It has been a while since the last post. A lot has happened since then, including another visit to Ranthambore over the first 4 days of June 2023. But as it is said, it's better late than never. Here is a quick recap of the last day at Ranthambore in February 2023, before chronicling the June pilgrimage. In case you haven't seen the last two parts, here is part 1 and part 2
....On our last day, the first safari was in zone 5. This was to be my first safari in this zone and I was quite excited to see it. I had heard about the terrain, water bodies etc. As we entered the gate at dawn, before the deep blue tones of the skies started getting lighter, there was a mad scramble of gypsies rushing in on the common stretch between zone 4 and zone 5. We later realised that it was to catch a glimpse of a leopard which had been seen. By the time we reached the point, the leopard had vanished almost into thin air, a task made much easier by the darkness. We continued with the momentum, searched a few trails and by the time the lights were bright enough, we reached one of the big water bodies of the zone. That was where we got a big shock. We saw scores of people traversing the core zone of the forest on foot, to visit a temple nestled somewhere near this lake. Our guide explained how the forest department had struggled to move the villages out of the core zones but were unable to do much about some of the religious shrines which are still frequently visited by locals. We reached one of the deepest points in the zone, where we could hear alarm calls at a distance. The sun was slowly peeking over the horizon and perhaps the tiger which was triggering these alarms had vanished. We got some time there to enjoy the ravishing beauty of the zone.
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| The picturesque zone 5. PC: Parimal Bansal |
As we were exploring other areas of the zone after this, we met another canter which had entered a little later than us. And they had seen a tiger on the Z4-Z5 common road just a short while after we had gone past and another one after the Z4 turning junction. Their identities were, T124 and T121 respectively. Riddhi was on the road just after we went past!!! Probably she saw us in the dark but we were unaware of her presence. We headed back in the direction hoping to catch a glance of either of these tigers. We saw the massive male T121, trodding along the Nala along the road. Though it was a nice sighting, it was a case of just missed with my favourite tiger Riddhi.
We headed back to the forest for the final time in this trip after an amazing lunch at Tiger Home. We were to cap off the trip with a ride through Zone 2, the zone where I had seen a tiger in Ranthambore for the very first time back in 2016. Not a lot had changed since then, with the exception of the entry point. It was quite hot in the afternoon and we thus started our search by looking at all the watering holes which is where tigers are normally seen cooling off. After the first few pools, we went past a water body which had some sunbathing crocodiles. We decided to split with the other gypsy and decided to check some of the inner reaches of the zone where tigers like T60 rule. We went through some stretches of roads which were damaged quite badly by the rains last October which made us realise how difficult the monsoons can be for all animals. We searched some of T60’s favourite watering holes and drew blanks everywhere. We were a little concerned that no other gypsy had reached us in over an hour. We figured that they may have seen a tiger somewhere. And we weren’t wrong
When we retraced our trail, we noticed a lot of vehicles parked right around the crocodile infested water-body I mentioned above. And everyone was waiting to see Noorie’s cubs. Our other gypsy had seen two of them there and seen them doze off behind some grass. This was less than a minute after we had split to look for T60. We took a risk, which would have paid off with an exclusive sighting but it didn’t pay off. So we waited and waited and waited. Many of the gypsies started leaving to meet the exit deadline. Which was when one of the cubs woke up. Perhaps it was thanks to a peacock annoying it with its hoarse calls. We managed to catch a glimpse of a cub, and then we got onto a rally car ride back to the gate. It was fast and furious and extremely dusty (since there was a vehicle in front of us). We were lucky to catch the glimpse and a photograph of the youngster in the grass which was as tall as him/her
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| Noorie's cub. A final goodbye glance |
With that we capped off a wonderful trip to the forests of Ranthambore, which had its ups and downs, some amazing sightings and memories. A big thank you to all the drivers, our guide Mushtak, the folks at Tiger Home and all others who were part of the trip. We all departed, eagerly awaiting the next trip in June, our annual pilgrimage which has been concluded at the time of posting this
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