First Glimpse of the jungle

Morning of 1st October 2008 I was excited to enter the Bandhavgarh jungle as for three month I was away from my office the bandhavgarh national park.
As I entered I was totally enticed by the jungle which was lush green, much greener than how I had left it when I saw it last, this was all the result of good rains during the monsoon months.
It was for five minutes I had entered the park and what was to come was unknown to me as I was just engrossed viewing the beauty of the jungle, as I moved ahead I saw a small group of vehicles gathered at one place and few of the drivers and guides waved out at me to come up ahead as I pulled up close to where the jeeps were I heard a short growl from the bushes to my right, there I saw my first tiger sitting under a bamboo bush! There was more to come suddenly I saw some movement in the bush behind where the tiger was sitting and there emerged the second tiger which was a female.I waited patiently for a few minutes as both tigers disappeared behind a bush and heard a lot of growls from both the tigers. Evidently it was a mating pair and the male was trying to court but the female was growling and pushing the male out of the bushes. I took this picture when the male was pushed out by the growling female and it paid a little attention towards our vehicles which were witness to its ongoing struggle.

Back in jungle after the Monsoon

Its a great feeling to be in the jungle after the monsoon, its lush green and water all around and its totally opposite from what we left it as, when I left from bandhavgarh it was dry and the whole jungle was yellow bamboo leaves were all over the forest floor the only tree which was green was the sal tree which gave the jungle different shades from yellow to green with some red in the middle. Now when I came back i saw a complete change the jungle is green from top to bottom there is lush green grass on the forest floor and the bamboo is green too, the rivers are flowing in full bloom and water bodies are filled with fresh rain water.

Great closing to the summer of 2008, this is my classic tiger shot for the season! a male tiger posing in perfect golden light.........

White rumped Shama

The white rumped shama is very rarely seen at bandhavgarh that makes it even more difficult to photograph i was lucky to get this shot of the Indian song bird it has a very beautiful and melodic call.

curiousity

You can see the curiousity in his eyes he came six feet from our jeep and just stared at us!!

This cub din't follow the mother but walked towards our vehicle curiosly looking at us!

The mother cautiously looking to cross the road