"Persistence and Patience" - Always Pays off

“We saw the tiger in Zone 1”, “I saw the tiger in Zone 4”, “I saw the tiger with cubs” – These were statements whenever I met people who returned from Ranthambore, It was never us!! A kind of hollow feeling sunk our hearts !!

First time I came to Ranthambore was in Nov 2015. Missed seeing the Royal Bengal Tiger after one visit each to zone 3 and 6.

Little did I know, why people get addicted to wildlife.

Then I came back in Jun 2017, peak summer and again missed seeing it. My son was 3 years old, it was two attempts then again. It was two afternoon trips to Zone 1 and 3 respectively.

The good part of the visit was that it got my son excited to wildlife & nature. In Dec 2018, we went to Kaziranga & saw the Rhino on an elephant back safari in the first visit. That was a win.

However the desire to see the Royal Bengal Tiger was always an unfulfilled dream.

Started to like wildlife photography and so got a Canon EOS 750 D to preserve memories and with a good zoom, truly helps sight wild animals.

So summer holidays of 2019, we planned to go back to Ranthambore again.

It was a crisp morning on 2 Jun, we succeeded in seeing the Arrowhead with two of it cubs in Zone 3. Arrowhead (T-84) is the granddaughter of Macchli (T-16), the Queen of Ranthambore, the crocodile hunter. Macchli ruled the prime picturesque zone 3 for 10 years and gave birth to 11 cubs (7 females and 4 males). When I started to read into how territorial these big felines are (literally masters of the jungle), I was truly amazed. Also being in the wilderness of jungle, made me realize how truly ignorant I was about the immensity of nature and the variety of life forms is supports.

However want to share the experience of tiger sighting on 3 Jun 2019, which relates to how Persistence and Patience pays off.

Queen of Zone 4 is Krishna (T-19), daughter of Machali. Zone 4 is not so picturesque and the ride is rough deep into the jungle.

The 1st hour went by, we saw other animals and birds (monitor lizard, sambhar, cheetal, peacock and other exotic birds). By law of probability I wasn't expecting to see the tiger today. However there is a word called hope.

As we were searching we saw quite a few canters & gypsies rushing in one direction, we also rushed. Some canters were already there. Some folks said they saw a tiger moving up in the hills and were waiting for it to come down. We waited to 45 minutes.

Folks in our canter said lets move on. It is not our day. A few voices in the canter including mine said let wait. Others left and so 15 min later we also decided to leave.

However as we drove we wanted to get a better view of the hill and try to see the tiger from a vantage point. It was dry summer and temperature in the afternoon reached 47 deg C.

Technology always helps - Good camera with a good zoom. I was clicking pictures across the hill and zooming in. Finally saw a brown shade in the bushes.

Photo 1: Where is the tiger ?

 Zoom in and there we see it.

Photo 2: Zoom in & lo! It is there. Thanks to Canon EOS 50D

Once we had spotted it, the only thing we had to do it was wait, till it came down. Patience, Patience, Patience. After about 30 min of waiting, the king of the jungle decided to move down.

Photo 3: Krishna decides to move down

Photo 4: There is comes out of the bushes

Photo 5: We were lapping it up like Krishna

It was like the rev it up, eureka moment for us!! It was just 10 feet away. I would have clicked a 50 to 60 pics in those 3 – 4 min.

I loved the pink tongue!!

Now when I reflect back I can summarize the experience the following way:

• Chase your passion
• Never give up. Persistence always pays off. Patience, Patience, Patience
• It is possible to find a needle in the hay stack. Be patient and wait for the kill. When one gets it, the joy is indescribable
• Use good technology to improve chances of success significantly.

Now we as a family can also claim we also saw the Royal Bengal Tiger!! What a wonderful beautiful majestic creation of nature it is!! Truly I am addicted to wildlife and beautiful nature.