The fact that the road is of only 10 feet width and the vehicles pass almost at 5 feet and less distance from these pachyderms, shows the tolerance levels  these mammals have towards humans. I have been witness to giants literally (elephants of more than 12 feet and heavily built) standing at less than 5 feet of distance while vehicles have gone past them. This then raises the question of why do these elephants attack ? In almost all cases of these attacks it us – humans who are to be blamed. In most cases some passing by  vehicle stops right in front of these giants to photograph them. Then the hullaboo created by the travellers. In addition people expect these animals to behave in tandem to their domesticated brethern. Meaning no idea, respect for the wild animal. If all this is not enough, we have amongst these travellers a few show offs. who do some stupid things to have their egos stoked .

I have been privy to a lot of sightings at very very close quarters (sometimes too close to my liking) and have been charged by these elephants in one/two     occasions only. And these charges were mock ones where the elephants were telling us to give them some space.

This young bull was standing on the road peacefully as we and dozens of other vehicles crossed him.

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Adult males, pregnant and lactating females have an unusual hairless, blood red spot located about half way down on the underside of the throat.  Sambar males live alone and females in herds up to twenty in number. Like most deer, they are silent while during rutting the males bellow. When sensing danger, the deer stamp their feet and make large ringing calls called “pooking”.

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We saw this lovely male lead his herd and walk around the lake of Kodaikanal. With a lot of vehicles moving behind the herd, the herd melted into the nearby bushes and then emerged in the backside of the CSI resort of Kodaikanal. We were lucky to sight them at very close quarters.

Finally the dogs in the resort started barking at the herd, forcing the herd to move into more dense areas.

It was interesting to see the interaction between the wild ones and the domesticated animal.

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IUCN estimates that there are about 3000-3500 of these primates scattered over the staes of Tamilnadu, Karnataka and Kerala. This makes these macaques rare and threatened.

This beauty was photographer at Valparai.

It was in such a mindset, that I saw these amazing birds at Gavi in Periyar Tiger Reserve. I decided to try my luck and waited for about an hour before I got my capture. The beauty of the whole thing was that there was a flock of these birds along with their larger cousins – the loten’s sunbird also.

The purple rumped sunbirds are so named for their purple rump. The birds are small , less than 10cm in size . They have thin curved beaks which enable to feed on nectar from flowers. The males have a dark maroon upperside with a greenish blue crown. They have a purple rump. The female has a white throat with yeellowish breast. The upperside is olive or brownish.

The birds are mostly seen close to the ground hopping and foraging. They are territorial. Males are aggressive and defend their territory.  Males sing loudly during breeding season.

This bird was perched on electric line in the suburbs of Madurai. The bird was totally engrossed in its foraging activities and allowed us to approach quite close to it.

This cat has killed a gaur near a water hole. We kept watching the carcass thinking we would see the cat feeding but he managed to give us the slip. We just managed to see it disappearing into the shrubs.

During particular months, the road through chinnar is interspersed with pachyderms. Large herds of elephants can be seen on the roadside peacefully grazing. Unless disturbed these giants rarely get tempermental.

After a couple of days stay at Chinnar we were returning, when we saw this giant crossing the road. It was interesting to see that it was crossing the road right where a board was warning people of elephants crossing the road.

The Malabar grey is about 45cms in length with about 20cms of tail and a pale yellow to orange beak. Males have a reddish beak while the females have a pale yellow one.  The birds fly with a strong flap and then glide.  Their calls are loud and are composed of loud cackling, screeching.

We were lucky to find a flock of these birds roosting on a couple of trees besides our base camp. It became an obsession with our team members to track the birds and to find the exact count of them. Photographing them proved difficult since the birds took cover in the dense foliage with their coloring also blending in.