| We Have retured from our game drive just before sunset to find guests and staff crowed around our tent at Crorbett Riverview Lodge, the only private lodge in Corbett National Park “tiger”, they whispered amd pointed to a clump of tress directly below where the beats were hiding. Then as the light started to fade the people around our tent started to melt away leaving us alone…with what we hoped was a well fed tiger lurking outside. So it was with a certain amount of trepidation that we set off towerds the open-sided reataurant for dinner woundering if we might feature on the menu of a banquet in the wilds.
As we enjoyed in our candlelit surrounds, we reveled in the deep resonating silence swathed this hideaway of 10 cosy thatch-roofed tents. Yet the irony of the situation did not escape us: we had come to Corbett, located in the Kumaon region of Uttarkhand, hoping to see a tiger and now found ourselves praying silently that our wish would not come true .
And our wish did come true…not that night but on a safari the following morning. The elephant we rode sliced through the undergrowth with amaging agility and steatth that belied its size. The forest around us was shrounded in a deafening silence when suddenly…..Tiger!.The striped feline stepped out of the thicket and strode out in front of us.Then stopped and snarled her displeasure before bounding off into the undergrowth where the elephant could not follow.
With the tiger sighting behind us we could now enjoy the other surprises Corbett had in store. Like the startled adolescent tusker who lumbered away comically to join the rest of thr herd that he had strayed away from and the waltz of the chital or spotted deer,as they danced across the grasslands.
A sambar fawn,however, did not flee our presence,Rather ,it stood its ground and gazed at wiyh us a curiosity that matched our own,compelling our elephant to stop mid-stride.. This display of innocence brought to mind the story in which the famous hunter Jim Corbett relates an encounter between a tiger and a goat that, instead of fleeing from death,edged forward to explore the beast more closely. The two stood nose to nose for a brief moment before the tiger turned and walked away from its meal! Yes we are in beautiful and wild Corbett country : 520 sq km of stately sal foreset and rolling grasslands criss-crossed by gushing silver steams and emerald river.When the national park was established in 1936, it was the first of its kind in the country.Ten again in 1973,it was here that project Tiger was launched. Currently,the park is highest the highest concentration of these big cats in the world.
“Project Tiger is an ecological exercise.Since the tiger stands at the pinnacle of the food chain, by protecting it you protect the whole system down the line,” the local naturalized us.A visit to Corbett he remined us repeatedly,was more than just sighting tiger )and these big cats can be very elusive). The park is home to over 50 species of mammals-panthers,wild elephants,four spicies of deer,two kinds of monkeys,wild dogs,jackals,foxes,otters,wild boar and porcupines to name a few. Than there are 25 reptiles and over 550 birds. Even if there were no tiger or for that matter any other animal in the park, Corbett would still rank as one of the birding areas in the country.Onecan spot a variety of bird such as the peocock, vulture, kingfisher, woodpeeker, teal, stork and the seagull. In fact, we ran into four Irishmen who would have nothing to do with tiger or for that matter any animal; they had come to Corbett for the bird.Armed with powerful telescopes they hunted their colourful feathered friend with great gusto. This place is great the bird are spectacular and I am making an understatement,” said one.
Corbett laid it all out a silver platter for us-we came upon herds of wild elephant, grasslands coverd with a sea of deer, wild boar, flocks of wild ducks paddling in the river, colourful birds,jungle flowls…..The highlight was when we came upon a pair of jackals that had just killed a Fawn.In true Discovery Channel style, they split the carcass in half and with their share of dinner clamped in their mouths they headed off in different directions.
Soon we were back at our low-impact green resort which draws safari buffs, Birdersand angles from all over the world from November right up to early june when the Ramganga river is swallen with trout ,cartfish and the golden mashers as well as the black and fin masher.
The following morninf we got to see man-eating tiger and panthers at very close quarters….dead stuffed ones at the Corbett museum located at the entrance of the park.Each exhibit had a little story of its own; the most compelling being of a full-grown tiger that ended up on the wrong end of a duel with a tusker, a duel which reportedly raged from dusk to dawn and shattered the sielent night with the cries of the animals locked in ... |
