Ryan, Andre, and John embarked on a photography tour of Bandhavgarh, sharing their experiences of thrilling encounters with diverse wildlife, breathtaking landscapes, exciting safaris, and valuable photography tips that enhanced their appreciation for nature.

Report By: Mr. Sudhir Sharma

Three Great friends decided to take Photography tour of Bandhavgarh from 10 April 24 to 17 April 24. The planning started in November 23. Recent year experience taught us not to take safaris in one park if you going for week time. Due to climate change it rains twice a month all the year around. So, we suggested them to take Panna national park for 02 nights. Ryan agreed to our suggestion. Itinerary was finalized, safaris were booked.

10 April 24:

Ryan, Andre & John landed at Jabalpur airport in the afternoon. The flight was delayed by 15
minutes. After receiving from the airport started driving to Panna. Jabalpur Panna is approximately
five hours. We reached our resort by 08:30 pm. we took a tea break on the way.

11 April 24 Morning: Madla zone great start with two sub adults’ cubs of T151.

The Central Indian parks have good timing for opening & closing. The morning shifts are longer than
afternoon shifts. We started from hotel around 05:15 am. All our safaris were confirmed in Madla
zone which is the prime zone of Panna.

Mr. Ryan & Mr. Andre are good photographers and Mr. John believes in experiencing the things.
This is Ryan’s second time in India with wildlife destination. Previously he went to Jim Corbett. He
told me that he took 05 safaris in Jim Corbett and got two sightings of tigers.

After entering the park, we found two sub adult cubs of T151 beside road. The light was low. Soon
Sun came & later only cameras sound was heard. The cubs moved to change their positions which
gave us some opportunity to make some videos as well.

After some time, we got information by other guide that two sub adult other cubs of T151 are siting
on hill about 20 meters from the road. It was little bit far & we rushed to that point. As soon as we
reached that spot, we saw them moving inside. They were dragging some old kill. We saw them with
naked eye but failed to take ay photo as they were moving away from us constantly. Actually,
Sunlight has reached up to them & they decided to move in shader place. Soon they vanished from
our sight.

Age of these sub adult cubs is around 18 months.

11 April 24 Afternoon: Madla zone with leopard in afternoon & same two sub adults cubs of T151.

In the afternoon we entered the park around 03:30 pm. We searched the same place where cubs
were sighted in the morning but due to high temperature they might had moved to river bed side.
The Ken rivers which flow parallel to Panna National Park is perineal rivers which offers great habitat
to tigers. The river has many green patches of Black berry trees where tigers love spends hot time of
the day in summer.

Our guide Manoj Dwivedi (15 years), decided to take around of territory of T141. This winter season
T151 was seen in matting with two or three males’ tigers. Her previous liter was mature enough to
survive so they left her. It is normally observed that cubs stay with mother up to 2 and ½ years until
they become fit to survive alone.

Her sightings were low so it is assumed that she might be pregnant. Once a tigress conceives, then
she starts searching safe place for the cubs & delivery. This is time she is not seen & confined to
much remote area of park where even our jeeps cannot go.

After there we moved to Vultures point. While driving to Vultures’ point a jeep going ahead of us
saw a leopard. It crossed the road & went into side stream. We & other jeeps too waited for some
time. Later Manoj told us that this looard may go to the Vultures point. By noise of jeep the leopard
did not move. All jeeps came to Vultures point. We were in doing photography of vultures in bright
day light. Suddenly the same leopard appeared on the back side of vultures. What a guess by Manoj!

Panna’s terrain is three-tiered plateau so sighting of leopard was easy. Thin forest made good
photographs of leopard possible.

While returning after leopard sighting, we find the same two sub adult cubs with some distance
from the morning positions. It is believed that wild life is active either in early morning or late
evening. This time one the cub just crossed behind our jeep.

11 April 24 Evening: Night safari in Jhinna Zone with two leopards.

If you ever have a chance for night safari in Panna, then do not miss it. Jhinna buffer zone offers
great sightings of leopards & sloth bears. Our 80% clients saw leopard there. Guides try their best to
show you something. You cannot take photographs by 600 mm Lense but a different experience.

We saw two leopards. one was walking away & the other was eating a kill. he was siting behind the
kill so only its eyes were seen while he was tearing flesh from the kill.

12 April 24 Morning: Madla zone no sights due to bad weather.

This morning from no where clouds came on & covered the whole park. But we were ok as we got
some good stuff on day one. We did not see sunlight during our stay in the park from 05:45 am to
10:30 am duration. After leaving the park went to hotel had lunch left for our next destination
Bandhavgarh. After driving for 04 hrs. with tea break, we reached our next resort.

