PENCH PHOTOGRAPHY TOUR

"The continued existence of wildlife and wilderness is important to the quality of life of humans." ~ Jim Fowler

TRIP NAME - PENCH PHOTOGRAPHY TOUR

DATE OF TRIP - 22-APRIL-2022 TO 24-APRIL-2022

CLIENTS - RAMU SEKAR, SATHEASH SEKAR & PRABHAKARAN

STAY - VAANYA EARTH

PENCH TIGER RESERVE

PENCH TIGER RESERVE also called as “MOWGLI'S HOME” also called as “COLLARWALI'S TIGER RESERVE” , a place flourished with ambitious flora and fauna present in SEONI DISTRICT exactly depicting as per the MOWGLI'S JUNGLE BOOK. The major zones of the PENCH are KHURSAPUR & TURIA where the forest stretches can be found mainly. The forest is famous from Shrubs to Sal trees which has covered the major parts of PENCH. PENCH is also famous for the BIG 5 list which doesn't include elephants. The areas of the forest are visible mostly due to the tall trees like SAL TREE, TEAK TREE, MAHUA TREE & NEEM TREE. This natural habitat has preserved and will preserve the TIGERS, LEOPARDS, INDIAN GAURS, WILD DOGS, SLOTH BEAR & BIRDS.

WILDLIFE PHOTOGRAPHY AT PENCH

FIRST DAY (22-APRIL-22) - FIRST SAFARI:

We started for our first safari from resort around 5 a.m in the morning to a buffer zone KHURSAPUR. We were guided by Mr. TAHIR PASHA who is one of the famous guides at KHURSAPUR. He has very good info about the tigers in the buffer zone. The tigers that are regularly being sighted at KHURSAPUR are BARAS, B1 (First Daughter of BARAS), B2 (Second daughter of BARAS), Bandra Lake Male (No name as of now), Bindu (With small cubs), Handsome Male (which gets rarely sighted). This zone is especially for people who want to see tigers without any luck and this zone only welcomes more of non-photographers like normal visitors who want to see a tiger in wild.

When we plan for a tiger safari, it is important to focus on searching the tigers/leopards/sloth bear apart from others as they become our targeted needs. Considering this, we saw BANDRA LAKE MALE after immediately entering the forest. Our guide kept all the whereabouts about that tiger movement and this led to our first tiger sighting at KHURSAPUR. We were much delighted to sighting just after entering the zone.

 

 

After the sighting of this guy, we started photographing some habitat/minimalistic shots which helped in learning more about the techniques our respective cameras and in learning different settings of it. Then we started moving away from the BANDRA lake and started exploring the BINDU TIGRESS territory. On the way we sighted ORIENTAL HONEY BUZZARD and photographed it to our likes and started moving again towards the BANDRA LAKE AREA. Before taking decision on BANDRA LAKES, our guides interrogated with the forest people for the whereabouts of the tigress. The highlight about the BINDU tigress was she had two territories one here and in KHAWASA region. Her cubs were safe at KHAWASA whereas mom was searching for a kill to feed the cubs.

 

MINIMALISTIC IMAGE

 

 

During our regular stroll to BANDRA LAKE for the MALE, we got the news about the sighting of B1 (Daughter of BARAS) marking here territory in that lake area. By the time we reached that place, we were informed that the tigress had rested inside the deep bushes which was so difficult to see by our naked eyes as well as by the cameras. During the tigress resting period, we also had our BREAKFAST after our wonderful sighting. We were provided with MOOLI PARATHA, VEGETABLE SANDWICH & MAAZA. 

Just after completion of our breakfast our driver and guide started hissing TIGER..TIGER…TIGER.. coming out from the bushes experiencing the warm sunlight giving us the wonderful shots that we wanted. We spent nearly an hour photographing the beautiful tigress giving shots like that we wanted and made us satisfied to our fullest. There were only 3 to 4 gypsies in that area and it took more time for other gypsies to reach to the spot.

 

After photographing this beauty we started moving out of the zone with plenty of photos of the individuals and reached our resort for some rest and for the lunch..

FIRST DAY (22-APRIL-22) - SECOND SAFARI:

Our second safari was at TURIA GATE, which started around 4 p.m and ends at 6.30 p.m as the morning safaris are much longer. TURIA GATE is the CORE ZONE and it was also THE HOME FOR THE LEGENDARY TIGRESS CALLED COLLARWALI which was the main reason for the growth of PENCH. Some of the tigers at TURIA GATE apart from COLLARWALI are PATDEV FEMALE (With Sub adults), LANGDI FEMALE, LANGDI CUB MALE & L-MARK MALE. The rocks of the TURAI zone just looks like the one seen from JUNGLE BOOK. The rocks of SEONI holds many stories and it is also a prime zone for WOLVES. 

We also focused on other animals like HANUMAN LANGUR, SPOTTED DEERS & BIRDS… We try to capture the subjects in the prime light and tried to make the image more creative and more attractive to the end watchers.

