Tiger Triple Play: A return to Central India's Tiger Parks, March 2024

[TonyQ]

What a wonderful sighting of that Leopard, beautiful.

[janzin]

2 hours ago, wilddog said:

It is easy to change a TR title, just click on it and hold, and then you can amend as you wish.

I don't think it is down to moderators only

 

It will still appear in searches

Thanks, I had no idea you could do that! Changed it!

[janzin]

As I mentioned, the afternoon safari was also to be in the Kolara core zone. But at the end of our morning safari Rajen informed us that while indeed we were to be in that zone, we had to enter by a different gate--the Navegaon gate.  This meant a drive of about 40 minute to the other gate--you can see it on the map I posted previously.  This made no sense to us at all....we'd still be traversing the same area but now had to spend over an hour travel time (both ways Well, as they say, this is India--don't try to make sense of it.   Fortunately Rajen followed up on his promise of having our driver take us in the comfortable air conditioned car (remember we'd be leaving now in the hottest part of the day, around 1:30 p.m.) We would meet our gypsy at the gate. Much, much better than riding 40 minutes in the hot sun in the open gypsy open roads--although it still meant losing a good part of our afternoon rest.

 

We'll start off with some non-tiger images. Finally, a Sambar for you.

 

 

And a couple of owls.

 

 

Brown Fish Owls were surprisingly common on this trip, seen every day I think, on almost every drive. We'd seen them before in India, but I don't recall seeing so many on one trip! More photos of them later.

 

 

For this drive, we were assigned a young female forest guide and an equally young driver. They seemed rather inexperienced and were not really very active in finding us anything, much less tigers, and did not seem very engaged, except with each other.  We were very thankful that we had Rajen, who did most of the work on this drive. This was really the only time that we experienced this, most of the other guides/drivers we had were very good to excellent and worked seamlessly with Rajen on tracking and spotting. It is nice, however, to see that India is training more female guides--we saw several over our days in the parks, although this was the only time we were assigned a woman.

 

Anyway, we spent a good amount of time not seeing anything but eventually we came to a waterhole--actually one of the Pandharpauni Lakes which you can see on the map--that had several gypsy's watching this...

 

 

This is tigress Choti Tara, one of the elder statesmen (stateswoman?) of Tadoba. She was a bit distant, across the lake.  We watched her cooling off for awhile, hoping she would swim in our direction.

 

 

And swim she did! Right in front of us, but not really any closer. I do like this image with just her tail sticking up, she's just so long in the water.

 

 

Tigers are such strong swimmers! She reached the other side, went up an embankment and into the forest.

 

 

This was our only tiger sighting of the afternoon--well, of the day in fact.

 

Some Chital drinking in nice light. They were in the same lake but on the other side. Choti Tara didn't seem interested in them.

 

 

Another Sambar, rather muddy. He must have just gotten out of the water.

 

 

Doing a scratch. Maybe mud in his eye

 

 

And finally, another, better photo of Brown Fish Owl (not the same one!)

 

 

And our driver was waiting at the gate, with our car, for the long drive back in the dark to Svarsara. All in all a fantastic day, even with "only" one tiger. 

 

We still have another day and a half at Tadoba and we have already exceeded expectations! What will tomorrow bring?

[wilddog]

Fantastic trip so far and wonderful images.

[KaliCA]

Such beautiful captures! My favs are the Chital reflecting and the tigress swimming. What a fun pic with the tail up in the air. Must have been great to see that in person. 
Thanks!

[Whyone?]

Very much enjoying your report @janzinJanet - beautiful photo's, and the useful itinerary and day-to-day information is very much contributing to our trip planning for February-March 2026.

[xelas]

Choti Tara sounds familiar. Brown Fish owl looks majestic. India, from the latest trip reports, truly is Incredible. As are your photos.

Edited June 12 by xelas

[janzin]

Thanks @KaliCA@Whyone?@wilddogand @xelasfor your kind comments!

 

The next day was a Tuesday, and that's the one day of the week when all the core zone gates are closed. But, it's not really a problem because the buffer zones are open. (On Wednesdays, buffer zones are closed, but core is open.) So while this needs to be incorporated into your planning, it doesn't mean that you need to avoid Tadoba on any day of the week.

 

Our morning was to be in the Alizanza buffer again; the one where we'd seen four tigers in non-great photographic positions a couple of days prior. But we were optimistic as it seemed like there were lots of tigers in this zone.

