Bandipur

20-21st February 2010

I was in Bandipur with my family last weekend. The exciting part of the trip was the sighting of a Tiger. It was resting on the edges of a pool.

The best part was that we could watch the Tiger for more than 20 minutes in peaceful conditions. More jeeps started trickling in as the news of the Tiger spread across the Safari groups. The Tiger was not very happy about this development and decided to move towards the bushes.


Elephant family
Just before the Tiger sighting, we had an interesting encounter with an elephant family. The Elephants were not happy seeing our Jeep due to some reason. From a higher area, we could see their angry behavior. Presence of a calf was also added to the commotion. Situation changed when our Jeep reached an open area. One of the Elephant started moving towards the Jeep.



I was trying to take snaps at that time. Suddenly, I saw only black color in my view finder and the camera refused to focus!! As I moved my camera down, I was stunned to see the pachyderm right in front of the jeep. Being at the window side of the open Jeep, I was within the reach of that Elephant.

Elephant lifted its trunk and trumpeted with rage. This was the crucial part where the Elephant decides for final attack or flees.

Fortunately, the giant creature could not muster enough courage to continue to attack and turned back!! All this happened within few seconds. I felt that I should have had a video camera.


I must say this was the closest and scrariest experience with elephants. The previous one was while trekking in Parambikulam forests.

Wild dogs
I would say that these are courageous animals as they were least bothered about our presence. They came very near to our Jeep.


Jungle fowl
This was the first time I managed to take a photo of it. Every time when I tried to take a snap of them, they used to run away!!


More photos of the trip can be seen here.

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