Project ATR
PROJECT ATR
-
January 6, 2024 - ATR – Day 98: Came to Munnar from Nelliyampathy for Macro wildlife photography
January 6, 2024 Saturday, 11:30 PM Club Mahindra Munnar, Village Chinnakanal, District Idukki, Kerala, India After having shot hornbills for an entire day, it was time for us to move to our next destination — Munnar. So we left Nelliyampathy today and came to Munnar for some macro wildlife photography because Munnar is considered particularly good for macro. We have this tendency to not let any wildlife photography opportunity slip, which is one of the reasons why ATR travel has […]
-
January 5, 2024 - ATR – Day 97: Shot some wonderful pictures of hornbills at Nelliyampathy
January 5, 2024 Friday, 11:30 PM A homestay in Nelliyampathy, District Palakkad, Kerala, India The morning wasn’t ideal today, for we got up to darkness and lots and lots of insects because it had rained all night and our inverter had died down. So when we got up, we had insects all over the place and we had to get ready pretty much in complete darkness. Even the night was not very comfortable because of humid surroundings and buzzing insects. […]
-
January 4, 2024 - ATR – Day 96: Moved to Nelliyampathy from Parambikulam Tiger Reserve to shoot hornbills
January 4, 2024 Thursday, 11:30 PM A homestay in Nelliyampathy, District Palakkad, Kerala, India It wasn’t easy to sleep with the rats creating all the ruckus overhead but the thing about being tired is that you can sleep in so many sleep-killing situations, and one such was yesterday. I zipped my sleeping bag completely shut so that even if a rat happened to drop, it was most likely to slide off the outer side of the sleeping bag without making […]
-
January 3, 2024 - ATR – Day 95: Arrived at the forest rest house at Parambikulam Tiger Reserve, met the pipeline rats but no wildlife
January 3, 2024 Wednesday, 11:30 PM Veettikunnu Island Nest, District Palakkad, Kerala, India We left Valparai for Veettikunnu Island Nest, which is a forest rest house run by the forest department. We have booked this place for two nights, today and tomorrow. We are visiting Parambikulam Tiger Reserve. We are at an island accessible only by boat. So we spent an hour on the boat, sailing towards the island. A local wildlife photographer was to accompany us to the reserve […]
-
January 2, 2024 - ATR – Day 94: Clicked some more LTMs before arriving at Annamalai Tiger Reserve
January 2, 2024 Tuesday, 11:30 PM Hotel Bel Visto, Cooperative Colony Road, Valparai, Taluk Valparai, District Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, India Got up and went straight to get some more pictures of LTMs. And we did find the LTMs, but they were not interested in doing much. They kept sitting and looking around and we kept sitting, looking at them. I got a few good pictures but very few, given the enormous amount of time we spent, patiently waiting for […]
-
January 1, 2024 - ATR – Day 93: Came to Valparai looking for Lion-tailed Macaques (LTMs) and found many
January 1, 2024 Monday, 11:30 PM Puthutotam Estate, Tourism Division of Tea Estates India Ltd., Valparai, Taluk Valparai, District Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, India We left Pollachi today for Valparai. Ever since I have entered the South of India, the thought of clicking Lion-tailed Macaques (LTMs) has never left my mind. With that thought in mind we travelled to Valparai, which is known for LTM sighting, which is also because a lot of work on the conservation of LTMs has […]
-
December 31, 2023 - ATR – Day 92: Change of homestay, hunting for BSNL SIM, addressing our data problem and a new year away from home
December 31, 2023 Sunday, 11:30 PM Vetri Residency, Panchayat Office road, Village Malumichampatti, Taluk Coimbatore-South, District Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, India Today, we all got up late and were feeling particularly lazy for the reason for having been very tired yesterday. And we realized that we had to change our current homestay because our homestay owner had booked our current space to someone else. “By mistake,” she said with apology that sounded sincere, and we had no reason to disbelieve her. […]
-
December 30, 2023 - ATR – Day 91: We made our own food, went to Annamalai Tiger Reserve but failed to land a bus safari
December 30, 2023 Saturday, 11:30 PM Thulasi Avenue, Rathnasabapathy Puram – 3, KKG Mandapam (Backside), Palladam Road, Pollachi, District Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, India We are at an Airbnb place at Pollachi, so we have the option of cooking our own meal rather than purchasing on the go. On travel, one should try to eat as much healthy as possible, wherever possible because sometimes — if not most of the times — it’s not easy to find health-promoting food to eat. […]
-
December 29, 2023 - ATR – Day 90: Visited Sathyamangalam Tiger Reserve, almost sighted a tiger. Came to Pollachi
December 29, 2023 Friday, 11:30 PM Thulasi Avenue, Rathnasabapathy Puram – 3, KKG Mandapam (Backside), Palladam Road, Pollachi, District Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, India Since the gate of Sathyamangalam Tiger Reserve was about an hour’s drive from where we were staying, we left early at around 5:00 AM for the morning safari, but the problem was that the highway we were to use to get to the reserve remains closed until 6:30 AM or so. That left us with no option […]
-
December 28, 2023 - ATR – Day 89: Came to Hasanur from Ooty to visit Sathyamangalam Tiger Reserve
December 28, 2023 Thursday, 11:30 PM Balaji Cottage, Hasanur, Tamil Nadu, India Our next tiger reserve is Sathyamangalam Tiger Reserve in District Erode of Tamil Nadu, and with that we’ll be taking ATR to Tamil Nadu from Karnataka. So we left Ooty for Hasanur, which is where we are staying on our visit to Sathyamangalam Tiger Reserve. The way was long and beautiful with lots and lots of tea estates on the way. We stopped at a few places and […]
-
December 27, 2023 - ATR – Day 88: Did some hiking, explored Ooty with its amazing tea estates and got some excellent drone shots
December 27, 2023 Wednesday, 11:30 PM Littlearth’s Destiny Farm Resort, City Ooty (Ootacamund), District Nilgiris, Karnataka, India For today, we had planned to go hiking on a mountain near the property. So we got up really early in the morning while it was still dark and stepped our to test our stamina as well as to get some good pictures. We had hoped to find pretty birds in nature and also some wonderful sights to capture the images and footage […]
-
December 26, 2023 - ATR – Day 87: Shifted to Littlearth’s Destiny Farm Resort, an amazing property, and re-charted the itinerary
December 26, 2023 Tuesday, 11:30 PM Littlearth’s Destiny Farm Resort, City Ooty (Ootacamund), District Nilgiris, Karnataka, India Today, we checked out from the Derby Green Resort of Club Mahindra and checked into another property in Ooty itself — Littlearth’s Destiny Farm Resort. And this is an amazing property to stay in. We have an unpaved road leading to this place, but once you get here, it’s an experience beyond words. It’s all fresh, crisp and green everywhere. It feels particularly […]
