It took four months of meticulous planning to gather a group of 15 school friends and organize a tour to the enchanting Tadoba Andhari Tiger Reserve. To be honest, not many of them were interested in the actual safari ride but had tagged along to be with each other’s company. We had planned our visit during the 13th, 14th and 15th of April 2018 and had booked 4 safari rides of the Core Zone from the Kolara Gate. The safaris were planned into 2 Gypsy and 2 Canter rides each. I was a bit apprehensive about the Canter ride at the beginning and was insisting on Gypsy rides in the buffer instead, but finally decided to go with the Canter as it provided our group with an opportunity to explore the forest together. As usual we had camped at Svasara Jungle Lodge. In the first ride itself we got to see the mighty Matkasur and while on our second ride we got to see the Queen of Pandherpauni, Maya herself with her cubs. Both sightings happened at the Pandharpauni 2 waterhole. Both the sightings ensured that the initial reluctancy that the group had regarding wildlife safaris had transformed into a love affair for wildlife safaris, and especially the Tiger! The group was overwhelmed with excitement as they experienced the majestic Royal Bengal Tiger strolling in the wild at its natural best!

After two exciting Gypsy rides, all of us finally commenced on our first Canter ride. Ranjit Mandal, Nandita Das our hosts at Svasara and my fellow wildlifer, Sanjay Satao also joined us for this ride. Ranjit being a tiger-magnet made my first canter ride extremely memorable. It was an afternoon ride with around 18 of us in the Canter. We headed straight to Pandharpauni 2 waterhole hoping to get a glimpse of Maya and her cubs, and there they were! As Maya lazed in the water cooling herself from the sweltering heat, both the cubs started playing around Maya in the water. I was able to get some excellent pictures of this playful behaviour as we observed the mischievous cubs perform their antics, completely unbothered by our presence. After about half an hour Maya got up and ventured out of the waterbody and settled on the periphery while the cubs were still inside the water playing with each other. A few moments later, one by one even the cubs started followed their mother out of the waterbody.

Both the sightings ensured that the initial reluctancy that the group had regarding wildlife safaris had transformed into a love affair for wildlife safaris, and especially the Tiger!

Maya got up once again and started walking towards Navegaon road via Bamangaon fireline, with cubs following her trail. As is always the case ‘Maya ka Mela’ (Maya’s Fair) had started to build up with scores of gypsies and our canter following her. The road show was about to begin with Maya...... following their mother with Maya in the forefront and the cubs inside the forest behind the bamboos stealthily following their mother. The cubs were shy and did not venture out on the road due to the presence of the Gypsies and Canter. This went on for almost 40 minutes, all my friends were enthralled to the core as they were witnessing such a thing for the first time in their life. It takes a great fortune to sight a female tiger with cubs all together and that too on a roadshow, in your first jungle visit itself. It was a truly amazing moment, something that I would probably cherish for my lifetime! After a while we collectively decided to leave the place giving the tigress and her cubs the much-needed personal space.

Fully satiated, thereafter, we checked Chikalwahi and Ambepat waterholes for possibility of sighting Bhauskhindi female but there were no signs of the tigress. We had another 2 hours in hand into the ride and Ranjit suggested we should check Jamunbodi waterhole and then Kosekanar road. We reached Jamunbodi and found nothing there, so moved towards Kosekanar road. After refreshing at Khatoda gate for some time, we started on Kosekanar road. Everybody was relaxed and in their own element, half a kilometre on the road, on one turn, Nandita suddenly shouted “Tiger”. It was so sudden that everyone was completely in the state of shock to sight a Tiger out of the blue, just next to the road. The Tiger was sitting just 5 feet away from our vehicle, as surprised as we were. I made the most of the opportunity to click some of the finest moments of my life. Later after carefully matching the stripe pattern with some of my old snaps, we found out the Tiger was none other than the Devdoh female. The Canter was filled with a sudden euphoria and our happiness had no bounds. The gracious feline sat there for a good 10 minutes and then crossed the road in front of our Canter. Left speechless we started our journey towards Jamni lake on the Kosekanar road.

After reaching the lake we waited there for some time as a couple of vehicles had told us that there were some alarm calls nearby. Later we found out that the calls were from the other side of the lake. Time was running short as just 45 minutes were left into the ride. My dear friend Sanjay Satao felt that we should take a chance near Jamni school turn, so we left from that place and reached Jamni school. On reaching we suddenly heard some alarm calls coming in and Sanjay saw some forest vehicle reversing near the lake. He was sure of some movement and asked the driver to reverse a bit. From a very long distance he sighted something moving and was sure that it was another Tiger! In the meantime, Amresh, my good old friend, came to me and said "Boss jaate jaate kuch toh dikhao"(show us something before we leave) and I reverted saying "man nahin bhara kya?" (aren’t you satisfied yet?). Sanjay asked the driver to wait near the school and at that very moment we heard a Tiger roar, followed by more roars. The forest came alive and the atmosphere was full of exuberance! Amresh was destined to have a “jaate jaate” sighting as Matkasur came walking towards us from the lake side.

It was a surreal experience as we sighted Tigers wherever we went! Matkasur obliged us with a roadshow for almost 15 minutes, before heading inside the school, marking his territory, coming out and crossing the road in front of our canter. The whole group was feeling blessed to have been a part of this exciting ride. That is how my first Canter ride with my childhood friends came to an end with a total of 5 tigers sighted within one ride. What more can one ask for? I was thoroughly impressed with Sanjay's intuition, Nandita's skills and Ranjit's knowledge. No wonder Ranjit Mandal is a Tiger magnet!