dolphins are essentially blind. The water they swim in is so filled with silt that sight is useless. They do have amazing sonar capabilities. We did get to spot some, surfacing or leaping entirely out of the water. Photographing them was very difficult because they did not appear at the surface for very long and would disappear underwater for a long period of time.  

We stopped off at a sandbar in the middle of the river to have a sundowner and a birthday cake in celebration of Kevin’s birthday.

Tomorrow we head back to Delhi for our flight home. It was a fabulous trip : our traveling companions were great, our guide was outstanding, we had seven tiger sightings, a total of 24 mammal species, and over 165 bird species, the vast majority new to us.

Pictured: Hoolock Gibbons (males and juveniles are black, females are blond), Capped Langur, Blue-throated Barbet, Indian Rhino and Water Buffalo sharing a wallow

Kaziranga– Indian rhinos everywhere!

 March 15

Today we were back to what we thought would be a typical game drive day: up at 5:00, coffee/tea/juice and muffins, then into our jeep. When we got to the park entrance we discovered we were going on an elephant game drive, that is,we were going to ride elephants. From a platform, we climbed onto our elephants in groups of two or three, then headed out into a grassy meadow, mostly consisting of elephant grass. We were able to get very close to Asian rhino and have an interesting perspective. The game drive lasted about an hour, which was a sufficient amount of time. After a post ride breakfast we headed out in our jeeps for a more traditional game drive. We saw more rhino (Kaziranga holds more than 1600, two-thirds of the population) and a herd of wild elephant, which crossed the road right in front of our vehicle. We stopped off at an observation platform to see what was in the surrounding area. We spotted various water fowl and some river otters. Our guide asked us to quickly and quietly go to our vehicles — they had received word that a tiger was spotted. We raced off to find the tiger, driving fast over very bumpy dirts roads. Riding in the back was quite an adventure. We were able to spot the tiger. He was in the river that runs through the park, a bit in the distance, but still visible. By the end of our morning drive, we had seen the Assamese big five: elephant, rhino, tiger, buffalo, and swamp deer.

After lunch, we headed out again for our second game drive of the day. It was a short one because Kaziranga, though well east of Delhi, is in the same time zone, so both sunrise and sunset are an. Hour earlier here. We saw lots of rhino, at least 35, including one about five weeks old and another about two months old. We of course had many bird sightings both in the morning and afternoon, several that were new to us.

Our trip leader asked us to observe the differences between the tigers we saw in Central India, for example Kanha, and the one we saw here in Kaziranga. You first notice that the Central India tiger has more white on the face and the manes are bigger. The eye shape is also different. The Kaziranga tiger is a bit more orange in color, and bulkier. 

Pictured: elephant ride, wild elephants crossing the road, Assam tiger in the water, Indian rhino 

Into Assam

 March 14

“Assam is a long way from the rest of India”... what an understatement!  This morning we drove back to the Kolkata airport to catch a 1.5 hour flight to Jorhat.  Jorhat is closer to Lhasa, Tibet than it is to Delhi.  We then drove to a local tea estate for lunch and an abbreviated tour/ education session; we had to skip the tea tasting portion of the tour because we still had another three hours to drive to get to Kaziranga.  Kaziranga is on the main east-west highway that runs through the “gooseneck” that connects Assam to the rest of India. That means the highway has a lot of trucks. Who gets to pass whom on this two lane undivided highway is, as one of our drivers said, “a video game every day”. It is markedly cooler here than in Kolkata or even the last day in Kanha. 

About tea: the tea estate we visited has been in the same family since its founding in 1900. There are tea bushes as far as the eye can see, with an occasional tea tree (same plant, different pruning) near the house for landscape purposes.  Did you know that there is only one tea plant species all over the world?  The different flavors we all recognize are a consequence of soil and climate and the handling of the leaves, particularly the degree of oxidation. More oxidation makes a tea stronger flavored. Oxidation begins as soon as the leaf is bruised, so the harvesting of leaves is a very delicate process, involving the plucking of pairs of new leaves and their connecting stem (by handling the stem you protect the leaves). Because the harvesting is easier if all the tea bushes in the field are the same height, only a few leaves get harvested from each plant.  Bushes are harvested on a seven-day rotation, ten months per year.

