A Wild Chase in the jungles of South India

A Wild Chase in the jungles of South India

by Jour ~ Thursday, February 10, 2005

It began as a wild goose chase ,only the goose happened to be missing.. It was wild, alright – what with elephants, monkeys, malabar squirrels , bears , boars and buffaloes providing company . And to cut to the chase, we have been camping in wildlife sanctuaries and jungle resorts over the last year - six of them in fact , all in the radius of a few hundred kilometers . In the forests of Bandipur, Nagarhole and Mudhumalai , in the camps at Masinagudi, K Gudi and Wynad. Our wild life hunt had begun

At the outset, I must confess that we are not die hard wild life enthusiasts. We would not wish to pretend to be one . A natural curiosity for wild life, a little bit of adrenalin in our veins, a desperate need to get away from the city combined
with practical possibility of getting leave only during weekends led us up the jungle trail.


Our ritual began every morning . The mist played with mountains, the dew had just settled in. It was cold and damp. And the jungle presented itself to us, a collage of greens, yellows and browns . Shivering underneath our jackets and enjoying the nippy air, we drove through the forest in an open jeep, hoping for an unusual sighting .

View video - The Safari Experience
"safari"

A typical safari would read like this. It starts off as a smooth ride with a song in your heart. Add a dash of excitement and plenty of hope to the experience. Then, before you know it, the jeep will suddenly swerve into a narrow path, cutting amidst trees and tearing through the grass. Your adrenalin levels increase. The smooth roads turn into sharp curves as the jeep cuts through the vegetation . You spot an animal hide here and there, a shadow darting through the leaves, a rustle in the woods . You squint through the natural mosaic of greens and browns and imagine like Macbeth, that the woods are moving. By the end of it, however your excitement wanes , the thrill fades

View videos - The deer series-different species
"Deer"
"One more deer"
"Another deer"
"Lots of deer"

In the beginning were the deer, the spotted and the sambhar variety. In great hordes , skipping, frolicking, playing .The birds and the butterflies flitted around as the peacock obliged us before darting behind bushes . Next in line were the wild buffaloes, majestic and proud, ;looking at us askance. Rustling amidst the trees are the wild boars, which even greeted us near our tents in the K Gudi Camp.

Watch videos - The boars and the bisons
"bisons"
"wild boars"
"more boars"

We chased and were chased. Eyes, though invisible to us were tracking us. We saw pugmarks of tigers , dung of elephants and heard stories of leopards. But they eluded us. At one occasion, in Masinagudi we even smelt an elephant very close to us, almost breathing behind a bush , as we got out of our jeep and trekked. It mocked us with a cry, almost like tempting us for a game of hide and seek.

You must have heard this before . The frequent refrain at every safari tour is, “If you are lucky, then … Hope is a funny thing. You very well know that it may not be your day to catch an elusive glimpse of the giant cat or encounter a tusker, but you still persist


The roads are bumpy, you get covered with slush, your legs ache as you trek , but hope does not let you down. It is this hope that made us continue and yes, we were finally rewarded. Not with a tiger or a tusker, but a bear almost 100 metres from us, that paused in its journey and sized us up Its companion was not far away, but it soon merged with the colors of the forest.. It was the twilight hour. A hush fell. We felt a sense of awe and said a silent prayer.

View video - The bear look
"bear"

Very often, its not the destination so much, but the journey which is exciting.. And so it is with jungle life and safari tours. Sighting wild life alone is not fun, it’s the chase that makes it exciting…Like the one we went atop an elephant looking for a crouching tiger up hill through the forest in B R Hills. It was not the regular trail that day, somebody shouted tiger and off our mahout went in search of the beast. It mounted to nothing, but we felt the adventure in the steep climb, the dry and rocky terrain, the thorny bushes and in the unspoken excitement and fear . And the elephant farted away..

Watch video -Atop an elephant
"elephant ride"

Another adventure was atop a tree, 40 feet above the ground where we decided to stay and look at the life of the jungle It was in Masinbagudi, near the Mudhumalai Sanctuary, in a 300 acre of land populated by just another tree house and lots of wild animals. We were awakened in the dark by chimps dancing on our roof, shrieks and cries of wild elephants that threatened to encroach on our area ..We heard them all ;they were all around us, yet we saw nothing in the morning save peacocks, deer , chimps, wild boars and some rare birds


Every forest looked the same. Only the seasons change and with it, the colours. The water fronts get dried a bit, but they are still the haunts of the wild. We continued with same hope in our hearts as we touched Bandipur and this time , we got more than what we had bargained for. We pursued invisible shadows , but didn’t realize that it was our turn to be chased.

It must have been around quarter to seven , and darkness was slowly setting in. Shadows merged with trees and we were returning from another fruitless safari tour. We were on the Bangalore - Bandipur Highway , very close to our resort when suddenly we saw three elephants hardly 10 feet from us, on the edge of the road. We paused in an attempt to take photographs. We got out of the car . My friend was adjusting his camera, my husband standing outside the car beside us. Suddenly one of the elephants took a warning step forward. We backed a bit. A moment paused and we resumed our photography, when suddenly the elephant broke into a run…a very fast one at that . It was a race between man and beast.. a thin line between adventure and death, The car was at least 5 feet from where we were . We made a quick scramble to get in… We yelled, shouted, screamed and panted . We were unprepared for this ;. My friend rummaged for the keys . I flung the camera and looked back. The elephant stopped just a foot away from our bonnet.. A look which said, Get out of my territory.

The entire thing lasted for around 30 secs, may be a minute at the most. We raved, ranted and told the same story many times over, each from his /her perspective. We thought of the many possibilities of an IF added to the situation. I remember the last look, all it had to do was to stretch out its trunk and reach out to us. But it preferred not to do that.

We now speak of this incident in our inner circle as the most adventurous trip we ever had. We showcase our bravado and our story telling skills. We are probably looking for more adventures to score brownie points, to increase our adventure rankings. To us, it was a fantasy , an escape from our daily mundane lives But at that moment, however, it was about survival than exploits. It was fear , rather than hope and excitement . It was about encroaching another’s territory. And we were chased away.