India: Winter '08
India is the first of many new destinations to be visited by Chris as he starts the Animals on the Edge project, photographing the world's most endangered species. Follow his adventures through the jungles of central India, in search of tigers.
Animals on the Edge - the start of something new
13th January 2008
Finally, it's begun ... the project I've been waiting eight years to fulfil is real and about to start. The journey to India is long. On arrival in Delhi I transfer to the domestic air terminal - a rather nerve jangling drive in a bus (I use the term lightly) that probably first saw service in the late 19th century, and along roads where the only rule seems to be, the larger your vehicle the less you need to brake! At domestic, there's a long wait with little to do, not helped when a robotic announcement revelaed an hour's delay in the flight. Finally, I board the internal flight to Nagpur, from where it's a further five-hour drive to camp in Kanha National Park. In Nagpur I meet for the first time my tiger consultant, Nanda Rana, and his wife Latika. Nanda is a world renowned expert on tigers, having made two films about the big cat and spent two years working with National Geographic magazine's MIchael Nichols, during the photographer's documentation of tigers in Bandhavgarh. Latika, too, is a tiger expert, having completed a thesis on tiger conservation and gained her doctorate from Oxford University in 2000. After a late dinner, we set out in convoy. It's now 11:00PM and I've been travelling for the best part of 30-hours, up for 38. The road is bumpy and windy and the combination of tiredness, unfamiliar food and the constant braking and swaying of the vehicle makes me nausious. Finally, at 3:30AM we arrive. I head straight for bed ... in 2-hours I'll be up and searching for tigers. It begins ...
First sightings
15th January 2008
It's 5:30AM, I've been asleep for just two hours after a day and a half travelling and I can't believe I'm having to get up. Even so, I spash cold water over my head, eat some toothpaste and grab the (fortunately pre-packed) camera bags. Nanda informs me that the special permissions we need for commercial photography have just come through (he kept that quiet last night!) and we're all set to go. As a commercial photographic party, we skip the usual formalities getting into the Park, which can be laborious. Waiting for news from the trackers, we drive around, scouting the area. After a while we hear the elephants have found a tiger and we head for the staging point. Passing the queues of tourists, our elephant and mahout are waiting for us. I climb aboard and Nanda follows, as guide and interpreter, and we head into the forest.
The tiger is well camouflaged and hiding under a bush. We wait patiently. And wait. And wait. Eventually the cat emerges and begins to wander off. We follow. This is my first ever sighting of a wild tiger and it's mezmerising. Such a beautiful animal, so enigmatic and majestic. Photography from the elephant is challenging. There's little room to manoeuver and getting a good angle is difficult. But I relay my instructions to Nanda who barks them to the mahout and we make progress. I'm using two cameras, one with my 70-200mm lens, the other with the longer 200-400mm. The tiger allows us to follow her for twenty minutes and then, seemingly bored of our interest, she twists sharply and in an instant is gone - lost in the tall grasses. What I wasn't to know at the time, of all our sightings in the coming days, this was to prove the best.
A new form of 4x4
16th January 2008
Another early start and this morning we leave the vehicle behind and go in search of tigers on the back of an elephant. It's a novel experience. We crash through the seemingly impenetrable forest but there is little that halts the momentum of an elephant. A shouted command from the mahout and a thick branch blocking our passage is snapped with a quick twist of the elephant's trunk or crushed under heavy foot. But tiger sightings elude us. We find evidence of a male tiger but he is always one step ahead of us. After several hours, and no tigers, we leave the forest behind. In the afternoon, little changes, although we get a fleeting glimpse of a leopard as it moves stealthy through the long grass of Kanha meadows.
Delhi belly
17th January 2008
Delhi belly strikes in the night and sleep is restless. At one point I feel ill and step into the bathroom. The next thing I know I'm lying on my back on the hard stone floor, with a sharp pain at the base of my skull. I'm unsure where I am and it takes some moments before I realise I passed out. I lay motionless for several minutes, unsure of how long I've been here. Nausea takes over and I'm forced to move. With blurred vision I thank Nikon for auto-focus!
Pay off
18th January 2008
Today, the expensive permissions that allow me to access areas of the park closed to tourists pay off. It won't be the last time. We site a young tiger hiding under a clump of thicket. At one point our elephant gets too close and the tiger threatens, its roar vibrating through the forest and equalled only by the trumpet of the startled pachyderm. We back away to give the tiger space and it settles agin. It then leads us through the forest in an apparent game of hide and seek. It's the most thrilling encounter with a tiger, yet. Back at camp, I'm still not feeling 100% after yesterday's black out and rest comes easy. I prepare for another early start by cleaning the camera equipment, which is smothered in dust from the dry forest floor.
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