👋 Hey, Parag here! Welcome to the first edition of the weekly InFocus blog 🥳
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Unheard, Untold, Never Shared stories of the wild wild world of carnivores vs herbivores, hunter vs hunted, might vs sleight, fast vs faster brought to you straight from the habitats of Africa, India, and many many more….
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Me and my wife love “Kabini” (the popular name of Nagarhole National Park) in Karnataka, India. The land of tigers, leopards, elephants, bison, sambar deer, spotted deer, and the one and only “black panther”.
But this is not about the “black panther”. He has been chronicled a lot and is of course reason enough to head to Kabini, but there are umpteen other reasons to head there, as we do often.
This was our 4th visit in the past 6 months and there was no fatigue from Kabini still. Rather each visit and safari had raised our anticipation and excitement to another level.
The safari for us has always been a “jeep safari”, though there is a “boat safari” also on offer. However, as wildlife photographers, we had always preferred the drive into the forest to gliding on the river backwaters in a boat.
As with most things, a certain 6th sense guided us to take an evening boat safari. And boy, did we make the right choice.
You bet we did, as I bring to you the “Great Escape”.
The boat headed towards the forest, the view was simply out of the world. It was a classic forest scene, a scene with “peace” written all over it, with no hint of danger at all. Riverbank, sambar deer grazing and drinking water from the river, a herd of spotted deer behind it grazing peacefully - heads down, langur monkeys few feet behind them as if in a school class, “Quintessentially Kabini”, I thought.
Half an hour into the safari, we saw a boat head towards the river bank.
We were a bit away from it, but soon we saw another boat head in that direction (there were 3 boats on the river, that evening).
Soon we were next to them. Eyes, cameras, binoculars on, and the “tiger was spotted”
He peered from behind trees and shrubs. A fallen tree log camouflaged him amply from the spotted deer herd which was grazing peacefully on the river bank, less than 10 feet from him
We were surprised the deer were lulled into a false sense of comfort & confidence as the stealth of the tiger behind and possibly wind blowing away from the tiger, made them completely miss the tiger, even after it raised its head up. If you are not able to imagine it, don’t push your imagination hard. The pic is right below for you:
This was a scene, I had never witnessed before in my umpteen visits to the wild. But as they say the “wild” always “surprises”. Surprise is the essence of life and survival in the wild.
The herd continued to graze, the tiger lay low, and hid behind the log, biding his time. Sometimes a choice of so many (there were stags, deer, fawns) could lead to a confused state of which one to go for.
Soon a fawn got separated from the herd. This was it, I thought. Through my viewfinder, I could see the “eyes” of the tiger in between the branch on the log. But the fawn still did not see it. How? I thought.
Phoenix-like he rose.
The fawn froze. Surely it had not yet got its life lessons in full. Still an undergrad.
David vs Goliath, now. The fawn was bewildered, it possibly had never seen a tiger from so close. He was outsized by far.
Survival instincts then took over. 1-2-3 and the fawn was off, it can outrun the tiger, a question was, will it be able to do so, as the tiger was just a leap away and one hit from his paw was good enough to maim the fawn.
A race for survival ensued. The fawn twisted & turned, leaped & jumped. Natural instincts helped it create an unpredictable trajectory
The fawn had gathered momentum and was soon airborne and whizzing past. The acceleration it had generated helped it escape the tiger, as the tiger tried rounding it off beyond the fallen tree.
It was magical and one of the finest examples of a “Great Escape”.
We were simply too lucky to witness it from so close quarters, thanks only to being in a “boat safari” as the river bank provided ample clear space to chronicle it
The expression on the face of the tiger said it all (last picture). He was beaten by a faster and braver deer. A closer look at the tiger suggests, it was a “sub-adult” and still not a “master predator”, learning his craft.
Hope you enjoyed the “Great Escape” and would soon head to the woods, which have so many wonderful experiences to share.
So long then.
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So we need to scratch out Nagarhole from our itinerary.... Parag has painted such a vivid picture of the place, like having a ringside view of the adventures at play...
Keep clicking and keep writing Parag....
Sir I have seen those excellent photographs, of yours, I think that would be really beneficial for another photographer to grow and develop their skills also.