Dhikala Chaur : A Tigress Sighting

Indian Wildlife Adventures

This episode is also available as a blog post: https://indianwildlifeadventuresblog.wordpress.com/2021/05/15/dhikala-chaur-a-tigress-sighting/

Those who have grown up reading Jim Corbett books, would know what Dhikala Chaur is all about. One of the best preserved grasslands of North India, the place is full of wildlife and birdlife. The grassland is a happy hunting ground for many tiger and tigress and is considered a prime property for them due to abundance of prey. This is truly grassland paradise for it has everything for everyone. One can sight multitude of birds and reptile life.

Tracking A Hungry Tigress

It was early in the morning and we had been following this tigress since our arrival into Dhikala, a very shy tigress was hungry and had not been able make a kill. We started in the morning, in the direction of her last location which we had sighted a day earlier. The guide advised us to wait around that area and check out for alarm calls or any movement. Birders have tendency to start photography or observing birds as soon as possible and if it happens to be in Corbett National Park, then the intensity is much higher. We all got busy and started clicking the winged neighbours perched on the tree, not realising that our tigress was sitting some bushes away from us for an ambush. Suddenly the jungle erupted into a cacophony of all kinds of calls and noise. She pounced a spotted deer but missed by micro second. This videos captures her movement seconds she came out of the bushes. At that time we were alone and away from all the jeeps but alarm calls of cheetals echoing the area attracted the nearby jeeps and within minutes, many clicking her majesty, I asked my friend how come they come to know about tigress movement and he replied in Jungle the news travels faster than the city, but one has to have keen ears and sight for the information. I looked at the distance towards the tigress as she slowly walked away and marking her territory and we bit her good bye.

Taking the famous quote of Christopher McDougall and twitting a bit to make it more Indian,“Every morning in India, a deer wakes up, it knows it must outrun the fastest tiger or it will be killed. Every morning in India, a tiger wakes up. It knows it must run faster than the slowest deer, or it will starve. It doesn’t matter whether you’re the tiger or a deer, when the sun comes up, you’d better be running.”

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