Elephants with young ones

Bandipur National Park is an excellent place to see Asian Elephants. I have on numerous occasions seen herds of varying numbers, Tuskers and also have seen the largest Asian elephant congregation happening on the banks of Kabini.

This time around, I was very keen on sighting the star of the jungle namely the tiger. In fact it was a particular tigress that I was interested in seeing. More on that later. The Pachyderms never cease to amaze me. Their intelligence, their insight, always astonishes me. I saw the herd below trying to cross the trail path. Realizing that we were approaching at a fast pace, the herd slowed down.

Approaching head on to us was one of Bandipur’s safari vehicle. It also slowed down allowing the tourists inside to take photographs of the elephants. Seeing a horde of tourists and alarmed by flashes emanating from their camera, the adult female elephants trumpeted and moved a little into the lantana shrubs. It was only when they were moving into the shrubs, that we realized that there were two calves along with them.

After the safari vehicle passed us, we proceeded to cross the pachyderms. A little perturbed by the vehicles passing them, one of the females decided enough. She mock charged at our jeep trumpeting twice in rage. Though we knew it was a mock charge, the trumpeting sound at such close quarters, played havoc on my nerves, such that I was able to get shots of the herd only after we crossed them and that too by leaning out of the window.