'Re-colouring the panegyric of blood
rendered with lullabies —
remembrance of the same past,
returned to the same world,
O warrior, who are you?'
- Chakravyuh, No other world, Kunwar Narain (Translated by Apurva Narain)
As I am trying to adjust with the habitual assault on my senses after spending five days in a place where my mornings were green and evenings were orange — where I was surrounded by light-worms, glow of the reeds, gliding shadows of wild animals, breeze's quivering reflection on quiet water, occasional rustle in the bushes, sight of raw flesh and chilling call of different species as if just to announce, in your theatrical matrix we exist too, I think about Mahadev Nayaka, a forest watcher who was found dead on 17th April under suspicious condition at Gurugala Kere, a 12-feet water hole inside the Nagarhole National Park.
Reported version suggests that he got separated from other team members when a herd of elephants chased them one night and he might have accidentally fallen inside the pit. He was under the duty of chasing elephants back to the forest but elephants apparently attacked the forest chasing squad in that fateful night when Mahadev went missing. While rest of the members came out scathe-free, he was nowhere to be found till his lifeless body was discovered at Veeranahosahally range next morning.
This news that found pocket-sized space for a day in leading English newspapers of South India made me more curious than disturbed, I must admit, as I wondered what might have transpired. Clearly there was no sign of mauling in the reports. Then why someone who worked inside the forest for four years would find a water hole, more so when he claimed not to be an efficient swimmer, to escape from an animal he was well-acquainted with? Then I reminded myself that how accustomed we became with the domesticated version of the species. Elephants that we mostly get to see near temples, training camps, processions and so on are categorically tamed to an extent till they are mentally broken. In wild, they are powerful enough to deliver a lethal blow from one strike or in this case, Mahadev might have experienced a heart attack by looking at the sheer size approaching with ferocity and got toppled.
I would have rested with that thought unless Mahadev was who he was. He was an Anti-Poaching Camp Watcher.
But as another much more celebrated life got lost under questionable circumstance and for few months mainstream media hoodwinked us into thinking that nothing else were happening anywhere else in this world, I forgot about this incident till I got a chance of visiting this forest in October.
Evenfall
I look back at the painting I made with Adobe sketch of Kabini backwater under twilight sky.
Then I look at the original landscape, which I captured during one of the safaris I did this time inside Nagarhole National Park, a part of Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve, which includes the reserve forest of Arkeri, Hatgat and Nalkeri in Coorg along with reserve forests from the adjoining Mysore district.
None of them does complete justice to the amazing habitat spanning across 643 sq. km, but the unspoiled wilderness is evident.
I visited Iruppu Falls few years ago during one of my Coorg trips. I had no idea then that Lakshmanatirtha river, a tributary of Cauvery river, originating from the Brambhagiri range forms this cascading waterfall and flows inside Nagarhole forest, which constitutes the catchment area for three rivers: Nagarhole, a serpentine river that meanders its way through the deciduous forest, Lakshmanatirtha river and Kabini.
On the bank of Kasbani river, nestled at the foothills of Western Ghats, a dense woodland of 55 acre was the erstwhile favourite hunting spot for Indian royalty and British Viceroys. This river (also known as Kapila, Kabani or Kabini river) originated from the confluence of the Panamaram and Mananthavady rivers in Wayanad District of Kerala and made its course eastward to meet the Cauvery river at Tirumakudalu Narasipura in Karnataka. The Kabini dam along with a huge reservoir were built in 1974 in close proximity of Sargur town as part of an irrigation project and this reservoir bifurcates Bandipur and Nagarhole National Park.
The south-eastern area of Nagarhole is known as Kabini Wildlife Sanctuary, which receives copious amount of annual rainfall and provides abundant vegetation for wildlife to thrive.
So if you were once confused like me about whether Kabini and Nagarhole forests are the same, you know better now. This map will seal it for you.
Sightings in SAFAR-I
|| Megafauna ||
Megacarnivores
“Rules are for children. This is war, and in war the only crime is to lose.” ― Joe Abercrombie, Last Argument of Kings
The Queen of Kabini and daughter of Ghost must have thought so. And so started the bold saga of Kismet, a name given to mark her tryst with destiny. She lost her father when she was just one year old but her powerful and intelligent mother Ghost has inculcated fighting spirit in her from the beginning, only that she perhaps didn’t know what’s in the making. A forest without its king (Kismet’s father) creates either entropy or emptiness. Ghost started looking out for a new mate and ventured far to partner up with a shy male tiger, Valentino. When Ghost returned to her original ruling land after months of rendezvous with Valentino, she didn’t meet her ‘daughter’. Kismet by then got big enough to establish her own reign around backwater and banished both mother and other sisters from this place.