-
December 25, 2023 - ATR – Day 86: Did my first bus safari in Mudumalai Tiger Reserve
December 25, 2023 Monday, 11:30 PM Club Mahindra Derby Green Resort, Fern Hill, City Ooty (Ootacamund), District Nilgiris, Karnataka, India Mudumalai Tiger Reserve is not big on tourist activity, so there are limited permits and for some reason a lot of people have been visiting tiger reserves and wildlife sanctuaries for the holidays, which is a bit odd because I have the impression that people generally tend to celebrate festivals such as Christmas at home, or celebrate in happening clubs […]
-
December 24, 2023 - ATR – Day 85: Another trip to Ranganathittu Bird Sanctuary, reached Mudumalai Tiger Reserve, problems with stay
December 24, 2023 Sunday, 11:30 PM Safari Land Villa Resort, Village Masinagudi, District Nilgiris, Karnataka, India In the morning, I decided to pay another visit to the Ranganathittu Bird Sanctuary because I had not been able to spend as much time at the sanctuary as I would have liked yesterday evening because it was getting dark and no good pictures could be clicked in such low visibility. We had to leave for Mudumalai Tiger Reserve today, alright, but the bird […]
-
December 23, 2023 - ATR – Day 84: Clicked some wonderful pictures at the Ranganathittu Bird Sanctuary, pushed the plan to leave for Mudumalai to tomorrow
December 23, 2023 Saturday, 11:30 PM Parklane Hotel, Mandi Mohalla, City Mysore, District Mysore, Karnataka, India I spent the first half of today writing and recording voiceover for today’s daily vlog (Kali Tiger Reserve) and also for the ATR Destinations videos to be uploaded in the next couple of days. In the afternoon, Hitesh, a friend of mine who lives here, came over to meet and we decided to visit the Ranganathittu Bird Sanctuary, also called the “Pakshi […]
-
December 22, 2023 - ATR – Day 83: Left Hampi for Coorg but diverted to Mysore as Coorg hotels were fully booked
December 22, 2023 Friday, 11:30 PM Parklane Hotel, Mandi Mohalla, City Mysore, District Mysore, Karnataka, India For most of the morning I was sleeping today, tired from all the traveling and work. But we did shoot some eagles and owls here and there. Before I got up, Sanket, our editor, and Irshad went looking for some birds to shoot, but did not find many. We were also in a hurry to pack up and leave because our next […]
-
December 21, 2023 - ATR – Day 82: Saw bears up-close in Daroji Sloth Bear Sanctuary, and also a few shy owls in the evening
December 21, 2023 Thursday, 11:30 PM Pompayya Malemath Homestay, Town Kamalapura, District Vijayanagara, Karnataka, India We went to the Daroji Sloth Bear Sanctuary and dedicated today’s entire day to the slot bears, sitting in the bear hides made of iron cage, from where one can shoot the bears in their natural habitat up-close without disturbing them with one’s movement. There is some protection offered by these metal hides but if a bear gets really annoyed and mounts an attack, the […]
-
- ATR – Day 81: Spent some time with Great Indian Hornbills, left for Hampi to visit the Daroji Sloth Bear Sanctuary
December 20, 2023 Wednesday, 11:30 PM Pompayya Malemath Homestay, Town Kamalapura, District Vijayanagara, Karnataka, India In the morning, we went to the same place as we did yesterday to shoot Oriental pied hornbills, and this time it was in the light of the day, so we good some good pictures and footage of the hornbills. And then we proceeded to see the Great Indian Hornbill, which is an interesting bird, owning to its unusual nesting ritual aside from its very […]
-
December 19, 2023 - ATR – Day 80: Clicked some colourful birds followed by hornbills and then the Indian giant flying squirrel at night
December 19, 2023 Tuesday, 11:30 PM Hornbill River Resort, Village Ambeli, Taluka Supa, District Uttara Kannada, Karnataka, India Today, we checked out from Kali Adventure Camp and went to Old Magazine House Resort in Ganeshgudi town of Taluk Dandeli in District Uttara Kannada of Karnataka. Old Magazine House is known for birding opportunities. So we spent much of the day there, looking for birds and finding a lot of them. So I got a decent number of good pictures of […]
-
December 18, 2023 - ATR – Day 79: Eventless safari at Kali Tiger Reserve. Changes in ATR content upload strategy, going forward
December 18, 2023 Monday, 11:30 PM Kali Adventure Camp, Village Kogilban, Taluka Haliyal, District Uttara Kannada, Karnataka, India Today was dedicated to Kali Tiger Reserve, but there was nothing much to be found. No tigers and no worthwhile sightings of any other creature that could be picture-worthy. So the safari both in the morning as well as evening did not get us any good pictures or footage. After a long discussion, which started during our Goa meet, we decided to […]
-
December 17, 2023 - ATR – Day 78: After morning birding in South Goa, we came to Kali Tiger Reserve
December 17, 2023 Sunday, 11:30 PM Kali Adventure Camp, Village Kogilban, Taluka Haliyal, District Uttara Kannada, Karnataka, India Today morning, we did some birding in South Goa, and found several feathery friends perched on the branches of different trees, some flying away and some resting their wings. We also found the only parrot found in India is the vernal hanging parrot. After the morning birding, we left for our next destination — Kali Tiger Reserve in District Uttara Kannada of […]
-
December 16, 2023 - ATR – Day 77: Went exploring wildlife of Goa, looking for Sri Lanka frogmouth and slender loris
December 16, 2023 Saturday, 11:30 PM Nature’s Nest, Village Sancordem, Taluka Sanguem, District South Goa, Goa, India After very long today, I had a good sleep, and got up fresher than I normally have on ATR. We had planned to look for Sri Lanka frogmouth (Batrachostomus moniliger), a small bird found in the Western Ghats of India as well as Sri Lanka. And then there is slender loris, which is a small primate about as big as a chipmunk weighing about […]
-
December 15, 2023 - ATR – Day 76: Watched and photographed Geminid Meteor Shower, went to see a church and shot some stars over the Morjim Beach
December 15, 2023 Friday, 11:30 PM Silver Wood Apartments, Village Siolim, Taluka Bardez, District North Goa, State of Goa, India I left to witness Geminid meteor shower soon after the midnight today, as I had indicated in yesterday’s newsletter. I had not planned for it and for that reason we did not have enough warm clothes to lie overnight under the open sky the whole night with dew descending. Although the meteor shower was fun it watch, there were not […]
-
December 14, 2023 - ATR – Day 75: Friends and Mummy Khurana left, found blue-eared kingfisher in South Goa, hope to see Geminid meteor shower