After harvesting, the tea leaves are washed. The next step depends on what flavor you are making; finer grinds make for stronger tea, uneven crushing adds a diversity of flavors. The rule of thumb for “when is oxidation finished” is for the leaves to “look like a copper coin and smell like an over-ripe banana “.  The house grounds also included some birds that don’t exist in central India. 

Pictured: Asian Barred Owlet, Cinareous Tit, Tickell’s Leaf Warbler, tea workers at the end of the day 

It’s tough to be a predator!

 March 13

Various animals make alarm calls when they spot or smell a predator. An alarm call can be picked up by another species to amplify the level of danger. Alarm calls are not the same for all predators. For example, when a langur spots a tiger it makes a sort of barking sound. When it spots a leopard it makes a more frantic clicking sound. Spotted deer also make a repeated call when a leopard is near. It is believed that leopards are harder to track by the prey animals; therefore, the alarms are more frantic. Having these alarm systems makes hunting more of a challenge for the predators. This morning we got to experience the difference between the types of alarm calls.

The day was mostly a travel day; however we were able to have an abbreviated game drive first. Shortly after the start of the drive we heard alarm calls. Initially we thought a tiger was in the area. Then a second set of alarm calls in another section of the meadow began which were the more frantic style…a leopard was in the area. Lots of vehicles started lining the road way anticipating the leopard’s appearance. Our guide/drive, Kaka (yes, like the New Zealand parrot), moved us a little ways down the road away from the other vehicles. Leopards are shy animals, so Kaka knew the leopard would choose a safer route. Moments later we saw the leopard dart out of the forest, run across the road in front of us, and disappear into the forest, its long tail streaming behind it. Kaka thought the flight of the leopard was caused by the scent of the tiger. This all happened so fast we could not get our cameras up to our faces let alone get a photo. It was a wonderful experience for our last day at Kanha.

The remainder of the day was not very exciting. We drove for 4 hours to Raipur, descending 2000 feet from the central India plateau to the plains. From there we flew to Kolkata and a night’s stay in a hotel before continuing on tomorrow. Assam is a long way from the rest of India. The high point of the evening was a very varied and flavorful buffet dinner.

Pictured: Brown-headed Barbet ( a small bird with a loud voice that tormented us for days before we saw one), female Sambar, male Sambar, Indian Roller 

Kanha day two

Tuesday March 12

This morning we drove to a different section of Kanha but didn’t see all that much— some new birds, two herds of Guar, and  a new species of Mongoose (the Ruddy Mongoose).  The afternoon drive was a very different story.  We took a slightly leisurely pace stopping to see various birds and mammals as we made our way to check on the female tiger from yesterday. We found her sleeping on the same bank above a pond as yesterday.  We heard from some of the park staff that early this morning she killed a small spotted deer and dragged it through a line of Jeep watchers. It was clear that she was not going to move anywhere after having a good brunch.

We drove off to investigate other tiger locations. The park guide we had got a call from his father, a forest ranger, that a tiger was following a stream. We headed off for that area. We heard repeated alarm calls, and briefly saw a tiger walking through the thick underbrush parallel to the road. Our local driver and guide knew exactly where to park our vehicle for us to see the tiger emerge from the forest.  However a tiger did not emerge, two did!  They were two brothers about two years of age. They left their mother last December, beginning to demonstrate they can survive independently, and  they will soon separate, finding their own territory.  Once they have done so, the park rangers will name them.  Currently they are referred to as “cubs of  MV3”.

