INDIA 2010 : Thanksgiving Tiger

Nov 25 – At breakfast word quickly spread that Ranthambhore was open, much to everyone’s delight! While turkey is reserved for Christmas, today we were ecstatic to have Thanksgiving tiger!

Though assigned Track 2, we were allowed to go on Track 3 as well as most of 2 was closed due to wet and muddy road conditions. Once through the Fort gate we got close looks at Indian Peafowl, Oriental White Eyes and Coppersmith’s feeding in a ficus when we heard distant Spotted Deer alarm calls. We wound our way along Track 2 and ran into a Gypsy that had seen a tiger walking away from them. The alarm calls faded and the tiger had slipped away into the forest.

We returned to Track 3 and proceeded around the main lakes, Padam and Rajbagh stopping for the scenic views and pairs of noisy Red-wattled Lapwings that lined the edges. Most of the canters and Gypsy’s on the route had also converged here hoping that a tiger would appear. One by one we all dispersed but we seemed to be the only ones that went anti-clockwise around the lake. Pankaj caught a glimpse of movement through distant tree trunks, bent down for a better look, and said ‘yes, T17’! Our combined response was “Where? Where?”

We positioned ourselves to watch the tigress walk towards us and we could see that she was radio collared. To our astonishment she jumped up onto a massive banyan tree and took a few steps before turning around and climbing down.

She was now face to face with us barely twenty feet away looking at us. She is the tigress also known as the ‘Lady of the Lake’ and looked as though she was in need of a meal. Crossing behind our canter she entered a patch of grass and walked parallel to the track.

We drove ahead of her and watched her cross the track, walking into open woods towards a shaded pool of water. For a couple of minutes she lay down in the deepest part of the pool, shook the water off her head and yawned.

Continuing on her way she once again crossed the track and entered a denser section of forest. We could see her about 50 meters from us walking up a gentle slope. We drove on to a higher vantage point on the edge of grassland hoping her path would take her back into full view. Alas, at the last moment she changed direction walking down and away from us, and out of sight.

We were the only ones to see all this unfolded spending about fifteen minutes with nature’s most impressive and majestic beast.