The Jungle Look - Tales from the Indian Jungle

Bandipur National Park, Bandipur - 13th to 15th August 2004

After the successful exhibition of "Fauna Around Bangalore", it was time for me to head to Bandipur to do my part for the conservation of wildlife and the forest of Bandipur. I set off to Bandipur on Friday morning as I had to meet Mr Yatish Kumar, the DCF (Deputy Conservator of Forests) of Bandipur. By noon I was at Bandipur and met the DCF and his whole staff at his office. The weather was a bit dull and rains in the evening were almost certain, but still I took a chance and went for the evening safari. The sightings included Spotted Deer, Sambars , Elephants, Bison, and a whole lot of Birds which included the Blue Winged Parakeets, Crested Serpent Eagle, Brown Fish Owl, Indian Peafowl and the other commoners. We were unlucky in terms of any predators, but we did see some tiger and leopard pug marks and scat.

By next morning my friend Rajesh had joined me and we set off for a small trek along with our tracker Murthy. The weather was bright and sunny. A few minutes into the trek and Murthy asked us to back off as there was a herd of elephants. We waited for some time and then headed towards a small stream. There were a zillion butterflies (Blue Tigers) around the stream. I had never seen such an amazing view. They looked like dried leaves hanging from the trees. All the trees around the stream were filled with them. There were also the Common Grass Yellows. After spending some time at the stream we headed back to the Bandipur reception.

Later in the evening, we hired the "Namma Sangha" gypsy and headed for the safari. Just 10 mins into the jungle and we were greeted by a pack of Wild Dogs, also called Dholes. There were just three of them. The lighting was perfect and we spent around 45 mins with them. Further down and we met the Elephas maximus along with its calf. The evening safari was quite satisfactory as it's very rare to sight the wild dogs in such good lighting. We did see some fresh leopard scat and its pug marks.
But that's all we got to see.

The next day was August 15th, our Independence day. We finished a small safari in the morning and went to attend the Independence day celebration at a nearby school. The DCF along with his staff was present at the celebration. The school children entertained us with songs and dance. I donated some note books and other bare essentials to the school children. It was a great feeling to be part of the celebration. Later in the day we (Rajesh and me) met Yatish and Krupakar (Senani was at Mysore and could not join us) and discussed about the progress being made by "Namma Sangha" for the villagers around Bandipur and in turn help in the conservation of Wildlife. We also donated to Namma Sangha (part of the proceeds from my exhibition and other fund raisers) , which was my main purpose of visit to Bandipur.

By afternoon we packed up and left for Bangalore. We did shoot some birds along the way. Here's what I got during the trip:

Sambar                              Wild Dogs-6
Gaur-1                            Wild Dogs-7
Gaur-2                            Wild Dogs-8
Brown Fish Owl             Wild Dogs-9
Elephant-1                         Wild Dogs-10
Elephant-2                         Wild Dogs-11
Eurasian Collared Dove       Wild Dogs-12
Blue Tiger-1                     Wild Dogs-13
Blue Tiger-2                     Wild Dogs-14
ID-Needed                          Elephant-3
Common Grass Yellow        Elephant-4
Greater Coucal                    Gaur-3
Wild Dogs-1                        Rose Ringed Parakeet-female
Wild Dogs-2                        Indian Peafowl
Wild Dogs-3                        Yellow Billed Babbler
Wild Dogs-4                        Small Minivet
Wild Dogs-5                        Laughing Dove
                                          Ashy Prinia