Pictured: the brothers, gaur, spotted deer doe and fawn

Kanha Tiger Reserve

 Monday March 11

Today we followed the same basic schedule as at Bandhavgarh: meet for early coffee and a snack at 5:30, leave between 5:45-6:00, game drive 6:30-11:30 with a Bush breakfast at (nominally) 8:30, lunch at the lodge at 1:30, afternoon game drive 3:00-6:30, dinner at 7:30.  Most of the schedule is dictated by Park rules, but the breakfast timing depends on what is going on. We intended to drive towards the breakfast spot at 8:15 today. The animals thought differently, keeping us busy with them.  We did have breakfast eventually — at about 10:00!

Kanha is the only place you can see Barasingha: a type of large swamp deer named for the twelve points on its antlers.  In the 1960s the population had dwindled to about 66 animals, but careful habitat and breeding programs has brought the numbers up to 900 animals today. Barasingha are grazers; while most of Kanha is  densely forested, there are open grasslands from the areas where there used to be villages before the establishment of the Park in 1973. After the villagers were moved out of the park, the grasslands were retained as part of the Barasingha recovery program. 

This morning was a case of “hear an alarm call, scurry towards that location”, then “ encounter another Jeep that has new information and scurry there”. Some jeeps saw a mature male tiger, some saw a young male tiger, we saw her sister (our third tiger!!) and some jeeps saw no tigers at all. This afternoon was similar; we had a clearer view of the young female tiger, and a glimpse of another tiger sleeping in the marsh grass, showing 

first the top of his head and then one leg, but nothing more. That gives us, we think, five 

sightings of four different tigers in seven game drives.

Once a year, the forest management folks burn dry leaves along the side of the park roads, to create a wider fire break for the hot dry summer. There are few natural fires as rain always follows lightning, but there are occasional human-caused accidental fires. Driving on the narrow park roads between walls of flame on either side ( although at most a foot high) made us really appreciate forest fire crews.

Pictured: young female tiger (about 18 months old), Barasingha, Golden Jackal, coppersmith barbet

Driving through central India

 Sunday March 10 

March 10 was a travel day, featuring a 6–hour car ride to our next location at the Kanha tiger reserve and National Park. We made several stops along the way to stretch our legs and to observe a colony of Indian Fruit Bats (Flying Foxes). Our drive took us over the spine of the central Indian mountain range and through large swaths of agricultural land. The wheat fields showed a staggered level of maturity from new green growth to yellow seed heads ready for threshing. Other fields lay fallow, waiting for the rains to enable crops of rice. And of course there were cows everywhere.. some inside paddocks (largely dairy), some free range but driven as a group back to the farm ( largely bullocks for farm labor), and still others roaming wild ( as a source of fertilizer).  We also observed different architectural styles from traditional to colonial to modern. 

After our arrival at Singinawa lodge, we had lunch. After a short rest, we went for a sunset walk in the buffer zone of the Park.  Kanha is twice the size of Bandhavgarh, 3500 square kilometers with about 105 tigers in residence. We were excited to hear that there has been a sighting of a sloth bear every day in the past week!  We walked along the Banja River, one of the oldest rivers in India and part of a watershed that predates the breaking up of Gondwana.  This is known because the rivers in the watershed flow west while after the continental breakup, India “tipped” to the east and all other river systems flow into the Bay of Bengal. 

After dinner we went on a night drive in the buffer zone, but we didn’t see all that much besides three Indian hares. Still it’s fun to be out in the jungle in the dark!

Pictured: Indian flying fox, Indian hare, Blue-tailed yellow skimmer.

Further Bandhavgarh exploration

 Saturday March 9

Our two game drives today revisited sections of Bandhavgarh that we explored earlier in the week. In the morning we searched for the tigers from Friday morning, with updated ranger information from Friday afternoon. In our searching we saw new birds and two jungle cats, small house cat size predators with amazing camouflage for dry grassland. We waited in one location for a tigress to emerge, based on news of where she had entered that section of forest. In the end, we gave up and went to have our picnic breakfast. While we were breakfasting, others saw her at the location we had been waiting — she crossed the road and continued into the forest.  So after breakfast we hurried to the next “ likely to emerge” location. Ten minutes before we had to head for the park exit ( the park is closed from 11:30-3:00 daily), the tigress came out from the woodland. She walked through tall grass in a very determined manner, clearly wanting to hunt. We watched her for about 3 minutes before she disappeared again into the undergrowth. As soon as she did so, we heard a series of warning calls, suggesting that she might have a hard time catching her morning snack.