A tigress needs at least a 20 square kilometer territory at her disposal. Kismet showed zero mercy. Now survival is the Law of the Jungle — ‘as old and as true as the sky’, as Kipling said; and thus the new ‘backwater female’ was born for the locals, the undisputed Queen. And guess who she decided to make her King? Kismet enticed Valentino! Together they started to rule the forest land near Kabini backwater.
I feel immensely grateful to find her on 3rd October, 2020 at around 6 PM crossing her territory with 3 cubs from second litter after making a kill in the morning. We were heading towards exit gate as the safari timing was coming to an end. There was no warning call from spotted deer at all for the last 3 hours. The jungle was frighteningly quiet. At the very end of safari, a tigress, that too the Queen of Kabini, was the last thing I could have imagined. But as they say, I guess it was in my ‘Kismet’. One of the cubs can be seen inside the bushes.
Nagarhole national park presents healthy populations of three large predators - tiger, leopard and dhole, who can thrive on a diverse community of preys - chital, sambar, muntjac, gaur, wild boar and gray langur. The moist deciduous part of the forest and teak plantation strata provide a higher ecological density of principal prey species compared to dry deciduous part. Also, diet of the predators undergoes seasonal shifts depending on the habitat selection patterns by preys.
And here comes the majestic Bold Male, the full-grown son of Kismet from her first litter. I came across him during my first safari on 2nd October around 9 AM in Zone B of Nagarhole. He has made himself visible from the thick bush for a short while before getting out of our sight into dense thicket. A new backwater male is in the making! The circle of life completed after spotting Kismet with her second litter.
India is now estimated to be the home of 70% of world's tiger population and this rapid growth is palpable in this forest. It has more than 125 adult tigers according to the latest report, making it Karnataka's most densely populated tiger reserve with 11.82 tigers for 100 sq. km. range. Other than Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka is the only state in India with more than 500 tigers according to the current census data. Needless to say, this space crunch is not a happy news from conservation perspective. Also, with 33 tribal settlements, 96 peripheral villages and coffee estates forming an enclosure inside the forest, almost 150 km. of Nagarhole is claimed by human habitation and there is a steadily increasing pressure on the buffer zone.
Over 100 Indian leopards also stealthily prowl around here. The near-perfect camouflage though makes it extremely challenging to spot them with the naked eye unless they are lazing on a canopy. At times, a leopard may be hidden in plain sight and nobody gets a clue. Such is their masterly ambush strategy. They are also significantly more opportunistic hunter than fellow big cats.
Typically, tigers make more kills in the moist habitat because their favored preys (sambar, gaur, wild boar) prefer this area. On the other hand, leopard kills are evenly distributed among teak plantations and habitats covered with short-grass with scant cover because their favourite target, spotted deer (chital), exhibits better predilection for those areas.
A gray langur has made a chilling warning call during my 4th safari. One could immediately sense the change in body language amidst this grazing herd of spotted deer. The males (with antlers) were coming out to take stock. The sign was unmistakable. An apex predator was around, most probably a leopard. Often, the prey species can tell which member of the group is making the call, so that they can disregard those which are purely incidental.
It's utmost important to understand and differentiate between sound emitted as a form of antipredator adaptation signal and other calls like territory possession to enhance chances of sightings. These calls are crucial to make a decision, should we wait or should we move. This female made a blink-and-you-miss appearance. The time was too less to pick a frame and she was too far for my camera to do justice. And yet, she offered me a moment of pure joy that I'll never forget.
Spotting a big carnivore in a forest is not just a matter of luck or game of chance, it actually boils down to patience and tracking (predominantly through such alarms, pugmarks and latest kill/sighting location reports through word-of-mouth). Sometimes the warning calls repeat, at times they stop or move to some other direction. The animals got used to the sound of vehicle engine in the tourism zone, but human sound is what they are mostly petrified of. Specially an animal as elusive as leopard. They will either get deep inside or will wait like a still picture, somewhere camouflaged in such a way that one can't see. It then becomes a game of who blinks first.
Also, maintaining absolute silence and patience, which unfortunately many safari visitors don't abide by, can be the deciding factor. Shrieking 'another call', pleading to the driver to move or making different thrill-seeking or dejected noises don't help either. It's a meditative high to wait knowing this may lead to zilch and yet with tremendous anticipation. Or to make a move at the right time. Intuition, experience and luck play a significant role there.