December 14, 2023 Thursday, 11:30 PM Nature’s Nest, Village Sancordem, Taluka Sanguem, District South Goa, Goa, India Friends who had been visiting me from Delhi as well as Mummy Khurana and her friends had to leave for Delhi today, so I saw them off, and moved to a different location in Goa because we did not need as much space any longer. That means this is the third location I am staying at in Goa since I arrived here on […]
-
December 13, 2023 - ATR – Day 74: Enjoyed the Morjim Beach in the evening after an early morning quality time at Uptown Restaurant in Candolim
December 13, 2023 Wednesday, 11:30 PM Joie de Vivre Goa, Boutique Villa Resort, Candolim, Taluka Bardez, District North Goa, Goa, India We followed the plan I talked about in yesterday’s post/newsletter, and left our place of stay to explore Goa a little after midnight, which means in the very early hours of today. The original plan was to just drive around the city and see how the night life is here. We hadn’t planned of entering any restaurant or cafe, […]
-
December 12, 2023 - ATR – Day 73: Did some photography on the Calangute Beach in Goa and made a video about backlit beach photography for the Vlog
December 12, 2023 Tuesday, 11:30 PM Joie de Vivre Goa, Boutique Villa Resort, Candolim, Taluka Bardez, District North Goa, Goa, India I decided to do some beach photography today and make a video about how to click better pictures of the available subjects on the beach to be included in the Vlog for today. Beach is an interesting place and a lot of combinations can be tried there as long as you know how to do it right, else you’ll […]
-
December 11, 2023 - ATR – Day 72: Went to a flea market in Goa and talked about tigers with friends
December 11, 2023 Monday, 11:30 PM Joie de Vivre Goa, Boutique Villa Resort, Candolim, Taluka Bardez, District North Goa, Goa, India Since we had returned home late at night, we got up late in the day, which was also because we didn’t have to get up early for our usual morning safari. These few days we have taken out as rest days to unwind as well as to contemplate and calibrate our ATR operational strategy based upon our experience on […]
-
December 10, 2023 - ATR – Day 71: A relaxed day in Goa with nothing much to report
December 10, 2023 Sunday, 11:30 PM Joie de Vivre Goa, Boutique Villa Resort, Candolim, Taluka Bardez, District North Goa, Goa, India There is nothing much to report today. We had to shift from one location to another in the morning for our stay in Goa, which is what we did in the early hours of today. We had slept late and got up late, so we shifted to a different location in the afternoon. And in the evening, went to […]
-
December 9, 2023 - ATR – Day 70: After morning safari in Sahyadri, we come to Goa to regroup with the off-site Team ATR
December 09, 2023 Saturday, 11:30 PM Undisclosed Location, Candolim, Taluka Bardez, District North Goa, Goa, India The morning safari at Sahyadri Tiger Reserve was different even though it wasn’t as exciting in terms of tiger sighting, but it is also a good thing in some ways because when you don’t have tigers around and have to focus on other things in the jungle, the forest opens up and you start seeing more than you thought existed in the forest. Jungles […]
-
December 8, 2023 - ATR – Day 69: Came to Koyna to visit Sahyadri Tiger Reserve from Aurangabad
December 08, 2023 Friday, 11:30 PM Forest Escapes Koyna Resort, Koynanagar, District Satara, Maharashtra, India Today’s entire day was spent traveling from Aurangabad to Koyna after we saw off Papa Khurana, who left to see the Ellora Caves in Aurangabad before he left for Delhi the same day in the evening. It took us a ten-hour drive to reach Koyna. We are staying over at Koyna in order to visit Sahyadri Tiger Reserve, which is spread over four districts of […]
-
December 7, 2023 - ATR – Day 68: Dry morning safari at Melghat and Mummy Khurana’s anniversary surprise
December 07, 2023 Thursday, 11:30 PM Click Hotel, N11, Cidco, Phulambri-Sillod Road, Hudco, Yadav Nagar, Aurangabad City, District Aurangabad. Maharashtra, India The morning safari at Melghat Tiger Reserve today was completely dry in terms of tiger sighting as well as any kind of good pictures, for I could not find a good wildlife visual to capture during the entire safari. And then there was no time left, for we had to leave for Aurangabad in the afternoon. So we got […]
-
December 6, 2023 - ATR – Day 67: Explored Melghat Tiger Reserve thoroughly; tasted tribal cuisine and met Korku people
December 06, 2023 Wednesday, 11:30 PM Shahnoor Tourist Sankul, Village Popatkhed, Tehsil Akot, District Akola, Maharashtra India Today, we went exploring Melghat Tiger Reserve once again, and dedicated the safari to have a thorough look at the jungle more than tracking tigers. Not that we did not look for tigers at all; we certainly did, and we did spend considerable time and energy tracking tigers, but when we did not find any despite all the effort, we decided to focus […]
-
December 5, 2023 - ATR – Day 66: Found the endangered Forest Owlet at Melghat Tiger Reserve
December 05, 2023 Tuesday, 11:30 PM Shahnoor Tourist Sankul, Village Popatkhed, Tehsil Akot, District Akola, Maharashtra India The highlight of today was spotting a Forest Owlet (Athene blewitti (formerly, Heteroglaux blewitti), which is listed as Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species since August 6, 2018. It is reported to have been found at just 7 locations and there are only between 250 and 999 living mature adults of the species. Forest Owlet was first described in 1873 […]
-
December 4, 2023 - ATR – Day 65: Left Nagpur for Melghat Tiger Reserve; arrived at Shahnoor; little to no connectivity here
December 04, 2023 Monday, 11:30 PM Shahnoor Tourist Sankul, Village Popatkhed, Tehsil Akot, District Akola, Maharashtra India Today was, once again, a travel day as we had to leave Nagpur for Melghat Tiger Reserve, our next destination that is spread across the three districts of Amravati, Akola and Buldhana in the State of Maharashtra. Like I mentioned earlier, the morning safari was anyway not feasible because of the distance from our place of stay, so we got up relatively late. […]
-
December 3, 2023 - ATR – Day 64: First safari in Bor Tiger Reserve goes without many good pictures
December 03, 2023 Sunday, 11:30 PM Undisclosed Location, Nagpur City, District Nagpur, Maharashtra India Today was a slightly relaxed day with all of us getting up a little late in the morning because we had safari only in the evening. For our evening safari, we visited Bor Tiger Reserve, which is relatively small tiger reserve about one and a half-hour drive from Nagpur City, where we are currently staying. And because it takes about one and a half hour to […]
-
December 2, 2023 - ATR – Day 63: No safari today, attended a gathering in the evening and an exciting Vlog, featuring Bubbly with cubs