This afternoon we went back to the location from Thursday afternoon. This time we were able to explore more extensively. “Zone one” was the original section of the park and 

includes high bluffs that were the site of forts, shrines and palaces for centuries. We drove up a steep switchback road first built in the 10th century. Along its uphill sides and carved into the sandstone were barracks and stables for the maharajah’s forces. Other areas had rocky cliffs, waterfalls and caves, while the area we had seen the first time is open grassland. We searched all afternoon and nary a tiger did we see, although we found a footprint that was on top of Jeep tire tracks, indicating the tiger had walked there very recently. The highlight of the afternoon was watching a full courtship display by a young peacock, including shaking his tail feathers in addition to waving his fan at females that completely ignored him. One female did respond by raising her fan and dancing towards him, but no further excitement ensued. 

Pictured: walking tigress, peacock display, Indian muntjac (the smallest deer), maharajah’s stable

Bandhavgarh day two

 Friday March 8

We spent 9+ hours in jeeps today looking for wildlife with the priority on tigers. Bandhavgarh Park has a high density of tigers, which means on average 1 in every 36 square miles... so getting to see one is truly a “hunt”. Every game drive includes an expert local naturalist/ driver from our lodge and a local guide from the Park. The two of them discuss recent observations of tigers to set a general plan for the drive. During the drive they monitor paw prints in the sandy roads, scat and alarm calls from other animals to fine tune our route. The task is made harder by the park rule that you cannot leave the established roads.  Sometimes you have to drive around the perimeter of an area that you suspect contains a tiger somewhere in its interior, and hope that the tiger decides to stroll to the edge. Our expedition leader had told us “as much as you want to see a tiger, the guides want you to see one even more.”  It is really true; they work so hard to find that opportunity for their guests. 

This morning we saw paw prints and scat and heard alarm calls quite close to us, but no tiger. The hunt for the tiger was invigorating and frustrating at the same time. To make things a bit more confusing for the hunters, there was evidence of two tigers in the area, thus alarms calls coming for different directions and tracks going in opposite directions. After we left that area, a ranger on foot did see a tigress, but no one else saw her all day. 

This afternoon we went to a different section of the park and saw/heard nothing related to tigers. We decided to hang out by some of the man-made water holes in hopes a tiger would need a drink on a warm day. We saw many species of birds, as well as an Indian Gray Mongoose ( think Rikki-Tikki-Tavi as we are in Kipling Country). Our driver told us that seeing a single mongoose is good luck, and late in the afternoon, about 15 minutes before we had to leave the park, word came that there was a male tiger at that same water hole where we spotted our luck-producing Mongoose. We probably broke the local speed limit driving (bouncing) down the trail to get to the watering hole (as did a lot of 

other Jeeps) and there he was — a beautiful male tiger lounging and dosing and drinking from the water hole. We learned that the tiger was six years old, prime tiger age.

Pictured: Bengal Tiger (of course), Indian Gray Mongoose, Hanuman Langur mother and 

baby

The safari begins

 Thursday March 7

 Our adventure really began today, but first we had to get there! We left our Delhi hotel at 4:45 am, for a 7:30 flight to Jabalpur. The Delhi airport is much nicer than Katharine’s memory from a decade ago; in fact all of Delhi was impressive for its cleanliness. Airport rules about what can be, can’t be, and should be in carry-on is quite different from other countries. Thanks to great guidance from our trip leader we were able to get through the tough Indian security with no issues.

