Aditya ‘Dicky’ Singh

I just got a mail from Doctor Dharmendra Khandal, the Field Biologist of Tiger” title=”http://ranthambhore.blogspot.com/2005_12_01_archive.html>Tiger” target=”_blank”>ranthambhore.blogspot.com/2005_12_01_archive.html>Tiger Watch and has been in Ranthambhore since. In early 2005 Dharmendra and I were instrumental in getting the Operation Co-operation launched by the then Deputy Field Director of Ranthambore national park - Mr. G S Bhardwaj. After this operation was called off we were all very dejected but soon Dharmendra decided to start a full fledged (in terms of action and delivery and not in term of funds) anti poaching program and did it in style. Right now he is enemy number one for tiger poachers.

Just two days ago he got some information about a group of

Dear boss,

It was a preventive raid that we carried out in the early hours of the 2nd August 2007. As you have always said we should do something “before” tiger poaching happens and not “after” it happens. Till now we have only caught poachers after they had done their killing. What we did yesterday was preemptive.

My informer reported to me that fifteen Mogiyas families with 12 guns have crossed over from Madhya Pradesh (to the periphery of Ranthambhore tiger reserve) and waiting for the right time to enter the reserve. He also told us that about one third of these people were in a place near Sapotra, another one third were in Gangapur and he did not know where the rest were.

I personally met the Superintendent of Police Mr. Jose Mohan (a young and dynamic police officer who recently nabbed few notorious dacoits and other highly wanted criminals). After I briefed him about the information that I had got, he showed great interest and called up his best policeman for the raid.

Two police teams and our Tiger Watch team (three 4 wheel drive jeeps with 16 people in them) reached Amargarh Social Forestry Plantation, near Sapotra at 0400 hours in the morning and started the raid. Within two hours we had executed four operations and seized five guns and two poachers.

What would interest you are the linkages of these poachers, who were caught.

One of them – his name is Shankar alias Ram Karan – is Devi Singh Mogiya’s real uncle. He is wanted in Madhya Pradesh for various crimes, some of them related to wildlife. He has 10 sons, the eldest being 36 years old and the youngest 3 years old. All these 10 sons are part of the group that crossed over from Madhya Pradesh to enter Ranthambhore for poaching. This man and his older sons are seasoned poachers with a lot of experience. Five of his ten sons are adults and have their own guns. Two of these five – Ram Singh and Kalua – were active members of Devi Singh’s gang, when this gang had killed five tigers between 2003 and 2004. Devi Singh had confessed about their involvement on camera. By the way we did not catch any one of his sons. They were in the same area and are still there but we could not nab them. Maybe soon we will – before they strike.

The second man that we caught – Jagdish alias Bhuria Mogiya – is the real brother-in-law of Devi Singh Mogiya. We seized three guns from him. One was his. The other guns belonged to Ramawtar Mogya (son of Rajmal Mogiya – who we now realize is not really a “reformed poacher) and the third belonged to Afsar Mogya (son of Harji Mogya). The fourth gun belonged to Shankar (alias Ram Karan) and the fifth gun belonged to his son Ram Singh.

You would remember the day we caught Raj Mal Mogiya . You would also remember Devi Singh Mogiya of Uliyana village, who admitted to killing 6 tigers between 2003 and 2004. Harji is brother of two infamous tiger poachers Jugraj and Lakhan. Harji was killed by a leopard, he had shot and injured, in the same area where we had caught Rajmal Mogiya.

All this indicates that the “real bad guys” had run away from around Ranthambhore, after Operation Co operation, are now getting back or at least their younger progeny is. These guys are sons of master Mogiyas. I have enough evidence to show that they were deeply involved in tiger poaching in the period between 2002 and 2005.

Now story reveals one very dangerous fact. One of the guns that we caught – which belonged to Jagdish / Bhuriya Mogiya - was found from the house of a forest guard where he had kept it “safely”. We collected it from the forest guard’s family after convincing them to hand it over. At that time the Forest Guard - Kajod Mal Gurjar - was not in his house. He is currently posted in Gangapur plantation area where we caught all these guys.

Can you believe all these guys were found in the forest areas? They built their Tapri (temporary hutments) in the plantation areas run by the Forest Department. And Kajod is the guard in charge of these plantation areas. And this bastard was once a guard inside Ranthambhore tiger reserve. He has very good connection with these Mogaya poachers. How you will we save our tigers, if the guards are the ones helping the poachers?

Few other facts:

• Malarna Dunger to Gangapur is the main holding area of this community right now. This is a very remote area and totally ignored by the Forest Department and other Conservationists.

• More than 15 families of Madhya Pradesh Mogaya’s are settled in this area

• All have strong family connections with the local poachers like Rajmal, Lakhan etc.

• All belong to notorious Devi Singh Mogya’s family – probably the most dangerous of all the operators in Ranthambhore.

• All are settled here in Forest areas like plantations etc which are under the direct control of the Forest Department.

• All of them have strong relations with forest guards.

• Every body has illegal guns. 15 families therefore 15 guns.

• They are the “real bad guys” - purely nomadic type not like our Mogiyas, who are “some what” settled.

• They are all wanted in Madhya Pradesh for wildlife and other violent crimes.

• We have to think about a stronger and active information gathering system.

• Good thing during this raid is that I identified a few expert policemen in Sawai Madhopur. We have to spend some resources on these police personals to encourage or to involve them into this anti-poaching system. The Senior Superintend of Police is taking a strong interest in anti poaching operations, which is excellent news.