 

Sure enough, it wasn't long before we came upon this scene:

 

 

A tigress (who's name I unfortunately did not get, if she even had a name) with two cubs of about 5-6 months old (I think.)

 

She was walking away from us in the road, but at one point turned and started coming back towards us.

 

 

 

 

 

Then turned to head into the forest...

 

 

The cubs followed her--in leaps and bounds!

 

 

 

There was only one other gypsy here, in fact carrying our Italian photographer friend, and they headed down a track which looked like it might come out ahead of the group. Naturally we followed!

 

Sure enough after awhile we found the cubs and mom resting.  In some very nice light!

 

Cub with mom behind.

 

 

Having a scratch.

 

 

 

Tired!

 

 

Now other gypsys were coming, and it was a very narrow track, so we decided to be nice and let the others in for a look.

 

But this is when disaster struck...!!

[janzin]

We were going at a pretty good clip over a rather bumpy stretch and we'd just come from photographing the cubs, and I had been using mostly my Nikon Z8 with the 100-400Z lens as they were so close.  I was excited and a bit discombobulated, and stupidly I had set my Z9 with the 500mm lens on the seat. Usually when not using one camera I put it on the floor but I just wasn't ready as we were going at a bit of a clip and hit a huge bump and you can guess what happened now...

 

...the Z9 and lens crashed to the floor and the lens must have hit the back of the seat in front and SNAP! the lens and the camera were now in two pieces!!     (SafariTalk needs a crying emoji!)  And yes I was near crying as I picked it up and held the two pieces in my two hands. OMG there goes the rest of the trip not to mention thousands of dollars in repairs    BUT as I examined it more closely I saw that it was the FTZ ADAPTER that literally split in half--it seemed that the camera was fine (whew!!) and the 500mm lens seemed fine as well.

 

OMG dodged a bullet there!  BUT, I did not have a spare adapter (Normally I pack a spare of everything, but this seemed like something that I could omit with the goal of paring down my packing. Big mistake!!)

 

That meant that I would not be able to use the 500mm lens for the rest of the trip. Not the end of the world as I still had the 100-400Z but I knew it would definitely curtail my photography.

 

If you are curious what the inside of an adapter looks like:

 

 

Well this went right into the trash--not fixable.

 

Meantime, we emerged back onto the main track and as we were sitting there (as I was yelling stop, stop to the driver when my camera hit the floor), the other gypsy with our Italian friend pulled up alongside us.  After a quick consult on the condition of my poor camera gear, and ascertaining that the camera itself and the 500mm lens were not injured, MY HERO saved the day by offering to lend me HIS FTZ Adapter, which he swore he would not need. Not only could I borrow it for our stay at Tadoba, but for our entire trip. I just had to ship it back to him in Italy when I got home. I couldn't believe his generosity; I must have asked him 10 times, are you SURE you won't need it? But no, he said he didn't even know why he brought it as he didn't need it with his lens.

 

So the day (and the trip, photographically) was saved!

 

(However, the moral of the story might be that no good deed goes unpunished...the Adapter I returned to him as soon as I got home is still floating around, months later, between the Italian postal service and USA customs and that's another long and boring story which I won't go into here!!)

 

[Zubbie15]

Great stuff Janet! I saw Choti Tara back in 2019, glad to see she appears healthy still. 

 

Do you have any thoughts comparing the buffer zones with the core park? I remember when we planned our trip I did all I could to avoid the buffer zones, but you seem to have had great sightings there.    It would be interesting to hear your thoughts, since like @Whyone?I'm planning a 2026 trip in my head already. 

[janzin]

5 minutes ago, Zubbie15 said:

Great stuff Janet! I saw Choti Tara back in 2019, glad to see she appears healthy still. 

 

Do you have any thoughts comparing the buffer zones with the core park? I remember when we planned our trip I did all I could to avoid the buffer zones, but you seem to have had great sightings there.    It would be interesting to hear your thoughts, since like @Whyone?I'm planning a 2026 trip in my head already. 