Nagarhole has recently grabbed global attention with increasing sightings of its lone black panther, a leopard with excessive melanin, perhaps the most coveted mystifying shadow of this forest, Saya, named by the acclaimed photographer and conservationist who tracked him over 5 years and made a documentary (streamed on Hotstar) on his life for National Geography, Shaaz Jung. Saya is popularly known as Blackie among locals and is often at loggerheads with another bold male, Scarface, to establish his rulership and win the affection of Cleopatra, arguably the most gorgeous female leopard in the forest. Saya's territory was half-closed during my visit due to a recent scrimmage but I was happy to meet the man who brought him so much limelight, Mr. Jung.
However, I kept my hope alive just as I did so regarding elephants.
Megaherbivores
An expert naturalist has voiced his observation 'It's not the season for elephants because post-monsoon there's now ample water inside the core area' and within next 10 minutes or so in Zone A of Nagarhole during my 2nd safari, 9 elephants arrived beating the conventional wisdom: this herd of six, another mother-son duo and a pregnant elephant, a first for me. Yes, no matter how boorish it sounds, there's only one rule in jungle: there's none.
The world's largest land mammal spends between 12 to 18 hours eating grass, plants and fruit every single day! That's not the only reason why I am fond of them though. Elephants are highly social animals with incredible memories and they are capable of displaying varied emotions from a complex behavioural spectrum. They make such an interesting subject for photography. Also, a delight to watch overall.
A male touched its trunk tip to a trace of female urine and carried it to the vomeronasal organ at the roof of its mouth to check for mating hormones. They also use this to facilitate tactile communication, by running the trunk over another elephant's body or putting the tip inside another's mouth. The trunk is sensitive enough to register sound of a distant thunder and earthquake from vibrations in the ground. The seismic signals can cause the entire group to freeze and become standstill.
The trunk is an elephant's most dynamic tool, an in-built extraordinary selfie-stick so to speak, which is used for breathing, smelling, touching, grasping, and producing sound. They have over 50,000 muscles in their boneless trunks, which can weigh up to 400 pounds. However, it's an extremely dexterous structure which can grasp small objects such as a single blade of grass or even a grain of rice. At the same time, elephants can easily uproot a tree with the aid of their trunks or lift a jaw-drooping 7,00,000 pounds of weight.
Typically both male and female African elephants grow sexually-dimorphic tusks (massive teeth that protrude well beyond the mouths of elephants), but only male Asian elephants grow them. A tusk-less adult elephant is likely to be a female Asian elephant. However, tusklessness also occurs in 2 to 4 percent female African elephants.
Countries with an upward trend of ivory poaching have noticed an interesting evolutionary trend of birthing more tuskless elephants who get a significant biological advantage when it comes to hunting. However, tusks not only helps the animal in digging for vital minerals, obtaining nutrition from debarking trees and lowering parasite loads in the body, it also acts as an object of preferential mate selection by females. You can guess about rate of chipping and wear by looking at their tusks which grow ceaselessly, so enormous tusks can be a sign of an elephant past his retrodictive prime even though the girth of tusks can be a better indicator of estimated age.
Oversized tusks can cause distinct handicap to the animals by hindering their mobility, while cross-tusks like this may impact feeding. While those with shorter tusks are usually more suitable for combat with other males, oversized tusks allow them to gain more female attention.
Asiatic elephants are both diurnal and nocturnal. They gather into stable matriarchal units, which may consist of more than 20 related females. An oldest female typically serves as the group leader and guides the herd in their search of food and water sources. Male leaves the herd after anytime between 7 years to 14 years of age but female elephants stay back forever.
After looking at this foot-swinging gesture by a female, I couldn't help but think about what might have transpired that night between Mahadev Nayaka and these giant mammals.
The relationship between a mother elephant and her offspring is nurturing and protective.
Look at how this mother-to-be using the trunk to wrap herbage like a boa constrictor. It's because Asian elephants got only one finger in their trunks in contrast to their African counterparts, who got two.
I spotted 15 elephant and 3 tuskers in this off-seasonal trip and boy, I was elated!
