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We didn’t take any tracings oThe
trek started off excitingly with us having to scale a small cliff to be
able to progress any further upriver. After our very first river crossing,
opposite a dry rainwater stream coming down the opposite hill, we hunted
out our first set of pugmarks.They
were quite fresh and it was definite that they had been made the previous
night. f these marks as Ram Singh had
already taken some the previous day, when he had crossed routes with the
same tigress. What we were on the look out for was a set of pugmarks belonging
to the tigress’ two cubs, which had been seen in the recent past.
We
walked and waded for almost two hours before we reached a proper path
leading up to the Domunda bridge.
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As we reached this path, the first thing that caught our attention was
a set of absolutely fresh pugmarks. Due to the hardness of the path just
there, we continued further with the intention of checking them at a better
and dustier spot. The tiger had obviously turned off the path and moved
down the hillside to the left as the marks soon totally disappeared. We
checked a little further on the path and then decided to head down the
hillside too. Almost like we were the surefooted cats we were following,
our guide and his young helper turned and chose an almost vertical part
of the hillside to go down. The hillside there was nothing but rubble
and leaves somehow clinging together at an angle of around 70 degrees.
The first step by the young helper told us that we should attempt this
one at a time as every footstep sent shower of stones and leaves all the
way to the bottom. Halfway down, the slope eased out a bit and I realized
it was possible to lean back, and with a bit of a balancing act, skate
all the way down. I think the others thought I was nuts but I got down
with much less effort, much quicker and luckily in one piece.
As
we walked out onto the flat and sandy stretch between the hillside and
the river, we again saw a couple of pugmarks among the stones and grass
there. There was a small argument among our guide and helper about whether
it was a tiger or tigress, while we also tried to decipher it and solve
the problem. As we walked around a bend we came upon the bridge that was
our point of turning back. The area before and after the bridge was very
dusty and held a brilliant surprise for us.
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Scattered
all over the place were so many pugmarks that it almost seemed
like the tigers of the area had just finished with a grand
party. I say just finished because some of the pugmarks were
amazingly fresh and couldn’t have been made more than
ten minutes ago. This path was quite well frequented by vehicles
and even as we stood there, we had to usher a couple of them
past the side of the track to keep them from disturbing the
marks. Two sets were very fresh, while another belonging to
a young tiger was probably a couple of hours old. We followed
the marks a little further up the path until they disappeared
into the jungle. We headed back and took the required tracing.
We
were taken to a spring nearby from which we had some of the
most thirst quenching water I have ever had. We rested at
the bridge a while, during which we also met up with the forest
guards on the Mohan beat.
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Soon we were headed back to Gairal but this time along the
path that leads all the way to the rest house. All
along the way, we kept seeing evidence of the two tigers whose
pugmarks we had just traced. It was then clearly evident that
these two had been walking along this path, keeping an eye
on us as we jumped from boulder to boulder, trudged across
soft sand and waded through waist deep water, all the way
along the river some fifty feet below.
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The pugmarks went almost all the way back to the rest house and Sanjay
and I couldn’t but help laughing at the thought of us "roughing"
it out along the banks of the river, while the two tigers watching us
amusedly, walking comfortably down the path made by us humans.
As we got back to our room, we were told that a huge
tusker had just flirted with our window and gone down to the river below.
Hira Lal, Sanjay and I hurried down to the riverbed to see if we could
catch a glimpse of the giant. Unfortunately for us, he had moved up the
rainwater stream and gone around the bend further up. After getting back,
we splashed ourselves a bit at the river and then decided to take a quick
nap. The plan was to spend the night at Khinanauli, as the next day’s
trek was going to be from there. At 5pm we left for Khinanauli, a little
after Ram Singh and the rest had headed out for the evening trek. We decided
to go all the way to Dhikala and stock up a bit on rations, as it was
clearly evident that Sanjay wasn’t too keen on eating out of tins
for the next eight days. It was a good decision. As we neared Amla Sot
on Sambar road, we heard a chital call further up. As we approached the
sot (rainwater stream), we noticed something lying in the middle of the
path. It was a fresh kill!! We stopped the car and waited at a distance.
When nothing happened for quite a while, we decided it was probably us
that the predator was waiting for to move away before it came back to
claim it’s meal. It was a tense moment as we drove right past the
kill, hoping that the tiger that had killed the fawn didn’t think
we were trying to steal it. On the way back, the kill was gone.
That night we slept on the roof of the store and car
garage at the Khinanauli rest house. It was an unforgettable experience,
lying there under the brilliant moonlight, feeling cold in the summer
month of May. We fell asleep listening to the sounds of the jungle all
around us, in our minds trying to imagine what the calling chital was
seeing as he warned the jungle of a roaming predator.
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