INDIA WILDLIFE SPECTACULAR · GUIDE: MIKE WATSON THE FOURTH INDIA WILDLIFE SPECTACULAR WAS ANOTHER...

Asiatic Lion, Gir Forest, Gujarat. All images by Mike Watson

1 Wild Images: India Wildlife Spectacular 2013

INDIA WILDLIFE SPECTACULAR13 FEBRUARY – 3 MARCH 2013

GUIDE: MIKE WATSON

THE FOURTH INDIA WILDLIFE SPECTACULAR WAS ANOTHER SUCCESS and we enjoyed some fabulous wildlife encounters on our journey across northern India. On the Pre-Tour Extension we made our way from the dusty and very dry deciduous teak forest of Gir and its Asiatic Lions to the wolves and herds of Blackbuck on the grasslands of Velavadar and then the delightful Wild Asses on the vast salt flats of the Little Rann of Kutch before driving north into the colourful state of Rajas-than where we paused to admire the golden city of Jaisalmer on our pilgrimage to Khichan and its unique gathering of Demoiselle Cranes. After a short flight east from Jodhpur the main tour proper started in Delhi with a train journey south to Agra and the incomparable Taj Mahal. Further south in Uttar Pradesh we visited the delightful National Chambal Sanctuary, the last unpolluted major river in northern India, where we enjoyed our most productive sessions of the whole tour with wonderful encounters with Gharials, Indian Skimmers, River Lapwings, Little Pratincoles and much more. Turn-


Nilgai or ‘Blue Bull’ (above). Next page: the Asiatic Lions of Gir Forest are a wonderful experience. Just think of all the thousands that once roamed from central India to the Balkans, these are the only ones left!

ing our attention to India’s famous Kipling Country we visited the tiger reserves of Bandhavgarh and Kanha, where we managed several wonderful encounters with their main attraction, Bengal Tiger as well as Gaur, Sloth Bears and Leopards. India remains in my opinion the most fascinating country on earth to travel in. There are so many different aspects of this tour that make it my favourite, from the incredible and varied wildlife to the wonderful scenery and architecture not to mention India’s fascinating array of humanity and delicious home-cooked food!

OUR LATEST INDIAN ADVENTURE STARTED AT AN EARLY HOUR IN SMOGGY MUMBAI with a short flight across the Gulf of Cambay to Rajkot on Gujarat’s Kathiawar Peninsular. After the first of many masala omelets and masala chai (India’s popular ginger-spiced tea), in a rather grand local hotel, we headed south to Sasan Gir, our base for the next two nights. The forests of Gir hold the last remaining population of Asiatic Lions, a subspecies of lion whose range once extended from Central India as far west as Macedonia. Whilst very similar to their African relatives Asiatic Lions have a dis-tinctive longitudinal fold of skin along their belly, generally thinner faces and the males have a shorter and more blackish mane. The lions of Gir are also renowned for their approachability, which usually makes them good photographic subjects. Despite Gujarat being in the grip of a serious drought fol-lowing the failure of the 2012 monsoon, which has resulted in the already dry deciduous teak forest of Gir being even drier than usual, and thanks to our very helpful local contacts, we still managed a couple of good encounters (we met several folks who did not see any lions in Gir this year).

The first was with a trio of playful female lions ever so close to our jeeps and after a brief view of the slumbering new boss of the forest, ‘Raju’, we saw him again the following day at a Nilgai kill with his new lady friend. Birds were fewer at Gir this year and water-bodies were shockingly low, both as a result of the drought, however, we had a few good sightings that included: a very close view of a pair of lovely Mottled Wood Owls; White-eyed Buzzards and Crested Hawk Eagles of note. Mammals included many Spotted Deer (or ‘Chital’) as well as a few Nilgai (or ‘Blue Bull’ – the massive Indian antelope) and Sambar deer. Marsh Mugger crocodiles were much more in evidence than usual ow-ing to the low water levels and provided some good photo opportunities.


OUR NEXT STOP WAS BLACKBUCK NATIONAL PARK at Velavadar, now growing in popularity thanks to its fine new lodge. This place was voted the second best lodge on the whole tour and we enjoyed some more great encounters here. Photographically the best were the numerous Black-buck, including some sparring males, followed by Nilgai against the lovely grassland landscape, however, this is also probably the most reliable place in the world to see wolves and again we were not disappointed. Photographing them is another matter and as usual they only allowed brief distant opportunities. A few birds in the mesquite-lined avenues included Brown and Bay-backed Shrikes and there were still a few harriers (Pallid and Montagu’s) floating around. Their numbers have also been much fewer than usual, probably owing to the drought? Unfortunately the Striped Hyenas had moved their den recently and were not co-operating with visitors yet. On the subject of unexpected visitors, the chalets at Blackbuck Lodge have open-air showers, in which a Black Drongo joined one of us. Eventually we had to tear ourselves away from this fabulous place and head northwest to the vast salt flats of the Little Rann of Kutch.

