6 days at Nagzira Wildlife Reserve; day 2
Feb 21st, 2008 by andrew skeoch
Nagzira’s evergreen forest
Our driver and guide sleep in the car overnight, parked at the back of our lodge. At 5.45am I go downstairs and wake them. They are both shivering from the cold, with only thin blankets for warmth. Sarah offers them our blankets to wrap around themselves until the morning chill wears off.
By 6am we are on the main west road, driving through the darkness of pre-dawn and encounter Rajeet, driving slowly back the other way. He is ecstatic. He has just seen a Tiger, a big male that walked along the road in front of his car for a while before heading into the undergrowth. Even though dawn is one of the best times to see Tigers, Rajeet has been extraordinarily lucky. We drive on a few hundred metres to where Rajeet saw his beast. It is beginning to get light, and a Langur is giving alarm calls a short way off in the forest, indicating the tiger is still around. I decide to stop and record, its the first time I’ve heard those calls so clearly. The dawn birdsong is gathering pace too, but disappointingly seems to be dominated by Parakeets screeching as they fly overhead. A Racket-tailed Drongo calls overhead, a beautiful fluting call that I haven’t heard them make before, which is not surprising as they are such extraordinary vocalists and mimics.
Langur alarm calls and Racket-tailed Drongo
The forest here is dense evergreen jungle, and there is no way I could see a tiger. For safety I stay close to the vehicle, although I understand they are not usually a threat to people. During our first Indian visit in 2002, we were with a parks ranger who ran after a tiger with his camera in hopes of a closer photograph before the animal headed into the scrub. No doubt he knew from experience that in that circumstance it was reasonably safe. For myself, in the absence of that knowledge, I’ve decided to adopt an approach best summed up by our Australian ex-prime minister’s immortal advice to ‘be alert, not alarmed’.
Meanwhile, Radisham, our guide and protector, has fallen asleep in the back seat of the car. Satish is getting fidgety, and wakes Radisham up to chat with him. Sarah tells them both to be quiet as I am recording. The dialogue moves to intimate whispers. It becomes obvious we are going to have a problem with these two as they have no idea of how to be quiet. After a while we move on, exploring the maze of forest tracks. As we move further from the core areas, the forest becomes drier and more teak-dominated. The purely evergreen woodlands seem to have relatively little birdlife, so these drier mixed-forest areas are worth investigating further. We come across a riverine area with adjacent teak forest that looks promising. However it is now nearly 9am, and the morning birdsong has abated.
I take the opportunity to impress on Radisham and Satish the importance of absolute silence by showing them how sensitive the microphones are. This strategy fails completely as they are fascinated by being able to hear every sound they each make. On our way back we pause at the tiger location again. The Langur calls are still audible, although less frequent and some further distance away. We are warming to Radisham, who has a quiet and thoughtful temperament, and we are managing to communicate even with the most rudimentary English. By contrast Satish is acting like a cheeky kid, showing off and telling jokes. As we stand by the car a Chital (Spotted Deer), presumably unsettled by our presence, suddenly gives off an alarm call, a loud yelp. Satish, startled, dives into the car, leaving us laughing at his unease. He covers up by pretending to get something from the car and emerges with a big grin.
Evening safari is from 3pm until 6, and reveals little. The forest is quiet, and the only highlight is a group of grazing Gaur (Indian bison), including one massive bull looking oddly cute with his white lower legs.
It is confirmed, tomorrow the park will be closed, a holiday for guides and staff prior to what is often a busy weekend of visitors. We’ve been told that despite being surrounded by forest, we will not be able to go into it for the day. Grounded. Over dinner Rajeet tells us he has obtained special permission to go out of the park and visit neighbouring wetland areas, and invites us to join him. If we take our vehicle we can all go together, so we agree to pick him up at his nearby lodgings at 6am.
[...] Read on: Day 2 [...]