December 02, 2023 Saturday, 11:30 PM Undisclosed Location, Nagpur City, District Nagpur, Maharashtra India Today, everybody got up late because there was no safari in the morning. And since we did not have to hurriedly get on a gypsy and go circling the jungle, looking for wonderful sights, we decided to catch up on our sleep, which these days can be properly had only on such rest days as today. But in the afternoon, I did have to go to […]
-
December 1, 2023 - ATR – Day 62: Found Bubbly with her three cubs; arrived in Nagpur today evening
December 01, 2023 Friday, 11:30 PM Undisclosed Location, Nagpur City, District Nagpur, Maharashtra India We started our morning safari looking for Bubbly, who has been reported to be shifting her three cubs. I wanted to click and record her with the cubs, shifting them or just playing with them or, even with the little ones messing with her, like tiger cubs usually mess with their mothers. I guess all kids do mess with their mothers occasionally; only tiger cubs look […]
-
November 30, 2023 - ATR – Day 61: Waiting for Bubbly in action, meet-up at Tadoba and Irshad’s birthday
November 30, 2023 Thursday, 11:30 PM Tadoba Jungle Camp, Near Moharli Gate, Tadoba-Andhari Tiger Reserve, District Chandrapur, Maharashtra India Much of today’s morning safari was spent looking for a female tiger called Bubbly (or Bubblee), who is a known tigress of the area. So we spent a chunk of our morning in Bubbly’s area in her wait. What made us all the more interested in this tigress is the fact that she has three cubs, and we have had some […]
-
November 29, 2023 - ATR – Day 60: Saw Chhota Dadhiyal, and had a very informative interaction with an official
November 29, 2023 Wednesday, 11:30 PM Tadoba Jungle Camp, Near Moharli Gate, Tadoba-Andhari Tiger Reserve, District Chandrapur, Maharashtra India We went into the Moharli Zone of Tadoba-Andhari Tiger Reserve today morning, and got to know of another aggressive tiger called Chhota Dadhiyal. He is Chhota Dadhiyal simply because his dad was the original Dadhiyal, and for no other reason, for he is among the biggest male tigers in the area. And we did get to see him today. He is […]
-
November 28, 2023 - ATR – Day 59: Saw Shambhu and Chhoti Madhu separately. Here is a story of Shambhu’s shocking aggressiveness
November 28, 2023 Tuesday, 11:30 PM Tadoba Jungle Camp, Near Moharli Gate, Tadoba-Andhari Tiger Reserve, District Chandrapur, Maharashtra India Today morning, we entered Tadoba-Andhari Tiger Reserve through the Adegaon Safari Gate and travelled within the Adegaon Zone, which is a buffer zone of the reserve, and we were not hugely hopeful because it was raining and tigers don’t like to move around under the irksome patter of water from the sky. But to our huge surprise, despite the inclement weather, […]
-
November 27, 2023 - ATR – Day 58: No sighting today. But do watch today’s Vlog for the littlest tiger cub so far!
November 27, 2023 Monday, 11:30 PM Tadoba Jungle Camp, Near Moharli Gate, Tadoba-Andhari Tiger Reserve, District Chandrapur, Maharashtra India In the morning safari today, we once again decided to look for the little tiger cubs on the buffer side of Tadoba-Andhari Tiger Reserve, but to no avail. We did not find them, or the mother despite looking for a while. And then it started raining, which spoiled all the fun in no time. The original plan was to do the […]
-
November 26, 2023 - ATR – Day 57: Rare sighting of a month and half old tiger cub — the youngest I have ever seen
November 26, 2023 Sunday, 11:30 PM Government Rest House, Mul, District Chandrapur, Maharashtra, India Today morning, we explored the buffer side of Tadoba-Andhari Tiger Reserve, having entered the reserve through the Somnath Safari Gate. This area does not see much tourist footfall but there is a female tiger with little cubs. And as I have said earlier, young tiger cubs are very hard to see because the mother of these cubs keep them very well protected, away from all kinds […]
-
November 25, 2023 - ATR – Day 56: Tiger sighting at Umred Karhandla Wildlife Sanctuary. Today’s Vlog features my best leopard sighting till date
November 25, 2023 Saturday, 11:30 PM Government Rest House, Mul, District Chandrapur, Maharashtra, India Today’s morning safari at Umred Karhandla Wildlife Sanctuary (not a tiger reserve, this one) was very fruitful in that we got to see two tigers, one of them male and very shy. But somehow the shy tiger was much less shy today, and seemed in a mood to not mind us for a while. So we parked our vehicle at a safe distance while he relaxed […]
-
November 24, 2023 - ATR – Day 55: The unusually bold Leopard at Nawegaon-Nagzira Tiger Reserve and traveling to Umred Karhandla Wildlife Sanctuary
November 24, 2023 Friday, 11:30 PM Undisclosed Location Gothangaon, Umred Karhandla Wildlife Sanctuary, Maharashtra, India On our morning safari at Nawegaon-Nagzira Tiger Reserve today, we came across an amazingly bold leopard, who was so fearless and confident that he kept walking on the path for over an hour, providing us a great opportunity to photograph and record him. Generally, leopards are not as bold and tend to take cover the moment they come across any kind of movement, particular human […]
-
November 23, 2023 - ATR – Day 54: A Day of travel to Nawegaon-Nagzira Tiger Reserve and not much else
November 23, 2023 Thursday, 11:30 PM Private Residence, Chorkhamara Gate, Nawegaon-Nagzira Tiger Reserve, Districts Gondia & Shandara, Maharashtra, India Today we got up late because there was no safari scheduled for the morning, as we were to check out and leave for Nawegaon-Nagzira Tiger Reserve, and the checkout day is best to catch up on some sleep because on most other days, we sleep late because there is the pressure of uploading the video, which, despite are best efforts, has […]
-
November 22, 2023 - ATR – Day 53: Watch Baras with her cubs in today’s Vlog, and let me say nothing more for today
November 22, 2023 Wednesday, 11:30 PM Pench Jungle Camp, Tehsil Kurai, District Seoni, Madhya Pradesh India In this newsletter, let me talk about the Vlog I made today because nothing that I did today was quite as interesting as today’s Vlog, featuring Bara with her little cubs. As I have said before, cubs as old as three or four months as I saw the other day and that feature in today’s Vlog are a rare sight because tigresses […]
-
November 21, 2023 - ATR – Day 52: A good day in the wild but a way better one by the night
November 21, 2023 Tuesday, 11:30 PM Pench Jungle Camp, Tehsil Kurai, District Seoni, Madhya Pradesh India The day today was good, again. We went to a different zone of Pench, and tried to find tiger there, too. Had no luck with that even though I got a few passable pictures of other things in jungle, which might be good to look at but there is nothing mentionable about them. When I returned to my place of stay, I […]
-
November 20, 2023 - ATR – Day 51: Baras and her cubs again, but this time way better! And also saw Bindu with her cub