 

I was also skeptical about the buffers at first, but honestly in the end we found the buffer zones just as good as the core. However, we were only in a limited number of them--there are something like 12 buffer zones and I can't speak for all of them. But really there's no reason they shouldn't be as good as the core, there's no fencing and it's all contiguous. Many of the tigers move in and out of the buffers and core. I follow a Tadoba Facebook page and many, if not most, of the posting are from the buffers!  I guess one main difference would be the big lakes which are all in the core.  I think--and this may just be a feeling, nothing scientific--that Dhole are more likely in the core zones. But Tadoba is generally hopping with tigers these days, it seems! We had tigers every drive except one (but that's when we spent a lot of time looking and waiting for Blackie.) 

 

The one downside of the buffers, as I mentioned, is that their gates might be quite a distance from where you are staying.

[janzin]

During lunch break I wanted to test the Z9 and 500mm lens to make sure they really were working properly, so with the borrowed adapter in hand, I walked around Svarsara looking for some birds as test subjects.

 

Found just a couple.

 

 

 

 

Fortunately everything seemed in working order, what a relief!

 

The afternoon drive was in another buffer zone, through the Sirkada gate. This gate was also quite distant from Svarsara.  I don't recall much from this afternoon, and looking through my photos, I don't have much to show.  I only have images of one tiger, a beautiful male who was resting by a tree and did not come out further.

 

 

It was quite hot this afternoon and at this point both Alan and I were starting to feel the effects of the heat and the dust. We were both continuing to cough and starting to feel congested, like we might be getting colds--we couldn't really tell if it was from the dust or something else. That evening, Alan decided to skip dinner and just rest in the air conditioning.  I had dinner with the Italian photographer.

 

The next morning would be our last safari at Tadoba before heading on to Pench.

 

[TonyQ]

The Italian photographer is a real hero!

What a relief that the rest of your camera equipment was OK

[janzin]

1 minute ago, TonyQ said:

The Italian photographer is a real hero!

What a relief that the rest of your camera equipment was OK

I know...he's a real gem! And he's been really cool about the missing adapter too...I keep offering to just pay him for it, but he doesn't seem in a hurry and says let's just wait until it turns up--somewhere.....

[jeffb]

Absolutely beautiful pictures, Janet.

[KaliCA]

Just love the image of the cub in golden light! Wonderful capture… but at what price. 
How many times have I forgotten the binos or the camera on the roof top hatch cover after a sighting. Then panic… then, thank G-d it’s still up there.
But to have essential equipment get busted, OMG, I could feel your pain. Thank goodness for your knight in shining white Armani Armor! What a mensch!

There are still a few good Italians left in this world. What amazes me is that per happenstance he and you share the same equipment and he never even needed this adapter, AND he was there at the same time. How many lucky coincidences. Or fates… you’re in India after all. 

That last tiger pic is absolutely gorgeous. 
 

Edited June 12 by KaliCA

[janzin]

Our last morning in Tadoba brought us back into the Kolara core zone. Since we were heading to Pench in the afternoon, and it would be about a 5 hour drive, we opted to cut the morning drive a bit short and head out as soon as possible.

 

Still, it was a productive morning as we came across a very playful group of Dhole, right near Tadoba lake where we'd seen them before. In fact this group was so cooperative--they were just hanging out in the road, posing and playing!

 

 

So handsome!

 

 

 

 

 

Very relaxed!

 

 

 

Posing for us.

 

 

Stretching.

 

 

I might add that we were alone with this group for quite a bit, finally a couple of other gypsys came along and we left them. 

 

The only other creature of note for the morning was this spider, which I believe is a Black and Yellow Garden Spider. I just thought the web was so unusual!

 

 

We left the park probably around 9:30 to head to Pench. By this time, Alan was feeling quite worse (I actually was feeling much better.) His congestion had settled mainly in his throat and he was getting laryngitis. As we neared Pench, we asked Rajen to stop in one of the small villages for a Pharmacy, as we wanted to get him some sort of decongestant or throat lozenges, but this wasn't easy to find in these very rural villages. Finally we found one--just a counter really--but they didn't seem to have anything or understand what we needed, even with Rajen translating. They gave us some sort of nasal inhaler which was a very strong menthol and just made things worse! 

 

We arrived at Jamtara, which was a lovely tented lodge set in the forest. It turned out we would be the only guests there for the entire time, as they'd had a group scheduled that had cancelled. We checked into our very comfortable and large air-conditioned tent (similar to an African safari tent, but on a concrete platform and with a concreted bathroom area.) We had an excellent first dinner (can't recall what it was, but it was the best food so far on the trip.)  I don't seem to have a photo of the room but here's the lovely dining area. You could dine outside as well, in fact there were several areas where you could dine, but we ended up not taking advantage of them.

