Day Four

 I don’t think there was any tiger around and it was just that this particular sambar was a sadist. Once again he came right below where we were sleeping and let out a call that would probably have been heard in Gairal. This time it was at 4am!! Luckily managed to doze off again and woke fresh at 5:30. The walk was quite uneventful, although not completely, but was a totally new route along the Kamarpatta road, then a right turn and all the way down the hillside, along a dry stream, to Sambar road and then back. There were a lot of first time sightings on this trek. We spotted our first panther pugmarks, our first spotting of a trail left behind by a pretty large snake and then a kill drag mark made by the same panther. The highlight of the trek however came when we came across the some urine left behind by an animal so recently that it was still seeping into the dry mud. Which animal it was, was quite apparent, as right next to it were the clear pugmarks of a large tiger.

The ever watchful Tripathi Ji

Another clear indication that we were definitely in the presence of a tiger nearby was the occasional light coughing and casual tapping of his stick by the experienced Tripathi Ji. He, unlike us, wasn’t over-enthusiastic and very clearly understood the dangers of startling a tiger in the jungle. He too is as keen always to again spot a tiger but when you’re on foot he always wanted to make sure the tiger knew we were around. He probably also felt responsible for us and hence didn’t want to take any chances. We progressed further without encountering Sher Khan.

A little further down the stream, just before it rounds a bend and crosses Sambar Road, we were shown the tiger’s den. He sure had chosen an ideal spot. A shallow depression in the hillside facing a cool pool of water from where he could keep a look out for animals and vehicles passing by on Sambar Road, without being spotted himself. The area was obviously covered with his pugmarks, which had already been recorded. Back in Khinanauli, we ate the usual delicious lunch with the new addition of roasted red chillies. Yum!! Then Sanjay and I went and sat in a tree, trying to see how silent and inconspicuous we could be. I guess we were pretty good at it as a wild boar actually came right below us without detecting our presence.

We headed back for Gairal at 3:30. On the way there we saw a large herd of around 30 – 40 elephants. There were quite a few babies with alert guardians standing around them.

This herd had created havoc during our absence from Gairal for a day

On reaching Gairal we were told that this same herd had wrecked havoc there the previous night by punching in windows and damaging a lot of furniture. We missed all the excitement! We also missed a tiger sighting during the trek here!! Another saddening news was that good old Shivcharan had finally retired from his services at the park while we were away at Khinanauli. I will definitely miss his presence at Gairal. That evening was spent at the machaan and at the riverbed below. Drank some black tea as the milk was over. Sat on the balcony. Nothing was seen that night except a porcupine and some deer.

We saw a porcupine and some deer that night

The winds had picked up and were howling, as Sanjay said, like a hundred jets landing at the same time. The thought of the Jyotishi (holy man) who had predicted the end of the world that day came to both our minds. We went to sleep thinking that either our, or the jyotishi’s, fate would be sealed by the time we woke up (or didn’t!) the next morning. Luckily it was the jyotishi’s as he was jailed for causing an exodus from the surrounding areas with his predictions of a mother of all earthquakes followed by a storm of never before seen proportions.

Back to Day 3

On to Day 5

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