Into the Terai

 23rd February 2025

 Departed from the phase of Religion and Culture to the land of wildlife.

Up at 0500. Called the Reception at 0545 that I was coming to pay up. As I headed to my vehicle there were two guys coming to help me with my luggage. All of one small suitcase and a rucksack. Gave them the pleasure of the box.

Went to pay up. The guy said an amount, which I was sure was not okay. Asked him to check. Which he did, and confirmed. Again asked him to print invoice and check. He did it, checked and repeated the same amount. So I paid up. Then looked at the invoice to find he had short charged me. Did not play the saint.

30 minutes later I got a call from the hotel. Profusely apologizing. Telling me what I knew. The guy had taken only one night's charges. Let him off his misery. Told him I'd pay the balance end of my drive. 

The road was empty, and good. Eased my way East and North towards the Nepal border.

20 kilometers from Valmiki Tiger Reserve the roads gave up. Maybe because the road entered Bihar. Was down to a crawl. 

Reached a point where there was a forest checkpost, with the barrier down. The guard was not happy to be made to get up. He wanted to know why I was on that mud path. Blamed Maps. Was sternly told to ask locals and not blindly follow maps. Agreed, but, that was hindsight.

The road improved tremendously.

Reached Royal Valmiki Resort by 1100. After my Simplipal experience was expecting the worst. This is about 2 kilometers before ValmikiNagar, or BalmikiNagar.

Was pleasantly surprised.

Upgraded myself to what they termed as a cottage, from an upstairs room. This had outdoor sitting, and place to do my stretches in the room.

Have two safaris tomorrow. The first early, at sunrise. The next late, at sunset.

Will report in honestly.

24th February 2025

 Up early and bright. The Valmiki Forest gate was a lot further than the 5 minutes I had been told.

In addition, there was a mela.

The road leads to the Nepal border, which is across the River Ganda.

Initially stopped behind a line of vehicles. Then realised they were all crossing over. So went wrong side on a tiny road having a mela teaming with Biharis, and turned off.

Reached the Forest office much later than plan.

Let me first give you a forest detail.

It is a Sal forest in the base of the Shivaliks. Valmiki Tiger Reserve covers 900 square kilometers. And, claims to host 54 Tigers. Say claim, because this is done using camera trapping and then stripe pattern identification.

The forest is beautiful. It is dense. 20 percent of it has grassland visible to the safari route. The rest is either heavily shrubbed or has gradients either side. 

Means sightings can happen in those zones.

The safari route os around a 25 kilommeter area. With no waterholes anywhere on the route. The core section of the forest is inside the circuit.

Reduces probability of sightings even more.

It is a great forest if you are an environment lover, not desperate to see the larger animals - Tiger, Bear, Gaur, Rhino, Leopard, Wild Dogs - all of which are in that forest. 

Sightings will happen when the animals decide to walk to road.

Having said that, I did two safaris. Enjoyed both.

Had reasonable sightings. Got my first Sloth Bear in the wild in the morning. By the time my jaw closed and my camera came on, a tractor disturbed it.

 Apart from this had the normal deer variety.

 

The Spotted Deer ( Cheetal ) , Barking Deer, and the Sambhar.

Also saw a glimpse of the Gaur. Cannot rate it as a sighting as all I saw was in the distance, it walking away.

 The afternoon was little better.

Saw the Great Pied Hornbill fly across. No pictures on that one.

Saw this pretty little bird. Name unknown to me.

 And, the wild boar.

 Apart from the three deer variety.

The forest in itself is lovely.

 

Did a visit to the Valmiki Ashram between my safaris.

Had to drive thru forest roads for about 5 kilometers. Then park and walk a kilometer into Nepal. Your Aadhar is recorded.

You wade across a stream, which during monsoons would be impossible.
 

Walked back across the river bed to my vehicle.

Got back to the room from my afternoon safari by 1830.

Early dinner.

Tomorrow morning to Dudhwa. 

25th February 2025

Left Valmiki nice and early. And drove straight into fog - mild at times, dense otherwise.

The run was over 450 kilometers.

And, maps decided to have fun with me. It took me off the highway on to smaller connecting roads. 

What with the fog, and roads with the top gone, I was crawling for the first three hours.

Picked up some speed after that.

Got a call from Dudhwa to check where I was. Told him the name of the road MDR30E. And, he freaked. Wanted to know why I had left the nice highway to get on to smaller roads.