November 20, 2023 Monday, 11:30 PM Pench Jungle Camp, Tehsil Kurai, District Seoni, Madhya Pradesh India Let me just say, the day today was fabulous! There have been a lot of low days of no sighting, but today was one of the best days in that regard. In the morning, we got to see Baras with her cubs, but this time around they were playing with their mother in absolute abandon and nothing looks as overwhelmingly heartwarming as tiger cubs […]
-
November 19, 2023 - ATR – Day 50: Saw Baras with her cubs on both morning and evening safaris; no Vlog today
November 19, 2023 Sunday, 11:30 PM Pench Jungle Camp, Tehsil Kurai, District Seoni, Madhya Pradesh India We were looking for Baras with her cubs yesterday, and had indeed found Baras but not the cubs to our utter disappointment, which was completely undone and replaced with delight when we finally got to see Baras with her cubs today. And we got to see them for a long time as they played with each other happily and then some with their mother, […]
-
November 18, 2023 - ATR – Day 49: A tiring all-day safari with reasonably good sighting
November 18, 2023 Saturday, 11:30 PM Manthan – A Boutique Resort, Kohoka Road, Near Village Touria, District Seoni, Madhya Pradesh India The day today was better than the last few days for two reasons. One, I could pull myself up to go on a safari and it was an all-day safari. Two, we did manage to have some tiger sightings and got a couple of good pictures, which is not bad work for a day. We went looking for a […]
-
November 17, 2023 - ATR – Day 48: Reached Pench Tiger Reserve, checked into Manthan Boutique Resort
November 17, 2023 Friday, 11:30 PM Manthan – A Boutique Resort, Kohoka Road, Near Village Touria, District Seoni, Madhya Pradesh India Today, we reached Pench Tiger Reserve and checked into Manthan – A Boutique Resort in the evening. Much of the day, like all travel days, was spent on packing and traveling. And that means it was also a pretty tiring day. In the morning, since I was running fever, I was in no position to go though the safari […]
-
November 16, 2023 - ATR – Day 47: No sighting in the safari this morning; down with viral
November 16, 2023 Thursday, 11:30 PM Chitvan Jungle Lodge, Village Samnapur, Tehsil Baihar, District Balaghat, Madhya Pradesh India Although I wasn’t feeling well today morning, I decided to go on safari anyway in the hope that I might encounter something today despite there not being many reports of tiger sighting. Even if there is no tiger sighting, there can still be something interesting, but as the luck would have it, there were no visuals to be recorded on camera, either […]
-
November 15, 2023 - ATR – Day 46: No safari today for want of permit, reviewed the 70-200 mm lens and rested
November 15, 2023 Wednesday, 11:30 PM Chitvan Jungle Lodge, Village Samnapur, Tehsil Baihar, District Balaghat, Madhya Pradesh India Today morning, I was feeling pretty unwell, so I was not in a position to go to the jungle in the cold weather of the morning, but even the safari permits were not available, which was just as well, for had I had the permit, it’s likely that I would have pulled myself up and pushed myself to go look for some […]
-
November 14, 2023 - ATR – Day 45: Another day of no sighting at Kanha Tiger Reserve
November 14, 2023 Tuesday, 11:30 PM Chitvan Jungle Lodge, Village Samnapur, Tehsil Baihar, District Balaghat, Madhya Pradesh India Of late, I seem to be looking for newer ways of saying that the safari did not produce any notable sighting and I have no good pictures or interesting footage to show for the day. Yesterday was such and so was today. We just drove on and on, this way and that in search of any interesting sight, animal or bird — […]
-
November 13, 2023 - ATR – Day 44: No sighting on the safari and video editing with parents around
November 13, 2023 Monday, 11:30 PM Chitvan Jungle Lodge, Village Samnapur, Tehsil Baihar, District Balaghat, Madhya Pradesh India In the morning, I went on a safari in Kanha Tiger Reserve, and once again it was extremely disappointing in terms of sighting. There was absolutely nothing in what I saw to evoke my interest to point my camera, so there were no good pictures taken. I just spoke to the camera for a bit, telling how disappointing the day was and […]
-
November 12, 2023 - ATR – Day 43: A no-safari day of editing and celebration
November 12, 2023 Sunday, 11:30 PM Chitvan Jungle Lodge, Village Samnapur, Tehsil Baihar, District Balaghat, Madhya Pradesh India Since the jungle is closed for Diwali and there were no safaris, much of the day today was spent in front of the computer, editing today’s Vlog, but it was still very different from usual days because, as I said yesterday, my parents came from Delhi to be with me and the ATR on-site team for the festival. Diwali has always been […]
-
November 11, 2023 - ATR – Day 42: Left Bandhavgarh for our next stop — Kanha Tiger Reserve
November 11, 2023 Saturday, 11:30 PM Chitvan Jungle Lodge, Village Samnapur, Tehsil Baihar, District Balaghat, Madhya Pradesh India There were no safaris today because we had to leave Bandhavgarh for Chitvan Jungle Lodge, where we are staying on our visit to Kanha Tiger Reserve. So much of the time in the morning was spent packing and preparing to leave, and a large part of the day in traveling to Chitvan, where my parents have joined us for Diwali. Since I […]
-
November 10, 2023 - ATR – Day 41: A day of no good sighting, and the two-part Daily Vlog, whose second part goes live today
November 10, 2023 Friday, 11:30 PM Bandhav Vilas, Village Kuchwahi, Tehsil Manpur, District Umaria, Madhya Pradesh, India The morning safari today was again one of those days when you get nothing or close to nothing. And such days are bad and very bad. Today fell in the very bad variety in terms of worthwhile sightings, and such that I did not so much as switch my camera on, for there was nothing even as interesting as to make me think […]
-
November 9, 2023 - ATR – Day 40: Three tigers, one kill and the debate around who left; launching ATR Funnies tomorrow
November 9, 2023 Thursday, 8:30 PM Bandhav Vilas, Village Kuchwahi, Tehsil Manpur, District Umaria, Madhya Pradesh, India In the morning safari in Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve, we did not find any tiger or any other creature worth pointing the camera at for a long time. Although we had an idea that the cow the two tigers had killed a day or so earlier would last a couple of days, the carcass of the killed cow was not in the straight line […]
-
November 8, 2023 - ATR – Day 39: A sudden and unexpected tiger sighting in the Tala Zone of Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve
