Magic of Kabini

Magic of Kabini

I was trying to get bookings in kabini from march and was not able to get on weekends. It was always booked much in advance. So we decided to go an a weekday, By chance there was a booking available for friday 23rd May just for one day. With no delay I made reservation at JLR. We knew one day would not be enough but still we were eager to go. This was my first visit to Kabini, I was quite excited and was looking forward for the trip.

I learnt a good lesson in 2007 when I had been to Bhadra Wildlife Sanctury. It was the first time I had been to safari and my expectations of sighting the Tiger/Leopard was too high. I ended up with only deers.
Our trip to kabini was for some good photography and a break from office. I had heard a lot about elephant congregations at kabini.

The Kabini, is a river of southern India. It originates in Wayanad District of kerala state, with confluence of Panamaram River and Mananthavady River and flows eastward to join the Kaveri River. Close to H D Kote it forms huge Kabini Reservoir. This backwaters of the Kabini are very rich in wildlife especially in summer when the water level recedes to form rich grassy meadows.

May 23rd Friday

Started on Friday Morning at 7:45 AM from my place and I told neha that we are not going to stop anywhere for anything, so we packed curd-rice for breakfast. We reached Mysore road around 8:30 AM. Being a week day traffic was less, I drove for 60kms and then neha took over till mysore city. we reached Mysore city around 10:45 AM. 

It was a very pleasant drive in our new Verna 1.6 Xi. From Mysore city we took Mysore-Mananthavadi Road. The road was excellent for about 60kms. We took an hour to cover this distance and from there we had to take left deviation which is about 20kms to JLR. The road was very bad and never expected our new car to take so much beating, well some how managed to reach JLR reception around 12:45 PM.

We stopped at the reception and completed all the formalities. and told the staff that we would be interested in taking up jeep Safari in the evening and next day morning as well.
It was little hot in afternoon, Relaxed for 30 mins in the room, rushed for lunch at 1:30 PM in Gol Ghar. Near Gol Ghar met Dr Rajesh who was engaged in taking few pics of birds around in his Olympus E3. Spoke to him for sometime and he was telling his story of sighting a leopard the day before we reached there.

After lunch I told neha to take some rest before we leave for Jeep safari. I took my camera and started to go around the campus looking for birds. I met Mr Basil a naturalist and spoke to him for 25-30 mins. He told me about elephant congregations, Leopard/Tiger sightings in kabini, his experience in wildlife and also told me about the King Vulture sighting a week back.

Finally it was 3:30 PM and we were eager to go for Safari. We all reached near Gol Ghar for coffee/tea break. There I met Mr Nagraj who has been into wildlife photography 

from past 30+ years (ages of black and white photos). I was stunned with his knowledge and the energy he had. By then we met Mr Apana who is very passionate about photography. It was almost 3:50 PM, We all were set for the safari. We were very lucky to accompany Mr Nagraj and Mr apana for the safari. It was almost 15 mins drive to the entrance of the park from JLR. One the way we spotted Serpent eagle and sloth bear. I was checking my camera settings and was trying to take few shots of serpent eagle. I had Nikon D40 with a 55-200mm VR lens. Just before we entered the forest Mr Nagraj and Mr Apana got ready with their equipments. I was stunned for sometime when I saw 500mm lens which apana was carrying and I started hiding my camera. As soon as we entered the forest we were welcomed by a herd of elephants. We spent more than 15 mins taking pics of the herd.

Neha was filming the herds in her handy cam. She was very excited and was telling me hope we sight a leopard/tiger. I just told her it’s all luck and don’t have any expectations. We started going further inside the forest and came across a herd of Indian Gaur. It was fantastic to watch 12-14 at a time. We got some good shots of these gaurs.

It was around 5:30 PM and we had sighted spotted deers , Hanuman langurs , serpent eagle, Indian gaur, elephants and now we all were getting excited. Our guide told the driver to head towards the backwaters. On the way our guide immediately made signs to stop the vehicle and asked the driver to back the vehicle. All of us were thrilled and started looking in all directions. The guard had spotted the leopard on a tree branch. It was one of the most memorable moment for neha and me to 

watch this beautiful cat on the tree branch. It was for the first time I saw a leopard in the wild. My heart started beating faster and my hands started shivering, for few seconds I could not press the shutter button.

Within no time there were almost 5-6 jeeps which came to the same spot as the wireless message was passed to them. We spent around 15 mins watching this wild cat as it disappeared in the bushes. Expecting it to cross the pathway we were waiting for 15-20 mins on the otherside. Well it was 6:00 PM by then and we had to leave the forest towards JLR. The evening ended with a memorable photograph of the leopard.

It was 7:30 PM and we headed towards viceroy building for a wildlife movie “Nagarahole – Tales from an Indian jungle” by shekar dattatri. After this we had our dinner and decided to take the jeep safari the next day morning at 6:30 AM.

May 24th Saturday

6:30 AM sharp we left for safari, Our jeep was the first to enter the jungle. As soon as we entered the forest we found pug marks of a tiger. The Guard recognized the mark and was very sure that it was of a male tiger. we followed the pug mark up to a distance but could not sight it.

On the way we sighted malabar giant squirrels and Langurs. After moving further into the forest we sighted Spotted deers, Sambar deer etc., We came across a cicada resort jeep which was coming from the opposite direction, They were very happy as they had sighted a leopard.
We decided to take a chance and immediately reached the place where they had sighted the leopard. No luck! moved little further ahead and the other jeep which was behind us stopped as they had spotted the leopard which was resting one the tree branch. we backed the vehicle to get a clear view of the leopard. It was yet another thrilling moment for us. We were lucky enough to sight leopard both during the evening and morning safari.

Alas! it was time to return to our camp and say goodbye to Kabini. we experienced the magic of kabini and decided to re-visit this place twice a year.

Sightings

Birds

-> Blue Jay
-> Serpent eagle
-> Peacock
-> Cuckoo

Mammals

-> Elephants
-> Indian Gaur
-> Spotted Deers
-> Sambar deer
-> Hanuman langurs
-> Sloth Bear
-> Wild Boar
-> Malabar giant squirrel
-> Leopard
-> Stripped mongoose

Original Source : http://wildlife-jaunts.blogspot.com/2008/05/magic-of-kabini_25.html