Sanjay Dubri 2024

Introduction

Day 1. 3rd May (Afternoon Safari)

A Lactating Jackal as we began the safari. Wild Boar Pair mud bathing in Kanjra. A wonderful moment watching a Troop of Grey Langurs playing around us in the evening. Two species of Mongoose including a Grey Mongoose. Ruddy Mongoose. Barking Deer at Kanjra.

A Jungle Cat we all thought was a hare because of the way it bounced out and ran on the leaf litter away from the track at dusk, but Abhishek noticed the ears and made us realize our error.

Day 2. 4th May (Morning Safari)

Rusty Spotted Cat

Ran into a Rusty Spotted Cat we thought was a Jungle Cat Kitten on the diverting fork up the hill from the Lajhori talaab board. It bounced away on the track 20m ahead of us and then went into the leaf litter down a slope into the forest. Realised a couple of minutes later that the tail was too long and thick for a Jungle Cat Kitten and hence deduced the Rusty identity.

Adult Female Tiger

Later in the morning rolled up along the edge of the Banas river in the Goindwar Grassland, and found an Adult Female Tiger walking just 15ft away from the vehicle. The area had plenty of Lantana bush, which was however sparser here than in other places, and so allowed us a clear and crisp view of her in beautiful soft light. She soon crossed the track slightly behind us and disappeared into a dense Jamun Grove that covered an inlet into the river and was not seen thereafter.

Found an Adult Black-bellied Tern in Breeding Plumage flying over the Banas near the Grassland.

Noticed a Circle of Indian Vultures soaring above the buffer forest as we exited the gate.

Day 2. 4th May (Night Safari in Giddha Buffer)

Adult Female Leopard

Left in the late afternoon around 4:30 PM to reach another area of the forest that was designated for the night safari. Superb sighting of an Adult Female Leopard in great light at 6:30 PM out on the open grounds bordering a Lake. We followed a Jackal Alarm from the main road onto the open grounds and saw the jackal looking intently into a clump of Morning Glory (Ipomea carnea) Weeds. Noticed the Leopard move and watch us from behind it as we angled ourselves to get the best view maintaining a distance of about 30m from the clump. Played a bit of Hide n Seek with us as we got close to the clump to get a better view, and got within 6 ft. of the Leopard as it tried to hide amidst the clump before slinking out and making a dash away from us into another clump of morning glory weed 100m away where too many ditches prevented us from getting closer, and eventually lost sight of it as well, as it crouched and camouflaged superbly amidst the little vegetation available.

Night Safari Highlights

Soon after at dusk we entered the hilly forests of the Giddha Zone of the Tiger Reserve and had 3-4 good views of Indian Vultures in Silhouette as we entered the hill forests.

An hour later we entered a vast open short grass wetland surrounded by the forests and encountered plenty of roosting Indian and Savanna Nightjars, Indian Thick knees and were treated to an array of sounds from the breeding nightjars, a Mottled Wood Owl in the distance, and a prolonged Barking Deer alarm from another stretch of forest in the hills a few hundred metres away. As we re entered the forest a while later a Small Indian Civet seen by Abhishek at the base of a tree, but moved out of sight before we could all see it.

Lots of Wild Boar, Nilgai and Spotted Deer seen throughout the duration of the drive

Mottled Wood Owl

Another great highlight of the night drive took place as we headed back towards the lodge after exiting the forest and had a Mottled Wood Owl fly across our path and perch just a few metres from us outside a village. Had a really good close up view of an Indian Nightjar in the same lake bed we saw the Leopard earlier that evening.

Day 3. 5th May (Morning Safari)

Adult Male Tiger

The morning was fairly quiet in terms of wildlife movement until post breakfast, our Guide Dinesh made for incredible tracking and traced the pugmarks of an Adult Male Tiger for well over a kilometre and followed them until he lead us into a dense Jamun Grove by the banks of the Banas River. It was here he put out the final surprise and pointed to an area in the Jamun Grove 20m away, where we suddenly noticed the laid out form of a massive tiger. It suddenly turned the slightly glum mood of the morning into a pretty euphoric one for the guests.

