Park gate opened at 3:15pm. My safari vehicle driver and the guide might have decided on the strategy to show me a tiger. My vehicle driver started zooming very fast inside the park and I had tough time to balance my 600mmf4 lens mounted on a tripod. He was taking particular path inside the park and not even looking left and right – this is not the kind of ride I got used to in our jungles. Typically we move slowly and see what nature has to offer to make some images. But here it appeared as if the driver had an appointment with the tiger at a particular spot!
We reached that mystery spot around 3:35pm. The place appeared completely dry – a rocky region without trees. I could not believe presence of any prey population in that region. I asked my driver as to why we stopped there. He showed me a cave about 50 feet below and said there may be a tiger resting there which may come out in the evening – and it was not the first ride where I had such promises. I don’t blame him however – it is a wild jungle, not a zoo. We can’t predict where these gentlemen (tigers) are in the wild. He said the strategy for the evening was to wait there till end of that evening. I reluctantly agreed (and was ready to write-off one more day and related expenses).
Soon after another safari vehicle came by and my driver promptly told them there could a tiger hiding there. They started waiting too. In next one hour about fifteen more safari vehicles circled that spot hoping to see a tiger there. Having wasted an hour there I could not control my self and asked my driver what is the guarantee that the tiger is hiding there. The reply was as expected – “there is no guarantee”. I appreciated his honest reply however. Only consolation was I was not the only stupid waiting there – there were 15 more vehicles and about 50+ tourists waiting there!
Sun was fast going down the hills. I was mostly sure of the (another) wasted evening. Light turned golden yellow and I was dreaming of casting some golden stripes on my camera’s sensor. I don’t wanted a ride inside the jungle without a single image. So I tried making some image of an egyptian vulture flying far off in the beautiful golden light.
Sun was going further down the hill on the west. A few minutes of light was left and I zoomed out and in my wide angle lenses to see any interesting perspective that would show up through the view finder. Thanks to the big party there and noise around my brain refused to work. I decided to make some productive use of the time by counting safari vehicles gathered there! Counted 27 vehicles and a few more were still arriving.
Last rays of sun were getting diffracted off mountain edges. Suddenly a few safari vehicles moved and a few shouted tiger tiger ! I was on the other side of the semi circle of vehicles. My driver suddenly moved the vehicle too. Thank God my 600mmf4 did not topple. Next few seconds of frantic movement – my driver was negotiating a complex path between scores of vehicles assembled there. While moving down I saw a huge beautiful striped gentle man moving. The very last golden rays were still getting reflected off those stripes. Sad, I was not in a position to make an image since the vehicle was moving. There was a total chaos, vehicles moving and obstructing views, several people shouting, drivers yelling at other drivers. By then tiger decided to sit down amidst a grass region since its path was blocked. My driver got back to our original spot where we were standing hoping to have a better view. All I could see was the beautiful head of the tiger. By then sun went below the distant mountain. My camera started showing shutter speeds less than 1/60sec. Good I was armed with my D700 and did not hesitate to push to ISO to 3200.
The clock ticked away and was getting closer to 6pm. It takes about 20 minutes drive to reach the gate. Park authorities levy heavy fine if any safari vehicles gets delayed beyond 6:15pm. I was not sure whether the tiger will get up. Sure it did !!
It got up, went below the small valley and climbed up only to see about 30 vehicles blocking its path. It spared a second looking at all the vehicles, decided its narrow path amidst vehicles which are only a few feet way.
The way it gently went in between vehicles as if there were none is still in my memory. All of a sudden we became so silly and mean amidst this gentleman of Bandavgarh. We had no business to interfere in its life the way we did – still it tolerated a behaved like a true gentleman. I felt the title of the Mr Vivek Sinha’s book “The Tiger is a Gentleman” is so well justified. It exhibited far more civilized behaviour than we humans assembled there to have a glimpse of it.
The gentleman negotiated its way into the woods. All the vehicles started zooming towards the main gate. I sat down thinking about last few minutes and the lesson gentleman has taught us on that shameful evening. When I reached the gate I had a nice mud bath – thanks to speeding vehicles and rising dust from the roads of the jungles.
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To the gentleman of the Bandhavgarh,
Wish I could some how convey this to you. My sincere apologies for being part of the crowd that evening.
I am very sorry,
- Ganesh H Shankar.
Some of the images made at Bandhavgarh National Park are here.