Regards,

Dharmendra Khandal, Field Biologist, Tiger Watch, Ranthambhore Tiger Reserve

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I got a mail from Roy Fallon - my good friend from UK. He is very keen on Indian wildlife and is a great friend of tigers. Lately he has been very concerned about the “tiger crisis” in India. I think every one interested in wild tigers should go through this mail exchange that we just had.

Dear Roy,

Nice to hear from you.

The tiger situation is indeed bad (to say the least).

It appears that the government of India (the Federal government) is waking up to it but we just hope they don’t take a few years to to do so. The Prime Minister has been giving some statements lately that the tiger situation is really bad and they have to take some urgent steps to correct it. They have “plans” to set up a nation wide cell against wildlife crime and a National Tiger Conservation Authority, something like the FBI. They are also planning to recruit retired military personnel to guard the tiger reserves. I really hope that these plans are implemented “properly” and soon. There is not much time left. In fact we are already about 6 to 7 years late.

I may not really be an authority on tigers in India but I do know much more than the average Joe and I foresee a few major problems with these plans:

1. Timing

If anything has to be done it has to be done now. The Indian government has a very strong tendency to delay implementation till it does not matter any more. Right now even a bad plan would do a lot of good if it is executed right away. Doing something right away is definitely better than doing nothing at all. I just hope that they do not keep planning and delay the implementation of the few ideas that they have. And believe me they have a very few ideas.

2. Data

It is a shame that we don’t have enough scientific data on tigers, their habitat and their problems. There is hardly any research material on tigers in India. Research on tiger was discouraged in all parts of India. Whatever little data that we do have is very basic and often faulty.

One Field Director of Ranthambhore tiger reserve had once told me that “we do not need any research on tigers. We know all there is to know about them and the problems that they face.” He then went on to tell me that “one of the biggest problems that tigers face is traffic jams from photographers.” Was this guy nuts? Yes he definitely was. The problem is that the Government has given him the authority to implement whatever weird ideas that he comes up with.

He was talking about “traffic jams by photographers” when people were shooting tigers all over Ranthambhore. A shot by a camera is forever but a shot from a gun is not. And what traffic jams was he talking about? In a Park like Ranthambhore – which probably gets one of the highest number of tourists out of all the tigers reserves in India – a maximum of 40 vehicles are permitted to go at any one time. These are divided into 5 different zone. So one zone does not have more than 8 vehicles at any given time. These vehicles have to stay on the man-made tracks in the zones. They just can not stray off the track, while the tiger can go where ever he pleases to go. When ever the tigers feels disturbed by visitor’s vehicles he just walks away from the tracks and that’s it. I have seen this repeatedly in Ranthambhore for the last 10 years.

We joke that when ever there is a wildlife related crime the Forest Department officials are the last people to know about it.

The data that is submitted from the field through the Forest Department is “faked” to make the Field officers look good. For instance “Tigers don’t get poached they migrate”, “habitat is never degraded”, “there is an annual 10% rise in tiger population in all India reserves”. The list goes on.

Conservation cannot work unless there is a good and regular supply of data, intelligence, observations etc. We just have to open up the parks to researchers from all over the world. I think that every protected area should have at least on team of researchers, that is neither responsible to the Forest Department nor funded by them.

3. Monitoring

As long as Indian tiger reserves do not have an independent monitoring team, the “faked” data will keep coming up. These teams should have total and unlimited access and they should report to a Centralized authority. Their funding should not be from the Forest Department and they should not be responsible to the Forest Department. Their finding should be published online and should be available to everyone in the world. Tigers belong to all of us on this planet. They are not the exclusive preserve of the Government of India. Even if no action is taken on the findings of such monitoring teams at least let the world know about what is really going on in the tigers reserves. Such teams should carry out an “annual audit” which should be submitted to the highest authority. Believe me nothing works like “Public Pressure”. This team should be different from the research team, like activists to scientists.

4. Role of the states

Forests and wildlife in India have a funny legal status. Technically Forest and Wildlife is a state subject. That means that it is controlled by the state government and not the Federal government. We have a Central authority (it was the Project Tiger a few months ago but it is called “National Tiger Authority” or something like that now) that gives directions to the state Forest Department but the directions are not binding on them. In fact the State Forest Department often has a mind of their own.

For instance the Project Tiger conducted a nation wide survey through the Wildlife Institute of India that came out with some horrifying results, such as, there are no more than 1300 tigers left in India, Madhya Pradesh barely has 250 or so tigers (and not 600 – 700 odd that they claim) and so on. However, most of the states (and it started with Madhya Pradesh) refuse to accept the census.

We have a weird situation here. The Prime Minister of India is going around saying that tigers are on the verge of extinction in India while the State Governments are saying that their state has no problems with tigers. There might be a problem with other states but none in their own state. If they don’t even acknowledge that they have a problem how the hell are they going to sort it out.

All the Tiger Reserves in India should be under the direct control of the Federal Government and not the State Government.

5. Role of Conservationists

We have a small group of “bleeding heart” conservationists in India who are a big stumbling block for any tiger conservation measure. They are part of the “planners” at the Central level and they come out with some of the weirdest ideas you can imagine. Most of them do not have any following at the ground level. They do not like new people to do any kind of conservation work.

I will give you an example: When tigers were decimated in Sariska tiger reserve in Rajasthan state (and they were nearly decimated in Ranthambhore, that lies in the same state) the Chief Minister of Rajasthan set up a “State Empowered Committee” of Rajasthan Government to look into the problems that tigers in Rajasthan face and to suggest solutions for the same. The Chairman of this committee was a Member of Parliament from Rajasthan and there were a few “well known conservationists” in the committee. When the committee was formed we thought that the Chairman will push the issue under the carpet but the “conservationist” members will kick some ass. What finally happened was exactly the opposite. The “so called conservationists” diluted the issue while the “only man” in the entire committee turned out to the the Chairman.