 

 

There was this very interesting audio setup in the dining area...this eclectic, vertical turntable worked! And we had jazz with dinner.  The wall of slides was fascinating, old photos of the area around the lodge and Pench. 

 

 

We hoped Alan would feel better by morning, when we had our first drive in Pench.

Edited June 13 by janzin

[wilddog]

Loving the dhol!

[janzin]

The next morning, Alan didn't really feel much better--actually a bit worse, but he was determined not to miss the safari drive.

 

Here's a close up of the map of Pench displayed in the dining room above. Red arrow shows the location of Jamtara Wilderness Camp. Now, it would seem that it is very close to the Jamtara gate. However, it turned out that we would NOT be entering by that gate. And you can see the reason why if you look closely at the map. Apparently there was once a bridge over the river between the two sections of the park shown. But, that bridge was now impassable. So, if we entered by the Jamtara gate, we'd only have a very limited area to traverse (see the map) and we'd be stuck on that side of the river. If instead we entered by the gate across the river (I guess this was the Karmazhiri Gate) we'd have a much, much larger area to traverse.  Fortunately this drive was relatively short, only about 10-15 minutes.

 

 

The drive started out nicely with our first Barking Deer, or Muntjac. Well, actually we'd seen a few in Tadoba but did not get a photo. They are shy and typically run away.

 

 

But then who's in the road but...

 

 

At first she would only show us her rear end.

 

 

But eventually she turned around and rewarded us with some nice head-on shots. This is tigress Laxmi.

 

 

She walked right towards us!

 

 

 

But then she turned and walked off into the forest. 

 

The rest of the morning was mostly birds.

 

 

And while we'd seen lots of langurs of course in Tadoba, I never took any photos. But this one posed, looking pensive in good light, so I obliged him with a portrait.

 

 

On our way into the breakfast area we spied a pair of Golden Jackals--the first of the trip--but they were way out in a grassy field, too distant for photos.

 

The breakfast/rest area sported this out-of-place gift shop based on Jungle Book characters. Of course they are very into The Jungle Book in this area, since it was based around Pench.  This looks like it belongs in Disneyworld, though.  And oddly it was a big structure with a tiny shop (with nothing I wanted to buy--I tried, always on the lookout for souvenirs!)

 

 

There was of course a statue of Mowgli, a prominent character in The Jungle Book, with whom everyone poses for the obligatory photo.

 

 

Jamtara provided a great breakfast spread!  And here's a shot of our excellent crew for Pench. We had the same forest guide and driver for all the Pench safaris, and they were really excellent. That's the guide on the left, Rajen in the middle, and our driver on the right.

 

 

After breakfast, we had one more nice sighting...a leopard lounging on a rock under the trees. But there was no better view and he didn't seem inclined to move.

 

 

We returned to Jamtara for a lovely lunch served by the pool. But by now Alan was feeling really poorly. He didn't have a fever, but was very congested and could barely talk or eat (because of his throat.) He decided to sit out the afternoon safari.  In fact, this was the last safari he would go on in Pench.

 

 

Edited June 13 by janzin

[janzin]

The afternoon safari was...only more birds.  In fact, I am going to combine the birds from the next two days into this one post.

 

More Crested Serpent Eagles! This one perched alongside the lake.

 

 

Also perched near the water was an Indian Roller. Of course we saw many of these but this one was nice and low. Kept hoping to catch a flight shot, but when ever he flew up, it was in the wrong direction.

 

 

 

Large-billed, or Jungle Crow.

 

 

The beautiful Plum-headed Parakeet.

 

 

And yet another Mottled Wood Owl, this one out in the open.

 

 

When I returned from the day, I was able to tell poor Alan that he hadn't missed much.  He didn't feel well enough to come out of the room for dinner, in fact he didn't want any dinner, so I ate by myself in the dining room. I had hoped at least Rajen would come and join me, but he rarely joined us for dinner, even though a place was always set for him. So it was a little awkward, with the waitstaff hovering over me. This night was a Chinese-style feast, though...very delicious and way too much food for one person.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited June 14 by janzin

[janzin]

Next morning Alan was feeling even worse. Although he still had no fever, he really didn't want to even stir from the bed. I arranged for him to be brought some breakfast in the room while I went out on safari. The proprietress told me she would try to find him some cough lozenges as she was heading to a bigger town. (Everyone at Jamtara was super nice and understanding and aimed to be helpful.)