 

 

During our evening stroll we were just dreaming about the leopard sitting on the rocks and literally forgot about the tigers. The same had happened what we had assumed to see the leopards and our GUIDE had some instincts about the sighting of the leopard. It was 6 p.m where we started strolling in the LANGDI MALE CUB area. We waited in that region for with patience and fortunately we saw LEOPARD WITH CUBS trying to cross the road.

The beauty of the stealthy creature is that, she was trying to move her cubs as she was in the prime zone of the male tiger. Leopards are so shy and so elusive to sight and by gods grace we were gifted with this sighting. She was so careful in each step of her cubs and she made it successful crossing the road and entering the other side of the forest.

 

 

 

PC - PRABHAKAARAN 

The above image is one part of MAGICAL TURIA and this is the place or the territory where LANGI tigress resides and also for some raptors like WHITE EYE BUZZARD & GREY HEADED FISH EAGLE.

This happened to be an awesome sighting at TURIA which was a dream to capture MOTHER WITH TWO CUBS. Meanwhile, near a lake LANGDI TIGRESS was sighted and photographed which we missed due to the sighting here. TURIA has been magical for all the photographers who needed some scape shots, some leopard shots and some tiger shots.. We ended our second safari so blissfully and went on for rest to the resort with delightful dinner.

SECOND DAY (23-APRIL-22) - THIRD SAFARI:

Our third safari again was TURIA and we had high hopes of sighting the tiger. We started off to safari at 5.45 a.m from the gate and started our regular strolling in search of tigers. On our way we tried to capture some creative shots as we were standing a little away from the MAHUA TREES. Generally, the cameras are used intensively only when we try shoot non regular shots like RIMLIT, BACKLIT & habitat ones. We played with three major components which are SHUTTER SPEED, APERTURE & ISO. This helped us in getting more creative shots in turn learning more about cameras.

 

 

 

 

This safari happened to be full of non-tiger images and there were no sightings of the tiger in the forest. Our safari timing was till 11.30 a.m but due to high temperature in that area we had leave by 10:30 a.m. We had stopped in the SOUVENIR shop to purchase dresses and other fancy items but unfortunately they were on the higher side. We reached to our resort by 11 a.m and we all went into swimming pool just like how tigers search for water areas..

SECOND DAY (23-APRIL-22) - FOURTH SAFARI:

Our fourth safari was at KHURSAPUR in search of other tigers. We started for our safari at 2 p.m and we were shocked to see the rush in that gate as this zone that evening was occupied with almost 20 gypsies. We were mostly the photographers out of the 20 searching for TIGERS to try some different shots. Since it was very crowded, the tiger sighting became very difficult. At 5p.m we heard about the rumours about B2 TIGRESS (DAUGHTER OF BARAS) sitting in the artificial water pond cooling herself due to the tremendous heat. People were so foolish that they started shouting and making great fuss. Guides and drivers tried to control the people but they were already out of control. We saw B2 TIGRESS with our naked eyes and cherished that moment.

This time literally we didn't click any of the animals/birds which was a dry safari in total.

SECOND DAY (23-APRIL-22) - FIFTH SAFARI:

This safari was an exciting safari which we planned during the night from 7 to 9.30 p.m. This safari was at KHAWASA zone where 4-MARK MALE & BINDU WITH THREE SUBS resides and also this zone is famous for the BLACK PANTHER. We started our troll inside this zone and this was a new experience. We got some info about the 4-MARK MALE got sighted by just crossing the road. Unfortunately we missed the sighting and again we were on our search. We really did miss the sighting again of the male just after we missed the previous. Even we didn't get anything from this safari and we were out of luck. We reached our resort by 10 p.m after huge toll on us after doing 3 safaris in a row.

THIRD DAY (24-APRIL-22) - SIXTH SAFARI:

Our last safari was at KHURSAPUR to which we started 5 a.m. Even in this safari we were out of luck and we missed the tiger sighting which again happened to be our dry safari including the previous 3. We had a great time in searching and photographing the tigers and we were happy with our happy sighting of seeing 2 in KHURSAPUR and LEOPARD family in TURIA.

OUR GROUP:

 

 

FROM LEFT - RAMU SEKAR, SATHEASH SEKAR, KARTHICK KUMAR & PRABHAKARAN

SOME IMAGES PHOTOGRAPHED BY OUR CLIENT:

PRABHAKARAN:

 

SATHEASH SEKAR:

 

 

RESORT PHOTOS:
 

VAANYA EARTH

 

ROOMS

DINING AREA

RELAXING AREA

 

We will be planning for PENCH again in the winters for the animals/birds.

 

THIS IS KARTHICK KUMAR SIGNING OFF FROM THIS BLOG & FOR FURTHER DETAILS REGARDING ANY WILDLIFE/BIRDING TOUR REACH ME TO +91-8124487585 OR VISIT https://www.naturographers.com/