Another mammal of massive built that I have come across in numbers in every safari was Gaur, often mistaken as Indian Bison. While young members are reddish-brown, the adult ones are dark brown and grow increasingly black with age. They are the tallest species of wild cattle and the largest wild bovine alive today (The shorter-legged yet bulkier Wild water buffalo is similar in average body mass). Each herd of gaur has a non-exclusive home range and wander daily led by the matriarch (an old female). They are quite peaceful by and large but if they sense any threat by the safari vehicle, particularly in the presence of young ones, they can furiously charge without much cues.
Only an adult tiger has been reported to kill a full-grown adult Gaur by launching a lateral sneak attack and grounding the animal before delivering the final fatal bite on its neck as using this strategy they can take down prey four to five times its own size. However, it's a high-risk prey because a single blow by horn can prove to be lethal for tigers and a single mortiferous kick may shatter their skulls. Leopards and dhole packs occasionally attack unguarded calves and injured or sick Gaurs.
Megaomnivores
I was fiddling with my camera settings when the driver almost shrieked 'bear! bear!'. It was almost at the end of the afternoon safari on the Day 1 and the light got pretty dim. We were 10 minutes away from the exit and I must admit that I was tired and already content. So this caught me slightly off-guard. Also, the sloth bear was walking way ahead, towards the right, and the window of the other side offered clearer visibility.
Then the sudden jerk in vehicle shook my hand and made the image totally blurry when I was already shooting with wrong settings. Bottomline, I made a mess of the capture. However, surprisingly enough, it became my favorite shot of the trip, as if the bear was walking while braving a storm. The rendition appears so if you look it on computer. In fact, it's better to view all photographs here with bigger display.
|| Smaller Mammals ||
Irrespective of our level of interest and experience, it's an unmistakable joy to savour big cats in wild. Whether you are a wildlife enthusiast, hobbyist photographer, animal lover or nemophilist, the sheer thrill is almost ethereal. However, that's not what the experience of jungle is all about. I had decent sightings during this off-season, but it also took 7 back-to-back safaris and all previous experience of utter frustration, plenty of duds, lots of false warning calls, 5AM alarms on vacation, little rest and relentlessness to get there. In 2016, I came to the same Nagarhole from another side and hardly spotted any big mammals. I didn't go back with huge disappointment though. This entire unpredictability is what adds up to the charm of forests for me.
Nagarhole offers three main entrance gates where safaris are conducted from -- Veeranahosahalli (near Hunsur) on the northern side, Nanachi (near Kutta) on the western side towards Coorg and Antharasanthe (near Kabini) on the eastern side towards Mysore. I have already ventured into the forest from Kutta thrice. This time I was excited to explore the terrain of Kabini.
So if you don't suffer from 'mega species myopia', you can enjoy with an open mind its rich biodiversity and fauna all around in Zone A and Zone B alike, both comprising an effective network of game roads where safaris are conducted twice a day and you can experience different forest types in these two zones. While canter safaris are free to shift from one zone to another, jeep safaris for a single outing needs to be confined in the zone allocated by the forest department at the entrance gate. With tourism geared mainly towards thrill-seeking, visitor education and guidance are practically non-existent except few rudimentary banners on the highway, MM (Mysore- Mananthavady) Road, which bisects the wood to reach Kerala. All the more reason to count on a good naturalist and engrossed driver.
With highest concentration of herbivores in Asia, Nagarhole offers incredibly healthy medium and smaller prey base in the form of Chital, Sambar, Wild pig, Muntjak and Common Langur.
I was surprised to notice a blood-red hairless spot in some of the Sambar deer. This area exudes a fluid and guides told us that nobody knew the exact reason behind it. A little research indicated that this near-circular 'sore spot' appears in adult males and lactating females during the rut (mating season), which occurs in winter due to hair loss and casting off the skin. However, there's contradictory opinion about its seasonal change of appearance and some believe that this is actually a gland which emits some kind of pheromone. During the rut, stags tend to establish and resist territory intrusion and perhaps this plays a role. However, it's mostly an inferential observation and the complete functionality of the 'sore spot' continues to be debated.
Spotted deer (Chital) can be found in abundance at every turn here. It's also a pretty common sight to see two bucks clashing their antlers to make rattling sound during a spar.
“The forest did not tolerate frailty of body or mind. Show your weakness, and it would consume you without hesitation.”― Tahir Shah, House of the Tiger King: The Quest for a Lost City
I didn't come across any Asiatic wild dog (Dhole) in all of my outings here, but boy, an unknown terror consumed me for a brief while when I got to observe the fresh sight of gory rampage created by a pack. I didn't know whether I should have felt sad for this, but the lustre of blood on grass blades contrasting the eternal green of forest made things primal and neutral. I thought about the fawn's mother once and then thought about the canids' need to satiate their hunger and with a heavy sigh, remembered "A deer's cry never spooks the tiger"!