Crested Hawk Eagle with Kill

Ten minutes later had a really good view of an Adult Crested Hawk Eagle with a possible remains of a large rodent in its talons as it flew up and perched above us while we watched the Tiger Sleeping. It was being mobbed by crows and sat above us for a few minutes before flying further away.

Sighted a Juvenile Crested Serpent Eagle near Lajhori Talab as we headed back towards the exit

Day 3. 5th May (Morning Safari)

Adult Male Tiger

All 3 of the guests left for Delhi in the early part of the afternoon as they unfortunately had pressing work engagements in the city come the following (Monday) morning.

Lone Adult Sloth Bear

Went out on the safari by myself and got lucky with a lone Adult Sloth Bear in a woodland between the Elephant Camp and Goindwar Grassland.

Avian Highlights

Birding highlights for the afternoon included the glimpse of an Indian Pitta and a flock of Jungle Bush Quail amidst the lantana of the Goindwar Grassland

Day 4. 6th May (Morning Safari)

Adult Female Tiger

Went out for the final morning safari and got super lucky with a great sighting of Adult Female Tiger just 30ft away from us on a U curve on the track. We watched her for a good 10 min and she lay relaxed where she was and did the same. Suddenly her gaze shifted away and looked out into the forest around 60-70m behind us at some Spotted deer grazing there. She was too far out of their line of sight to be noticed, and so the forest remained calm and continued just as before. She then yawned a couple of times and sat up. Now her gaze was shifting to two different places in the forest behind us, and we noticed it wasn’t one, but two different little groups of Spotted Deer she noticed grazing there. They were certainly too far away for a charge to be of any success, and so she just watched. A couple of minutes later she suddenly got up and padded away silently into the nullah nearby. It was evident from her movement, and then disappearance into the slopy crevices in the woodland that she had an intent to hunt. We altered our position as well, with the anticipation of seeing her appear out of one of the shallow ravine like crevices there. However, almost an hour went by with us waiting and she didn’t appear again, obviously having given us and a few other jeeps the slip, and so we left the area. The guide and driver identified her to be T-28 (Mausi Maa) who I had seen with 6 cubs 2 years ago, and was now a mother of 4 cubs between three to four months old. We waited quite a while with hopes of seeing her again, but had no luck.

Fresh Tracks of Another Adult Female Tiger

The morning turned out to be one full of signs of different tigers, as we found Fresh Tracks from the morning of an adult female tiger as they disappeared into a waterhole grove at Kanjra Nullah.

Fresh Tracks of a Female Tiger with Two Cubs

Later that morning we decided to go up the hill to overlook the surrounding forests from a watchtower atop the peak of the hill. Here we found another set of fairly fresh Tracks of an Adult Female Tiger with two 6 month old cubs, probably made earlier in the morning when we were watching the Tigress. The tracks were just a few hundred metres from Bithkuli Tower in the slopes above Kanjra. A conversation with the guard at the tower gave us information that he had been seeing them regularly. Unfortunately it had gotten a bit warm at the time we got there, and with the closest water points further down in the forest where the track couldn’t really go, we left the area to head back to the gate.

Short-toed Snake Eagle

A final highlight of the morning was the sight of a soaring Short Toed Snake Eagle over the buffer forests after we exited the gate.

Acknowledgements

A huge Thanks to Baghela Heritage Resort for their wonderful hospitality. Thank you to their manager Rohit jee, Assistant Manager Ajay jee, our Safari Jeep driver Kushal jee, and all the staff who took such fantastic care of us through the stay. A big thank you to Shrey Goel and Abhinav Pandey of Greetoe Camps for partnering up with such a wonderful place and making our stay such a comfortable one.

A big thank you to Subhash jee for his super guidance and knowledge sharing on the Night Safari.

Thank you to all our guides Dinesh jee, Lal jee, and Ashok jee for all their tracking and guidance through all the safaris.

Finally a huge thank you to my guests Yuvika, Abhishek and Jai for taking a chance and coming on this trip to a still relatively unknown wildlife destination. Super happy that Jai was able to see his first ever Tigers and Leopard on this trip with us as well.

