19th June 2010- evening safari,
I entered Tadoba Tiger Reserve through the Khutwanda gate & had a very good sighting of gaur, muntjac, monitors & a tiger-tigress pair along the Kala Amba main Road. Weather was perfect, occasional sunshine & nice breeze, but things were not going to stay as I thought. By the time, I circled around to Pandharpauni it was pitch dark with a heavy Monsoon blanket covering the entire sky. The jungle seemed to enjoy the dramatic change as black napped hares, wild boars, cheetals & egrets seems happy & active. My gypsy was hoodless & I really loved the ferocity of the breeze that was planning to throw me off from my vehicle. Slowly droplets began to fall occasionally as we started heading home from the Tadoba Lake. The darkness & the 'ghost trees' really set the drama that was going to begin. We took the main road & made progress towards the Khatoda gate. Sambars crossed us as the rain drops slowly started hitting us & we sat tight on our seats, eyes closed. By the time, we reached Khatoda, things remained the same. We decided to risk the journey to exit gate- Khutwanda. The sky was dark, darkness had already engulfed the entire reserve & game seemed to have totally vanished by the magic of the nature's fury magician! We carried on through the empty forest till we reached Khutwanda around 18:40. Rain droplets seemed to attack with a strengthened army, as we started feeling the hard hitting impacts of the cold droplets. As we reached around 4km, near an interior village, torrential rain started. Nothing was visible. We had to stop.
We found refuge in a small mud hut in a village. Rain continued very long. Thunder was shouted on the hut where we sat bundled together on the ‘charpai’ offered by the hospitable nice people of the cozy home. Kerosene lamps were lit & we could see the happy home in dim light. We discussed about the tiger sighting, the madness of nature & dramatic change in animal behavior due to the storm. The torrential rain became tired & loosened its grip over us & we started peeping outside from the small doors. Water tricked down from our hats as we tried to venture out. We sat back.
The rain slowly ceased after half an hour. It was already 20:05 & we started off after thanking the ‘forest people’ for their warmth of comfort that they provided us. We didn’t know that Modhuli river was waiting for us. As we reached her, she showed herself like ‘Mahishashur Mardini’ with her fury of racing down from the hills. Her roars penetrated deep into the periphery of the forest & we stood still, silent & lost. For the first time in my life I was caught inside the forest with a roaring river cutting off my path to the park exit. No hood & ‘the tail of the rain’ still showering on us, we stood cold & numb in the rain with the headlight lighting the raging water of the forest river. As the roars of Modhuli slowly settled in our senses, we could hear the cracks of the toads in love & the alarm calls of the sambar in the vicinity. With totally pitch dark on our back & a predator on the move is worth an experience! We became excieted as we torced the place around from our seats. Then slowly, we tried to gauge the depth of the raging waters by walking through it was sure that the 4-wheel drive will not be able to take the deep hidden potholes. We had no options. No mobile network, no human rescue but an open sky & nature watching every us with symphony of her ‘Jungle Rhythms’.
We had to head back to Khutwanda gate after a long wait in anticipation of receding of the Modhuli waters. We had to take special permission from RFO in-charge using the gate’s wireless & headed back through the Mohurli main road crossing few cheetals busy ‘changing sides’. We reached the gate at around 22:00. The entry from Khatoda gate is thus now closed due to that road cut off by rains. This male tiger is of that very day's sighting.
Picture 1: Labour Minister of Bengal, Shree Anadi Sahu handing over our book- Aranya He to renowned author, poet & singer Shree Buddhadeb Guha. Beside him is famous painter Wasim kapoor