Sparring young male Blackbucks (above) and a pair of older males squa THE FOURTH INDIA WILDLIFE SPECTAC-


Wildlife wonders of Velavadar: Nilgai grassland landscape (above) and Blackbuck harem (below).


The tip of the ‘Nilgai-berg’ (above), an animal that looks like it is made from spare parts when it stands up.


WHILE WE WERE AT VELAVADAR WE COULD SEE DARK STORM CLOUDS to the north of us and there was news of rain across northern India. This was said to be quite unusual for this time of year but is the second time we have experienced it on this tour so maybe not that unusual? The change in weather had caused a clear out of migrant birds from the Little Rann and once again we did not manage to find any bustards. There had also been five Pallid Scops Owls in the lodge gardens before our visit and now there was only one left and that bird was less obliging than usual. However, the Wild Asses were still plentiful and we were able to photograph several groups. As always they were surprisingly delightful to folks who had not seen them before. We had to take two night drives to secure the desired Sykes’s Nightjar, which was seen against a perfect background of a cracked bare earth monsson lake bed with absolutely no distractions. The Little Indian Night-jars were also co-operative but did not choose such nice backgrounds and a Jungle Cat was also seen, albeit mostly obscured in the dense mesquite. Apart from an Indian Stone-Curlew there was surprisingly little else on the night drives, probably a result of the cool weather recently. The wide, open spaces of the salt flats of the Little Rann present a surreal and barren landscape but they are still inhabited by few creatures. Our encounters here included Steppe Grey Shrike, Desert Wheatear and a Greater Hoopoe Lark, far out in the emptiness, where it had caught a stray locust, which it dismantled and ate in front of us. We also enjoyed an opportunity to shoot some people here, visiting some delightful local villagers (originating from Rajasthan), who presented some very nice fabrics.

Minimalistic Asiatic Wild Ass, Little Rann of Kutch (above) and below: a more confident animal.


Pallid Scops Owl, a sought-after winter visitor to the Little Rann of Kutch from Central Asia (above) and the beautiful-ly-marked Sykes’s Nightjar - another winter visitor from countries you would not wish to visit at the moment (below).


Little Rann of Kutch village life.


Jaisalmer street life

THEN FOLLOWED OUR BIG ROAD TRANSFER DAY, driving out of Gujarat and far to the north into the colourful desert state of Rajasthan, home of bright colours and impressive moustaches. Toyota Innovas have transformed road travel in India and this journey, albeit quite long at nine hours was ac-tually a pleasure instead of the 12 hours of torture the first time I did it. On the other hand, Jaisalmer is sadly not the evocative desert fortress that it was on my first visit in the 1990s, now that more than 2500 wind turbines surround it. In the evening we made a short visit to Bada Bagh (= ‘big garden’), a site of the cenotaphs of the Maharajahs of Jaisalmer, also unfortunately surrounded by wind tur-bines. Who on earth could have allowed this to happen to such a lovely place? Next morning we took the usual city tour of golden Jaisalmer, starting with the Jain temples in the old fort, then continuing on to a city view point, the old havelis (intricately decorated former merchants’ houses) and finally ending up at an excellent fabric shop where the ladies battered their plastic! The streets of Jaisalmer are packed with interesting people and things at which to point the camera and a few hours hardly do it justice but it was interesting that it was raining again here from time to time. The first time I came here I wandered the narrow streets and alleyways of the fort for several days in between birding excursions into the surrounding desert. Most photographers could spend days on end here. The jum-bled shops, weathered local people, bright colours, fortress architecture and numerous wandering animals provide at least one million interesting subjects. Jaisalmer thrived during the height of the silk trade but with the partition of India in 1947 all cross border trade ceased and it became a sleepy backwater at the end of the line. The rise of tourism has changed its fortunes recently along with tensions between India and Pakistan, which has resulted in a large military presence here. As usual we saw several Indian Gazelles (or Chinkaras) on the journey to the east through the Thar Desert, which is unsurprisingly the world’s most densely inhabited desert, on our way to the town of Khichan. An evening at a small water tank provided some nice lighting for shooting some common waterbirds before our date with the cranes next morning, although the water level was somewhat lower than last time! Gathering on the surrounding sand dunes in the early morning, slowly the first of several thousand cranes started to make their way towards the feeding compound in the village. Eventually


