Born Free in Bandhavgarh – Travel Bandhavgarh

Sal-dominated forests blessed by fragile to tough topography, hold pristine bamboo groves, life-giving grasslands. Golden green foliage drapes tropical valleys and meadows along the Charanganga River. Quietly lapping streams – the animals’ precious watering holes – ripple forth serene circles.   

Unique, humbling, this is sacred space. You are fully alive here. Get lost in Bandhavgarh to a brilliant otherworldly experience. With the keenest sensory buzz, a rush of high-antenna receptivity settles fine details peacefully in the mind’s eye. Haven of calm vitality, it gifts one enhanced perception.

But nothing prepares us for the bone-jumping thrill of tracking a tiger. Heady anticipation grips visitors bound for the thickets with a single enticing question: Will we, won’t we, see tigers today? The first encounter is always magical. Ours comes with serendipity. Done with a tantalising chase of followed pug marks, hours after stalking from every lookout point, we reason, “Maybe tomorrow.”

Suddenly, there he is. Epitome of such proud feline stealth, only our guide dares break the hush. With an expert, cryptic whisper: B2. The handsome Chakradhara tiger struts nonchalantly king-style, before leaping dramatically across a nullah. Poetry in motion, nobility brushed with ferocity. His intriguing name befits this second son of a dynastic B-Boys trio born to resident tigress Bachi.

We stifle awed gasps. No admiring William Blake verse matches the raw, hot excitement of actually facing this lissome majesty. Remembered phrases like “fearful symmetry” dry on the tongue. Instead I stare openmouthed into a tawny gaze as unnerving as it is unblinking. My 14-year-old trains his camera on the mesmeric stripes.

With innate jungle wisdom, langurs shriek alert sounds on spying the mere tail tip of a tiger. Atop an elephant, we witness more monkey intelligence. Leaping branches cockily, the moment a langur doubts landing on the next bough, it returns mid-leap to the original tree’s safety.

We learn to graduate from craving tiger views. The deciduous landscape is home to a diversity of deer, sloth bears, jackals and foxes. Bandhavgarh’s 276 bird species, 39 mammal types and 515 plant varieties make it a carbon sink to beat back climate change.

Drive uphill for avian delights at Bandhavgarh Fort. These typically include Egyptian vultures, Malabar hornbills, peregrine falcons and brainfever birds whose plaintive cries Emperor Akbar declared “make love’s unhealed wounds bleed anew”. Legend suggests Ram presented Lakshman this fort (bandhav – brother, garh – fort). En route the summit, an imposing Vishnu statue reclines on a seven-hooded serpent. Palaces of Baghel royals beside monumental 12th-century temples are stone splendours defiled by inane graffiti.

Both Bandhavgarh’s living and non-living heritage stand endangered. How long can its delicate marvels possibly survive? Pack a prayer in your bag before heading for Panthera tigris’ last stronghold.

  Tableinfo 

•    WHEN TO GO – The sanctuary closes through June-Sept. Dec-Feb: winter temperatures dip upto 2 degrees. With short days, morning and afternoon safaris run into each other, as the forest gets dark earlier. Summer temperatures soar 45 degrees at noon. But you have good chances of sightings through the day – the heat leads animals to watering holes.

•    HOW TO GO – The main entrance to the park is from Tala village. Jabalpur is the closest air base with daily flights from Delhi; other options are Nagpur and Khajuraho airports. The closest railheads are Umaria and Katni. Trains run to Umaria from Mumbai, Delhi and Kolkata. Roads connect Bandhavgarh to Nagpur, Katni & Khajuraho.