






As i had mentioned that this blog was a place where i wanted to share my experiences...and Bandhavgarh the land of Tigers (bachi) is one which everyone should experience once in their life. Bandhavgarh for everyones info has the highest density of tigers in the world, and there is a popular saying that you have to be really unlucky not to spot a tiger here.
A couple of years back i had gone to bandhavgarh for my puja vacations, i was accompanied by my wife Ashraf, my elder brother Nizar his family my cousin Akbar and a family friend Piyush Bhai.
We started of from howrah and reached this place called katni, we stayed there overnight and left for bandhavgarh the next morning,it was a 3 hour journey and finally we arrived at our destination. We checked into our jungle resort which was a very nice one and was called Tiger Trail and as the name suggests it used to be an actual trail of a tigress, and there had been times when the same tigress had made a kill and had her meal in the parking area of this resort... this was all we wanted to know from the authorities to get our adrenalin pumping.
We couldnt wait and headed out for our first safari, the safari is done in an open gypsy with a guide who takes you around the park, the guide or the driver carry no guns or anything else and you are entirely at the mercy of the animals, as it is their land and you will see the same in the pics that i have put up.
10 mins into our drive not knowing what to expect...we were there right in front of a tiger he was a 2 year old cub and trust me these 2 year olds are big enough, it was the most magical sight i had ever seen..to see gods magnificient creation walk right in front of me was a sight i shall never forget, we have seen tigers in cages but to see one in the wild is something only one can experience. we stayed and took a lot of pics of the cub. and after some time he disapppeared in the thicket.
We roamed the park and saw a lot of wild animals like the wild boar, deers the sambhar deer.
The evening was spent in the resort, where the hotel authorities had organised a bon fire and had called over the local tribal people to perform it was great experience and even we joined them in their dance.
We had to break early aswehad an early morning safari the next day.
The next day had us all real excited and ready for the safari, and as luck would have it we were accopanied by the best driver and the best guide JP of bandhavgarh, which was a blessing as it turned out.
We were 30 mins into the safari and had seen nothing apart from the usual deers and wild boars, we followed calls of the monkeys but did not get lucky, and then suddenly our guide JP and the driver discussed something amongst themselves after looking at some pug marks, after driving a few meters ahead they again got real excited and this time our driver picked up the pace and was driving in the middle of the jungle as if he was on an f1 track, and on enquiring we were told that the pug marks they had seen had confirmed that a tiger had just passed by, this is what is called experience. The track that we were on had a slight ascent and as soon as we reached the top of the ascent our driver braked suddenly and we all looked towards our left and just a few metres away was Bacchi (chakradhara female) she stopped turned her head and looked at us, and trust me guys for that couple of seconds when she looked at us we had all gone into a state of shock there was pin drop silence as we all stood lifeless as we were overtaken by the joy and also fear of having a tigress just a couple of metres away. If anyone of you has ever seen the documentary shown on discovery or national geography on the tigers of bandhavgarh would have come across the name bacchi. Again having the two best people accompany us was a blessing, Bacchi was walking away after hearing a few monkey calls as she wanted to hunt, but our guide started making the same sound as that of the monkeys, this distracted Bacchi and she stopped and started walking towards the same track that we were on. And the next 45 mins were pure heaven there was Bacchi walking in front of us and our jeep following here, it was just her and us. She went and sat on a dried river bed giving us the rare opportunity to click her pics to our hearts content. Later we came to know that our group was the only one who had spotted a tiger that day.
We came back very happy, and spent the evening watching a documentary which was yet to be released, i pesonally spent time discussing and finding out more about the tigers from the hotel people.
Well as they say that you cant be lucky all the time, the next safari that we took which was our last we didnt see any tigers. But were all happy to have spent so much time following bacchi and taking her pics. Well apart from the animals there are few more things to see there, there is a lying down Shiva statue from where starts the Charan Ganga, also a very frequented place by the tigers during summer time and an ancient fort of the Maharja who ruled over that land.
We finally checked out and left for katni again to catch our train back.
Trust me friends wherever you travel do make sure that once in your life you do visit Bandhavgarh ( The Land of Bacchi )