13 April Moring: Tala zone with two tigers one male & female from same liter.

Tala is one of the beautiful zones of Bandhavgarh & with large grasslands it is no doubt one of the
best habitats for tigers. The spring water coming from mountain all around adds glamour to this
place. This park once used to have highest density of tigers in India. I am taking clients to
Bandhavgarh since 2002, and seen 04 or 05 different tigers sharing same water hole. This is the
uniqueness of Tala zone & Bandhavgarh.

Our guide Ayodhya is one of the best & experience guides. His trekking skills are marvelous beside
birding. We met Ayodhya at gate Tala zone. He decides to take around of Chakradhara area in tala.
Some jeeps we saw were waiting at side of stream & the tigress was sleeping in the grass. The light
was perfect & suddenly Chakradhara female’s daughter stood up from the dark green grass &
moved towards the other side. Great start from Tala in first safari. Some really good pictures were
taken by our guests. This sighting went on for 20 minutes.

Later we decide to check other tigers in tala zone away from Chakradhara area. We drove for next
one hours & finally reached the center point. In central Indian parks as I said morning safaris are 05
hrs long so one has to take pack breakfast in safari. Centre place is the point with toilets & small

shops where you can have tea. We had our breakfast & later started coming back towards entry
gate.

Just as we entered the chakradhara area (same route is followed) we heard a strong alarming call of
Monkey. The calls were intense and forced us to check the area. As it is big grass land so was
difficult to check the whole patch. Ayodhya took his binocular & tried to locate the monkey who’s
calling continuously. He found that monkey was constantly looking at the base of Big Bayana tree.
Suddenly he found the tiger & we were able to see him. Not sure if Ryan was able to make any
photos even by 600 mm Lense due little far. But it added to our tigers’ tally definitely.

13 April afternoon: Tala zone with two tiger’s same female of morning & Bajrang male.

In the afternoon safari our zone was same as morning so we were pretty sure of seeing same tigers
once again. We rushed to that area checked the for male which we missed for photographs. But that
guy was sleeping deep inside. Later we moved to point where we left Chakradhara female. During
the day time tigers avoid hot places & move to deeper & colder areas which stream water flows.
After waiting for some time, we saw female tigress walking on side of the road. Good sightings were
done.

Later we found Bajrang (dominant male) of chakradhara area. He was sleeping beside the road
under big tree. He is quite used to vehicles & can walk with 30 Jeeps. He once decides to cross the
road then we cannot stop him to do so. He is the real boss of Tala zone.

All of sudden the weather changed & it started raining heavy. A big thunder storm in the Month of
April is best manifestation of climate change. But we are not ready to accept it.

The wind was so strong that we decided to leave the park.

In total the first day in Tala zone was great!

14 April 24 Morning: Zone Khitauli with Huge leopard.

The previous heavy rain alarmed us for less chances of tiger sightings. So, we started for new zone.
Khitauli has more bamboo trees patches in its vegetation. But it is home for two or three tigresses
with cubs. Here greenery is less to Tala zone.

We started to check the area of Tara tigress. She got new three cubs recently but was nit seen by
any tourist’s jeep. The cubs are supposed to be 02 to 03 months old.

As it was cloudy, no sun even then we drove fast to check Tara’s territory. Suddenly we heard
monkey giving alarming calls. We stopped for a while to check it proper direction. All of sudden Ryan
spotted a huge leopard moving fast some 15 meters from road. He was really walking very fast. But
got see it completely. Our only jeep was there. Later other jeeps came but they were unable to see
it.

After seeing leopard, we decided to check other female called Darrah female with cubs. The weather
as I told you was not clear but still, we need to take chance. That area is about 01 ;30 hrs. drive from
Tara’s territory. Other jeeps who came from Darrah side told us about pugmarks so we do want to
check it as we had seen the exclusive leopard.

We spent good time in Darrah female’s area but didn’t spot her. Although there were few calls by
spotted deer’s which kept us waiting in that area. Later we moved to Centre point for breakfast.

At Centre point when we met other jeeps, we came to know that Tara & her cubs were seen by
three jeeps just near by the leopard place. We missed the Tara’s first sighting with new cubs.

The mistake Me & Ayodhya committed was that we might have checked Tara’s areas again when we
did not find other jeeps in Darrah female’s area. We should have waited much time for Darrah
female.

