By the river side, an enchanting encounter by Gargi Mishra
Our experience of being just few metres away from a “Bachelor of Powalgarh”
The Camp Hornbill, a community-led enterprise, is right inside the Pawalgarh Conservation Reserve, a part of the larger Jim Corbett Tiger Reserve, Uttarakhand. Thus, it is but natural for one to relive Jim Corbett’s “The Bachelor of Powalgarh” while staying here. Corbett’s experience with that nearly 11 feet tiger does haunt you. This is true for people like me even who give birds the priority inside a tiger reserve.
We were deep inside the Pawalgarh Conservation Reserve on a foot trail led by our ornithologist friend Balwantbhai to track Himalayan birds. Balwantbhai is a walking encyclopaedia on local birds. The more he talked about birds, the deeper we ventured into the forest. My interest was to spot the Brown Fish owl. After nearly five kilometres excursion into the forest for a particular spot, we failed to find the owl.
While returning, we could hear fluttering inside forests. “Deer’s call to alert presence of humans”. That was how Balwantbhai described these sporadic animal movements. The movements became a bit frequent as me and my daughter started focusing on a few new birds. We got acquainted with the movements of animals not seen but just heard and felt.
I was stuck with a bird. I was not able to identify; it was far away and took time to keep the camera focused on it. In front of me a shallow water body.
At this point of time, I first heard alarm calls from Langoor. With my full attention on the unidentified bird, I could hear Balwantbhai saying “95% chance of a big predator here, leopard or tiger. Here tigers come to the nearby waterhole”. Narrating his experience of sighting one in this water body, he moved ahead; me and my daughter were busy in identifying the bird.
“Balwantbhai” I called him to help me identify this bird. He was a few metres ahead of me.
He turned behind, and shouted back: “Ma’am, a tiger behind you”.
I turned back in a reflex. The giant one was just few metres away from me. It crossed the trail, and jumped across a water stream and vanished into the forests. Guesstimating: it must be 8-9 feet.
We had our first experience of sighting a tiger while on foot trail. With children around, not being acquainted with the landscape and right inside the tiger’s den made this experience a wild wild experience.
But what I could infer is that the tiger waited for us long to leave this place. As we know, a tiger must have seen us many more times before we could have our first sight of him.
The tiger in fact allowed us to click our prized avian find.
(Note: The tiger image has been used for representation purpose only. It was taken in Sariska Tiger Reserve, Rajasthan)
Photo By: Gargi Mishra
Place: Sariska Tiger Reserve, Rajasthan