November 8, 2023 Tuesday, 10:30 PM Bandhav Vilas, Village Kuchwahi, Tehsil Manpur, District Umaria, Madhya Pradesh, India We did our morning safari in Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve’s Tala Zone, which is not exactly renowned for tiger sighting, which meant that we had no reasons to get our hopes high. So with duller than modest expectations, we entered the reserve. Howsoever modest our expectations, we did find a lot of pugmarks, but no tiger, which did not dampen our enthusiasm because we […]
-
November 7, 2023 - ATR – Day 38: Tiger couple make a kill of the cow and another climbs the tree
November 7, 2023 Tuesday, 10:30 PM Bandhav Vilas, Village Kuchwahi, Tehsil Manpur, District Umaria, Madhya Pradesh, India Yesterday, despite trying as best as I could, there was no Internet to be found by the time I was ready to send the newsletter off even though the video upload was on time and at that time the internet was mercifully working fine. So I could manage to send the newsletter in the day today. The morning safari today was pretty good […]
-
November 6, 2023 - ATR – Day 37: The strange mating game of the tigers at Bandhavgarh
November 6, 2023 Monday, 10:30 PM Bandhav Vilas, Village Kuchwahi, Tehsil Manpur, District Umaria, Madhya Pradesh, India The morning safari today at Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve turned out to be quite eventful with a sprinkling of bizarre with four tigers spotted, two males and two females, at different locations, engaged in a kind of complex mating game that seemed to involve the mind game belonging more in the human world than among the wild animals, who we perceive, by and large, […]
-
November 5, 2023 - ATR – Day 36: The incredible tale of Maasi Maa (T-28) of Sanjay Dubri Tiger Reserve; no luck at Sanjay Dubri; now at Bandhavgarh
November 5, 2023 Sunday, 11:30 PM Bandhav Vilas, Village Kuchwahi, Tehsil Manpur, District Umaria, Madhya Pradesh, India We did our morning safari in Sanjay Dubri Tiger Reserve, which was my first safari ever in Sanjay Dubri, and we almost instantly ran into the pugmarks of a tiger with what seemed like drops of water over and around them, which meant the tiger had freshly walked on the patch of the land, having walked through the dew-laden grass of the […]
-
November 4, 2023 - ATR – Day 35: A day of no sighting, an interview full of wildlife stories, and travel to Sanjay Dubri Tiger Reserve
November 4, 2023 Saturday, 11:30 PM Sanjay Resort Baghela Heritage, Village Nebhua, District Sidhi, Madhya Pradesh, India The morning safari got us a good, fat nothing. Except for a few random shots that I could manage, there was nothing that I could click. No tigers of course. So all we did was go round and round from one corner of the jungle to another repeatedly. And today we also had to leave for Sanjay Dubri Tiger Reserve, where we were […]
-
November 3, 2023 - ATR – Day 34: Saw P-151 today and that was all; also seem to have lost an entire day’s data
November 3, 2023 Friday, 11:00 PM Naahar Bagh Rajbagh, Panna District, Madhya Pradesh, India The upload yesterday got very, very late solely because the internet was way too slow for timely upload and then the videos we export also happen to be pretty heavy, which makes the network creak under its load. Add to it the fact that it took a little while to edit and get the video ready because of the multiple cameras that are used in the […]
-
November 2, 2023 - ATR – Day 33: A particularly shy tiger; and then another not-so-shy one in the evening
November 2, 2023 Thursday, 11:00 PM Naahar Bagh Rajbagh, Panna District, Madhya Pradesh, India The morning was beautiful today in terms of light conditions, and when we entered Panna Tiger Reserve for the morning safari, we saw the pugmarks that looked fresh even though there was no tiger in sight for a long time. We checked the area of P-151 just in case she was hanging around for us. No luck there. Later, we found that a very shy male […]
-
November 1, 2023 - ATR – Day 32: No tiger, no good pictures today but home-style food in the evening
November 1, 2023 Wednesday, 11:45 PM Naahar Bagh Rajbagh, Panna District, Madhya Pradesh, India This newsletter is going very late, I know. And it is certainly the first time that I am sending it as late, which is because it is only now that I have found some time to write something, besides the day was also not particularly exciting in terms of tiger sighting, and there was not evening safari, which is because there are not evening safaris in […]
-
October 31, 2023 - ATR – Day 31: Saw all four tiger cubs and also their mother in Panna
October 31, 2023 Tuesday, 11:00 PM Naahar Bagh Rajbagh, Panna District, Madhya Pradesh, India The morning safari was pretty much fruitless because despite all efforts to track tiger, we didn’t find any. I did get a few good pictures of other things, but no luck with tiger sighting. I came back quickly and dedicated a few hours to editing today’s Vlog in part, and before I knew it was already time to leave for the evening safari. The evening safari […]
-
October 30, 2023 - ATR – Day 30: Came across a new female tiger in Panna and also saw the mother of the cubs from yesterday
October 30, 2023 Sunday, 11:00 PM Naahar Bagh Rajbagh, Panna District, Madhya Pradesh, India Yesterday, we had found four cubs, who were splashing around in the water, like all babies do. And we did get some good pictures, but we would have gotten some more and better pictures, for we had the best angle to take the pictures, but then a lot of safari gypsies gathered around, creating a ruckus. Annoyed by all the noise, we decided to make a […]
-
October 29, 2023 - ATR – Day 29: Another day of wonderful tiger sighting at Panna
October 29, 2023 Sunday, 11:00 PM Naahar Bagh Rajbagh, Panna District, Madhya Pradesh, India The morning safari in Panna Tiger Reserve was quite eventful, so much so that the events started lining up even before the safari had properly started, even though the first of the events was distressing. We saw a dead deer on the road with his skin badly peeled off. The deer seemed to have been hit by a vehicle while it was trying to get away […]
-
- ATR – Day 28: Tiger sighting on the evening safari in Panna Tiger Reserve
October 28, 2023 Saturday, 11:00 PM Naahar Bagh Rajbagh, Panna District, Madhya Pradesh, India As I was saying yesterday, the male tiger that we met yesterday as well as the day before is the son of Fireline tigress and R1 (also called Ra 1 or Raavan). R1 is a very famous tiger, a massive and imposing presence, and once he went all the way from Panna to Pench through the corridors, covering a whopping 350-plus kilometers. Obviously, he did not […]
-
October 27, 2023 - ATR – Day 27: Yesterday’s tale of two hunts by two different tigers; unusually good tiger sighting at Satpura; came to Panna in the evening
October 27, 2023 Friday, 11:00 PM Naahar Bagh Rajbagh, Panna District, Madhya Pradesh, India Starting where I left yesterday. The female tiger decided to pursue this herd of Indian bisons, and they pushed back on the attack. And to some extent the tiger retreated. However, encouraged by the success of pushing back a mighty carnivore, one of the more aggressive pressed things farther than necessary and chose not to quit while they were ahead, which infuriated the tiger. The angry […]
