Tadoba: Thrilling Tiger Safari- Day 2 (morning safari)

Spotted deer

 There was a sign board hanging right outside on of the gates through which we entered the core area of the Tadoba National Park which said something along the lines of:

'Your guide may open the jungle book for you, but if you go in with the expectation of only seeing a tiger, you'll be disappointed.'

Our second safari proved this. It was day two of waking up at an an ungodly hour. The gate to the core area was several kilometres away from our resort, so we had to get an early start. We woke up at 4am, got dressed, and were gathered in the parking lot by 4.45 am. 

Tadoba National Park is located in Central India, in the state of Maharashtra.It is India's oldest and largest national park, spread over an area of 625 sq. kilometres. From what we were told by our guides, we came to understand that the Park is divided into the core zone and the buffer zones. Core area is all jungle, whereas the buffer zone, as the name suggests, is the area of overlap between the jungle, and the villages surrounding the jungle. 

Since our first safari in the buffer zone had been hugely successful, I at least was expecting to have many tiger sightings in the core area. But it wasn't to be. Did we spot animals? Yes! Were any of them tigers? No! However, it was still a wonderful early morning safari. The weather was pleasant, and we were surrounded by the sights and sounds of the jungle.

Indian gaur/Indian bison

After getting less than three hours of sleep for the second night in a row, I found myself wanting to nod off as we drove on the dirt road in the open jeep. We saw a lot of herbivores: spotted deer, sambar deer, Indian gaur or Indian bison, wild boars, langurs, many, many varieties of birds with the red-naped ibis, and the Indian roller being the highlights for me. There were many peacocks as well with their full, colourful tails. The jungle fowl with their strange cries were also almost ubiquitous. 

Sambar deer

Once or twice, we heard the cry of the sambar deer signalling danger, which made our excitement levels shoot up, but it was in vain. I won't lie and say that not spotting a tiger wasn't disappointing because it was, but just as the safari was coming to an end, there was that mad dash again, but this time, it was for a sloth bear! It wasn't a very good sighting, with the sloth bear on the move, partially hidden by the shrubs, and not as close as the tiger from day 1, but not everybody is lucky enough to see a sloth bear.

On our first safari, the guide had told us that just like The Big Five in the African savanna, there were four animal species which were considered the VIPs of the Tadoba National Park. One was of course the tiger. The other three were: the wild dogs, the sloth bear, and the leopard. When the guide had told us about the VIPs, a thought had immediately crossed my mind that it would be so cool to actually spot all the four in the wild! 

So far, we had sighted a tiger and a sloth bear. Would we be lucky enough to spot the other two? Leopards are extremely elusive cats, notoriously difficult to spot. And the wild dog population had been decreasing, thanks to the increasing tiger population. Our guide told us that the wild dogs prey on the tiger cubs, which in turn make the tigers hunt them down.

So did we spot the VIPs of the jungle? Stay tuned to find out!

To read the first part of the travelogue, click here.

All photos have been clicked by The Cousin.