Little did he know the way maps works. If a Highway has a curve, maps will pick up a road  connecting the bends and send you on it. Mad bloody algorithm.

Anyways, told him not to worry.

Made much better pace once I was on the larger roads.

The traffic was crazy. Bikes and electric autos hog the road. Nothing scares the buggers.

Made it to the Dudhwa TigerRhino resort by 1400.

Had boiled vegetables and rice for lunch. The cook at Valmiki had done a job on me.

Tomorrow morning is at 0600.

26th February 2025

As you must have realised, this is written end of day.

So let me say this loud and clear.

Dudhwa and Kishanpur Tiger Reserves are a MUST visit.

The terrain is a mix of wetland, grassland , and Sal Forests. The safaris are 4 hours long. They snake thru the park offering the choice of multiple waterholes.

Got into the Dudhwa National Park by 0630. And, by 0700 this is what we had.

This was a female with two small cubs. It finished drinking water and walked into the grassland behind.
 

 Saw one of it's cubs trot out behind it. Both went into the grass.

As we sat there, waiting for the Tigress to show herself, we saw this.

That's a half eaten baby Python. By this guy
 

Maybe a Crested Serpent eagle. I maybe wrong, not being anywhere near knowledgeable on birds. Saw a few more after that, birds.

 

Moved out of there by 0930. Did not see much after that, so will show you the forest.

 

That's an old meter gauge line running thru the forest !!

Guys hanging out of the doors looking for tigers.

That baby Python was the last sighting of the day.

Got back to the resort for breakfast. It was 1100. Requested the guys that lunch be converted to sandwiches to be had later that afternoon.

Was ready by 1300 for my afternoon safari into Kishanpur.

Reached the gate by 1400. Do NOT believe map which shows Dudhwa and Kishanpur contiguous and a few minutes wawy by road. It takes a good 45 minutes on the highway to get around. 

My guide and driver for the afternoon was the owner of the resort. he forced a Musambi juice down my throat as we headed down the last stretch.

Entered Kishanpur at 1430

At 1445.

 

And, the sibling

Stomach and ear visible.

Waited a while. then decided to head away. The jeep crowd was building. Even with our vantage slot. made little sense.

The rest of the afternoon was waiting, listening, watching, just enjoying the silence of the forest.

It is so much fun.

 

We sat there for a few hours. Had our sandwiches.

There were calls both side of us. The tigers just decide that we had seen enough for the day. So be it !!

 

 

That is the Barasingha or Swamp Deer 

What more do you want in a forest landscape ??

Fantastic day !!

To top it all the gentleman who was the owner of Dudhwa TigerRhino decided I needed some sweetening. So, we stopped at the local bestseller at Paliya. Had a Rasagulla while he had a Rajbhog. But, that was just not enough for him, as he decided I needed some fattening. Took a lot of stern discipline to refuse all the offers.

Came back to the hotel. Polished the booze I had picked up in Prayagraj.

Dinner was my now standard boiled vegetables and rice.

Tomorrow Dudhwa. Different part of it. 

27th February 2025

Departed at 0615 for the Dudhwa gate. Checked into the forest office.

Turned away from the main forest area which is East of the NH towards Nepal, to the West.

Before I get in there let me give you a tiny story.

Yesterday, while waiting and listening the guys were telling me about a cat in the Paliya village.

They were not sure if it was a Tiger or a Leopard.

By the evening, the story around that the Tiger was dead. Killed in what they thought was a vehicle hit.

This morning, the truth came out.

The Tiger which had been in the area for the last three days, going around the Sugar Cane farms, had entered a house. It tried attacking a kid, who hid under a cot. It turned on the mother. By then the husband and the villagers attacked the Tiger with sticks and sickles. The Tiger was killed. The woman was fighting for her life in the hospital. Story of the life of human animal conflict in the areas bordering reserve forests.

Back to me, and my story.

The forest we drove into was pristine. It was a mix of Sal, wetland and grassland. There was loads of water. Being at the foothills of the Himalayas, it had the effect of the chill winds. Being on the edge of the Indian plains, it was also affected by the dry weather. A great mix of the chill, the heat, the dry, and, the wet. 

It therefore was a perfect habitat for all types of species of animals and birds.

The morning was all birds.

 

A peacock in flight as we reached the bridge shown above.

Once we crossed the bridge, the ecosystem changed.

