This forest never seizes to mesmerize my imagination and thrill that it brings in so unexpectedly every time. A perfectly sized group travelled to Bison Manor at Kutta in Coorg, a relatively new home stay with a 30 acre coffee plantation to support the family. Hugh and Vivienne, the masterminds behind this piece from heaven, were extremely engaging with every guest, making us felt like we were part of their family. The food, well I just cannot stop talking about it… Madhu and his entourage made us some of the best food we couldn’t even dream of in a star hotel at Bangalore. In short, a must visit place for anyone wanting time by themselves, but still feeling a part of the house you visit.
We just had two things to focus on in our entire trip. If we were not shamelessly gaining the pounds after gorging on some of the exotic food and deserts at Bison Manor, we were on the road, searching for any sightings of wild life that we could get. And boy, were we in for surprises through the entire trip.
After reaching our place of stay and stuffing ourselves with food, we rested for a bit and hit the road towards Wayanad Reserve Forests. One can cover multiple ranges by scanning outside the reserve limits on this route. With our jeep ready, 8 of us hit the road for some wildlife sightings. As we entered and drove nearly 30 kms on the winding hilly roads our eyes never took a blink in anticipation of getting that “perfect” story. While some of us were dreaming of capturing the exotic birds of Nilgiris, others had their eyes pierced on the bush line to find a hidden creature. I personally was scanning the trees to find a leopard stealthily hiding himself in the branches.
We had done nearly 40 kms and were reaching the last water hole on this stretch, towards the Kabini side of the forest, near Bavali. Our hopes were on the brink of being shattered and some of us had taken our forty-winks in all the silence that the forest has to offer over the last 2 hours. The evening light was fading and being a cloudy day, the light dropped drastically. We turned our vehicle to get back as it was getting late and this is Elephant territory, you’re definitely not welcome after nightfall. With a change of driver and the renewed hope of some luck, we started our drive back. The dark night in the wild keeps most of us awake for many reasons, fear of the unknown being on top of the list. With beaming eyes, we were trying to see into the dark and identify screeching nocturnal life. Eight of us, hanging from all sides of our open jeep with a 360 degree view and the night that was getting nippy by the moment, it was not one of the best things to do in the wild. Most of us started to feel the hearts pound as the silence and sudden bursts of twigs breaking made us more than uncomfortable. I was sitting in the last bench of the jeep and had my eyes directed at the back of our vehicle. We were driving slowly, since elephants could come out of nowhere and charge at us. The dark was getting eerie and the forest silent. None of us were talking and then, we heard our co-driver say… “Tiger”…
…The next 20 minutes were the most chaotic, noisy, confusing yet memorable…
Within a couple of seconds and in the dim evening light, all of us were scanning the bush and spot-on, the Tiger was comfortably sitting and staring at us. A heart beat skipped for everyone as this for the first sighting for all but one. As reality started to sink in, immediate chaos ensued… a barrage of clicks were thrown at the Tiger. The predator was a sub-adult, maybe 2-3 years old with a small head, suggesting that this was a young female that we were spotting. She was ignorant about our presence and pretended to be in total ignorance of our existence. After all, she is at the apex of the food chain and can be as cool as a cucumber in our presence. We were literally wailing at each other to get a better shot of the cat with various angles that were to offer. Just as we were getting a few shaky shots but good ones to be called record-shots, there was an oncoming bus, which we had to give way for. With the bus gone in a jiffy, we doubled-up to our spot and rejoice our “find”. She was gone…
…With the entire nuisance, we so called naturalist with immense collective knowledge of the do’s and don’ts of the forest, had created, she was bound to disappear just as mystically she had appeared. We started to drive slowly ahead and take as much light from the remainder of the evening and peek into the bush line. She was gone and our greedy human nature was crying for more, as though we had, not spent the last 20 min doing nothing. I sat back at my last bench and the corner of my eye caught a vivid detail in the dark-crimson hazy lights of the brake light. The outline of the Tiger, and I said, she is behind us…
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| Photo Coutesy: Fellow Photographer Karthik SM |
She had silently crossed the road from where we were watching her all this while and was majestically walking by the road side, not even bothered of our presence. We, humans, were a mere mockery in her land. She walked for a while and stepped into the bushes, to continue her nocturnal adventures into the night. This was the most silent part of the 25 minutes that we had seen the tiger. Whether it was in awe of the majestic creature we had sighted, or the emotions that was gone with the Tiger, it is unclear, but the silence was loud!
I don’t think I can remember too much of the Tiger struggling to hide herself from the prying eyes of the un-invited guests for my life, but the one thing I will clearly take to the grave is the silhouette of her in the dark-crimson lighting. This image is painted in my mind for life… The walk of a Tiger!
