Beautiful Places | Wildlife Photography | Home-What's New | Site Map
The open jeep I used in the Tiger Parks.
The Tiger is the National animal of India, and fittingly India has the most wild tigers in the world. When I decided I wanted to photograph tigers in the wild, I naturally arranged for a trip to India. My trip to India started with a United Airlines flight from the United States to London. From there it was another ten hour flight to Delhi, India.
When I had arranged for a private tour, my instructions were, just show me tigers and forget the sightseeing. None the less, I don't think they will let a first time tourist to India leave the country without visiting the Tajmahal. This is really all right because I found out it's a beautiful place. So, the first leg of my journey in India was a six hour drive to Agra and an afternoon visit to the Taj. The next day it was an eight hour drive to the Tiger Moon camp at Ranthambore.
In India the Tiger Preserves are called Tiger Parks and they are all related through a massive conservation effort called 'Project Tiger'. India has a number of Tiger Parks but four of them are the cream of the crop, and probably the most well known. These four Tiger Parks are:
Ranthambore
Bandhavgarh
Kanha
Corbett
I traveled to the first three Tiger Parks on this list. I didn't get to visit Corbett. There were variations in the conditions and the 'Tiger Experience' in each of these parks. First I'll explain what's similar about all the Tiger Parks and then you can check out the different parks.
The problem with seeing tigers in the wild is that their normal inclination is to conceal themselves. Their main method of securing prey is an attack from ambush, or from a concealed position. They hunt mainly at night, often starting a little before sunset and ending shortly after sunrise. During the day they usually find a shady, concealed place and sleep. In spite of all that I had 26 tiger sightings on 25 game drives. Of these, three were exceptional and they each occurred in a different park.
All of the tiger parks have morning and afternoon gate hours. Typically they are from 6:00 AM to 9:00 AM and from 4:00 PM to 6:30 PM. The parks are closed during the middle of the day. There are entry fees for both the morning and afternoon drives.
The Tiger Parks have three seasons which are, Cool, Hot, and Wet. Cool is from November through March where it may be almost freezing on the coldest mornings. Hot is from April through June where it gets to 110°F in Ranthambore. Wet is the monsoon from July through October when the parks get 90% of their rain fall. The Tiger Parks are all closed during the monsoon.
The parks require that you take a local guide with you on all game drives. The guide fee is 50 RS and I suspect it is more to provide employment than it is for the guiding services. They need to give the local villagers some reason to quit shooting the tigers. The guides are provided on a rotating basis from a large pool of local people.
The roads in the parks are almost universally, unimproved, very dusty, dirt roads. The roads are generally rough but driveable. Four wheel drive vehicles seem in order. Tigers seem to like walking in the roads, but they do it mostly at night. If you get a female with three large cubs, walking up and down a road, it looks like there is a herd of tigers in the area. The park guides very much like to point out 'pug marks' (tiger tracks). I think that may be a sop, in case you don't see a tiger, you can at least talk about all the tiger tracks you saw.
The standard game drive vehicle is the open jeep, with bench seats in the back, at a convenient eye level with the tigers. The tiger doesn't even have to jump up to get in, but for whatever reason it seems to work, and the tigers don't eat the tourists. The jeeps are not allowed to drive off the roads.
Not all of the Tiger Parks have elephants, but when they do, the off road work is done by elephant. The elephant is the ultimate off road vehicle. Elephants can go through deep water, through extremely rocky areas, and up and down inclines that no wheeled vehicle could negotiate. The mahawats (elephant drivers - pronounced 'ma-hoot') have unbelievable control over their elephants. The elephants typically carry four passengers plus the mahawat.
When elephants are available, the parks normally have a 'Tiger Show'. The 'Tiger Show' is the viewing of a tiger, by elephant, and it is the closest you'll come to a sure thing for seeing a wild tiger. With some variations, the 'Tiger Show' generally works like this.
First thing in the morning, the mahawats, without passengers, fan out with their elephants looking for tigers. When I was there, three out of four mornings they found a tiger. If and when they find a tiger, they radio their position and then they go to the nearest road to pickup passengers for tiger viewing. The tiger is usually asleep, in heavy cover, so it is normally not a very exciting encounter. However, if you couldn't do better, the 'Tiger Show' allows you to say you've seen a wild tiger, up close and personal.
I was told that the more towards summer you visit the better your chances are for seeing tigers. Summer in India officially starts the first day after 'Holy Day' which was March 15th, when I was there. The later in the season you're there the more things dry up, and the more the tigers are concentrated around water, making them easier to find. This is after the European tourist season, and at two of the three camps, I was at, I was the only guest.
In spite of it being summer, and hot during the day, it's cold in the morning. You'll need a good jacket, to ride around before sunrise in an open jeep. A lot of your photography will be done under low light conditions, since the tigers are more active around sunrise and sunset. Almost all of my tiger photography was done with ASA 400 film. Even during the day you end up hand holding a long lens, from the back of an elephant, and shooting in deep shade.
Ranthambore | Bandhavgarh | Kanha
Sidelights | Contact The Artist | About Image Quality | Special Sizes | About the Artist | Picture Places | Price List
Note Cards | The Art Show Scene | Frequently Asked Questions | Cameras Ray Uses | Educational Use of Photos
Copyright© 2008 Ray I. Doan - All rights reserved
This page was last updated: March 15, 2008