9th April 2023, after the lovely sighting of the tigress mark4 and after our breakfast at Mauli resort we left for Vasundhara Tiger Retreat, Moharli, Tadoba Andhari Tiger Reserve. We were keen to reach there as early as possible to enjoy the hospitality and delicious food waiting for us. The moment we started our SUV’s, I got a call from Mr. Pramod Bhoyar (Proprietor) Vasundhara Tiger Retreat, who informed us that, he is waiting for us for Lunch. We reached there at around 1330 hrs and straight away marched to the dining lounge. We were received by his manager Mr. Mullick, an Ex Serviceman. Not to mention about the hospitality at Vasundhara Tiger Retreat. Evening was quite with no safaris, but we spend good time interacting with Mr. Pramod Bhoyar over many cups of tea and hot pakodas. Mr. Pramod Bhoyar is an encyclopedia in himself as far the Central India forest and its wild life is concerned.
10th morning was our safari in the buffer zone of Agarzari. Today Avril accompanied us for the safari. The weather was like monsoon and the landscape at the back water of Erai River was mesmerizing. The chirping of birds and the playfulness of Indian Roller was breathtaking. If it would have been for me and Avril, we would have spent the whole time at this place enjoying the chirping of the birds and clicking Painted Stork, Grey Heron, Pond Heron, Black headed Ibis, Cormorant, the babblers, Rufus tree pie and so many whom we don’t recognize. But we went on driving through the forest in search of the most majestic beast, “The Tiger”. In the melee for searching the Tiger, we saw the most majestic, chiseled, all muscles, no fat “Indian Gour”, wearing clean white socks up to the knee as if laundered at Mr. Pramod Bhoyar’s resort.
We were driving through the tall tiger grass approaching the back waters of Erai, when we saw a sub adult tiger walking towards the water on the beaten track. Ours was the only Gypsy. We were not in hurry to click the tiger from the back while walking and wanted him to reach the water body, so that we will have good time clicking the tiger, while he is quenching his thirst. But as it’s rightly said that “If wishes were horses, baggers would ride”, there came a gypsy from the opposite side and scared away the tiger deep inside the tall grass, stopping for sometime under a Babool tree. Thereafter the scene was ugly, wherein the Gypsy drivers telephonically informed others about the sighting, and the entire gypsy’s gathered there trespassing the privacy of the beast, nothing less than scaring away the tiger. They tried to drive as close as they could. I told the driver and the guide to drive away from such unruly scene. It’s their good luck that none of us captured this ugly scene, otherwise I would have complained to the CCF, TATR and strict action would have been initiated against them.
10th evening we were booked for Moharli core zone safari, thanks to Mr. Ramgaonkar (Field Director, TATR) who gave us the VIP quota. In the scorching heat of April, once again we boarded the Gypsy to trail the tiger. The guide Vasanta Sonule allocated to us seemed to be a bit mentally unstable. He was gloating in his past glory. He boasted to us that he is one of the star forest guide and his trips with all the big wigs visiting TATR. Thanks to the Gypsy driver, we could do some wild life sighting. A time came when I have to give him a shut up call. We went on roaming in the forest once again searching for the Tiger. We saw Nightjar from very close sitting on her egg. While drive past the Tadoba Lake we saw a huge Crocodile basking on the bank of the lake. He was not happy to see us stopped opposite to him, to shoot him with the camera. He opened his Jaw as wide as he can and registered his resentment. I was happy to click any animal which came on our way and got a beautiful picture of a male Indian Gaur drinking water in a natural pond. Then the last ditch effort for tiger hunt drove us back to the telia, where we had a beautiful sighting of Chota Dadiyal sitting on the bank of the water body, not bothered about the tourist clicking at him. I found him to be of little lighter shade. After spending around 30minutes, and due to the time running out and bad light to click him anymore, we started driving towards the exit gate where in, we were surprised by a full grown female tigress walking on the road. “What a cat walk”. There were few vehicles and noisy onlookers who forced her to walk into the out of bound area. We all came back to Vasundhara Tiger Retreat and were greeted with hot cups of tea with tasty cookies.
A wide spread dinner, vegetarian, non vegetarian, and south Indian was offered for a group as small as six.