That's a pair of Grey Fishing Eagles. The one facing the camera has something in his claws.

 That's the next part of the ecosystem - grassland.

Could go on and on. It is a fantastic forest, just to go and spend time.

And, the best part is that there was not one other vehicle in that part of Dudhwa. 

Saw loads of evidence on Elephant presence. Spoke to the forest guys at the camp inside. They told us that a group of elephants had given them a visit the previous evening, broken some pots. Maybe the elephants felt that plants should be in the ground.

As we were on our way out.

Saw this huge herd of Swamp Deer.

And then this guy posing.

At the bridge.

Crested Serpent eagle.

And then, on our way back to the resort.

There are three Pythons there.

Brilliant morning.

Had a serious breakfast. 

Was ready by 1400 for the afternoon safari, back into the eastern section of Dudhwa.

This was aimed at seeing the Rhinos which were introduced to the park in 1986. The initial lot of 7 rhinos had by now multiplied to 47. These were located in a electrified protected enclosure, more to keep them in, that to keep predators out.

Three had been released earlier this year. And, the rest were to be release this year. The space was to be occupied by Water Buffaloes, given the extent of wetland and grassland available.

 The Grey Headed Fishing eagle.

And the Shikra. By the time I could zoom further in, it took of.

Entered the Rhino enclosure and saw this mother and calf. 

There was a vehicle in front of us, about 25 meters ahead, who was making a noise.

The female adult started moving towards that vehicle, picking up speed. 

He flew away. Stupid guy. All he had to do was stay silent.

Couldn't get that on video because of the trees.

Got the rhino coming back, and heading off into the forest cover.

Went further into the forest. It was silent.

There was a huge water body, with nothing visible around. Possibly because some controlled burn had been done on the one side.

Turned around and headed back. Then saw this guy.

A Changeble Hawk eagle.

That made the Raptor count for the day FIVE. Excellent.

Stopped a while to have some sandwiches, not having had lunch. Plus a Samosa, and a sweet. There was little choice I had in the matter.

We were running out of time to get out of the park.

And then.

A pair of Sloth Bear.

Day was just made.

Back to the resort.

Tomorrow morning back into the Eastern side. Out early. Then head out for Katernia Ghat.

28th February 2025

It rained at night.

By the time we drove into the forest, the clouds had come back. This was to be a quick trip, such that we could get back and head out to Katernia Ghat.

The morning was without any noise in terms of alarm calls. There were no visible pug marks indicating presence of tigers in any particular area.

That's where we had seen the Tigress and her cub on the first day. Came back as they tend to stay in a specific area when the cubs are young.

 

There are quite a few of these in that forest. Am not too keen on them !!

Headed out of the forest by 0930. Back to the resort for a bath and breakfast.

Drove out to Katerniaghat.

The plan was to go on a boat ride before lunch. Then on a safari.

Got there by 1100.

 You go past this huge water body on your way to the forest.

Reached and headed to the boat.

 

That's a Ghariyal with a Crocodile next to it.

Believe these waters have these two plus the Gangetic Dolphin and one variety of Tortoise.

Was skeptical about the dolphins, till understood that the river that feeds this ghat meets the Ghagariya. Which ends up in the Ganges. The movement of dolphins into Katerniaghat is upstream.  

Had lunch at the canteen and headed out for the safari.

You enter and drive along a water body for quite a bit. This part is supposed to be full of crocodiles. Marshy land.

 

The drizzle turned to a downpour.

Fortunately there was a cemented watch tower not too far where we could take shelter.

It didn't last too long.

We went back a bit the way we had come, reversing all the way as vehicles are allowed only in one direction. Crazy. But that's the rule. What if there is a sighting behind you. You miss out !!

We went back for this.

 And this.

 And, this.

 Those were the Pied Hornbill, the Great Hornbill and the Grey Hornbill on the same tree.

Made our day.

Did not see anything else. Did not hear anything.

The place is beautiful. But, the single circuit unidirectional rule is stupid.

Got back to our resort well in time for dinner.

01st March 2025

 It rained again in the evening.

Checked out of the Dudhwa resort early. Had to get to the Kishanpur safari gate by 0615.

Muggy morning.

 Migratory ducks, from Siberia. During winter the water body is filled with them.

 And then a pair of Crested Serpent Eagles who had been mating just before the shot was taken. By the time the camera came out and got pointed, the job was done.

The rest of the time in the forest was a disaster.