It is high time the Government “expanded” its group of non-governmental tiger experts to include people from the field in India and experts from all over the world. The two best “tiger guys” in the world are based in USA and our government has nothing to do with them. Can you imagine that?

6. Role of tourism

Indian conservationists and the government does not accept the fact that “tourism is the most powerful conservation tool that they have.” It is a well known fact that in protected areas that are surrounded by high human population density (and most Tiger reserves in India are) tourism is probably the only savior for wildlife. The Forest Department and the conservationists in India believe that tourism is a big “disturbance”. Well managed tourism is the biggest conservation tool in the world.

I will give you an example. The worst managed tiger tour reserve in India is Bandhavgarh in Madhya Pradesh. The tourism area is about a 100 square kilometers (much smaller than Ranthambhore) and on an average there are 50 to 75 vehicles in that area. This area also has the highest tiger density any where in the world – almost 5 to 10 times higher than other places. There are about 30 adult tigers and almost 15 to 20 cubs right now in an area of 100 square kilometers. The numbers are growing every year, while tigers all over Madhya Pradesh are getting decimated.

Wildlife tourism has to be used as a conservation tool in India. We have no choice on this front.

For a long term tiger crisis solution in India we have to address the above issues. I just hope the Prime Minister is listening.

Cheers,
Aditya Singh

PS: I am putting your mail and my reply on my weblog. Check out www.ranthambhore.blogspot.com soon

–
The Ranthambhore Bagh
Ranthambhore Road
Sawai Madhopur 322001
India

—— Forwarded Message
From: ROY FALLON
Date: Wed, 18 Jul 2007 17:45:24 +0100 (BST)
To: Aditya Singh
Subject: Contact

Hi Aditya

Just contacting you to see how things are going. Lots of good discussion on the Wildlife India forum the last few days. I have replied to a few of them myself.

Looking at the tiger situation from the outside, as I am, it seems difficult to understand why the authorities in India cannot get to grips with the situation. They seem to know exactly who and where the poachers are at almost any one time, yet nothing gets done that is of any significance.

The government seems to leave the problem to the local authorities to sort it out, but I cannot imagine anything getting done in that way. The locals are too dissorganised and too easy to corrupt. The poachers dont stay in one area, they cross borders and seem to just laugh in the face of the law.

I think it requires a national force to be set up, like the U.S.A.’s National Guard and their F.B.I. to harrass and chase these poachers until they can hardly draw breath.

They seem to be left to do exactly as they please and even if they are caught they are released and the penalties are paltry.

When India, loses its tigers, and I am convinced it will, it will be an unimaginable disaster for the whole country. Worse than any earthquake.

The Madhya Pradesh tourist authority has stated that more than 80% of India’s tourism is nature driven and that 75% of it is tiger tourism. They have said that the imbalance of tiger tourism is actually causing problems because certain areas are getting worn out due to the demand to see tigers, whilst others are getting less tourism than desired. Well let the tigers spread themselves out and that will be solved. Open up the corridors between the forests and the tigers will work out where they need to be.

The thing is, most of India’s tourism budget is generated by tiger watchers. That is a massive amount of money coming into the country. When the tiger has gone, people will start going elsewhere. If you take the whole population of India, I am sure that the poachers would hardly show up as a number on a graph, but these greedy and ruthless few are depriving the whole nation of its pride and heritage.

Not just the nation of India but the whole World.

African governments saw this coming a long time ago and did something about it. They made poachers public enemy number one, with the exception of that lunatic in Zimbabwe and the puppets in Uganda and the Gambia.

A lot of people will still go to India to see the Taj Mahal and the Golden Temple at Amritsar etc. but they will just do a round trip of all these and similar places and that will be the end of their interest in the country. The Taj Mahal, I am sure, is a wonderful and beautiful building, but at the end of the day, thats all it is… a building… made by men. The tiger is a gift from the Gods, whichever God(s) exist. Once people have travelled to see the amazing monuments, forts and palaces of India they have seen them and there is nothing more to see about them. But when they see a tiger, walking in the forest, it is an emotional experience that they will want to repeat over and over again.

I sincerely believe that to save the tiger from extinction is to save and preserve all the creatures and the forest environment.

The balance has to exist, the tiger feeds on the herbivores and the herbivores feed on the forest, if the tiger dissappears the lesser carnivores multiply and get out of control, they then ravage the forest of its prey stock, then they enter the villages and farms and take the domestic livestock.

This has been proven in Australia, of all places, where a whole colony of dingoes were exterminated as pests. The dingoes were the apex predators in the area and when they were gone the lesser predators bred like wildfire and decimated the other wildlife of the area, and of course, they then turned to domestic stock….man’s management or man’s interference?

Even the smallest and most insignificant ecosystems that you can think of fall apart in the same way.

A local farmer here in my town, built himself a huge house on, green belt land (land not to be built on). He built a load of stables and a dog boarding kennels. Here in England, those bloody peacocks are seen as a bit of a status symbol. If you are someone who think that you special, you have a load of land round your house and you get yourself a few peacocks to make it look pretty and picturesque. So this farmer got himself 6 peacocks and, as all lazy farmers do, he let them run around his grounds without any protection. So they laid eggs, when the eggs hatched there were baby peacocks running around the grounds.

Guess what???

