Machali’s story
“Machali” in Hindi means fish but for regular visitors to Ranthambhore Machali is the resident tigress of the area around the Ranthambhore fort. This area is one of the most scenic parts of Ranthambhore, where three of the six lakes of Ranthambhore are located. Machali is by far the most famous tigress of Ranthambhore and [...]
Pratapgarh III
Both Dharmendra and Amit have done their Ph.D. in Botany from Jaipur University, so they were very interested in the flora of southern Rajasthan (that’s where Pratapgarh is). I am not very good with my flora, at least compared to the two of them, so it was a great learning experience for me. I do [...]
Pratapgarh Part II
The abandoned hut that we were living in was at the base of the Central Hillock, around which most of the kill had taken place. It was not really a hillock, it was more of a low plateau (called dang in Rajasthan). These dangs rise abruptly from flat ground and have sandstone ridges running almost [...]
Pratapgarh Part I
In the first week of December we left for Pratapgarh, in the Chittor district of Southern Rajasthan. This area has some highly degraded teak forests – most of which have been cut down by the local villagers. These forests hardly have any wildlife left but a few leopards do live in the area. We went [...]
Monsoons 2004 – July to September
Ranthambhore National Park, like all project Tiger Reserves in India, shuts down for visitors during the monsoons. Since Ranthambhore lies in Rajasthan – the driest Indian state – it only shuts down for three months of monsoons, from July to September. This is the most dangerous time for the big predators. Due to the monsoon [...]