Highlights

15 Species of Mammal, including 3 different tigers, an incredible Leopard sighting between
Ipomea bushes around an open lake bed in the buffer area, a lone Sloth Bear, and one surprise
glimpse of a Rusty Spotted Cat during a morning safari inside the park.
101 species of Bird, including an Adult Crested Hawk Eagle with a large rodent kill perched just
above a Male Tiger we were watching as it slept in a dense Jamun Tree grove beside the river. A
fabulous Mottled Wood Owl at the edge of a village after dark, and a soaring Short-toed Snake
Eagle outside the park on the final morning.
Species of Reptile including 4 Indian Pond Terrapins in the waterhole inside the Sanjay
Baghela Heritage Lodge Campus.

Daily Highlights

Day 1. 3rd May (Friday)

Lactating Female Asiatic Jackal
Grey Mongoose next to a waterhole
Ruddy Mongoose in a Grassland
A couple of Wild Boar cooling off in a small pool of water
Troop of Grey Langurs playing near us in the evening
Jungle Cat mistaken to be an Indian Hare initially seen in very low light in the forest just
after sunset.

Day 2. 4th May (Saturday)

Adult Female Tiger seen at the edge of a Grassland next to the River
Rusty Spotted Cat initially mistaken to be a Jungle Cat kitten seen as it moved off the track
near us and down the slope further into the forest. The Id was cleared after we realized that
the tail was too thick and long in proportion to the body for a Jungle Cat kitten, and correct
for an adult Rusty Spotted cat. What made the sighting a bit harder, was that the whole
forest floor was singed black due to the recent seasonal controlled burning of the forest
done by the forest department
Adult Black-bellied Tern seen flying over the Banas River
A circle of 7-8 Indian Vultures noticed soaring over the forest in the buffer zone after we
exited the gate
Night Safari in the Buffer Forests of the Tiger Reserve. Left the lodge late in the afternoon
for the same.
Fantastic sighting of an Adult Female Leopard amidst clusters of Ipomea weeds on the banks
of an open lake in the buffer area of the reserve. We were alerted to the presence of a
predator in the area due to the high pitched alarmed yells of an Asiatic Jackal near the weed
clusters.
Good views of 4 different silhouetted Indian Vultures as we entered the hill forests at dusk
for the night safari.
Sporadic, yet multiple sightings of Bluebull, Spotted deer and Wild Boar during the course of
the drive.
Small Indian Civet seen by one of the guests, but missed by the rest of us.
Very Good view of a Mottled Wood Owl at the edge of a Village as we exited the night
safari.
Excellent Close up view of an Indian Nightjar in the dark around the banks of the same lake
bed we saw the leopard earlier in the evening.

Day 3. 5th May (Sunday)

Good views of an Adult Male Tiger as it rested in the dense Jamun Tree Grove next to the river. Very good tracking of the same by our guide Dinesh.
Really good views of an adult Crested Hawk Eagle as it landed on the tree just above us with a half eaten rodent kill as we watched the resting male tiger. Soon flew away as it was mobbed by Crows and Treepies.
Juvenile Crested Serpent Eagle seen at the edge of a large waterhole as we headed for the exit later in the morning.
Lone Adult Sloth Bear seen in the Afternoon Safari
Glimpse of an Indian Pitta
Good views of a flock of diminutive Jungle Bush Quail in a Grassland near the river.

Day 4. 6th May (Monday)

Excellent sighting of an Adult Female Tiger just 30ft away from us on the track. Seen for
almost 20 min as she watched us and then Spotted Deer in the forest 70m away, before
silently padding away and disappearing in the forest with the intent to hunt.
Fresh Tracks of an Adult Female Tiger seen at the edge of a Grassland heading into a dense
grove behind a waterhole.
Fresh Tracks of an Adult Female Tiger with 2 cubs around six months old (Leopard sized
tracks) seen on the track just below a watchtower on a hill overlooking the forest.
Short-Toed Snake Eagle seen soaring above the forest in the buffer area a couple of km after
exiting the gate.