JAN 08, 2009. FRIDAY.

BANDIPUR NATIONAL PARK

On a nice bright afternoon, I set out at 4pm on a game ride. We took the Reception Road and with in 5 mins of being on the game ride, my guide received a phone call that another group had seen a tiger on the other side of the park. We continued on with the ride and wanted to just get close to the area where the tiger was spotted. 15 mins later on, our jeep driver brakes the vehicle to a grinding halt and exclaims TIGER! TIGER! I pop my head out of the vehicle and try to spot the tiger in the direction that he was pointing. I look into all the far away bushes and openings, I couldnt see it! Until a movement very close to the jeep caught my attention. The tiger was sitting at about 15 ft away from the vehicle, in a slushy depression on the ground. The tiger was too close for my big lens, so had to change to a smaller one. This was the tourist friendly Big male tiger of Bandipur – Agasthya!

The depression he was sitting had some water and this had formed into a thick black slush because of the black soil around. I initially thought that the tiger was just cooling of the heat, but why this hole when there were many inviting bigger water holes near by? I really couldn’t make out what the tiger was doing with his head down in the pit. When I  saw the big black patches on his mouth,  I realized that he was slurping up the slush and soaking in it too. I was informed by the Guide that this tiger had a wound in its front paw and was last seen 15days ago with a bad limp. He got up and walked away after being in the pit for nearly 20 minutes, without any signs of a limp.

Was this tiger eating mud to heal its body or make up for some mineral deficiency or some intestinal disorder??

The guides with me were quite well informed and were able to predict where we would be able to catch him next, when he disappeared into the bushes. We spent an amazing 2 and half hours with the tiger – tracking, spotting and Clicking!! I ended up with some 400 images and 4 GB of HD videos!