-
October 26.2023 - ATR – Day 26: Two hunts, two preys and two tigers
October 26, 2023 Thursday, 08:00 PM Greenscape Satpura Jungle Retreat, Madhai, Madhya Pradesh, India The safari today opened to pugmarks and pugmarks everywhere as we entered Satpura Tiger Reserve, and so the search for the tiger began. But the thing with tigers is that one can find pugmarks all the time, raising one’s hope and then one can go round and round the entire day, thirsting for a fleeting sight of a tiger and not catch a glimpse. That can […]
-
October 25, 2023 - ATR – Day 25: Great tiger sighting at Satpura Tiger Reserve today, and another timely upload, second in a row
October 25, 2023 Wednesday, 11:00 PM Greenscape Satpura Jungle Retreat, Madhai, Madhya Pradesh, India There are highs and there are lows. Yesterday was the latter. But today I got a few excellent pictures of two tigers, brother and sister in the Madhai Zone of Satpura Tiger Reserve, which is not known for frequent tiger sightings; and yet there I was looking at two magnificent tigers lounging around, perfectly calm and at ease, almost posing. Satpura’s tigers, as most other animals […]
-
October 24, 2023 - ATR – Day 24: Safari in Satpura Tiger Reserve did not get us much but we managed to get today’s Vlog uploaded on time
October 24, 2023 Tuesday, 11:00 PM Greenscape Satpura Jungle Retreat, Madhai, Madhya Pradesh, India It was a tough and tiring day, and also quite disappointing in terms of sighting. Not many good pictures today. That’s what I often tell my students and other people who ask about wildlife photography — that a lot of time one doesn’t find anything exciting or photo-worthy in the jungle and on a lot of occasions we return empty-handed with nothing to show for the […]
-
October 23, 2023 - ATR – Day 23: Safari at Veerangana Durgavati Tiger Reserve, the newest to be officially notified
October 23, 2023 Monday, 11:00 PM Hotel Savitri Signature, Narsinghpur, Madhya Pradesh, India Today was mostly about safari, travel, and having tough time finding a decent place to stay, and since I wasn’t feeling all that well today, the day felt harder than it was. I am writing this pretty late in the day for the reason that I have just settled down in the hotel, having managed to find a place to day late in the evening. And then […]
-
October 22, 2023 - ATR – Day 22: The mythological tale of Jyotirlingams; visited the Great Stupa at Sanchi, a very well maintained UNESCO World Heritage Site, and also met a little girl there
October 22, 2023 Sunday, 10:30 PM The Heritage Conventions, Amet, Sagar, Madhya Pradesh, India As promised yesterday, here is the tale of the Jyotirlingams as I know and understand. You might feel that there are minor deviations from the tale as you know it and for that reason you might consider them inaccuracies, but since mythological tales are often variously told with minor and major deviations, it’s hard to say which is the accurate version even though […]
-
October 21, 2023 - ATR – Day 21: Mythological tales about river Kshipra and Ujjain; about liquor prasadam at Kaal Bhairav Temple; and today’s visit to the Mahakaleshwar Jyotirlingam
October 21, 2023 Saturday, 11:00 PM Fairyland Clarks Inn, Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, India Picking from where I left yesterday — the story of Ujjain, river Kshipra and how an angry Lord Shiva drew Lord Vishnu’s blood, creating river Kshipra, on the banks of which Ujjain grew over time. The tale was narrated to me yesterday (October 20, 2023) by the main pujariji of a temple in Ujjain on my insistence. The tale goes like this. Once, Lord Shiva went to […]
-
October 20, 2023 - ATR – Day 20: Went to Ramghat, the location of Ujjain’s Kumbh Mela; and heard mythological tales associated with Ujjain from pujariji
October 20, 2023 Friday, 11:00 PM Imperial Grand, Ujjain, Madhya Pradesh, India Much of today we spent editing the video for the evening upload. So after getting the video almost ready for upload, I stepped out in the evening at around 3:30-4:00 PM, and went straight to the market to shop for some clothes because pretty much all clothes I have are black, or shades of black or grey or some such, which are wholly inappropriate colours to wear to […]
-
October 19, 2023 - ATR – Day 19: Did a safari in Mukandra Hills Tiger Reserve, came to Ujjain and got today’s Vlog uploaded on time
October 19, 2023 Thursday, 11:00 PM Imperial Grand, Ujjain, Madhya Pradesh, India The newsletter yesterday went out pretty late — as late as 12:13 AM today (October 19, 2023) — which was because I was answering questions, lots and lots of them, of a journalist, who wanted to know all about my journey as a wildlife photography, and I was happy to answer those questions because they sounded like the old-school, searching questions intended to find a story, which we […]
-
October 18, 2023 - ATR – Day 18: Yesterday, twisted my ankle, got a few bruises, saw rare kingfisher and not-so-rare eagle; today, had a meet-up, met lots of wildlife enthusiasts and a journalist
October 18, 2023 Wednesday, 11:00 PM Kota, Rajasthan About yesterday first, before we get into what happened today because yesterday was eventful in multiple ways, one of which was the wrong way of my putting my foot on the ground in the darkness of early morning, resulting in a bad ankle-twist, which made me see the proverbial daylight stars for a long moment, and while the stars danced, I also met the ground in a fall. So with a twisted […]
-
October 17, 2023 - ATR – Day 17: Went to the ghariyal sanctuary and did some boating; met a group that had come to meet us and also saw and clicked the Indian eagle owl
October 17, 2023 Tuesday, 11:00 PM Zostel, Bundi, Rajasthan Right in the morning, the first thing we did was go to the Chambal Barrage, which is part of the National Chambal Ghariyal Sanctuary that we talked about earlier when I went to it the first time in Palighat. But back then boating had not started. Now, the boating is on, and it is great fun except when the fishing net get stuck in your boat, as it happened today with […]
-
October 16, 2023 - ATR – Day 16: Did some pottery, it was fun; visited Kota, ate a sandwich (no good); and got the Vlog uploaded on time!
October 16, 2023 Monday, 10:30 PM Zostel, Bundi, Rajasthan Today’s day was dedicated to pottery, and I did quite a lot of it. So after stuffing myself with poha and aloo parathas, we went to a pottery village, where I learnt how to make big and small earthen pitchers of different sizes even though I knew a bit of it from the previous pottery class I have taken here and there, off and on. I have always wanted to learn […]
-
October 15, 2023 - ATR – Day 15: The underwhelming tour of Bundi, a talk with a Danish fellow, some good drone shots, some birding, and a delayed upload, again!