It may astonish and surprise you, because it did astonish and surprise the farmer, when the local foxes killed all the peacock chicks. So what did this guy, who had introduced an unnatural prey species into the foxes territory, do? He shot all the foxes, of course. He dragged the fox cubs out of their dens and he battered them all to death with a shovel. He proudly acclaimed this feat of bravery to anyone who would listen.He stayed away from me of course, and he still does.

Now, as strange as it may seem, he is complaining about the local wildlife again. Obviously not because his peacock chicks are being eaten, cos there are no predators left to do that. But now he is over run with rabbits, rats and hedgehogs. The rats and hedgehogs are eating all his peacock and chicken eggs and the rabbits are eating all his horse, dog and peacock foods, the rats are at that stuff as well. So now, he is setting traps for the rest of the wildlfe on “his” land. Of course he calls the rabbits, rats and hedgehogs pests and blames them for his dilemma but any child of 8 could tell him that he is the real pest.

Anyway mate I gotta go now, time to get some dinner, my stomach thinks that my throat has been cut.

Talk soon

Roy Fallon

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Recently a judge in the Rajasthan High Court passed a ruling that Ranthambhore should be closed for 2 days in a week so that the animals can get “rest” from tourists.

The Park is shut for tourists during the monsoons from July to end September. The people living around the park have a free run during this time. They go in for grazing their cattle, stocking up firewood for the winters, collecting forest produce like antlers etc, poaching etc etc. There is zero patrolling and I really mean zero. We joke that the rarest sight in Indian parks is a “Forest Guard patrolling his beat”. But believe me this is not a joke.

On a conservative estimate the amount of people who go into Ranthambhore on monsoons (when the park is shut for tourists) is ten times more than the amount of tourists who visit the park throughout the year. However, the authority just chooses to ignore people who go to the park in the monsoons and since there is no official record of such offenders, they officially do not exist.

Every year a few tigers disappear in the monsoon months and are never seen again. The official version (when there is one) is that the tigers have migrated. Migrated to where? This story is probably true for all parks in India, with the exception of Kaziranga - where they shoot first and ask later.

When I moved to Ranthambhore, about 10 years ago, there were over 30 tigers. How am I so sure? Well there was a family in the lake area - a tigress with 3 full grown cubs. There were four other families with three to four cubs each in Kachida, Chiroli, Lahpur and Thumka. There were 4 big males and a few sub adult males and at least 5 tigresses without cubs.

Since then I have seen over 60 cubs grow up to maturity and separate from their mother and then disappear to be never seen again. They just disappear , sorry “migrate” and are never seen again. A noted poacher had told me once that sub adult tigers are the best ones to “milk” - they are nearly full grown (perfect skin size) and no one notices their disappearance. Believe me, when I say that professional poachers actually “milk” tigers for their skin and bones. They never wipe out the entire lot. They really messed up in Sariska - where they ate the chicken instead of the eggs every day.

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Planning your trip

1. Identify the subjects that you want to shoot and the best locations and the best times in the different locations to shoot them.

The first thing that you need to ask yourself is what all are you looking to shoot. Once you have figured this out then make an “Ideal Wish List” of all the shots that you want. You may never get most of them but this is a good way to start planning your trip. The next step after you have got your “Wish List” together is to identify the different locations, which would suit your purpose.

Once you have frozen the destinations that you want to visit, the next step is to find out the best seasons in the different locations for shooting your preferred subjects. At the same time you would also need to figure out how many days would you need in each of your preferred destinations to get reasonably good photo opportunities. For instance, if you want to shoot Asiatic Elephants, one week in Corbett National Park in May, will get you a lot of great pictures. However, if you went to the same Park in December, a month would not be good enough.

2. Plan your itinerary well.

A well-planned itinerary will save you a lot of time and money. The two main things that you have to plan for are:

• Travel arrangements – have to be planned so that you spend the least amount of time in transit and the maximum amount of time in the field taking pictures.

• Naturalists, Guides and Drivers – These are the people who can make or break your trip. They are your local contacts who have probably spent years in the field and know the place like the back of their hands. It is very important to have a good local team and to build a good working relationship with them, since they are the ones who arrange the shooting opportunities. Remember to tip them well and to let them know at the onset that you are going to do so. If you pay peanuts you get monkeys and you definitely do not want monkeys to guide you in the shoot.

Planning you itinerary well is easier said than done, especially if you are going to an area where you have not been before. Most of the Tour Operators and Ground-handling agents claim to know a lot about photography but very few of them actually do. One good way to find out how much your tour operator knows is to ask them specific questions and judge from the answers. You could also ask them to give you references of the photographers that they have dealt with and them cross check with the photographers.

Before your Departure, Care and Maintenance

1. Get information about your locations.

You definitely need some up to date information about all the places that you plan to visit, a few weeks before you leave for your trip, so that you come prepared. I have met a lot of people who land up with the wrong films, without beanbags etc - just because they did not have the right information. Some of the most important information that you need is:

• Light conditions - The light conditions in most parts of India are highly variable depending on the seasons. For instance, in a Ranthambhore National Park (a great place to shoot action shots of tigers) the temperatures vary from 4 degrees centigrade (in peak winters) to 45 degrees Centigrade (in peak summers) and so the light goes from really soft in winters to really harsh in summers.

• Wildlife viewing – The kind and number of wildlife that you see depends a lot on the weather conditions. Generally speaking, you can see more mega-fauna in the summers (when the light is very harsh) than in winters (when the light is fantastic).

What you need is “current information” about the different locations, just before you are leaving for the trip and not general information about the different places.