A gentle breeze trickled through my hair as if to assure my startled self, 'It's natural. Everything is as it should be.'
Celebrating the spirit of contrast, let's talk about the species that often kept me entertained with its rapid movement and idiosyncrasies during almost every safari ride, the largest of the Asiatic mongooses - the stripe-necked mongoose. These solitary insectivores are typically found in the Indo-Malayan realm and here I spotted them in multitudes.
Also, swift movement of a dark bushy long tail often has kept my eyes engrossed.
Here we need to stick our neck out from the vehicle window and look above not only to spot birds, but mostly active during mornings and late evenings, Malabar squirrels or Indian giant squirrels stand out due to its vibrant magenta pelage and often found jumping between top branches to feed on fruits, nuts and at times, bird eggs. These agile acrobats can leap up to 20 feet and often build 3 to 5 large nests to confuse predators - some they use for nursing the young while others for resting. These unique creatures also differ from other squirrels in their food storage habit. Instead of storing it underground, they create caches in the canopy.
One might imagine that a Malabar squirrel's bright colouration acts as a hindrance to predatory exposure, but in a shaded dense forest, actually this acts as a perfect camouflaged display of purple-maroon-magenta patches and patterns of dark hues under sunlight, according to the wildlife conservation biologist, John Koprowski. These tree-dwelling ancient rodents face threat from predators like crested serpent eagles among other birds of prey and even leopards. When threatened, they act dead by lying motionless while embracing the tree.
After Karnataka government legally allowed culling of Indian boars, a subspecies of wild boar, few tigers, leopards and sloth bears died in last few years due to the painful snare set up for the boars. The wild boar is listed in Schedule III of the Wildlife Act, in comparison to Schedule I of the Wildlife Protection Act (1972) which protects these top predators. This strange dichotomy made me think as I spot the one below.
Sound of twigs breaking drew my attention and I saw this gray langur staring at me. Our eyes locked in silent admission of respect. These old world monkeys are immensely significant to maintain the balance and often their calls and tooth-grinding serve as predator-mobbing alarm calls supposedly out of altruistic intent.
|| Reptiles ||
The park derives its name from serpentine streams through rich tropical forest (Naga- snake, hole- streams). So no brownie point in guessing that literally different species of snakes (including King Cobra, Russell's viper, Indian rock python , Common krait) might thrive in this habitat, but the rare sighting of Monitor Lizard, close relative of the popular Komodo dragon found in Indonesian islands, was one of the major highlights of my exploration. This is one of the largest reptiles in the world.
Thanks to the odd behaviour of an adjacent deer herd, this oriental rat snake caught our attention. Unlike most of the colubrid, they sit on their prey and make them defenseless by weight rather than killing by constriction.
Keep an eye along the edge of the water like me and you might just spot Indian Pond Terrapin (Indian black turtle) basking in the sunlight.
||Birds||
Rich with avifauna, over 270 species of birds are found in this forest. You can refer to Indian Biodiversity portal to know about the complete checklist of birds in Nagarhole. There was no birdwatching tour in this season, but I spotted few of them during the general safari.
Crested Serpent Eagle
Juvenile Changeable Hawk Eagle
White-bellied woodpecker or great black woodpecker
Black-rumped flameback, also known as the lesser golden-backed woodpecker or lesser goldenback
Scaly-breasted munia
Indian peafowl
Green bee-eater
White-breasted kingfisher
The breathing silence
Kabini backwater also provides the option for boat safari, best enjoyed during hotter months when waterholes inside the forest run dry and animals come out to quench their thirst. Freshwater crocodile or mugger crocodiles can be seen often basking under the sunlight on the banks during sunset paddle or motorboat rides. The receding water level also attracts large herd of elephants. Even though I explored this brimming backwater with the ride arranged by resort which can take one till the protected area starts, the season was clearly not suitable for spotting wildlife from the waterbody. However, with the onset of winter, this could also be the best choice to experience migratory aquatic birds.
Typical spread-wing posture of Cormorant
While post-monsoon topography looks absolutely verdant, I quickly realized October is not the ideal time for birding either. Not that I was clueless about the wildlife seasons, but I was eager to make a visit after the enforced lockdown when I got to know that the surrounding villages were reportedly Covid-free and my chosen stay (The Bison) was taking adequate measures to maintain social distancing and good hygiene. So when the resident boatman-cum-naturalist spoke about seasonal likely sightings of flock of river terns, perched ospreys, grey-headed fish-eagles, small pratincoles and smooth-coated otters from the boat, I didn't sulk.
