Simon Thomsett

Category: Uncategorized | Date: Dec 20 2007 | By: admin

23rd to 24th Nov 2007.

Munir, Pat and I caught the afternoon train in Delhi and arrived late that same day at Sawai Madhopur. Ranthambhore the quintessential ‘Tiger’ park of India was our destination. We were to stay in a lodge on the outskirts of the park. It needs some explanation for those who may have visited other lodges in Africa where they are placed within the park or reserve and are typically situated overlooking a grand natural vista or a waterhole teeming with wildlife. In India this experience, although certainly possible, is not available in the same manner. Instead the lodges are placed outside and are usually fenced off or even surrounded by a high wall excluding wildlife. Although there is a lot to be said in keeping lodges, infrastructure and especially people outside of protected areas (for the good of wildlife); this is not the rationale.

Some camps and lodges do attempt a more natural setting, but apparently they are not so popular among local tourists that make up a significant proportion of the tourists visiting the parks. The government stipulations may encourage the segregation of tourists from wildlife, presumably fearing that a wacky tourist may decide to go jogging and get taken out by an errant animal. Or more sensibly to ensure that the wildlife receives minimum harassment and some peace at least for a portion of the day. Whatever the case it is a pity as one misses out on so much of the wildlife experience. One cannot for example, lie awake at night and listen to the sounds of the “jungle”, the sawing grunt of the leopard, the bark of the deer or the hoot of a Fishing Owl. There is no question of being able to back-pack in solitude away from the maddening crowd alone and “at one” with the wilderness. I can understand this given that tigers are seemingly evolved to munch humans. But in areas where tigers are few the dangers do not compare to that encountered in African reserves where bush walking safaris are allowed. There is no private or community owned land of the same scale in India with large wildlife in which one can wander about camping. There is a move toward it and tourism could greatly benefit if it offered outdoor activities and light bush camps. India could learn as much from African wildlife tourism as we could from their intensive management of their parks.

Given these stipulations the lodges themselves have a particular charm. They focus more on the client’s comfort and cuisine. We were fortunate to be staying in one of the best called Dev Villas. Unfortunately Laila had arrived just ahead of us and had been abandoned at the railway station for hours, which is a miserable experience. She had however made good of the afternoon and had gone on an open bus into the park and had seen two tigers.

The next morning we awoke at 6AM, and bundled up with blankets in the back of an open Maruti/Suzuki Jeep, for a drive around the park in the buffer zones to count vultures. Our routine was to drive to locations where there were Long-billed Vulture nests. Although some nests where within the park most lay outside. Munir had a massive file of photos of the cliffs taken previously with nest sites marked on the enlarged prints. Vultures after a few millennia leave very obvious “white wash” in pot holes, ledges and outcrops of rock. It is a simple matter to check these places and see what the vultures are doing. Pat squinted down the scope and read out the number and whether or not it was occupied by a vulture that was sitting/standing/ nest building/incubating etc. Munir then wrote the data down. Laila assisted in data collection and spotted other vultures or nests and I annoyed everybody by double checking and making asinine comments that the vulture was squatting, not sitting, and facing left not right. I had to be very careful in my jest as these things were taken very seriously. But I have to admit the level of detail left little or no room for error. I was learning, but quickly despaired of the enormity of the task when the time came to making head or tail of so much data. Luckily it isn’t my job.

Munir and Laila checking nests on cliffs.

