CROUCHING TIGER, PROWLING LEOPARD
It was 6.30 in the morning. The air was pleasantly cold and crisp. And there was excitement plastered all over our faces. Why shouldn’t it be? We had sighted a tiger the previous day wallowing in the water a couple of metres away. But we wanted to see the striped animal up, close and personal. And we would. Today.We had a premonition that everything was right for the sighting of one. But what would it be? A tiger? A bear? Or a wild cat? The last two were even rarer to sight than the tiger. A leopard? Don’t even think of it. Whatever it would be, we had the definite feeling that it was going to be a National Geographic moment.
We drove slowly in our open Gypsy on the bumpy park road checking out the peacocks, the spotted deer, the sambhar and all those small little birds chirping welcome tunes. And hardly did we go a few metres, there it was sitting on a hill scouring the surroundings for its prey. A leopard. The rarest of rare sightings. Can you believe our luck?
In a few minutes it glided down the hill and the park was agog with alarm calls. The first ones to raise hell were the langurs. They were picked up by the sambhar and the spotted deer and replicated all over the park.
It was the perfect atmosphere to sight a wild cat. But, much to our disappointment, the leopard disappeared into the thick woods. We waited and waited for more than an hour for it to walk up to the road. But it didn’t.
So we went deep into the park watching the lovely peacocks dancing away to abandon, the langurs swinging from tree to tree, the sambhar and spotted deer standing in their tracks with their ears up to gaze at us capture them in our cameras, and the cute little birds twittering sweet nothings. There is never a dull moment in the park. If there is any it is because we are boring.
And then, all of a sudden, the whole park echoed with alarm calls once again – the howling shrieks of the langurs, the desperate barking and fleeing of the deer and sambhar, and the hoarse calls of the peacocks. We spluttered our engine to a stop. And the alarm calls got louder and louder spreading tension all around.
There was no end to our fabulous luck. We were waiting for an Aamir Khan and a Tom Cruise showed up!! A huge leopard, not the earlier one, walked by slowly right in front of us. And it walked on the road for a while as if it was doing the catwalk for us in the wild.
It was gorgeous, it was real, and it was on the prowl in flesh and blood. It had a lovely body, rich and luscious spots, shapely legs, and a sexy ‘Sheila ki jawani’ sinuous movement.
Our adrenalin was pumping. Our collective hearts went wild with ecstasy. We looked into each other’s face with astonishment. And our cameras started rolling to capture the perfect moment.
There was a whispered silence in the park. Then the leopard stood for a while and looked back at us with its glaring yellow eyes. And Preeti got her best shot!! And we kept shooting till it disappeared into the wild.
Even after the leopard had left we stood still the feeling of euphoria sweeping over us. That was way beyond amazing. It was the perfect ‘holy grail’ sighting that anyone could dream of. We can only thank our guide and our driver for that brilliant moment.
I don’t know how Columbus felt when he discovered America, but when we spotted the leopard we were on the seventy-seventh heaven!!
NOTE: If you want to see a tiger you can go to the zoo. And you will definitely have a better view of it. Go to the park only if you want a wonderful ambience of the forest setting with all the animals in their natural habitat. You will never be disappointed whether you spot a tiger or not. But don’t forget to leave your ego behind.
Written by: N Venugopal Rao