2. Find out what all equipment you would need.

• Camera bodies – I would recommend at least two camera bodies for each format that you shoot in. I personally use two digital SLR bodies and two film camera bodies) in which I load films of two different speeds – mostly 100 and 400 ISO). This really helps because when action is happening I do not have to change lenses.

• Lenses – This is tricky one but I would recommend carrying one wide angle lens, one normal lens (around 50 mm), one zoom in the range of 70 to 200 and one longer telephoto (300 mm is great for most mega fauna but may not be powerful enough for birds and lesser fauna). At least one of the two longer lenses should be a fast one (f 2.8 or 4.0). I personally prefer to carry a 17-35 mm, one 24 to 80 mm, one 120 to 300 mm Sigma f 2.8 (an amazingly versatile lens) and a 500 mm. I also carry a 100 mm macro (though I do not do too much of macro work) and a 1.4 times converter.

• Digital Cards and Hard drives and/or Laptops – If you are using digital format, you are strongly advised to carry spare memory cards and to carry a portable hard drive and/or a laptop with sufficient memory. In most of the bigger towns you can download the cards on to a CD or DVD (just ensure that the pictures are deleted from the computer that they have been downloaded on as most Indians do not understand the meaning of copyright) but it is still better to carry spare memory.

• Films or Tapes for video – Carry all the films and tapes that you think you will need. In fact it is better to carry excess. It is not advisable to buy films or tapes locally as they are usually not stored properly. In case you have to buy them in India then go to a big store in one of the big cities. Remember to carry the films and tapes in hand baggage, as the powerful X-ray machines in the airports can destroy them.

• Tripod / Monopod / Beanbags - These are probably the most important pieces of equipment that you would need. If you are going to do most of your shooting from jeeps or elephant backs then the tripods are not very useful. Monopods and Beanbags work very well if you are in a jeep. If you are on an elephant back then you have no choice but to hand hold the camera.

• Cleaning equipment – Dust is a big problem in India and you would probably have to clean the equipment every day. It is very important to carry all the cleaning equipment that you think you would need and you would need a lot of it. If you are using digital SLRs, be very careful when you change the lenses or you would end up with a lot of dust on the sensor.

• Bags – I would strongly recommend carrying one bag that fits all your equipment. It helps if you have straps on the back.

• Batteries / Chargers / Adapters – Indian electricity works on 240 volts and 50-60 Hertz and circular plug points. You may need to carry adapters for the chargers accordingly. It is recommended to carry spare batteries.

• Flash – Flash photography is not permitted inside most of the National Parks and Sanctuaries in India and in many ancient monuments. However, I would still recommend that you carry a flash, even though you may not be permitted to use them in many places.

3. Check & Clean your equipment before you leave for the trip.

Insurance for the equipment is advisable though not necessary. In case the insurance is very expensive (and it usually is), you can do without it but just be very careful especially when you are in transit. Make a list of serial numbers of camera bodies and lenses.

4. Test your equipment before you hit the field. Never (and I mean NEVER) go out to the field with untested equipment.

Some tips for nature photography in India

• Vehicles, Drivers and Guides – Most of the wildlife photography in India is done from a small Suzuki jeep (locally known as Gypsys). These are not very comfortable but are very tough and do very well on bad terrain. There is often not enough space in these Gypsys to set up a tripod (unless you remove or fold one of the two rear seats). However, beanbags are very handy if you are in one of these vehicles. Since these vehicles are small, they can at the most take 3 photographers (ideally only 2). It is very important to get a good driver, since he is the one who is going to set the angle for you. It is also very important to brief the driver and the guide (who are compulsory in most wildlife sanctuaries and parks) about the angles etc that you like (and you will have to do this).

• Best time in the day for shooting – The best light conditions are found in the early mornings and the late hours of the evenings. This is also the time when wildlife is most active. This is particularly true for summers, when the light is good only for about an hour or two in the mornings and evenings.

• Best time in the year for shooting – Generally speaking, in most parts of India, winters is a much better time to shoot than summers. In winters the light is softer, the wildlife more active and the backgrounds more colorful. However, this is a broad generalization. In summers, it is generally easier to find wildlife (this is most apt for mega-fauna like tigers, elephants, deer etc) because they tend to congregate around the few water holes that still have water.

• Dust – In most of India (especially in the wildlife areas) dust is ever present (and in large quantities). This can be tough for the equipment and it is advisable to be prepared for it. However, dust can also make for great backgrounds, particularly at dawn and dusk.

• Patience – You most probably already know about the amount of patience required in nature photography. However, I would like to add that in India you need much more of this quality than you would in other countries.

• Shooting from Elephant back – Elephant back safaris are very popular in many wildlife reserves in India (except in Western part of India). Elephants are the most marvelous off road “vehicles” and can reach almost everywhere. However, they are not very comfortable and on elephant back you have no choice but to hand hold the camera. If you are planning to do a lot of shooting from elephant back, then it is advisable to use high-speed films and lenses. Image Stabilizing (IS) or Vibration Reduction (VR) technology is very handy when you are on elephant back. Wild animals show a lot of tolerance towards elephants and elephants can get very close to wild animals, so you do not need a very large telephoto when on an elephant back. I personally think that a 70 – 200 mm f 2.8 zoom (with IS or VR) with a 400 ISO film or sensor setting is ideal for shooting from elephant backs.

• Safety of your equipment – In most of the wildlife parks and sanctuaries, your equipment is generally safe. However, I would advise you to be very careful when traveling in trains and when you are in urban areas. In such areas, stick to your equipment.

