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Penelope Hacker travelled on our 'India - Assam, Darjeeling & Bhutan' holiday and submitted this entry to our writing competition.
The Sunderbans by Sujan Chatterjee
Naturetrek Loses a Booking
At a loose end in August 2013, and keen to see Tigers in the wild I googled ‘wildlife tours India’, though I had tried before with no promising results. I had never heard of Naturetrek from the wilds of Oz but, seeing the Assam, Darjeeling trip which promised Bhutan as well, coming up in November, had to book and pay very quickly, crossing my fingers that this was not a Nigerian scam. I live in subtropical rainforest in the middle of a national park, so am used to seeing interesting wildlife on a daily basis. The more I read though, the less confident I was of seeing Tigers and mammals in general. From the trip notes it seemed that the last time Tiger had been seen on this trip was 2010, so, with poaching etc I had little chance. I didn’t even bother to buy a mammals field guide …
Led by the incomparable Sujan Chatterjee, I was to learn to expect the unexpected. Bhutan was all I had hoped for: wondrous Buddhist calm among ancient monasteries; breakfast al fresco in the warm sun before a snow-covered Himalayan panorama; fabulous birds that other experienced fellow Naturetrekkers had searched for for ages, such as Ibisbill and Wallcreeper; a glimpse of a Yellow-throated Marten dashing across the road in front of our minibus; a Pika, like a small round tennis ball with ears, hiding in frosty bushes as the dawn threw pink light across the snow-covered peaks at the 3,000-metre high Chelela Pass; prayer flags fluttering in the icy wind. Our lists were ever-growing …
But the best was yet to come …
At Kaziranga National Park in Assam, we were sooo close. There were three occasions when the guides said Tigers were there but frustratingly hidden in the tall elephant grass, even from the backs of elephants. Swamp and Hog Deer stamped their feet, barking out alarm calls, all looking in the one direction. Tension mounted, but nothing feline appeared so we tried to satisfy ourselves by watching the endangered One-horned Rhinos which peered myopically at our group of elephants, apparently wondering about the strange ‘growths’ on their backs, but not moving until we were only about 20 metres away. We saw a family of Hoolock Gibbons, and a Giant Squirrel, very hard to find … but, no Tiger.
I started asking Sujan about good areas for Tiger on another trip …
Half the group went home and the rest of us went on the Sunderbans extension in the Ganges delta. The captain of our boat told us that, two days before, his friend had been killed by a Tiger as he was fishing in a protected area, so no compensation for his family. The first afternoon we stopped to have our permits inspected. Suddenly Sujan came out from the office having heard that Tiger were seen from the watchtower 5 minutes ago. Frustration! What bad luck!!! But we rushed as quietly as possible up the watch tower, peering down the three cleared strips in the mangroves, waiting in silence, even the normally cheerfully garrulous Bengalis!
‘There. Tiger!’ whispered Sujan. And there she was indeed, strolling out from the mangroves, looking every inch the Queen of the Jungle. How fabulous! I couldn’t breathe for excitement, especially as she turned and looked at us with apparent disdain before disappearing back into the mangroves. I turned away, but, wait, there was more! She reappeared at the next cleared strip, followed by … another, male, Tiger. We all had our cameras on motor drive! This would be ‘Tigers, the movie!!!’ Again, I thought that this was all, but they both strolled across the third clear strip.
‘Naturetrek loses a booking!’ Sujan joked to me, as I had more than achieved my major goal in coming to India. With all his many years’ experience with wildlife he hadn’t ever got two Tigers in one photo, And I had! On my very first attempt…
‘Oh, no,’ I thought, ‘no cancellation.’ This had been so good I am going to go back on a Naturetrek trip to India, especially as we also saw otters which Sujan had not seen in the Sunderbans for 10 years ...
Read more about our 'India - Assam, Darjeeling & Bhutan' holiday.