In the pursuit to catch the tiger on the whole and not just by the tail I ventured to Ranthambore this October. Having been a part of quite a few Tiger trails in the past where the only solace were ''fresh'' pug marks, I had quite some high hopes from this National Sanctuary. Famed for a 35 plus big cat population it guarantees tiger sightings. With the highest of hopes we packed ourselves into a late night train and headed towards Sawai Madhopur. The Dehradun Express, the only late night option from Delhi started late and almost gave us a heart attack of missing the safari. The TT told us of the train being on time and reaching at 6 a.m. a full forty minutes later than the time promised on IRCTC. When I tried protesting he just laughed indulgently and went ahead with his business. With our fingers crossed we caught some sleep and waited for the next morning. Sawai Madhopur is as sleepy little town that you will miss if you don't keep your eyes open. At 5:15a.m. sharp, 5 minutes before scheduled time the train pulled into the discreet station that we were almost going to miss if it had not been for inquisitiveness.
Too happy for having made it at the promised time we rushed out to find a town barely awake. The faces of the auto walas lined outside the station lit up as soon as we demanded being taken to the Forest Booking Office. This meant tourists which translates into extra moolah across the country. The office situated 3km away was full of activity at that hour. Quite a few people with pre-bookings and without lined the counters securing seats. We too collected ours and sat down for an early morning cup of tea. Here I must talk about the Ranthambore safari site and the smooth as butter functioning of it. Its easy to use, uncluttered and best of the very best, I got an instant reply from their customer support within 24 hours, something unheard of in most of the Government run things I know of.
We had been assigned our canter and we promptly hopped in, chose front (and the best) seats and waited for the odyssey to begin. Canters are for the unprivileged lots who don't get jeeps and are supposed to be shared by 16 people. Jeeps are more difficult to get for various reasons. Eitherways with an overenthusiastic driver and a somewhat subdued guide we started off at 6:15a.m. One of the first vehicles to leave.
Canters go about collecting their populace from various hotels and resorts before finally venturing into the park. Now this is an issue. If the resorts are far too many and far flung you had it. We had the additional burden of waiting at a resort for a full 20 minutes as the couple just didn't make it before that. Amidst threats of leaving we waited for what seemed like an eternity for a honeymoon couple while scores of other vehicles passed by. Now a word of caution here. I hate to generalise but I think honeymoon couples trying to make an extended first impression should give such activities a miss. The man and his lady were dressed and turned out to perfection with matching jewellery, accessories and make-up. A slight scuffle later we proceeded to three different places to pick more of our canter mates. Finally at about 7:05a.m. we were able to enter the park. Remember to carry your battery, hats, caps etc etc because fleecing tourists is not unknown there. Having paid Rs 150/- for two duracell pencil batteries I prayed one last time for guaranteed tiger sighting and pictures to write about.
Freshly reopened after the monsoon break the park was lush with greenery. As we moved and lunged forward on the jungle terrain the driver and guide kept us entertained with tales of tigers they had seen and they would show us. The focus in Ranthambore is on Tiger sighting and any other animal is not really taken seriously. The tigers food albeit deer, antelopes, cheetal, sambhar, lemurs and monkeys are scoffed of and the camera flashing tourist is promised ''later'', once the main kill is done with.
Quite early on we heard a ''call'' very nearby to us and were ordered to a hushed silence. We intensely waited for a glimpse of the the big cat. A few more similar quick shrill calls confirmed the tigers presence and made our guides eyes shine. Pin drop silence with only the jungle sounds around. The wind, the animal sounds and silence. It is then that I realised silence is also at times discomforting. After about five minutes or so the silence seemed to be piercing my ears and it felt unbalancing. Thankfully the guide gave up and we proceeded. Cursing the thick foliage for proving cover the driver confided that our zone, zone number 5 has two tigers T -17 and T - 19. So even if this one would play spoilsport we had another one for company.
Further on scores of other animals were simply ignored while we proceeded to locate the other tiger. On our way forth we encountered a majority of the vehicles coming back beaming with people who had managed the feat. Each one gave us "the" directions and it got on our drivers nerves within no time. The location where the tiger was lazing was a good ten minutes away and the driver drove, I am sure, ignoring the jungle speed limits.
As luck would have it the tiger after giving darshan to nine out of ten vehicles that entered zone five decided he had too much attention for the day and retired into the dense vegetation. We went forth we went back, we took turns that were not allowed. We almost drove down the moat to see if the magnificent one was somewhere below but he had conveniently shut shop.
Obscenely dejectedly we started on our way back. The driver, full of tiger stories now fell silent and looked restless. Still not wanting to give up he tried some more spots and made us wait with the same pin-drop silence. But the sighting was not meant to be.
The park adheres to sharp timings regarding entry and exit and so we started on our way back. The mood was obviously different. Children sat silently and the elders too were not too keen, everyone tried to squeeze in whatever little of the last jungle air they could in their lungs before we zoomed out. Almost late we pushed out just as the guard was locking the gate. On being told that we missed the tiger he shook his head in disapproval and informed us about our lone misfortune.
In Ranthambore tiger sightings possibilities are very strong owing to their sheer number and that is why a group that comes back empty handed is horribly sympathised with. Rich by the jungle sojourn and poorer by the tiger sighting standards we were given a ride to the main city by our friendly driver who promised to show me the tiger on my next visit.
The market at just walking distance from the railway station boasts of some fine and economical eating places that boast of hot parathas and almost everything that can be included in an Indian brunch. Two parathas down we proceeded back to station with almost three hours to kill. There is just one train from Sawai Madhopur to Delhi in noontime and quite obviously we did not get tickets in the short notice we tried to achieve it. Having planned to route our journey through Jaipur we waited for nearly three hours over countless cups of chai, lassi, a little bit of snoozing, a lot of walking, some magazines, few sutta breaks etc. The city I am sure does boast of other tourist loactions, some talabs etc that we had googled but our luck in the tiger department made us sceptical of the city's step motherly treatment to us. We ventured just outside the station and what we saw showed a sleepy little town almost oblivious to the hundreds of people trickling in and out daily to meet their jungle friends.
The Ranthambore Express pulled in just in time and we entered an a/c coach packed with noisy Indians and noisier foreigners. We gave a royal ignore to all the excitement and noise and snoozed off dreaming of the elusive tiger we would meet, most certainly. Albeit some other place, some other time.
From Delhi Ranthambore is certainly a destination that can be covered in one day, provided you are restricting yourself to just one safari ride. Quite a few trains run between the two cities and if booked in time one can enjoy quite a comfortable and rejuvenating weekend ride in wild.