Look out for bonuses

India, with its vibrant colors, diverse culture and teeming population is paradise for photographers. A friend of mine once remarked that if you blindfold yourself, take a camera and walk down a market, taking random pictures, you can end up with a few great shots – that is you do not get run down. India offers a lot of great photo opportunities in every day life. Take advantage of this and look out for bonuses. Even if you are going to a Nature reserve for photography do not miss the brilliant opportunities that you will get in railway stations, roads, markets etc. I would recommend that you keep a camera handy all the time.

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The Fort is a national historic monument but much more understanding of the importance of conserving our heritage as much as our environment needs to be communicated. While there are numerous different pressures on the park, awareness is important of the need for preserving the past for future generations.

One can almost hear the ghungroos of the dancers on their way to entertain the royal guests and courtiers in the many pillared palace of entertainments. Dusk would have fallen and the lamps lit, myriads of them, placed in their hundreds of niches in the walls surrounding the stage, shimmering and wavering to provide brilliance for the performers to shine.

There are many holy places inside this fort and villagers from the surrounding regions make pilgrimages from miles away to make obeisance at their favourite saint or chosen god’s temple.

This is the palace of Veer Hammir - the most famous of the local Rajput kings, and on the left it extends into the now derelict Queen’s palace. In front of this is the garden with royal blue peacocks making it their home.

This was where the kings of old would have their sacrifices [yagna] before beginning any martial activity such as war or invasion or defence.

The Ganesh temple inside the Ranthambhore Fort is one of the most famous in the region with pilgrims coming around for miles during the annual Mela. The grounds are full of the local “tame” langurs, considered holy and part of the temple thus not to be harmed. They are spoilt by tourists and visitors and can get quite aggressive about snatching flowers and snacks right out of your hands.

An old myth on the way to the temple has it that if you wish to build a house, you must build one here on the side of the path with the flat stones that are lying around. A number of such cairnlike houses line both sides of the pathway inside the Fort’s grounds.

On the way back to Ranthambhore Bagh - the setting desert sun hangs over the western sky as we return to the 21st century again.

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Continuing the posts on our trip to Ranthambhore Fort in the Ranthambhore Tiger Preserve, you can see one of the gates that the Rajputs used to hold fast against armies.

As you get closer to the main structure of the fort, after climbing up numerous stairs through three major gates, you finally begin to see the fortifications. This part of India was the first true barrier against the constantly invading hordes from the North and the East. Everyone from the Turks, the Persians, the Huns, the Mongols, even Timur the Lame and Alexander the Great attempted to knock on India’s doors in this region.

This is considered to be the oldest part of the fort, dating back to the 12th and 13th Centuries, AD. You can see the different methods of constructing the walls, they mark the development of construction over the centuries. Also the size of the stone blocks used increases as tools and development improved the people’s ability to measure and carry.

[View from the top of Ranthambhore Fort overlooking the Tiger Reserve, photo credit: David Tait]

Note the slates that are piled on top of each other to construct this portion of the fort.

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“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 one of the most photographed tiger in the entire world. She has starred in a number of documentaries – the best known of which is “Danger in tiger’s paradise” by the BBC Wildlife Division. I had the good fortune of being part of the crew that made this documentary.

Machali was actually the name of her mother, who died about four years ago, but in the BBC documentary, she was mistakenly called Machali and the name stuck on. Her mother was known as Machali because she had a mark on her right cheek that looked like the outline of a fish. The most famous mark that our Machali has is a fork like mark on her left cheek.

Machali territory lies at the very heart of Ranthambhore around the Ranthambhore fort. This area has a mix of different kinds of habitats, ranging from wetlands to valleys to plateaus and also has the highest concentration of prey species. Machali’s territory also has some of the highest human pressure, not just of tourists who come to see the wildlife but also of the large number of pilgrims who walk up to the fort to visit the Ganesh temple. Once in a year, for a period of three days over 500,000 people visit this temple. As a result Machali is very tolerant of humans. I have personally seen her sitting on a rock face for over an hour, watching a stream of pilgrims walking past her, barely 50 meters away.

She was born during the monsoon months of 1997 (between July and September) and was the dominant cub in the litter of three females. I had first seen her in February of 1998 and have been keeping a track of her ever since. By the beginning of 1999 she had started hunting on her own, the first sign that she was about to separate from her mother. Around then her mother ceded a par of her territory for Machali and that is where she has stayed since.

Below: Jhumru and Machali.

During the summer month of 2000 (somewhere in April) she mated with a large male tiger called “Bamboo Ram” and three and a half months later she gave birth to her first litter of two male cubs called Broken tail (because his tail was broken) and Slant ear (named so for no apparent reason). By the end of December 2001 both these cubs separated from Machali and we never saw Slant ear again. For about a year and a half Broken tail lived in a small territory at the edge of Ranthambhore national park, not really great neighborhood for tigers. Somewhere in the summers of 2003 Broken tail decided to leave Ranthambhore and in August 2003 a passenger train ran him down, in Darra sanctuary, about a 100 miles away from Ranthambhore.