Jabalpur is located almost exactly in the center of India. For this reason, when the British wanted to move the capital from Calcutta, Jabalpur was considered for the new capital. Its competition was Delhi, which had been the imperial capital for the Mughals. We were told that “Delhi won on a coin toss”.  We drove for about 3.5 hours southeast to the Bandhavgarh National Park and a late lunch at our lodge.  We will stay here for three nights, and are pleased with our up-on-stilts cabin.

Later in the afternoon we entered the park for our first game drive. We saw (huge) tiger tracks in the sand. While we didn’t see a tiger today, we did see two kinds of deer, two kinds of monkey, a Gaur (the largest hoofed mammal in Asia), a jackal and quite a few new birds. We also got to watch and listen to a family of wild Asian Elephants munching their way through a Sal tree and bamboo thicket. While domesticated elephants are key to the management of the park, wild elephants were extinct in this area for one hundred years, until a herd migrated in from eastern India around 2017.  We were told seeing the elephants in this park is a rarity, which made today’s viewing even better. 

Pictured: baby elephant, rhesus macaque, spotted owlet

New and Old Delhi

Wednesday  March 6

We spent today exploring some of the diversity of Delhi, although to really experience the city would require several more days. This morning began at the Lodi Gardens, a 90 acre park that contains architectural monuments (tombs and mosques) from the 15th century, when the Lodi dynasty from northern India also ruled in Delhi. The architecture shows a mix of Muslim and Mughal styles, and the buildings are wonderfully preserved. It was nice to be out in the (relatively) fresh air after the long travel day.  We also visited a consortium that represents 1800 families in the Kashmir who create traditional cashmere scarves and rugs. The embroidery on the scarves is breathtaking. We had a demonstration of the techniques used to make “hand-knotted” rugs in the single-knot Persian style. It can take from a year to three years (sometimes longer) for a team of workers to create a single area rug, depending on the complexity of the pattern — size is a lesser factor than complexity.

After lunch we headed to Old Delhi. This city was built by Shah Jahan (the builder of the Taj Mahal) who decided to move his capital from Agra to Delhi in 1638. From 1638-1648 he built an immense walled palace (The Red Fort, with a 1.5 mile perimeter wall) as well as a town for all his Agra citizens to live in. He also built the adjacent central mosque, which even today can hold 25,000 worshippers for daily prayers. We were able to enter and walk around the mosque, which is built mostly of red sandstone but with marble and onyx inlays. All mosques in India have the prayer direction facing west, toward Mecca, which while logical seems jarring to a western sensibility. After the mosque we climbed into pedal-rickshaws for an exciting ride through the alleyways of Old Delhi, teeming with pedestrians, motorcycles and all varieties of small wheeled vehicles, not to mention produce stands taking up precious road space! The rickshaw drivers are a marvel, weaving through it all without crushing toes or locking axles with another vehicle. 

Then we returned to New Delhi, which was constructed as the new colonial capital between 1911-1915. The previous colonial capital was Kolkata, but George V wanted a 

European style capital city in a more temperate climate. New Delhi has many trees and 

green areas and beautiful public buildings. The India Gate, an Arc-de-Triomphe-style monument to the 70,000 Indian troops killed fighting for the British Army in WWI was memorable. The contrast between the broad avenues and roundabouts of New Delhi and the narrow alleys of Old Delhi was dramatic. We finished the day with a trip to the Gandhi Memorial, located in the house where he was assassinated in 1948. We were particularly interested in letters written by Albert Einstein praising Gandhi’s accomplishments. 

Pictured: Rose-ringed Parakeet, rug making demonstration, Bada Gunbad in Lodi Gardens

Off to India!

 March 4, 2024

We depart today on an overnight (and then some) flight to Delhi. We’ll spend two nights in Delhi with a tour of the city landmarks, and then head into the countryside southeast of Delhi to visit two national parks  for the following 7 days.  We of course hope to glimpse a tiger, but the landscape, birds, monkeys, antelope (etc) and other cats will be a delight in any case.