Get Off the Beaten Path With My Gujarat Travel Guide.
On a chilly December night, I lay on the roof of a watch tower in the darkness of India’s stark salt desert – the Little Rann of Kutch.
All posts filed under: Wildlife
Call of The Wild: Tadoba Tiger Reserve!
As a recently converted wildlife enthusiast, I landed up at Tadoba Tiger Reserve (Tadoba National Park) to be awed by its beauty, wildlife and eco lodges! Between my recent trips to sunny Seychelles and festive Germany, I was drawn by the call of the wild to Svasara Jungle Lodge at the Tadoba Tiger Reserve in Maharashtra. My jungle adventures in Madhya Pradesh earlier this year made me a wildlife tourism enthusiast, but Tadoba National Park left me intoxicated. I can’t stop dreaming of forests brimming with unravelled mysteries. Or the sheer beauty and intricacy of their ecosystems. This is a visual journey through Tadoba Tiger Reserve, a world beyond ours: SVASARA, THE HOME OF A WILDLIFE PHOTOGRAPHER converted into a jungle lodge that is both luxurious and environmentally responsible. His family and their team of wildlife enthusiasts and naturalists have transformed the once barren farm land surrounding Svasara into a natural wilderness. The soil has been revived with organic farming techniques and a waterhole attracts wildlife right to its backyard! Also read: Wildlife Tourism: Are We Saving …
Kanha National Park: Stories From The Wild in Madhya Pradesh.
Beyond the tiger chase, these stories from Kanha National Park / Kanha Tiger Reserve triggered my love for the forests of Madhya Pradesh. There is a whole world out there, in the dense Sal forests of Kanha National Park. A world far removed from you and me. Fascinating stories dwell here just like in the human world. Wildlife and nature peacefully co-exist, and mankind meddles. For better and for worse. These snippets attempt to look beyond what we witness on jungle safaris, and try to capture the essence of life in the wild: I will follow you into the dark When we spot a pair of jackals run off into the fields of Kanha Tiger Reserve, our naturalist can’t help but speak of their love. Jackals lead monogamous lives, and once they find a mate, it’s till death do them apart. In a jungle like Kanha, with predators as fierce as the tiger and as illusive as the leopard, life is tough. Yet if a mate dies, the survivor refuses to take on another mate, …
Wildlife Tourism: Are We Saving The Tiger?
Our jeep comes to a screeching halt. In the distance, two low-lying eyes gaze upon us with a look so cunning, I still can’t get it out of my head. Our naturalist raises his binoculars, and confirms what we suspect. A leopard. It gently raises its spotted body, gives us a defiant last look, and disappears in the bushes. We are left gaping at the empty path, with goosebumps. When Pugdundee Safaris first invited me on a week-long wildlife trip in Madhya Pradesh, I must admit I was a bit apprehensive. My past trips to national parks in Corbett and Sri Lanka had left me with the impression that wildlife tourism, jeep safaris in particular, are terrible for wild animals. Paved roads in the middle of the forest, racing jeeps, the constant pressure from people to see a tiger; it clearly seemed destructive of their natural habitat. That impression is gradually changing, and not because of the bone-chilling encounter with a leopard. Bejoy, the naturalist at Ken River Lodge, linked the argument to economics; it makes …