Indian spot-billed ducks
Red-wattled lapwing
Grey heron
My mind remains very keen and perceptive when it comes to wildlife. Neither I build up huge expectation in favourable seasons, nor I lament poor sighting index during off-season. I just live in anticipation - prepared, cued in, excited, passionate and humble. Just like this anticipant web.
Whatever comes is a gift. What's there to not love in a forest?
Quick Bites
Approximate distance by road to Kabini from nearby places:
From Mysore: 85 Km
From Bandipur: 87 Km
From Coorg: 150 Km
From Bangalore: 220 Km
From Mangalore: 285 Km
Mysore airport is the nearest major airport. The nearest railway station to Kabini is also in Mysore. I booked a cab from Bangalore and it took me approximately 6 hours to reach there, considering 1 hour of halt.
Kabini is not a separate national park from Nagarhole. The Southern part of Nagarhole National Park and Tiger reserve (also known as Rajiv Gandhi National Park) is known as Kabini. Along with Bandipur, Mudumalai and Wayanad wildlife sanctuary, Nagarhole is one of the best protected habitat for tigers.
Since there is no way you can book Kabini Safari online, you'll have to book a package with an accommodation which offers Jungle Lodge safari, unless you are staying directly at the JLR property, as the safari in the southern fringes of Nagarhole National Park is a joint eco-tourism venture of Jungle Lodges & Resorts Ltd. and Tourism and Forest Departments of Govt. of Karnataka. Your resort vehicle will usually drop you at Kabini River Lodge and then their vehicle will take you to the forest gate. You can do both jeep and boat safari for approximately 2.5 hours (afternoon) to 3 hours (morning), subject to seasonal variations, if you sign up for this.
Many private resorts don't have proper permission for safari. Only those who are tied up with tourism department lodges (yes, it's a monopoly) can reward guests with jeep safari experience. Do your due diligence by checking and confirming the details (including entry time, additional pricing for advanced lens etc.) beforehand.
JLR-Tourism safari pricing is different than usual Nagarhole safari conducted at Veeranahosahalli gate (near Hunsur) or at Nanachi gate (near Kutta).
If you want to engage in the wildlife experience in Kabini without staying there or being part of any jeep safari package, with a valid Government ID you can book tickets at Dammanakatte forest department office in Antharsanthe, subject to availability. But you will get to do only canter safari which lasts a little over 1 hour. Again, the pricing is obviously cheaper and the mini-bus goes inside the forest before any tourism vehicle enters, opening up possibilities of wee-hour uncrowded sightings.
The jeep safari is mainly divided into 2 Zones (Zone A is fully wooded area and Zone B is near to the Kabini backwaters). The forest department chooses the zone for vehicle. Hence it may so happen that you need to visit in the same zone for both morning and afternoon safari. Trespassing from one route to another is not allowed. No such zoning restriction prevails though for canter safari from Dammanakatte. The rare black panther roams in Zone A. While Zone A is more popular, I got my best sightings in Zone B. I learnt that both zones can offer a rewarding experience and both can equally frustrate in terms of sightings. But if you are open and keen to embrace the diverse fauna, the overall experience will not be disheartening.
Any safari may get cancelled due to bad weather conditions. So if you are serious about spotting wildlife, plan your stay.
Unlike most National parks which remain closed from 1st June to 30th September, this forest is open throughout the year. Though enjoyable any time, the best time to visit Kabini for sighting of top predators is from February to May. November to January are ideal for migratory birds while summer months are good otherwise when artificial lakes inside the forest dry up. The area receives heavy rainfall and safari in certain regions may be temporarily blocked in monsoon due to transportation hazards. October is excellent to enjoy the lush green along with decent sightings.
Basic rules and guidelines should be followed strictly since we are entering inside home of the animals, uninvited. We are not wanted here, we are at best tolerated! So we should not wear bright colours for a safari, carry eatables, litter or use flash for photography. Avoid taking kids inside the forest irrespective of whether there is any age restriction or not, as it's not a value-add for them before a certain age and their discomfort and needs will certainly affect other visitors and animals. It's of paramount importance to maintain silence as much as possible.
PhotoStory Date: 20.11.2020
Place: Kabini, Karnataka
Words and Photograph: Amrita Ghosh
Reference & Citations:
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