Tigress at Bandipur

Bandipur has always occupied a special place in my heart. It was here that I saw a tiger for the first time in my life.

It is again here that I fulfilled my dream of capturing the tiger on my camera. Its been the mating season and tigers have been seen quite frequently even in the safari routes in pairs, singles calling out to their mate. On a personal front it was frustrating that I was missing these majestic cats when they were showing off their presence on an almost daily basis, while I was stuck in other mundane activities. Finally I got the chance to go. The first day we reached the guest house quite late in the night. Just as I was regretting my sense of timing, we turned fortunate with a large herd of elephants outside of our balcony at about 20 metres away. We had the pleasure of watching them for a good two hours. The next morning turned out to be the most memorable day in my life.

We had gone on the safari road of Bandipur and saw an elephant, a few sambars and a black headed kite. Just as we returning, our guide suddenly came to a halt and said the most awaited word for me “Tiger”. Right in front of us besides the shrubs, the great cat was looking for a place to rest. Paralysis stuck me. My mind/heart could not believe the vision in front of me. It took our guide to shake me out of the stupor. Coming back to senses, I focused the camera on the tiger and started snapping. We were with it for about 28-30 mints watching her. It was a regal beast and was in the least disturbed by us. The fixed stare of it on us was a little fraying on my nerves. The feeling is a little too complex to explain in words.

As if it had enough of putting on a show, the cat yawned and stood up. Then in an unhurried fashion it just strode towards us. The fluid muscles, the sheer power of the animal as its shoulders moved reminded us of how insignificant we were in front of this animal. But the animal showed no animosity towards us. It kept walking towards us and about 5 metres from us edged towards the shrubs, shirking away from us and continued its journey. As it crossed us , we realized that it was a female. The queen passed us and after a good 10 metres away from us, returned to the road and walked away.

Those 30 minutes to me has been one of the most spiritual moments of my life.