October 15, 2023 Sunday, 10:30 PM Zostel, Bundi, Rajasthan As planned, I decided to take a leisurely tour of Bundi today. There are lots of Mahals and forts of historical importance here, but not much else. To be honest, it was pretty boring to see these forts even though they are historical places and have their own importance, but for a wildlife photographer like me, there is not much there. But what’s particularly disappointing is that these Mahals, forts and […]
-
- ATR – Day 14: Visiting the Ramgarh Vishadri Tiger Reserve and redrawing the travel itinerary
October 14, 2023 Friday, 10:30 PM Zostel, Bundi, Rajasthan Today morning, we went to the Ramgarh Vishadri Tiger Reserve in District Bundi of Rajasthan. The Ramgarh Vishadri is the 52nd Tiger Reserve and was notified as a tiger reserve just a little over a year ago on May 16, 2022. So it’s among the youngest tiger reserves alongside Ranipur Tiger Reserve of Uttar Pradesh (notified on October 19, 2022), Veerangana Durgavati Tiger Reserve of Madhya Pradesh (notified on September 20, […]
-
- ATR – Day 13: Left Sawai Madhopur and arrived at Bundi after a chance roadside encounter with a stretching tiger
October 13, 2023 Friday, 09:30 PM Zostel, Bundi, Rajasthan Wasn’t feeling all that well in the morning today, so got up slightly late. I squeezed in a little bit of extra rest to be better rested than usual. Today was a travel day, involving traveling within Rajasthan from Sawai Madhopur to Bundi, which are about 140 kilometers apart. Among the first things that I did today (after preparing for the next video) was re-chart the travel plans with the on-site […]
-
October 12, 2023 - ATR – Day 12: Some more about the ghariyals; visited a temple in the core zone and struggled with video editing, again
October 12, 2023 Thursday, 10:30 PM Ranthambore Regency, Sawai Madhopur, Ranthambore, Rajasthan We talked about the ghariyals yesterday; let’s talk about them some more before we get to what happened today because ghariyals (Gavialis gangeticus) are now found mostly in three tributaries of the Ganges — the Chambal and the Girwa Rivers — in India, and the Rapti-Naryani River in Nepal even though they were once found in large distributions in several major river systems like the Indus, the Ganges, […]
-
October 11, 2023 - ATR – Day 11: Had a ghariyali morning at the National Chambal Ghariyal Sanctuary; interviewed the DFO; and met the Chief Conservator of Forests
October 11, 2023 Wednesday, 09:30 PM Ranthambore Regency, Sawai Madhopur, Ranthambore, Rajasthan Got up early in the morning, as usual on the trips, and felt like the same tired me I have been feeling for the last few mornings on account of sleeping late and getting up with a lot on my mind. With all the travel, shooting, editing, Vlogging and interviewing, I have not had as much rest as needed, which had to happen in the beginning, given the […]
-
October 10, 2023 - ATR – Day 10: Missed Riddhi, got some editing done, had an infuriating video conference and met a wonderful local couple!
October 10, 2023 Tuesday, 10:30 PM Ranthambore Regency, Sawai Madhopur, Ranthambore, Rajasthan I had thought of having a slightly relaxed day because the constant travel and shooting is getting tough and has to be brought into a sustainable rhythm because ATR is not a sprint but a marathon, which is going to a last a good six months. Shooting and editing while we are constantly traveling has been tough, not to mention the sluggish internet at most of these locations, […]
-
October 9, 2023 - ATR – Day 9: Now in Ranthambore; Red Panda, our large red vehicle, introduced on camera
October 9, 2023 Monday, 10:30 PM Ranthambore Regency, Sawai Madhopur, Ranthambore, Rajasthan The day was light today, and much of it was spent on the road and doing things that one has to do during a trip. So we got up late, having slept late as the video editing and other related stuff took a lot of time. We left Dholpur for Sawai Madhopur, Ranthambore, Rajasthan, which is where we were to stay on our visit to the Ranthambore […]
-
October 8, 2023 - ATR – Day 8: Meeting the DFO of the the Dholpur-Karauli Tiger Reserve
October 8, 2023 Sunday, 10:45 PM Dholpur-Karauli Tiger Reserve Dholpur, Rajasthan Today morning, we went to check the Karauli area of Dholpur-Karauli, as half of the Karauli area has been taken into the Dholpur-Karauli district while the other half of the Karauli area now falls under the RTR 2 (Ranthambore Tiger Reserve – 2). The administrative division of the reserved forest areas is such that all three areas — Dholpur-Karauli Tiger Reserve, Ranthambore Tiger Reserve – 2 (RTR 2) and […]
-
October 7, 2023 - ATR – Day 7: Visiting Dholpur-Karauli Tiger Reserve, the second youngest baby on the block
October 7, 2023 Thursday, 11:10 PM Dholpur-Karauli Tiger Reserve Dholpur, Rajasthan We are currently in the Dholpur-Karauli Tiger Reserves, which came into being very recently in August 2023, raising the official count to 54, but there is another Tiger Reserve that has been even more recently notified as such — the Veerangana Durgavati Tiger Reserve in Madhya Pradesh. The Veerangana Durgavati Tiger Reserve was notified as a Tiger Reserve on September 20, 2023. but it had not found place on […]
-
October 6, 2023 - ATR – Day 6: Jhalana Leopard Reserve, the first of its kind in India; Jaipur soon to be the Leopard Capital of India
October 6, 2023 Wednesday, 11:10 PM Dholpur, Rajasthan Today was a travel day mostly. In the first half of the day, I was in Jaipur, where I met Sh. Sangram Singh Katiyar, Deputy Conservator of Forest (Wildlife), Jaipur, who is the in-charge of the Jhalana Leopard Reserve (also called Jhalana Safari Park, which is unique in many ways. First and foremost, it is India’s very first Leopard Reserve and came into being relatively recently in 2017. Second, it has the […]
-
October 5, 2023 - ATR – Day 5: Yesterday’s video mess-up took a loooong clean-up, and meeting a shy Bagheera shying a little less today
October 5, 2023 Tuesday, 11:10 PM Sariska Tiger Reserve Alwar, Rajasthan Due to a minor error in the VLOG yesterday, it had to be deleted after the upload, which was when the error came to light, and then it took a lot of time to correct the error and reprocess the video to get it ready for upload. Finally, it was uploaded way past its scheduled hour, but these things keep happening every now and then, especially on the go […]
-
October 4, 2023 - ATR – Day 4: Today was mostly eventless, but here is what I found at Paanidhaal yesterday
October 4, 2023 Wednesday, 10:00 PM Sariska Tiger Reserve Alwar, Rajasthan If you are wildlife photographer, or want to be one, be prepared for such days as I had today — actually, be prepared for much, much worse because I did get to see a tiger at the end, even though for a very brief moment that could not yield a great photographic opportunity. In the morning safari, all that I found were pugmarks, pugmarks, pugmarks. And no tiger. In […]
-
October 3, 2023 - ATR – Day 3: An Interesting Day of Discovery and Interaction At Sariska
October 3, 2023 Tuesday, 10:06 PM Sariska Tiger Reserve Alwar, Rajasthan Today was an interesting day, beginning with the morning safari, during which we found a good number of fresh tiger paw marks, and from the incessant calls we kept hearing, it was clear that there was some tiger movement. Our guide, Ajay, was quite knowledgeable about the Reserve and told us quite a lot about the Sariska Tiger Reserve (STR). I also got a firsthand taste of the dry […]
-
October 2, 2023 - ATR – Day 2: After flag-off from Delhi, reaching Sariska Tiger Reserve in the evening, safaris from tomorrow
October 2, 2023 Monday, 10:50 PM Sariska Tiger Reserve Alwar, Rajasthan Finally, we are on the road for Project ATR and have reached our first Tiger Reserve destination — Sariska Tiger Reserve, Alwar, Rajasthan. The day started with our scheduled flag-off from Atrio by Devam, and my mother (Monika Khurana) did the honours of flagging us off to the road. And since she is traveling with us, she did not just flag us off and stay back, but instead, after […]
-
October 01, 2023 - ATR – Day 1: Takes longer (as expected), but ATR takes off!
This is the first newsletter of the ATR Newsletter series, which will be sent to you on a daily basis and would serve as real-time update of everyday happenings in addition to the daily VLOGs.
