Mosaic art called Pench
Pench; the word conjured up images of Tigers and Leopards in my mind’s eye, this being the heart of Kipling Country. And I was not disappointed either for the first day of my arrival there I got to see a Tigress and her four cubs. I came to know her by her first name Kahnkatti, I did not get her last name but it bothered me not one bit over the next fortnight of my stay there.
Kahnkatti lay a hundred yards or so from her cubs in an open Sun dappled grassy patch while the six month olds were under bramble and watching with tiger curiosity as the people stared wide eyed at them. It was quite a sight for rarely does one get to see four cubs raised to this age, and Kahnkatti did a marvelous job.
Our acquaintance grew over the next couple of days and I smugly thought I knew her ways, but alas! she thrashed them, for she and her little ones melted into the forest. The several hundred pairs of eyes and ears caught neither a flicker nor a rustle to betray her presence. And then one glorious day she strolled across the path not quite twenty feet from our Gypsy!
The forest of Pench is unique, as all forests are in their own individual lay. The large trees, the shrub and bramble especially at ‘Tiger saser’ or is it really Tiger Saucer I never learnt, is a most tigerish area as one can get. The area is crowded with Lantana – a most obnoxious bramble killing the local indigenous flora. But for tigers this is heaven sent; it completely obscures them from their prey and from the people who wish to see them.
A most amazing sight was at the den of Jackals. Six cubs came out of a hole in the ground absolutely unsteady on their wobbly legs. Their antics drew attention, and mother Jackal decided that enough was enough for she removed them beyond the prying eyes of onlookers once all was quiet after the hordes left the sanctuary. Very different indeed from the trusting ways of Queen Kahnkatti, who wanted her cubs to know their neighbours while keeping a measured distance.
Tigers are not the only ones to hold ones’ fancy at Pench. The Red wild Dogs or Dholes are ever scouring the land. Bright eyed bushy tailed, they are forever scampering around and are seen almost every day. Once at a kill which I heard but could not see as it took place in a depression I saw the Dholes chasing crows away from their kill with great flourish.
The Spotted Prince was always around, there were fresh telltale signs but all I got to see was a flick of a tail from behind an outcrop of rocks! The only animal that did not afford me a sighting. May such cunning live long!
The most common of all wildlife are the Chital – those white dappled fawn beauties and their masters similarly liveried and bearing polished and new sabres, some still sheathed in velvet disguised as branches. They rubbed the boles of trees smooth and brayed, a most cacophonic rutting call from so dear a deer. Their barks are eagerly given ear to for they herald in either the Striped King of Beasts or the Spotted Prince. Their larger cousins the Sambur is there too, chocolate brown, walnut tine crowned deep bellowers. Their alarms are quite startling when heard close at hand.
The bulkily graceful fat of the land, the Gaur were there, impeccably dressed, the ladies in chocolate leather tights and white stockings and black horn shoes, while the big boys were well dressed men in black who were always going about their business at a leisurely pace, and one who walked over a six inch diameter-ed sapling to break it like a little twig to forage on its tender crown. Oh! And their head gear is worthy of their regal bearings.
The avian denizens are quite as spectacular. The ever calling Crested Serpent Eagle, the omnipresent White Eyed Buzzard and the Changeable Hawk-eagle are the ever present raptors of these forests. The grandiose fan of the Peacock was always up with Argus eyes to dazzle the somber beauties around; whose raucous cat calls did no justice to the beauty.
The kills of carnivores drew those long necked large hook billed birds. Vultures? Vultures! The River Pench was their meeting grounds as they took their public baths and exchanged notes very vociferously and some arguments broke into fights, presumably of who got the better of what was left. The lone red faced King Vulture with egg shaped white patches on his flanks did not care to argue much. The White Rumped Vultures were harassing their lone larger cousin from the Himalayas, the Eurasian Griffon. Maybe it had thrown its weight at a kill; it got a rough ribbing here. The Long Billed vultures were there too, hissing and making a lot of noise. Some vulture culture; or were they cultured vultures – no pun intended!
The Osprey sat atop the dried tree and then circled over the water after a feed on fish. It then proceeded to wash its feet by dragging them just under water; a most hygienic practice for a bird. The Grey Headed Fish Eagle was always sitting and planning its next move. As we drove in it took off hurriedly and dropped a Murrel (Channa Species) right on the path. By the size of the fish it looked like it weighed over three pounds, maybe close to three and a half, a large fish indeed for a Fish Eagle, that.
Curiosity they say killed the cat. I’ve never come across the said cat thus killed, but I saw a Five Striped Palm Squirrel being done to death. I saw a young Crested Hawk-eagle chase something and then alight on a bough of a forest giant behind an outcrop of rocks. The object of interest came into view in the form of a Squirrel which emerged triumphantly from the rocks and jumped onto the bole of the tree on which sat his mortal enemy. The Eagle caught sight of this as the Squirrel launched itself. By their actions it was clear that they saw each other at the same time. The Squirrel and the Eagle went halfway round the tree and the razor sharp talons met the soft body of the Squirrel and was borne away.
One drizzly morning, the drive through the forest, and Sambur called – ‘Tiger’ said the guide and off we went. And out strode a handsome male. He kept himself just under the ridge, never broke the sky line, and never showed himself as a relief against the horizon, and the foliage behind him looked a part of him in Sunlight and Shadow. He was a picture of self-confidence, raw beauty, and regal bearing, no wonder then the King of Beasts.
That evening as we drove down the rain fell in sheets and much to our discomfort started to hail. We were pelted with white shot from the heavens that were half an inch across. By night it worsened into a massive storm with the diameter growing dramatically to the size of a lime – an inch and a half across. The next morning showed the trail of destruction left behind. Many birds, several monkeys and several Spotted Deer fawns lost limb or life. Losing limb in a forest is as bad as losing life, for we did not see injured animals after two days. Queen Kahnkatti however, had led her charges to safety much to the relief of us all.
The forest quietened, it was a sombre day as we went about our business of watching animals in a most solemn manner. There was no light hearted ribbing, our eyes peeled to see if we could see the many fawns whose antics kept us engrossed over the past several days. The animals too were not so confiding, fearing the very rustle of the leaves as the wind breezed by. Memory they say is short, and a day later there seemed no grief. The forest had returned to its vibrant self, the gambolling whooping Langoors set the mood and the ever cat-calling Peafowl fowl mouthed all and sundry. The fawns – of what were left – came out to frolic. The Chital Stags were braying; the Jackals were scouring the land, while the Red Dogs were looking for some unfortunate to run the race of death with. The leopard flicked his tail and the queen lay as people peered at her from elephant back.
A fortnight over – the first half of March flashed by leaving me with pleasant memories, good friends from across the globe and a long list of birds and animals – and I back home in Hyderabad contemplating my next move to another place like Pench.
Labels: Cheetal, Jackal, On the Leopard's tail, Pench, sambur, Spotted deer, Tiger, Wild dogs
