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 when there are a lot of other things occupying one’s mind and demanding one’s attention. I expected that but being mentally prepared for it doesn’t exactly make it easier or any less stressful when it happens. So the error-correction took a while and resulted in late sleeping and late waking up, but I still managed to pull off a safari.

During the safari, we got to know that there was a leopard sighting nearby, but the tiger trackers told us that it was a shy leopard of the region called “Bagheera”, who did not like being the center of human attention, so it was pointless to go after him, for he was most likely to disappear at the first sight of human beings. But we were not getting any great shots anywhere, so we thought of giving Bagheera a try. No hard in trying. It’s anyway a leopard to be spotted once in many months. So we went in the direction we were told he had been sighted.

When we reached the spot, we found Bagheera enjoying his time by the water and didn’t seem to mind our benign presence at a safe distance. He moved around a bit, allowing us to shoot a few good pictures and a few slow-motion clips of his graceful movements. And then it disappeared into the forest — probably he can tolerate human beings only for so long. 

When we were returning, our driver saw a leopard walking down the dirt road, but the leopard rushed into the forest. It was getting late, but as we were about to return, the female leopard reappeared and looked straight at us, which is when I got a good picture of her.