Pench

      Our journey to Pench was a very long one or seemed long ,because every moment we spent sleeping and when you woke up and asked somebody if we reached the only answer we got was no. But then we reached around 2:00 pm and attacked the food for which our stomachs had been craving for.
      After that we got a brief introduction of pench and soon we found out why it was different from other Tiger reserves. We were staying at the government guest houses which were right at the threshold of the tigerzone. There was no need to refresh ourselves as the jungle had enough refreshments for us, like spotting rufous treepie, common hawk cuckoo(brainfever) , crested hawkeagle right outside our canteen.
                                                        jungle owlet the only diurnal owl  We were at pench along with members of the organization Nature walk. Anuj khare one of the senior member was a dictionary of birds and knew a lot about behavior of animals. On the day we arrived we had a walking trail along with our guide Kaliram. Anuj dada told us some interesting facts about weaver bird's nest and banyan tree.
                                                                          Indian pitta  One the first day we had 2 safaris. One at 5:00 am and the other at 3:30. These safaris gave us a first real experience of being in pench. Peacocks were commonly sighted along with peahens. The delicate chitals always showed signs of alertness. Then there were sambars the favourite food of the tigers were found grazing. A variety of species of birds were spotted. Rollers and black hooded orioles were occasionally spotted drifting through the maze of trees. But still the elusive tiger kept evading us.
        After having our lunch and passing time under the cooler in our room we with high hopes set out on our second safari. It was hot and dry and there was a better chance for the tigers to come out to drink water. We waited at the lake and checked out the water holes but no avail. In the mean time we had a lot of birds to shoot at.
       The light was fading so we decided to leave for our guest houses. We were a little tired of sitting in the jeep for so many hours so we took a few naps in the middle. Just as I opened my eyes after on such nap there was a chorus of alarm calls and then we saw him. There he was walking among the bushes and shrub on the dry leaves and twigs which covered his path. This was my first and the most unexpected and unpredictable encounter with the majestic animal. Not even once did he turned and took notice of us ,but took his royal strides and lived up to his name, the royal bengal tiger.The drowsiness disappeared and a new excitement took over. The jeep behind us just got a flash of the orange and black creature.
                    The next day our jeep missed the tiger by couple of minutes. But another interesting thing happened. We got to know eachother better by a talk organised by Anuj dada. He asked everyone to tell something about themselves and what they thought about pench and what it was.
                                                             sambar

                                               
                                                     Indian grey hornbill

                                                                 
                                                          spotted dove

      Pench was a very nice experience for us. This forest had a variety of habitats and is very good for birding. It changes every hundred meters. Sometimes the forest consist of only bare teak wood trees sometimes savanahs , heavy undergrowth and even open grasslands. We four enjoyed it a lot and even mixed very well with the Puneris. LAY BHARI!

soham,aradhya,unmesh ,me

                                                       pied kingfisher

                                                                  Indian roller or blue jay

                                                                 common hawkcuckoo or brainfever                                                                                                                 

                                                                emerald dove

photography: soham,me