A thrilling experience!

It was a fascinating experience driving up the Himavad Gopalaswamy Betta as the road was very steep. The gravelled road was also very slippery as recent rains had washed of parts of the road. Anitha (my wife) and I had always dreamed of seeing a tiger in the wild and had even planned to go to Ranthambore or Bandhavgarh for the purpose. Suddenly while climbing up the Betta Anitha remarked ‘How nice it would be if a tiger crossed the road now’. I laughed out loud as I said it was very rare to see a tiger in the wild and we would be lucky even if we meet a person who had seen the tiger in the wild! Yes, we were officially on the fringes of the Bandipur Tiger Reserve area but that didn’t mean Anitha should sound so positive!


It was already getting dark as we checked into the Forest Guest House near the temple and switched on the solar lights, which flickered for a moment and then went off! The servant/cook there looked at us and said it was cloudy all throughout the day and it would be better if we had some candles. As we had none he went to the servants’ quarters/kitchen to get a lamp. We followed him to discuss about our dinner. Just when we were about to enter the Guest House again as the servant had placed the lamp inside, Ranganath (my bro-in-law) spotted some movement at the base of the huge trees some 25 meters from us and whispered it was a tiger. A TIGER! That gave me a shiver down my spine as my heart beats sounded loud in my chest. Scared to the bone we (four of us including Vidya, Ranganath’s wife) gathered in a huddle behind the car very close to the Guest house door and watched the silhouette of the beast walk graciously to the base of a huge tree. It was twice the size of an adult dog and wagged its long bushy tail. My hands moved to my camera instantaneously (which I was luckily carrying at that moment!) and focused the animal which had just come out in the form of a silhouette in the dusk. After the first click I zoomed in on its head and tried focussing the lens, which I could not for some reason (was it excitement, I don’t know!). As I saw the eyes of the animal flicker like light bulbs through my camera my hairs stood straight! The animal was looking from side to side and kept looking at us for a few seconds. The discussions between Ranganath and the cook (who had joined us by now) had taken a turn as they were discussing the animal possibly being a leopard. I didn’t worry about them as I continued to look at it through my camera. That was it, I couldn’t spot the animal again, and it had disappeared! I searched the area with my camera but couldn’t spot it again. No more movements. Only stillness and some silence. It had gone, after exciting us for only a few minutes and what great minutes they were! Wow! We were all super thrilled. We slept late after hours of discussions on the animal.

We never could come to a conclusion whether it was a leopard or a tiger but who cares! The photo has saved our memories in it. We can savour the moment again and again because of the simple photograph we have in front of us. What thrill it produces! Wow!