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