Above: Broken tail just after he was run down by a train

Soon after Broken tail and Slant ear separated from Machali, she mated again with another male tiger called Nick ear. Bamboo Ram had died of old age when Broken tail and Slant ear were still with Machli and Nick ear had taken over his territory. By April 2002, Machali had given birth to her second litter. When I first saw these cubs, on 30th of June (the day before Ranthambhore closed for the monsoons) in the Nalghati valley, there were three cubs. She was carrying one in her mouth and the other two were following her. However, one of these cubs did not survive and when the Ranthambhore reopened for visitors in October there were only two cubs – a male called Jhumru and a female called Jhumri. By the end of 2004 Machali started mating again, this time with another large male tiger known as X male (so called because we do not know much about him). Around this time Ranthambore was under siege by tiger poachers and Nick ear had disappeared. Soon after her mating with X male she almost threw out Jhumru and Jhumree from her area. Jhumru set up his territory in an area called Lahpur. He could do this because the dominant male tigers of Lahpur (there were two of them) had been killed by poachers and the area was devoid of male tigers. We did not see Jhumree after she separated from Machali and we still do not know of her whereabouts.

Above: Jhumru and loads of tiger watchers

Since Machali’s area included three of the six lakes of Ranthambhore, she had a lot of interactions with crocodiles. Interactions in which crocodiles almost always ended up dead. She passed on this skill to Jhumru and we know of at least one instance when he killed and even ate a crocodile. We have never come across any evidence to suggest that Jhumree also killed crocodiles. However, all these scraps with crocodiles did take their toll on Machali and by the summers of 2005 she had lost two of her canines (the upper and lower canines on the left side).

Above: Bahadur

Around March 2005 Machali gave birth to her third litter of two cubs - a male called Bahadur (which means Brave in Hindi) and a female called Sharmelee (which means Shy in Hindi). These two cubs stayed with her till October 2006. When these cubs were young, all of us were scared that she may not be able to successfully rear them because she had lost two of her four canines. At that time we were pretty sure that this would be Machali’s last litter. She, however, surprised us all by giving birth to a fourth litter during the monsoon months of 2006. Unlike the previous three litters this time she has three cubs. These cubs are barely five months old right now and judging by the way they have been growing, they obviously have a great mother to take care of them. Machali, after all, is no ordinary tiger.

Above and Below: Machalis latest litter. Picture taken on 17th January 2007

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As promised, I’m continuing the story of our visit to Ranthambhore as a guest blogger for Aditya Singh. On our first full day, after a leisurely brunch, we left for Ranthambhore Fort by Jeep accompanied by Bhupinder Singh Chauhan, acting as our guide and the young driver, who was a superb spotter with an eagle’s eyesight. The Killa or Fort lies in the heart of the Tiger Reserve and almost the first thing we saw - which, to be honest, I didn’t expect to see, was that hoary cliche of India. A couple of elephants being ridden as transport animals. Yes, Virginia, you really can see elephants on the roads of India. I can only imagine the traffic jams.

This is the Guptaganga, a perennial source of water that local myth claims has never run dry in historical memory. The actual stream of water has been channelled through a marble bull’s head, possibly Nandi himself, pouring lifegiving water from his mouth. You can see the Shivalinga just above the bull’s head. This site is considered very holy and is the official entrance to the Fort, whose walls can be seen high up above. We have already entered the Tiger Reserve and our spotter pointed out a variety of local fauna. A little further along, we heard a leopard scream and slowed down and stopped along road, waiting with bated breath for close to 20 minutes in the hopes of catching a glimpse of the great cat. But there was nary a sign and we continued on to the foothills of the Fort.

The parking area situated at the entrance steps to the Fort are swarming with gray langurs, whose eerie howls can be heard late at night, rustling their way through the trees of the forest. Closely associated with Hanuman, the monkey god whose army of monkeys helped Rama build a landbridge to Lanka, and helped defeat Ravana who had carried Sita away, these langurs are allowed to roam freely throughout the fort and the numerous temples there. This story is the basis of the epic Ramayana.

The Fort at Ranthambhore has a long and checkered history of war, pillage and fierce Rajput resistance against the invading armies sweeping into Northwest India from Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan and the Russian Steppes. One of the most famous associated with the Killa is that of Veer Hammir, or Rana Hamir, a Chauhan king descended from Prithviraj himself who held his homeland against the vast armies of Ala-ud-din Khilji. From Ranthambhore’s history,

The Fort had its golden moments during the reign of Rao Hammir, the last ruler of the Chauhan dynasty (1282 - 1301 AD). During 1300 AD, Ala-ud-din Khilji, the ruler of Delhi sent his army to capture the Fort. After three unsuccessful attempts, his army finally conquered the Fort in 1301 and ended the reign of the Chauhans. In the next three centuries the Fort changed hands a number of times, till Akbar, the great Mughal emperor, finally took over the Fort and dissolved the State of Ranthambore in 1558. The fort stayed in the possession of the Mughal rulers till the mid 18th century.

And so, forts were built on inaccessible mountain tops with steeply rising slopes, numerous walls, fortifications and gates creating obstacles to invaders. You can see a sentry tower located at the first turn up the steep stairs that rise towards the three main gates of the Fort. Also scattered around the country side were sentry towers such as the one that can be seen below by the edges of the Talao, where signal fires were used to send alerts to the main garrison within minutes according to our guide. He’s the one in the green uniform of The Ranthanbhore Bagh on the left hand side of the photograph above. Carrying precious supplies up the stairs is a local villager.

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Greetings, my name is Niti Bhan and I’ve been invited to write about my recent experience as a guest at The Ranthambhore Bagh, by Aditya Singh, the owner of the lodge just outside the Ranthambhore Tiger Reserve in Sawai Madhopur, Rajasthan, India. I guess this is what they mean by guest blogging!

Dicky, as Aditya is better known to me, hosted us from the 6th to the 8th of December 2006 after I’d arrived in New Delhi from San Francisco to attend the recent CII NID Design with India Summit along with my colleague David Tait, Creative Director of Readymade, a product design and innovation consultancy based in Pretoria, South Africa. Let me attempt to recreate in words - this journey - a world away from the world in which I normally reside; one that took me back in time, forward in space and more profoundly, deeper inside to a very peaceful place.