Our duties included spotting raptors of any kind. We enjoyed the challenge, it kept us on our toes, whether we were driving or counting vultures.
Most of our time at Ranthambhore we spent outside the park. I was especially keen to visit a cliff that I had seen in 2003. This buffer zone area is rich in wildlife and Pat and Munir regularly walk the base of a large section of cliffs counting vultures. I was not very well on that particular day, so when we spotted a dead vulture spread over its nest I offered to stay behind and see if I could get it. They went on and completed the count to finish at a small temple in which they found “the stone hurling guru”. Meanwhile I climbed the cliff using a fairly easy route but got sidetracked half way up. I videoed a vulture on the nest with a chick only a few meters away. But that was not what took my attention. Earlier I had seen leopard tracks lead to this same cliff, and I heard a Nilgai (Blue Bull) snort and trot away towards me when I approached the cliff base. I heard a few barks and cackles from the Langur Monkeys. Corbett wrote that these” little people” of the jungle would keep him informed of the movements of tigers and leopards. They sounded just like Vervet monkeys looking at Leopard. So I squirrelled along the cliff until I could see where a small troop perched just above me were looking. I sat for a good hour, when in broad daylight the leopard walked along the cliff edge slightly higher than I. I got some memorable video as he ambled along with no idea that anyone was around. I scrambled up the last section, and tracked him into a river bed and large cavern, where he reappeared briefly before heading on deeper into more extensive woodland. I treasured this moment more than any tiger sighting.
This time the “team” duplicated the same cliffs, but in reverse. We first visited the temple, set up our scope on the vulture nests only 100m away and begun counting. We had earlier seen a very unusual display by a Red headed Vulture. Two of them cruised high overhead, then one dropped in a side to side roll and stooped in a manner that would have made a Bateleur Eagle proud onto a young Bonelli’s Eagle. Pat really emphasised the need to consider this species in a very different light and we all agreed it is a species begging for research. The Red Headed Vulture is a very odd vulture in many ways more racy and eagle-like than the Lappet-faced or White headed Vultures of Africa. It appears in shape a little more like the White headed Vulture, despite having a face more similar to the Lappet-faced.

For comparison. A Red Headed Vulture (Indian) with a White Headed Vulture (African) pasted in behind.

While on the temple roof a Common Kestrel, presumably from Eurasia busied himself nearby. I suspect he was a resident as there is little evidence to suggest otherwise. Then a Shikra appeared. Beneath our feet Rhesus Macaques wandered about. Then we went to the shrine itself embedded in the cliff wall where each of us took off our shoes and bent down to a small enclave in which water dripped permanently from a fig root onto a smooth rock. Here each of us was blessed and given a tika on our foreheads. Despite being normally reserved I went along with it and appeared with a red dot and felt all the better for it. We all did so and as it is bad luck to wipe it off, it remained for the rest of the day.
I did not get to see the leopard, but I think we all appreciated the walk watching birds, fragile Thomson’s gazelle-like Chinkara gazelles, Nilgai and Langurs. At one point we had stopped to look at some distant cliffs that needed a walk off the road. I looked down and there had just recently passed a large male leopard. A tiny motorbike barely able to support to large men struggled past and stopped. We told them we had seen leopard tracks, and they replied that the leopard had taken a goat in the village last night and had walked in this direction. Everyone seems to know the local leopard and has up-to-date news on what it is up to. Incredulously to me, no-one was in any way upset about it taking livestock (a capital offence back home and a matter likely to fan the flames of dissatisfaction towards wildlife), nor worried about it in any way.

Rufous Treepie.

Treepies are a noisy ubiquitous bird. They were particularly tame at a guard station that was under construction. Later we heard a group clamouring in a bush and went over to see a snake glide out of the tree and into a hole.

Of raptors in general we were struggling to find many. Given that our focus was on cliffs, a habitat that favours large falcons as well as eagles and ridge soaring migrant raptors, the paucity of sightings obliged us to return to our old conclusion: that being that India has either very few raptors, or that there has been a dramatic decline. A cursory glance in the field guide gives all sort of species as being resident or migrant in this region. But except for the Shikra, a few Black shouldered Kites, one Short-toed Snake Eagle and 2 Bonelli’s Eagles our count was dismal by anyone’s standards. We had eight very good eyes on the job. That we saw no large falcon was especially poignant. Perhaps like in Africa raptors can slide into oblivion unnoticed because of the importance others set on the photogenic mega fauna.

25th Nov. 2007.
Spent morning in park checked on the Guddha cliffs and returned looking for tiger. We did stop and watch a Sambar suckle its new born. She at first approached the calf that lay hidden in the grass with a measured step and half raised tail, as though she had seen a predator. We were sure this was the case and moved toward her. The calf was so hungry that they allowed us to come very close while his mother stood still. Finally he realised we were there and moved off and turned around with raised tail.

On the 25th Nov I received some terrible news from my family, that I cannot relate here. I was lucky to be with good friends and I owe them much for their support during the next few weeks when my company could not have been anything other than miserable. I did not return home but stayed on.