 

Today turned out to be "The Day of the Jackal."

 

But first, we came upon a displaying Peacock. This one was quite magnificent, shaking and preening and doing his best to attract the ladies.

 

 

 

 

I only thought to take a video at the end, it was quite a spectacle, but it didn't come out very well. (I really need to learn more about video!)

 

In the morning we came upon the first pair of Indian Jackals, walking right up to us in the road. Very cooperative for photographs, for a change, instead of their usual running away.

 

 

 

While I was out on the road, worrying about Alan, I suddenly got one of those light-bulb moments.  I recalled that we had LOTS of antibiotics with us! Now of course I know antibiotics won't help a virus but this really seemed, at this point, like something else. As soon as I returned to the room for lunch I looked at the indications for all the antibiotics we had with us (Z-pack (Azithromycin), Cipro, and Doxycycline) and sure enough, indications for the Z-pack included respiratory infections, bronchitis, sinus infections, and similar. Well it really couldn't hurt at this point so I started him on the Z-pack. Fingers crossed that would help.

 

Meantime, after lunch I went out again on my own for the afternoon safari.  There wasn't much to report except for more jackals!

 

 

 

 

I honestly don't recall what else was seen, I have a few bird photos and nothing else. I'm sure we saw a variety of herbivores and I recall Bush Pigs at some point, but no photos.

 

Upon return to the room, I found Alan already feeling a little better! In fact he wanted to eat dinner, although he still wasn't up to going to the dining area. I didn't want to face another dinner alone with the waiters, so I asked the manager to send us a very simple meal to the room. Even just plain buttered spaghetti for Alan.  They obliged and they sent a nice tray of food for both of us. We dined at the desk and actually it was quite nice.

 

I was really relieved that he was feeling much better, thanks I'm sure to the antibiotics. Just wish it had occurred to me sooner. He'd already spent a day and a half in the room, but at least he hadn't missed any tigers!

 

Would he be well enough to go out in the morning, on our last safari in Pench?  I was really hoping of course we might see another tiger!

 

Edited June 14 by janzin

[KaliCA]

Such beauty in your shots of the peacock! I didn't realize that the black dots set in blue look really more like hearts.

Also, you are calling your Jackals "Indian Jackal" and I called mine Golden Jackal. Are there two kinds? or maybe mine are Indian Jackals as well?

Isn't it an amazing coincident that both our husbands got sick to the point of missing safaris, and both of us went on safari with the guys/guides. It was a first for me and quite weird to sit in the Jeep accompanied by three men!

I, too, was reluctant to start Phil on antibiotics for what seemed like a cold, but his wet cough taught me otherwise. So, both Phil and Alan caught an "Indian Bug" of some sorts.

 

[janzin]

@KaliCAIt did seem like there was some sort of bug going around India at that time. When I posted on Facebook about how sick Alan was, @Sangeetamentioned she'd had something similar when in India a few weeks prior. And @Abhishek Sharmatold me his folks also had a similar illness recently. I was lucky I didn't catch it! (I think my initial congestion was really from the Tadoba dust.)

 

BTW it was plenty dusty in Pench as well, although nothing like Tadoba. And it was a lot cooler in Pench...I wouldn't say cold, but tolerable. Mornings needed a jacket!

 

The next morning Alan did feel better but he decided he'd continue to rest out one more safari. We had a long drive ahead of us later in the day, to Bandhavgarh, and he really wanted to feel well enough so as not to miss any Bandhavgarh days. 

 

This was probably the smart choice, but sadly he missed out on one of the highlights of the trip! Coming up next....!

[JayRon]

So many stunning pictures of tigers, very impressive. How many sightings did you have in all ?  . But my favorites are the black leopard and the dholes. You must have felt very lucky with the leopard.  Looking forward to Bandhavgarh  

[janzin]

1 hour ago, KaliCA said:

 

Also, you are calling your Jackals "Indian Jackal" and I called mine Golden Jackal. Are there two kinds? or maybe mine are Indian Jackals as well?

 

 

They are the same species, sometimes Indian Jackal is considered a subspecies of Golden Jackal, but the names are used pretty interchangeably.