© Mark Johanson / Tribune News Service (X2)© Shutterstock.com (X6)
Spotted deer are top tiger prey
and some of the most common
animals in Madhya PradeshGray langurs have a
symbiotic relationship
with deer in the parks
of Madhya Pradesh,
warning each of
approaching tigers’m swaddled in a mess of blankets to fight
the pre-dawn chill as I bump down the dusty
dirt roads of India’s Kanha National Park in
an open-air safari jeep. My guide, Prabhat
Verma of PureQuest Adventures, is brimming with
optimism. But it’s my third trip past the park’s green
gates, and I’ve yet to lock eyes with the creature I
flew halfway around the world to meet.
You can go to Africa for
cheetahs or lions, but for Bengal
tigers, your best bet is the
wildlife reserves at the heart of
the Indian subcontinent in the
so-called “Tiger State” of Madhya
Pradesh. Somewhere up ahead
are nearly 100 of these regal cats.
Straddling the Maikal Hills of the Satpura Range,
Kanha is a vast landscape of sal tree forests and
wide-open savannas that’s a four-hour
drive from the nearest airport in the
diminutive regional capital of Raipur.Nothing quite like a tiger
On morning and afternoon safaris the day before,
we followed fresh tiger tracks in the park’s talc-
soft dirt to dead ends. The spotter in my safari jeep
flicked his binoculars left and right, though his ears
were doing the real work. He heeded the warning
calls of langur monkeys (who scan the perimeter
from treetops) and spotted deer (who smell tigers
from a mile away)—all to no avail.
We’ve seen some discrete peacocks ambling
through the woods, a pair of jackals racing down a
meadow and a rare barasingha (swamp deer) hiding
in the brush. We’ve photographed a menagerie
of colorful kingfishers and watched termites build
sandcastle-like mounds out of the burnt-orange
earth. I know deep down this ought to make me
happy, that all animals should carry equal clout. But
the tiger is such a rare beast; it would be cruel not to
get at least one glance at its striped orange robe.u By Mark Johanson / © 2019, Chicago Tribune.
Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
PAGE DESIGN BY VICKY TSUNGAdventure
Topic TalksReadings16 ADVANCED051015202019 SEPTEMBER 6, 7
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