Bandhavgarh Day Three

On this morning’s drive, we saw a crested serpent eagle and a huge lovely sambar. We heard several monkeys and spotted deer making alarm calls but we could not locate the tiger. I think we were probably very close but did not have any luck spotting it.

Later in the morning, we were able to ride elephants to see tigers. The mahoots find the tigers using the elephants and then your car gets a number to take turns going to see the tiger. When it is your turn, you park along the side of the dirt roads that run through the park, and climb onto the highest part of the vehicle to then climb on the elephant. Obviously, they only do this when the tigers are found and they are in a fairly accessible spot. Then, the elephants walk to where the tigers are and allow you to have a look before it is the next people’s turn.
We saw two male tiger cubs that are approximately 18 months old and nearly full size. One is particularly huge and has massive paws and shoulders. They were just resting in a shady area. What is amazing is that these two tigers were not very far off the road and we would have never spotted them. The other interesting thing is how little the tigers and elephants react to one another. The tigers do not seem bothered by the elephants at all, even when they are pulling down branches and bamboo to munch on. The elephants seem to care less about the tigers and will calmly walk very close – although they also are very mellow about the cars. After maybe ten minutes, we climbed back off the elephant onto our car and headed out of the park. On the way, we saw a nice group of rhesus monkeys.

When we arrived back at the lodge, we went to the garden area to watch butterflies, were we saw at least six or seven different species. One, called a jay, is lime green with black markings. Bayonettes, which are orange and black and resemble monarchs, and grass yellow butterflies are common. Hopefully some stayed still enough for Jon to photograph them.

We are taking a break before lunch and then will go on our last afternoon drive here.
Apparently, we are in good company traveling in India. It appears that some Belgian royalty was in Delhi at our hotel when we were there, which explains the metal detectors and why they searched our bags when we entered the hotel. Bill Gates was in Agra when we were there. The Gates Foundation is setting up some kind of program here to eradicate polio. Art Wolfe, who is apparently some famous photographer (Jon knows more), arrives here at Bandhavgarh tomorrow…I think Jon is a little sad to be missing him.

I don’t want to sound like an advertisement but I did want to talk a little about our lodge, which is a joint venture between Taj, an Indian hotel group, and CC Africa. The have a very nice philosophy about eco-tourism and protecting nature. In addition, they try very much to give back to the community and have the people locally recognize that protecting the environment is not at odds with economic development. The company has supported the local area with initiatives at a local level, like by installing some solar lights at public places, like the water pump. Guests can purchase school bags, which are put together here and then delivered to the local schoolchildren and they sponsor trips into the park to see the wildlife for the local schools. CC Africa, which obviously has lodges in Africa, now has five or six sites in India, which will be connected by small plane in the near future, and is apparently expanding to South America. Needless to say, Jon and I are big fans of this type of responsible eco-tourism and the local initiatives.

Another nice thing is that the staff is encouraged to talk with the guests, which allows us to learn interesting things about India and for them to learn about other countries. We had an interesting talk last night with our waiter, who is from a village just outside of Delhi, where we learned that cow and water buffalo cheese are commonly eaten but goat cheese is not, despite the prominence of goats. He was surprised to learn that it is not common for the average family to own their own cow in the US. The guides and camp manager also commonly eats dinners with the guests and the coversation has included topics as diverse as Obama, cameras, and cricket.