Seeing Tigers in India

(This is an excerpted guest post from Kurt Kutay, President of Wildland Adventures, a SEEtheWILD partner. See the full post here.)

Leaving the unorganized chaos of Delhi behind we sought the peace and quiet of the jungle, and the anticipation of spending 6 days on 8 safari game drives in search of the Bengal tiger. It takes 5 hours drive from the Jabalpur airport to get to Kanha National Park and our accommodations at the Kanha Jungle Lodge, but here the sounds are squawking parrots, barking deer, and monkeys rattling the tree branches . Every morning at 6:15 AM we pass through the gates, returning by 10:30 after a bush breakfast in the field, then back into the park at 2:45 until we must exit by 5:45 dusk.

We try not to be too "tiger centric" but the anticipation of driving through carnivore territory, hearing the alarm calls of monkey and deer, knowing that Bengal tigers and leopards are lurking in the tall grass and bamboo thickets watching us is a little unnerving but completely mesmerizing. We are with expert driver naturalist guides, joined by a local assistant guide from the community to help track and spot the tiger, and every time we encounter another jeep they all confer in Hindi as to who saw what where and when. We watch for pug marks (tiger tracks) and confer with forest guards walking in the park and occasional mahouts riding elephant back in search of the big cats.

And then it happens…sometimes by sitting in wait knowing a cat is there and hoping it will emerge and then other times it just appears! The whole experience is tracking skill and experienced guesses of the driver guides and their assistants, and much of it is also plain luck. The Aussies who were traveling along our schedule for a few days had the most upbeat and positive attitude and they had numerous sightings.After our days in the jungle the comments were: "Awesome!" This is what I came to see!" "When I got back to my room I couldn't sit down!"

Paired off in groups of 3-4 persons per jeep the first vehicle to have a spotting was with Vinod's—the very same local community guide that Wildland and our previous travels sponsored to participate in a local guide training program so that members of the local villages could participate more in tiger tourism, earn income from tiger conservation, and be ambassadors in their community to help protect tigers. It was great to meet Vinod personally and to see that he is now a full time hired guide at the Kanha Jungle Lodge—ask for him if you go!

Read the full itinerary for Wildland's Tigers and Travels in India here.