During last week of June, I visited Bandhavgarh National Park of Madhya Pradesh. Located within the serene and exquisite hills of Vindhyan, it is one of the most preferred locations for photographing and tracking tigers in wild. This place is known to have World’s highest density of Bengal Tigers. The park has four zones namely Magadhi, Khitauli, Tala and Panpatha-divided into core and the buffer areas. I was told that this park is presently home to 66 tigers. I visited Tala, Magdhi core and Panpatha buffer during my stay.
The name Bandhavgarh is believed to be derived from Hindu mythology. “Bandhav-garh” translates to “the brother’s fort” and it is believed to be gifted by Lord Ram to his devoted ‘bandhav’ (brother) Laxman on his return from victory over Ravan of Lanka.
During Monsoons the greenery of this forest is worth viewing. The Saals and Bamboos are in full bloom thus giving this forest a magnificent look. Nevertheless, this splendid greenery during monsoon becomes nightmare for wild life photographers as the tiger sightings become rare and photography difficult.
We started our venture with the morning safari at Magadhi. Since it had rained last night, it appeared that most of the tigers which otherwise were getting sighted during previous few days migrated towards their caves. Before my pursuit to photograph the tigers in the wilderness of Bandhavgarh would have gone in vain, I thought to try my hands to snapshot the birds of the area and I really enjoyed doing so...
Bandhavgarh National Park boast of having about 250 species of birds. Most of them are local residents while about 120 species are migrants.
Elephants and their Mahavats play a very important role in tracking the movements and activities of the tigers in this park. This park has lost several tigers due to territorial conflicts of animal.
Photographed using Canon EOS 1100D with 55-250mm lens.