We took the night train, the Mewar Express from Nizamuddin Station, tickets were arranged for us by Vikram Singh, who runs Wild World India, an ecologically aware wildlife tour company based in New Delhi. I spent much of my time standing at the open doorway outside our first class airconditioned compartment, preferring to smell, see and feel the desert; it was almost the full moon and late at night as the train rushed us through Faridabad, Mathura and Bharatpur getting us into Sawai Madhopur station just five hours later. Other than a blurry drive, the first thing that I recall on my arrival was a warm, already heated and cozy tent with quaint details such as a mosquito net and a luxurious pukka shower and bathroom. I couldn’t believe it was just a tent, from the inside it had all the mod cons and amenities you could wish for, including a long hot shower to get rid of the filth of the train journey.

[Outside view of Ranthambhore Bagh's premium lodging, the tents, photo credit - David Tait]

You can see David’s tent here, mine is the one on the left just hidden by the bushes. They’ve all been laid out to ensure a little bit of privacy for any guest who may choose to sit out on their personal porch and relax with a beer or two. Or three, but we won’t go there , since we were Dicky’s guests and he was the one who’d taught me how to hold my drink back when I was a freshman.

That night we had dinner outside sitting around a portable fire pit that kept us warm enough in the chilly night air of almost winter in North India. Temperatures have been known to go down to 10 celsius or lower. Since it was late, we had missed the daily evening highlight - a Rajasthani family of musicians arrive to entertain Aditya’s guests with haunting local ballads of lost or unrequited love, popular songs from old hindi movies or classical melodies based on stories from India’s mythological epics - The Mahabharata and the Ramayana.

Their young daughter danced most gracefully for us, encouraging the guests to join her when an upbeat tune was played. You get to snack on tidbits, drink the best the bar has to offer, and Dicky’s bar has been and is, legendary. Just sit back - we happened to be there on the night of the full moon - and lose yourself in a state of emotional euphoria bordering on pure lethargy.

After my long flight from California to India, the hectic rush of the conference, this timeless place after 9 months without a break from work, was nothing less than pure bliss. Or as I read recently, heaven on earth, for heaven is the place where you get all your needs fulfilled. Enough, I have to shake my head to return from those moments but that was when I knew I would return, for all the stress, the pressure, the tension, just seemed to melt away and I was left a boneless puddle.

The next day, we set out after a leisurely brunch to see Ranthambhore Fort or Killa as its known in the local language. Built in 944 AD by the descendants of one of India’s best known Rajput kings, Prithviraj Chauhan, whose story is worthy of any swashbuckling romance from the days of yore and chivalry. I’ll continue with a post on the Fort tomorrow with more photos and stories of the legendary bravery of Veer Hammir and the Rajputs of Ranthambhore.

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The rest of the National geographic crew – Sue (the big boss), Becky and Andy (the cameraman) landed in Calcutta by midnight. On the 1st of April we went to get shots of a male tiger in the Calcutta zoo. This tiger had killed a girl in a village that was just on the outskirts of the forest. A few days after killing the girl he again landed in the village. But that time the Forest Department officials were prepared. They had set up a trap in the village and they did manage to trap the tiger. After they trapped the tiger, they realized that a few months ago this same tiger had been trapped, after he had killed a person, in a nearby village. They had at that time released him deep in the heart of Sundarbans. They decided not to do so again and sent him to the zoo, where he was lodged in a cage that was out of bounds for the general public. When we went to film him in the cage, he was extremely agitated and tried to charge at us a number of times. We would have been in serious trouble if there were no bars between us. Andy did get some great shots.

The rest of the day we drove around the streets of Calcutta taking random shots of the city. My old friend Sanjoy Ghosh (or “Chotu Bong” – a slang for Short Bengali) drove us around in his car. He was a big hit wit the entire team. In the evening when we were sitting in the hotel, we realized that there were not enough Bengali speakers in the team – in fact there was just one – and since most people in Sundarbans understand only Bengali language, we would have to take along some more people who cold speak Bengali. As a result, another friend of mine – Joydeep Kundu – got in the boat the next day. We also had a Doctor on board who was carrying every possible kind of anti-venom.

We left for Sundarbans the next morning and had a blast for the next 10 days. We were booked in a lodge in Sajnekhalli, where we would spend the nights. The film was essentially recreations of there different “tiger attacks” – one on a girl in a village, the other on a man who was part of a group of “honey collectors” and the third was a fisherman (the only one to survive the attack). Most of the filming happened very close to where we were staying but for some shots we had to go a fair distance on the boats. We had two boats – a “launch” and a smaller boat that is locally known as a “bhotbhoti” because the engine makes a racket that sounds like bhot ..bhot ..bhot. The bhotbhoti is a smaller boat and it can go in some pretty narrow creeks, where the launch cannot make it.

The weather in Sundarbans is very hot and extremely humid in April and so we used to shoot from just before sunrise to about 8 in the morning and then from about 3 in the afternoon till sunset. Joydeep and I used the time in between to do a lot of birding – a great way to spend time in Sundarbans. We saw very little terrestrial wildlife – some Spotted Deer and a few Wild Boars – but we did see a lot of marine wildlife, including Dolphins, Sharks, Sea Turtles, and a large variety of Crabs. The bird life was really amazing. Wherever we went shooting we had a large group of curious onlookers following us, like these kids on a cycle rickshaw (the dominant mode of transport in Sundarbans).

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