To add to that, as soon as there was some hope of seeing a Tiger, given the alarm calls being heard, it started pouring.

Got drenched heading back to the car.

Drove straight out towards Pilibhit. Turned on the hot air to dry myself.

Got to Puranpur, a little bit before Pilibhit. 

Was lead into a upmarket cafe. Set up for all those who drive that route.

Indulged in some sweets in the shop next door while our order got done.

Reached Pilibhit in time for the afternoon safari.

The guide we had was young and smart. Little did we know what we were getting into.

He gave us this theory of a particular Tigress and cub who were frequenting a certain water hole. And that she had been seen there regularly. Since it was very hot and all other routes would have the tigers under cover, this had the highest probability of a sighting. We agreed.

What we got was this fantastic sighting.

 

The Changeable Hawk Eagle.

On the tree looking for prey. In the water, possibly with prey caught in it's claws. Flying out of the water. Then sitting on the branch with it's prey.

Fantastic.

Little else happened.

We waited, along with two other vehicles. One had this obviously regular guy from Delhi, whose mindset seemed just like our guide. And, another who was just following.

We were on that one road. Waiting for something to happen.

In a bit the guide nodded off. Tried telling him that we could look elsewhere. Guy was not interested.

What took the prize was towards time to head out, a few vehicles came in from the opposite direction. They had all seen tigers walking by the side of the road.

That pissed me off.

There are two types of people. Those who work hard at getting what they want. And, the type who believe their intellect will pay off by itself, doing nothing.

Have been to many safaris. To expect a great sighting every time is madness.

But I expect effort every time.

This guide did not make the least effort at anything.

Tomorrow is Pilbhit in the morning.

Afternoon I head out of the Terai, to Corbett.

2nd March 2025

Had zilch expectations for the day. 

But, it started well. The guide we got was an old dog. Looked the type who worked had. And that, he did.

Told him I had no interests except the Tiger. My last safari in the Terai, it was necessary.

The vehicle did not stop for more than 5 minutes at a spot. Very unlike the previous afternoon. If there was no discernable alarm calls , we moved.

The Pilbhit Reserve has a water canal running thru it.

The road towards the highway is called the Cachi sadak. The other one is called Pakki sadak, more because it is tarred. 

We drove into the forest in one direction. Tracked back. And drove the pakki sadak. Got nothing. 

Turned across the water canal onto the cachi sadak. Basically doing a U Turn.

Halfway thru the cachi sadak, we got our first piece of luck. Peacocks started alarm calls. So we stopped for about 10 minutes. The calls stopped, we moved on.

Into the forest again, on a different road.

Then back to the pakki sadak.

When we were abreast where we had heard the calls on the cachi sadak, we stopped, looked to talk about the calls.

That's when I saw something moving towards us in the water. Made the necessary noises.

It was a Tiger, swimming the canal.

The Tigress ( as we realized ) swam across a fast flowing current in a straight line.

We did not see her clamber up the banks, but we saw her run hard across the pakki sadak into the forest, as though she was scared.

Have a video of the entire sighting. 128 MB. Come home. Will show over a drink on my TV.

The theory discussed later was as follows.

There is a Male called S2. Supposedly a big Tiger. He is currently courting a large Tigress. They could have moved to the area between the highway and the cachi sadak. And, this poor new Tigress wandered into the wrong Tigress's territory, just when she was being courted. So she got spanked.

Another driver, who was on the chchi sadak and saw the swim from the other side had another theory.

He said that the Tigress was headed for us. It saw us and veered a bit. If not, it would have emerged where we were. And, possibly, jumped over. Sounds good.

But I don't think so. The place it came out of the water was not as steep as where we were.

At the end of the day, very satisfied. Hard work paid off.

No other pictures were taken. Purpose had been Tiger. Achieved.

The Terai is wonderful - Dudhwa, KIshanpur, Katerniaghat, Pilbhit.

Many firsts for me here.

1 Python

2 Sloth Bear

3 Mating Crested Serpent eagles

4 Changeable Hawk eagle in hunt and eat mode

5 Swimming Tiger

6 Different Hornbill on same Tree set

Great time in the Terai.

Will visit again. For sure.

Drove out of Pilibhit by 1100.

Was a Sterling Corbett by 1500.

No bar. But was told that the village is a Kilometer away and they have a booze shop.

Took the walk. Got some decent stuff.

Tomorrow morning is my Corbett Safari.