The three-day Ranthambore trip was over and I was on my way to Sariska via Bharatpur. Every single soul had advised me to drop these two places from the itinerary as ‘there are no tigers left in Sariska’ and the Keoladeo bird sanctuary at Bharatpur is now a desert where one can only find a few crows’. However, I am not a tourist but a traveller and I had no checklist to tick. And tigers or no tigers, forests never fail to cast a spell on me— even the teeth-chattering ride through the dirt roads and the smell of the first rays on the dew-kissed foliage has a charm of its own.
The manager of the hotel, Babulalji, suggested that I take a train from Sawai Madhopur to Bharatpur as the bus journey was not safe and he made sure that his ‘suggestion’ was followed! He got the auto and almost made the poor autowallah swear to god that he will get me the ticket and make sure ‘madam’ makes it to the right platform and the right train! And Babulalji was quick to add that I board the ‘Ladies compartment’. The shopwallah of RTDC, whose chacha works in Burrabazaar and who knows the exact distance and travel time from Kolkata to Gangasagar as much as the number of tigers in each zone of Ranthambhore and which is the best time to spot each, had repeatedly cautioned me against doing anything remotely ‘adventurous’ during the journey as this part of Rajasthan lies close to the border. And like all border towns is not very safe. But nothing could have prepared me for the ‘adventure’ I eventually landed myself in — a journey in an ‘unreserved’ ladies compartment!
It was three hours of absolute madness! The seats meant for four were occupied by seven and at times eight people, there were people sitting (read hanging) from the bunks meant to keep luggage, and the floor was occupied with random bags, trunks, jholas, mismatched shoes, people, feet, and what not. After almost an hour I got a speck of a seat and as I parked myself, I realised that over my head, hanging from the luggage bunk was one of the dirtiest pair of feet ever walked this planet. I was sharing my seat with five other women including a housewife from a well-off Brahmin family from Kota who wanted to be a teacher but was not allowed to, a Muslim girl who lives alone and breaks bricks at a construction site in Faridabad, another housewife from Mathura who has some home remedy for almost every ailment, and a Sikh lady with a kirpan and an infectious smile — each had their own story and their own journeys and yet were a part of the same story!
When I finally reached Keoladeo National Park it was around 4pm. As I got my entry ticket I was told that the best way to explore the park was by hiring a bicycle or a cycle-rickshaw! “What? A bicycle ride through a national park? Did I hear that right?” Of course I did! As I turned around I saw a fleet of bicycles and small box-shaped rickshaws standing at the gate. As it was hardly two hours before the park was to close down for the day, I opted for a rickshaw.
I did not have high expectations as far as bird-spotting was concerned as there were much written on how the heydays of this Ramsar Site are now over due to acute scarcity of water. But since my experience so far was limited to discerning crows and pigeons posing on lamp posts and statues, I hired a guide before embarking on the expedition.
However, after a while my guide told me the best way to explore this Unesco World Heritage site was by foot. So I got down from the rickshaw and decided to go off the beaten track. I was pleasantly surprised to find my guide to be quite a knowledgeable person and the sanctuary throbbing with avian population! From common parakeets, peacocks, owls and kingfishers to pin tailed ducks, purple herons, grey hornbills, and painted storks — it was a feast for the eyes.
My guide told me that under a new government project, some water from the Chambal river has been diverted to this region and this is slowly bringing back the birds to Keoladeo and Keoladeo back to life. The sun was about to set and I was a tad disappointed to have missed the boat ride. But it was time to leave and Sariska was waiting for me the next day.
Sariska is an hour-long bus ride from Alwar. Somewhere in the beginning of 2005 it was discovered that there were no tigers left in Sariska Tiger Reserve and poachers were blamed. It was decided that tigers would be reintroduced to the forest and in 2008 Sariska got its first tiger from Ranthambhore under this project. A total of six tigers have been relocated so far (this before the arrival of ST-7) and at present the number of tigers in this reserve forest is five. Although the topography is similar, spread across an area of around 866 km, it is much larger than Ranthambhore. This makes tiger sightings at Sariska extremely rare and most ‘tiger lovers’ prefer to give it a miss. After spending three days in the tourist-infested Ranthambhore, I desperately needed a trip to a forest which didn’t feel like a picnic spot.
The first thing I noticed was that instead of Canters all tourists can avail jeeps which meant fewer crowds and less chance of ending up with whining babies. Nothing spoils a jungle safari more than a noisy crowd and I had my share of that at Ranthambhore. Also, it is easier to explore the interiors of the forest in jeeps as they can easily ply on the narrow dirt roads.
Apart from the driver, there was a forest guard who spoke little but smiled a lot. Ours was the only vehicle on the route apart from a few occasional patrol cars. 15-minutes into the tiger reserve, I was already in love with the rugged beauty of Sariska and the forest was bustling with activities — as the vegetation was sparse we spotted a fox running after a peacock for no apparent reason, two deer locking horns in a friendly fight, a swamp deer trying a mud pack to cool off, a congregation of spotted deer waiting for some divine miracle, an antelope trying to pass itself off as an unicorn, and what not.
The forest guard decided to check the control room if there is any movement of a tiger nearby. After the reintroduction of tigers the forest department has become extra-cautious and now all five tigers have been radio-collared and cameras have been installed in various areas of the forest to monitor their movements.
There was a signal, though a frail one, coming from top of one of the hills. Our guard had a gut feeling that it might come down in another half an hour and cross the road — nothing works better than a forest guard’s gut feeling in times such as these and we decided to give it a shot. We drove to the road which the tiger might cross and waited. There was an eerie calm and we could almost feel one another’s heartbeats. It was certainly not one of the best places to park a car—the tiger might come from any side and the guy might just not be in the mood for visitors. On times like these reading the hanuman chalisa, or a mere Ram-naam might have helped boost the morale but being an atheist all I found myself muttering was the Mountain Dew tagline: Dar ke agey jeet hay!
After waiting for quite some time, we lost patience and our guard decided to go back and recheck the signals. We were half-way to the control room when the driver suggested it was better that we try for the same tiger and wait at the same spot as there were hardly 45 minutes left until all vehicles are supposed to be out of the park. So we made a U-turn and as we reached the road there it was! Walking majestically down the road! Even the forest guard could not believe his luck! “This is the first time I am seeing this one! It is the ST-6—one of the two male tigers!” whispered the guard.
The driver slowly started following the tiger and I started shooting (of course with my camera!). After some time it turned back and faced the camera with an amused look. For the next 15/20 minutes we kept following it until it got bored with all the attention and went down into the jungle. I pinched myself! Ouch! It really did happen then! After Bandhavgarh, Corbett, Ranthambhore, I managed to spot a tiger even in Sariska!
