Winter Visit To Tadoba

Tadoba is a place which is close to my heart; it has given me the extreme disappointing as well as the extreme exiting moments. The same happened this time as well. After roaming around Western ghat couple of weeks for migratory winter visitors I have decided to visit Tadoba for a change. As always I came with lot of expectations; beginning wasn’t bad; at least I could spot a Tigress (Sitara) in the first safari itself; but couldn’t click. When we reached there it went into the bushes.

Then started the 3 consecutive dry safaris; actually I didn’t even get a single shot. But the tiger movement was pretty good in the park as the other people ( obviously except photographers 🙂 ) were able to see the tigers; somehow my luck was bad. We tried one safari in the buffer zone as well; but the same result.

On the previous day the tigress Maya had killed a Sambar deer near the Pandarpouni area and we we anticipating that she will come again to eat the kill. So evening we shunned the other spots without wasting time and went straight to the spot where the kill has happened yesterday. We just arrived and Maya was just coming to the spot. Luckily there were only two vehicle in front of us and I could manage to click few shots handheld.

Then started the real show- her cubs started to come one by one – in fact nobody expected that.  It was for the first time I was watching tiger cubs of small size. They were just 4 months old. They were following their mother one after other.  This was the first time Maya took her cubs to the visiting area and again I was fortunate enough to witness the moment 🙂 . It was a pleasure to watch those cuties; what a sight it was!!!. They were bit hesitant and confused, may be the first time they are into the outside environment. I was clicking without any break and didn’t see the cubs first. I have noticed them when the other visitors started shouting with excitement. We were clicking; one guy in our vehicle took a video of them; after watching it even I felt like I could have taken a video instead of clicking 🙂 . It was a visual treat!!!

There were around 40 vehicles in a line. But out jeep was in second position. Thank God, otherwise we could have missed the show. They went to the water body near by and start playing. In between one cub came near to his mother and put his head beneath mothers head and start drinking water. How cute it was 🙂 . 

Once they went inside the bushes, we searched for leopards in another area. Once we came back to the place after a round, I could see the famous veteran cricket player Mr. Anil Kumble in another jeep. From his face expression we could guess that he has missed the show 🙂  The other safaris except this was dry, but this was more than enough to compensate. 

I am pretty sure Tadoba going to rock this season. There is one more mother and cub group (Sonam & three cubs) in the park. But still they didn’t appear. Once they come out, this will be ultimate treat for the photographers. I have already planned for another two visits to Tadoba 🙂

Please see the clicks of this trip, Here