Demoiselle Crane, Khichan and below: the awe-inspiring Taj Mahal.

they were more or less crammed inside, jostling for position to eat the grain put down for them by the Jain villagers, a practice that has continued here for over 150 years, a bit later than usual today, owing to their feeder getting slower these days! Their elongated secondary plumes forming interest-ing patterns as they fed. Images alone do not do justice without the whirring of wings overhead and the deafening cacophony of the excited cranes. This is certainly one of the ornithological spectacles of the world. As always it was time to leave all too soon and make our final road journey to Jodhpur from where we flew to Delhi, ready to start the next stage of our Indian adventure.


Hello Nasty! A powerful Marsh Mugger Crocodile on the bank of the Chambal River (above) and below: a Gharial.

ARRIVING IN AGRA IN THE EARLY MORNING BY TRAIN, we made our usual pilgrimage to gaze at the Taj Mahal, undoubtedly one of the most beautiful buildings in the world. There seems to have been a concerted effort to reduce the number of hawkers and touts here and we were able to wan-der in and out without any hassle once again. After taking the usual views the challenge is to find a new and interesting angle or maybe an interesting person with a nice background and we spent a couple of very enjoyable hours exploring the leafy gardens and the cool marble plinth surrounding the Taj itself. It was fairly busy today and there were a few brightly dressed Indian visitors or pilgrims around. We skipped Agra’s Red Fort this time, unfortunately it is sadly not as well appreciated as its neighbouring World Heritage Site and our previous folks have always wanted more of the wonderful Chambal River.


We had decided to make two river cruises this time in the National Chambal Sanctuary. These were probably the most productive photo sessions of the whole tour with many of us taking well over 1,000 photos of numerous different subjects. Very soon we caught up with the number one target here, the amazing Indian Skimmer, with its ‘snapped-off’ shorter upper mandible, bouncy flight and from time to time living up to its name with some skimming. There was a group of around 30 birds, settling down on sand banks in the river that again allowed some very close approach in very nice light – FANTASTIC STUFF! The cruises also afforded opportunities to photograph some attractive River Lapwings (now a threatened bird of the Indian Subcontinent’s large slow-flowing rivers) and the peculiar Great Thick-knee. After this highlight we cruised up and down picking up more interest-ing subjects, notably Gharial amongst the more widespread Marsh Mugger crocodiles. The National Chambal Sanctuary was declared in 1978, mostly to protect the critically endangered Gharial, the bizarre long-snouted fish-eating crocodile. Named after the Nepalese word ‘ghara’ meaning earthen-ware pot, referring to the enlarged growth on the end of the snout of mature males, which can grow to six metres long and one tonne in weight (second only to the monstrous Saltwater Crocodile). Again we saw one beast with a large pot and this time even got some reasonable photos. There are less than 400 breeding pairs left in its remaining range, a mere 2% of its former distribution, which used to include Pakistan, Burma and the Brahmaputra. A truly magnificent animal.Above: Indian Skimmers and below: a Pallas’s Gull from Central Asia.


Top left: Dalmatian Pelican; top right: Black-bellied Tern and bottom: Common Palm Civet, Chambal Safari Lodge.

A rich variety of wildlife can still be found on the Chambal, including pretty much all of the character-istic species of the large slow-flowing rivers of the Gangetic drainage system that were once found all over northern India. It is like stepping back in time and other relics included Woolly-necked Stork, Indian Black Ibis, Comb Duck and Black-bellied Tern. Also here were: flotillas of Bar-headed Geese grazing on the weed in the river; Ruddy Shelducks, paired up and several Golden Jackals were prowling the riverbank. We also had some great encounters with cute Small Pratincoles, especially in the evening as they hawked over the river, smart River Terns, White-browed Wagtails and a few Temminck’s Stints as well as a few special visitors: some Greater Flamingoes, a couple of Pallas’s Gulls from Central Asia and two pelicans, one of each, Great White and Dalmatian! A 960km long tributary of the filthy River Yamuna, the Chambal River has escaped development and its inevitable pollution owing to the river being considered unholy! It was said to have been cursed by a princess as well as carried the blood of thousands of sacrificed cows, ironically saving it from the even worse fate that has befallen the other rivers around it. Our very pleasant lodge near the Chambal was as delightful as ever and our wonderful evening meal here was followed by some after dark Common Palm Civet photography in the large trees around the lodge gardens. In daytime there are usually some interesting birds in the near vicinity and this year’s visit again resulted in some good photo opportunities of Spotted Owlet and Yellow-wattled Lapwing. We were sorry to head back north to the bright lights of Agra, then Delhi and the next stop on our tour, the ‘Kipling Country’ of Madhya Pradesh state.