Bandhavgarh is place with different soil texture & water logging conditions are not observed there.
Which means a tiger can even move after rain. This is very rare in other parks. I have seen many
times tiger in Bandhavgarh after rains.

14 April 24 Afternoon: Zone Khitauli with Chota Bheem huge male tiger.

Me & Ayodhya were little depressed After missing Tara & family in the morning. We directly reached
to the morning spot where Tara was sighted near the check post. But guards told us that she crossed
the checked & moved to buffer zone which is hardly 15 minutes’ walk for tiger.

Then we decided to check every water point of Khitauli zone. As we reached Van Taliya water point,
we found Chota Bheem tiger cooling himself inside the little pond. He is as bold as Bajrang &
dominant the Khitauli zone.

15 April morning: Khitauli zone with D1 male tiger.

This morning our zone booked in advance was Magdhi but we requested to ranger to make it
Khitauli as we wanted to take one more chance for Tara & rectify our mistake. The ranger officer
obliged us & change our zone to Khitauli.

We again rushed to Tara’s territory but no sign of moment was there. We decided to move on. As
were moving on hilly terrain suddenly Sambhar ‘s warning call came. We stopped for a while & try
to locate it. that was sambhar deer was moving towards a stream down valley. We followed the
direction of call & reached at the base of the stream. We checked the whole stream both side with
binoculars. Later Ayodhya spotted tiger D1(male) sleeping in the middle of the stream about 500
meters.

There was a water pocket beside tiger & that sambhar want to come to drink water but did not dare
after seeing the tiger. This is how warning call from Sambhar deer helped us to see tiger. Sambhar
deer’s & Monkeys call are most reliable calls for any predator. Their calls mark the presence of any
predator within 50 meters diameter.

15 April 24 Afternoon: Magdhi zone with Dotty’s Daughter & Tuskars.

Magdhi is third core zone of Bandhavgarh beside Khitauli & Tala. This zone two years back has more
tiger moment & sightings. But now dotty ‘s cubs are al grown up so they intend to live separately so
sighted less. So, this year there were less sightings so we focused on Khitauli & Tala only.

Before entering the park, we went up to the main bridge. There was DM (Dhamhokhar male) male
tiger sleeping under the tree in stream. We did not stop more there & went to Magdhi zone gate. He
is mostly seen at spot from the main tar road.

After entering the park & driving for 45 minutes we spotted one young female tigress from Dotty’
last liter. This new tigress seems to be as bold as her mother. Good photos were taken. We spent
about 01;30 hrs around her. she corssed the road & sat on the bank of water body meant for
drinking water for animals. There are many made water pockets in side park which filled by tankers
to keep tigers inside the park. We need three things to keep tigers inside the park. They are food
(herbivores) water & cover (grasslands).

Time to leave the park was approaching so we left her & started driving towards the gate. Suddenly
Wild elephants’ small group with calf’s came on the main road just in front our jeep. They did not
allow us. So, we decided to take another road towards gate.

16 April Morning: Khitauli zone with No sightings.

This was our second last safari of the trip. We were excited for more action with tigers. This safari we
did not have any luck. Meanwhile we focused on birds’ photography as well.

16 April 24 Afternoon: Tala Zone with Chakradhara Female 01 & 04 cubs.

This afternoon safari was the final safari in Tala zone. Ayodhya collected information from morning
safari guides who went to Tala this morning. He found that Chakradhara female 01 was sighted by
one jeep while leaving the park in the morning shift. Cubs foot prints were also noted. This tigress is
not the same tigress that we saw in the very first drive in Tala zone. This tigress is Senior then the
first one but lives around Sita mandap area, very hilly terrain.

We drove to territory & start waiting for her. Suddenly around 04;30 pm we saw tigress coming
down from the hill towards us. There were two cubs with her also. They were quite small (03
months) so they were getting down very slowly behind their mother. This area is valley with one side
stream. Every one was trying to see other cubs. Soon tigress started growling for other cubs. These
other two cubs were on the other side of them in stream. They also responded by cute sound. Then
tigress with two cubs crossed the road & went in the stream to collect two others cubs. Later whole
family crossed again from our back side climb the hills.

This was our best experience with such tiny cubs in the last safari. All our prayers were accepted by
Goddess Durga & compensated the loss of Tara & her cubs sighting.

17 April 24: No Safari.

Today we dropped Ryan, Andre & John to Jabalpur airport to take flight to Delhi. Andre & John, they
fly back home same night from Delhi. Ryan went to Nepal & Bhutan.