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 Panna Tiger Reserve on Wednesdays or in any tiger reserve anywhere in Madhya Pradesh. That’s the rule for now. In the morning safari, too, I did not find much — no tiger and not even any other jungle creature in clickable pose, situation or act. The only highlight of the day was that a few college students, who had come on a safari as a group, saw and recognized me for probably being the person who keeps pouring wildlife into their drawing rooms unasked for. So they walked over to meet me during safari when we stopped at the designated forest chowki, and they were apparently very pleased to meet; I definitely was.
The rest of the day was spent on editing and getting today’s Vlog ready. I had to finalize the video for upload sooner today because the owner of the property we are staying at had very cordially invited the whole ATR Team to dinner at a different property owned by her family, which property abuts Panna Tiger Reserve and is part of the forest itself. In addition to the house abutting the forest, there was also a machaan, elevated to an optimum height for a good view of the jungle, and even though it was too dark to see anything, it was quite clearly a good place to see and enjoy the jungle from a safe height.
And then there as meals cooked in the home-food style by the staff with chapattis prepared on the traditional earthen chulha, giving the chappatis their distinct rustic flavour to go with other similarly cooked food. We got late there, and it is only now when I have got back from the place that I have found time to dash this newsletter off.