FLYING SOUTH OVER THE DECCAN, fields grew smaller, areas of deciduous woodland more fre-quent with the odd rocky outcrop here and there. Once at Jabalpur our Toyota Innova MPVs made short work of the road transfer to our first destination, Bandhavgarh, except for the last stretch of the road into the park, which is deliberately not maintained to discourage speeding and is getting worse each year. As always, this road transfer produced our only White-rumped Vulture sightings of the whole trip. It is sad to recall how common they were on my first visit to India many years ago, even circling over Delhi itself! For the next four days we stuck to a routine of an early morning jeep safari in the 437 sq km national park, lasting until lunchtime followed by a break and then another safari in the afternoon until dusk. Although travelling around the park in jeeps still feels like the ‘whacky races’, Bandhavgarh maintains a reputation of being one of the most reliable reserves to produce a tiger sighting and that is pretty much what everyone is here for.

The cool wet weather continued in this area and we arrived at Tala on a showery afternoon. How-ever, this meant the air was clear of dust and very nice indeed for photos. Malabar Hornbill was obliging on our first drive but there was also a Sloth Bear for some (on their first ever jeep safari in tiger country, wow that is something!!!). We had opted for the picturesque Tala zone for all of our jeep safaris this time and we were pleased to find that tiger activity was good here in the delightful forests and meadows below its 2000 years old fort. Everyone got off the mark on the first day in fact with some acceptable photos. This included a nice encounter with Vijaya, the one-eyed tigress I saw here in 2011, now with three well-grown cubs in tow. I had probably seen their conception two years ago so this was a special moment. Thereafter things became a little more tricky with the jeep drivers trying their best to improve their odds of a sighting now that there are no elephant-back ‘tiger shows’ anymore. This seems an insane restriction as it will only encourage the jeeps to zoom around the routes more quickly trying to catch up with the latest sighting. On the other hand it was still noticeably quieter with half the number of jeeps allowed into the park compared to last year. Amazingly one of the tiger families had taken to hanging around the awesome Vishnu statue this year and at least one of our jeeps was lucky to catch up with some good close sightings from the approach road there. Thank goodness we did not need to endure the very bumpy 10km each way drive to the Magadhi Zone each time year! It is worth remembering that tiger reserves are mostly far from a wilderness

‘Vijaya’ the one-eyed Bengal Tigress in Bandhavgarh’s picturesque Tala Zone.


A Sambar stag gets ready for the ladies (above) and a rare unobscured view of a Barking Deer at Bandhavgarh (below).


experience but they are nevertheless a fascinating one and it is incredible to think that such preda-tors have been allowed to survive in such relative close proximity to man. One of the problems now is that everyone wants to see a tiger so we have to be prepared for company. Other wildlife photo-graphed included: Lesser Adjutant Stork; Red Junglefowl and Brown Fish Owl of note. There was also plenty of tiger food around the park in the form of Wild Boar, Indian Muntjac and Sambars as well as the ubiquitous Spotted Deer and Northern Plains (or Hanuman) Langur monkeys. However, as always, Bandhavgarh was mostly about tigers.

A North Plains Grey Langur monkey on lookout;Teak tree leaves and a Fulvous Forest Skimmer dragonfly (below)


Gaur or Indian Bison at Kanha. A cow above and a battered old bull below, trying in vain to hide in some bamboo.


Indian Little Nightjar in a rice paddy and below: Ghost Tree limbs at Kanha.

We enjoyed some other photographic opportunities at Kanha in good photographic light. However, the two leopards and another Sloth Bear were a little less than obliging staying out of reasonable DSLR range. Gaur, the huge wild forest-dwelling ox, appears to be doing well at Kanha and we encountered several groups there. The shaggy-coated Barasinghe, the endangered ‘hard ground’ form of Swamp Deer were also numerous and easy to photograph at times along with many of the other now familiar Indian mammals. The tracks in the immediate vicinity of our lodge also produced some nice nightjar photography after dark.India remains in my opinion the most fascinating country on earth to travel in. There is always so much happening, especially on the streets. Our final journey of this visit was to the industrial city of Raipur and its smart new airport terminal, from where we took a flight back to Delhi and went our separate ways.

INDIA WILDLIFE SPECTACULAR · GUIDE: MIKE WATSON THE FOURTH INDIA WILDLIFE SPECTACULAR WAS ANOTHER...

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