India Journal: Entry 7 - Lookout

After Kanha, it was off to Bandhavgarh.

While traveling through Bandhavgarh, it was often the tiger that was on my mind, but occasionally other creatures would capture my attention. I spotted this lone jackal on the road, who seemed to be quite jittery. This was completely understandable of course. After all, the jackal is not a large creature and must keep a lookout for tigers, leopards and other predators. You don’t often hear about them either, as it is the more charismatic creatures that get all the attention. I would have liked to have seen more of this individual, though after being spotted, it made a hasty retreat into the jungle.

Unfortunately, Bandhavgarh didn't yield any tiger sightings. Though I try to keep up with tiger news in India, the fact that Bandhavgarh has seen a catastrophic crash in tiger numbers of late was only discovered after I had visited.

However, despite not seeing a tiger, I still enjoyed myself.
The scenery of Bandhavgarh was breathtaking and my room was located right on the fringes of the park. As a result, I often heard alarm calls frighteningly close and on one occasion I heard a tiger roaring into the night less than 1km away. If that wasn't enough to make me slightly uncomfortable while reading outside my room at night, I was also informed that a man-eater was recently captured in the area 3 weeks previous to my arrival.