Pench: A trail less Traveled

My love for wildlife (and it is wildlife, not just tigers) has taken me to some fruitful and other fruitless places. The sum total of my experiences has brought me more joy than anguish and it is certain that this particular passion is not a passing fad. My latest sojourn (and I have many of those) took me to the literal center of India, Nagpur (they have something called center point or zero point, don’t remember which). Diverging from the topic for a minute, my job is absolutely awesome (though a raise won’t hurt) it pays me to roam around India talking to different people and all I have to do is to convince, cajole, prod them to join my organization. It is too good to be true.

So, I was in Nagpur and through a gentleman that I had met at a leadership summit I’d heard about this awesome Tiger Reserve/National Park/forest range called Tadoba. He spoke with such passion that I was sold and it remained in the back of my mind. Now, Tadoba is about 160 km from Nagpur and a tough place to get into (don’t go there without planning, you might be disappointed at the gates) so long story short, that plan fell through royally. Cursing inwardly and talking to Lala about his recent blastamazin trip of Bandhavgarh, Kanha and Pench he told me that he has a contact in Pench who can do some jugaad and as the old adage goes “beggars can’t be choosers” hence travelled I to the heart of incredible India the second time in a month. The drive was a short 2 hr. one and for once in my life I reached exactly on time for the opening of the counter. 20 mins and a couple of failures later, lala’s minion got me the sweetest deal possible.

My ride into the park would be on the Taj’s own Safari service, add to that my co-passengers were an elderly Brit couple (more on them later) and that was the time when I found my dream job-a wildlife enthusiast/naturalist/photographer working at Taj taking firangs on safaris. Kaustubh was all of these and an expert Tiger tracker.

Thomas and Linda, Tom and Lyn for short, from Derbyshire are the typical firang tourists. That’s what I thought and with their warmth, dry wit and expertise took me to school. They knew every bird, leave alone animals, every single fookin bird. Both photographers, extremely patient and rich in knowledge and Tom loved his cricket trying to prick me with our loss to the Aussies. He continued till I reminded him of the Ashes whitewash. A Jungle breakfast (sumptuous, I must say) later Kaustubh put all of his considerable skill to get us a single glimpse of “the elusive one”. No luck. But what was reinforced in that safari was that guides take more effort with firangs.

How wrong was I about to be.

The morning had been bitterly cold and the afternoon was a sweat soaked one, hardly the best time to see animals and some idiots who had booked on our Gypsy decided to go back to their resort to chill 5 mins before the start of the safari. I went into the Super Saiyan level of patience just so that I don’t rip them a new one. Sweat soaked, late, dust addled was how I started the safari. Add to that the crappy jokes of my co-travelers and I was just holding on. The only saving grace in this fiasco was the guide who was knowledgeable, but only about tigers. He made the journey a learning experience and a excitement laden one. He led us onto the trail of a leopard, twice had almost brushes with the “Elusive One”. Refusing a tip he was the first guide that took the pain to deliver a great experience, maybe it’s because Pench is not a mainstream park or because he was just that good.  He was the other end of the spectrum which has the Jim Corbett guys at the other end.

The Elusive one and I shall cross paths again, of that am sure; life is too long for me to lose every time.