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Tarun
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| "The near proximity of a tiger in daylight, even when it has
not seen you, causes a disturbance in the bloodstream. When the tiger
not an ordinary one, however, but a man-eater and the time is ten
o'clock on a dark night, and you know the man-eater is watching you,
the disturbance in the blood stream becomes a storm." - So wrote
Jim Corbet, who spent a lifetime tracking tigers. |
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[ Cheetah ]
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| Although the days of hunting with a gun are long
over, manycome to shoot, but with a camera. India today has one of the largest
concentrations of wild life in the world, |
[ Lion ]
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and has its wildlife sanctuaries spread right across
the subcontinent. Under the aegis of Project Tiger, a programme
formulated for the conservation of the tiger in its natural habitat,
a number of parks and reserves were set up offering both the academic
and the tourist a unique opportunity of viewing this elusive tiger
and other animals in their natural home. |
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| Besides, here there are an abundance of bird life
along with unseen flora and fauna. |
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| The Gangetic Plains in the north have their share
of game reserves like the Jim Corbett Park,
with Ranthambore, Kanha and Bandavgarh further south. |
| The Himalayan Reserves have their areas too, in the
Kulu Valley where Ibex, and the hardly seen snow leopard live
and the Pin Valley in Spiti on the Tibetan border, now open to foreigners.
Here the tourist facilities are from good to excellent. Near Agra
is the famous Keoladeo Bird Sanctuary where the long distance
flying Siberian cranes, among hundreds of other species, gather. Westwards
is the Gir Sanctuary in Gujarat, the last refuge of the Asiatic
lion. |
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[ Tiger ]
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| This state is also home for the wild ass that roams
the salt flats of Kutch. |
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| To the east the tropical forests teem with
elephant, leopard and other wildlife. Viewing is more difficult here
because of the density of the foliage. |
[ Elephant ]
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East of Calcutta are the marshy mangroves of the Sunderbans
where tigers roam. Due to interference from the growing population
that encroaches upon the reserve here, reports of tigers mauling villagers,
sometimes fatally, are not uncommon, to the extent that when they
go out into the mangroves, they wear a human looking mask at the back
of their heads to try and scare the tigers off. |
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| In the South are some of the most beautiful reserves,
packed with bird and beast. The parks of Bandipur, Madumalai,
Wynad, Periyar and Nagarhole
lie on the very popular wildlife enthusiasts circuit whose forests play
host to tigers, leopards, bisons, elephants, sloth bears and even more birds
than found in the north of India. The Ranganathittu bird sanctuary covers
675 hectares and is on one of the three islands in the Cauvery River. |
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