The Ranthambore Experience

A mural of a tiger at Sawai Madhopur Railway Station

I had always wanted to visit Ranthambore in the summer months since I had read and heard about the park being a visual delight, with its raw natural beauty and man-made embellishments in the form of ruins of forts etc. For any wildlife lover, the chance to spot an elusive predator in its own backyard is a rush like no other. Things so turned out that I had to attend a friend’s engagement in Udaipur in the month of April, which took me into the state of Rajasthan. When I learnt that another old buddy too wanted to go for a safari, the stage was set. A 2 day, 3 safari trip to one of India’s most famous national parks with hopes of sighting its crown jewel, the Royal Bengal Tiger

A view of Ranthambore fort 

The night train journey left me at Sawai Madhopur at 1am where I was greeted by huge murals on the walls of the railway station depicting various aspects of its wildlife and how nature has embraced the ruins of the fort and other contributions by past rulers of the land. My friend, Siddhant reached the city later in the morning, still around 5 hours prior to the check-in time at the hotel. We decided to spend this extra time by visiting Ranthambore Fort which is perched high upon a hill overlooking the national park. The panoramic view of the tiger reserve from the Fort, with some royally built structures made the climb worth it. The Fort had a lot of devotees heading towards the Tri-Netra Ganesh temple. The food disposal/offerings by these devotees has resulted in abundant food for monkeys, rodents, birds etc. making it a great place for witnessing these common creatures in action. Another attraction close to the fort is the museum which we couldn’t visit since it is closed on Mondays

A squirrel nibbling away

A view of the lake from the fort

One of the many water carrying labourers at Ranthambore Fort

Our first safari of the trip was through zone 1 of Ranthambore Tiger Reserve (RTR). We reached a little late to collect our “boarding passes” but with a little sweet talking, pleading etc, managed to get on board a gypsy for the afternoon safari under the blazing Rajasthan sun. We were accompanied by a family from Bengaluru. 


The first thing to hit us was the raw, untouched beauty of the forest. The chirping of various birds, antelope and deer grazing, monkeys having a gala time etc left a positive impression from the start. But normally like in any safari, the star of the show is always the apex predator.

A healthy population of the apex predator of any forest is an indicator of the forest’s health as they are right on top of the food-chain. We tried following a tiger’s pug marks on the trail etc and then decided to wait near a watering hole, hoping that one of those beauties would come by to get a drink. The 45 minute wait included a lot of discussions about the famous stars of Ranthambore like Machli, Noon, Noor, etc. and various other aspects of wildlife. We also got to see a good number of birds like owls, magpies etc who stopped by for a drink. When we decided to shift location, we saw another safari gypsy waiting on the trail, with a few foreigners looking out in rapt attention. We found nothing on the ground but then saw a beautiful spotted predator perched upon a tree barely 15 feet away from us. The leopard was busy stalking some Sambhar deer, twitching its tail, strategizing its next move. Leopards are extremely hard to spot in the wild in spite of their large population. This is largely thanks to their reclusive nature, camouflage and their tendency to avoid humans in their large metallic machines. Also, leopards are much smaller than tigers and they prefer avoiding potentially life-threatening conflicts with their bigger cousins. After a while, this leopard looked at us, decided to abort and descended from the tree. Upon sighting the leopard, the deer, langurs, birds etc all started their “Predator Found” alarm call, making the entire jungle reverberate in their cacophony. The leopard crossed the trail and vanished into the bushes. I felt like I had attained Nirvana. I had seen all of India’s three big cats in the wild. After seeing Lions at Gir and Tigers at Tadoba, seeing the Leopard felt like the final piece of the “must see in the wild” bucket list. I managed to get quite a lot of good photographs. We later returned to the hotel and recharged ourselves for the final day of the trip

A view of the fort from RTR Zone 2

Day 2 started with an early morning walk to the booking office from where we took the gypsy for a safari through zone 2 of RTR. We were accompanied this time by 2 Americans and 2 Australians. Before we could enter the safari zone, we had already halted 5-6 times since our American friends were enchanted by the beauty of the peafowl which were seen every 50-100m. After a lot of persuasion and with a really pissed off driver, we reduced the number of halts. We were trying to spot tigers before they felt that the day was too hot and decided to rest. The route through zone 2 was tortuous but extremely picturesque, with steep slopes abutting narrow ravines next to the trail. We saw a wide variety of birds like the Honey Buzzard, Vultures, Owls, Cranes, etc., scores of peafowl, Tree-pies, Woodpeckers, etc. and the usual variety of herbivores but still no tiger. Then right at the end, there was a lot of commotion at the dichotomy between zones 2 and 3. A tiger had just walked on the trail, into zone 3 which is the zone of lakes of the reserve. We got a glimpse of the backside of a young tigress that we couldn’t identify. Though it wasn’t a headshot, we did see a tiger which was quite a rush to conclude the thoroughly entertaining second safari

An Oriental Honey Buzzard

A flame back woodpecker

We checked out of the hotel and reached the booking office early to ensure that we got a canter ride in Zone 4 of RTR since canter safaris were done in Zone 3 only on weekends. We had booked a canter safari in Zone 3 and got shifted to Zone 4. Zone 4 is another zone containing a lake. I had read that a lake in a dry deciduous forest like Ranthambore, is like an oasis in a vast desert and I was eagerly looking forward to witness the beauty of the lake in summer. Zone 4 had the most entertaining route by far, with steep and bumpy inclines which were made bumpier by the suspension of the canter. After quite a long ride from the entrance to the zone, we finally reached the lake.

The sight of the lake was divine. Shades of dry brown and yellow, turning green closer to the water, dried up tree stumps standing tall in the water near the bank of the lake. There were a lot of herbivores on the banks, busy trying to quench their thirst and cold blooded creatures like crocodiles and turtles sunbathing. The water itself was resplendently reflecting the blazing sun and had shades of green and red owing to the algae just under its surface. The first thought on seeing this paradise was, “Wow!!! This looks like the perfect hunting ground for a tiger!!!”

We went further into the zone, till we reached the checkpoint. When we reached the lake on our way back, all the herbivores had vanished, giving the lake an eerie aura of silence. It gave us a hunch that a tiger was on the prowl close by. A few 100m away there was another dried up water body surrounded by tall dry grass having a golden hue. Along the edge of the little water which was remaining, we could see a statuesque tiger quenching her thirst. Though she was far, we could see her in her natural habitat, drinking water and cooling off before going on a hunt. She was not bothered by the attention she was getting from us humans. She was probably used to it. After a while, she then got up and majestically walked towards the grass perhaps to start hunting for an evening snack. She effortlessly blended into her surroundings, with the matching golden coloured grass making her almost impossible to spot. It was difficult to spot the tiger in spite of knowing exactly where she was. She almost literally vanished into thin air

With such a great sighting of a tiger disappearing into its surroundings, we concluded a great trip which gave us a great experience of witnessing some sights of nature which we rarely get to see unfolding before our eyes.