Tadoba Tiger Reserve

The landscape in central India is brown, the deciduous forests mostly bare of leaves. Flowering trees spot the hills with brilliant orange, yellow and pink, standing out starkly against the barren land. We've been tracking the temperature - 108 degrees F in the shade, which translates into: 5am safari, back to the house by 9am to avoid the sweltering heat, talk with villagers or sleep through the afternoon, then back out by 4pm to again drive through the park or walk along the roads. We've seen a tigress, walking calmly in front of our car for 15 minutes, as well as the common palm civet, gaur (bison), wild dogs, bats, sambar, chital (spotted deer), chousingha (antelope), wild pigs, rhesus macaque, langur, Indian flying squirrel, and plenty of impressive birds – black headed ibis, crested serpent eagle, kingfishers, Indian roller, and in Melghat, the forest owlet, a very rare and possibly endangered bird.

A Rare Sighting (Melghat Tiger Reserve)

We met at dawn. Yawning with smiles, Sahas and I threw our gear into the SUV as the sun crested the high mesas surrounding the Semadoh rest house in Melghat, marking the new day. As we drove along rock-studded dirt roads, Bora, our local guide, explained the rarity of the species we were about to observe. The species was once believed extinct, but though new groups were recently discovered in a few forests in the Western Ghats and nearby areas, the population had yet to be estimated.

A village whirled by, a river, then trees. Our driver turned the car off the main road into an empty forest – few leaves and hardly a bird in sight. Bora imitated the species’ call and described how we might see it, that it might take a while before it appeared. Sahas and I grabbed our cameras and binoculars and we three spread out, treading lightly among the crackling dry leaves that blanketed the forest floor. I began systematically scanning the landscape for mobbing songbirds that might betray the location of our carnivorous target and strained my ears to hear the familiar call. But hardly a minute passed before Bora pointed and said calmly in Marati, “There it is: the forest owlet.”



Small and mottled brown with the characteristic white abdomen, she was perched high on the dark branches before us, watching us. I imagine she knew Bora by now; Sahas and I were merely a few more captivated tourists he had brought to her feet. She twisted her head, scratched her feathered face and flew to a tree nearby while Sahas and I cooed at her every move. She was a beautiful owl, sitting in the empty forest, alone. Her solitude seemed to highlight her value - rare, perhaps one of only a few hundred or thousand of her kind. I marveled at her as she looked down upon us again before flying off into the day. Sahas mentally checked off the new lifer on his bird list while I quietly pondered how many more lifers the forest owlet would serve before the bird itself was checked off as extinct.

Melghat Tiger Reserve

I just left Melghat Tiger Reserve this morning and am heading to Tadoba Tiger Reserve by road today. The Melghat landscape was stunning, with beautiful undulating hills, though it made seeing animals very challenging. The park claims to have a significant tiger (64) and leopard (154) population, but we can't imagine how, since the small ungulate prey base doesn't seem adequate to support such a large population of cats, and all I can deduce is that there must be more ungulate populations in the core (we were only able to visit the small Tourist Zone). Thankfully there are few incidents of tigers killing humans - only 1 death several years ago. About 25 cattle are killed by leopards and tigers every month, which is comparable to rates in Gir and Panna.

The Forest Department was extremely helpful and assigned a range officer to show us around, as well as provided us access to roads and a tiger cattle kill that we otherwise wouldn't have been able to see. The Forest Department Semadoh rest house accommodations in Melghat were excellent. Though “load sharing” prevented us from having a fan during much of the afternoon and early evening, we had electricity all night and morning, enabling us to sleep relatively soundly despite the intense heat. The porches look onto the dry Sipna River, which apparently runs rapidly during the monsoon, and the huts were surrounded by an interpretation centre and museum nested beneath teak trees. The Tourist Zone was only a 10 minute drive from Semadoh and the core would probably be about 20 minutes by car. Though Melghat Tiger Reserve is less commonly known among the system of tiger reserves in India, its well-established infrastructure and kind staff make it one of my favorite protected areas so far.