Author: fazalaliadil

Dear Friends,

Destination: Tadoba Andhari Tiger Reserve (TATR) and Pench National Park.
Members:7.
Route up: Hyderabad-Ramagundam-Asifabad-Chandrapur-Kolsa-Moharli-Tadoba (all three ranges in TATR).-Umred-Nagpur-Kamtee-Manser-Pauni-Sillari-Seoni.
Route down: Sillari-Pauni-Manser-Kamtee-Nagpur-Hinganghat-Adilabad-Dichpalli-Kamareddy-Hyderabad.
Stay: Forest bungalow at Kolsa, Forest guest house at Sillari.
Total distance traveled: 1500 kms approx.
Duration: 7th Feb Morning-11th Feb. Evening.

The objective was visiting these forests to sight and photograph the habitat and wildlife. Valuable advance logistics were provided by
Dr. Abheek Ghosh (abheekg,T-BHP user name) and Dr. later on joined us at Pench.

We had expected Tiger and Leopard sightings at Tadoba, Moharli and Kolsa ranges, except the them we sighted diverse wildlife in wonderful habitat, (though a day earlier another wildlife enthusiast/ photographer from Hyderabad Mr. Max Ali captured a family of four tigers on his camera). There is east Pench and west Pench divided by the Pench river, East Pench national park is in Maharashtra and west Pench national park is in Madhya Pradesh.

The undulating forest of Pench was stark contrast to the plain lands of Tadoba with wildlife plentiful and abundant prey base in both Maharashtra and MP Pench.

Due to circumstances we had to shorten our trip by a day otherwise our chances of sightings would be double of what they were.
Water holes at Tadoba are at their worst already before the onset of summer, animal sightings here will be at their best but it is going to be a very very testing and tough time for the animals.

Dr. Ghosh’s experience at various reserves and national parks at a very young age is enviable, so are his sightings. Our group hit it from the moment we met him as if we had known each other for long.

The last day at M.P. Pench ,we had a narrowly missed a leopard which was hiding in a nala about 20 feet from us who was trying to ambush a flock of spotted deers who were giving out alarm calls for half and hour continuous and had their eyes fixed in one spot in the nala to our right, the leopard realized it was futile and abandoned its ambush plans and slipped away from behind us. But a little later sighted three tigers from on an elephant ride and in the evening spent about 3 hours with a tigress who is a mother of four male cubs which we saw from the elephant back earlier, nearly fully grown and about to part from the mother any time soon.

We will be here again in April-May 2010, hopefully.
Our day 4 started at 3:30 AM, as Devidas and I were scheduled to picked up at the Sillari check post by Dr.Ghosh at sharp 4:40 AM, from here we proceeded to M.P. border and at 5:15 AM we were at the gate of the M.P. Pench National Park, we had a very very refreshing tea in the dew drenched cold morning, thanks to the kind courtesy of Mr. Lallan,…the dhaba and gypsy owner, driver, tracker, guide.
Mr. Lallan is known to Dr. Ghosh since many years.

Regards,

Fazal
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This is the story of the Pench tiger family in words and pics.

The first photograph shot of the mother and three cubs (fourth not in pic.) by Dr. Ghoshabout a year back, these are the very tigers we saw on 10th Feb10, from the elephant backin the day and later spent 3 hours with the mother sleeping before a hunt.

As we were moving in the second round in the park after lunch, just within 15 minutes we were alerted byLallan, …SIR TIGER!!!

Just 26 feet away from us lay the most beautiful tigress that is four and a half years old, the mother of 4 cubs in first pic. She has to be a extremely cunning predator and a very able mother to successfully feed and bring up four male cubs to adulthood.
She wears a radio collar, which was put on her in Kanha National park, but she decided to migrate to Pench through fractured forest corridors from a distance of about 300 kilometers.

She lay there totally indifferent to our approach and presence, then other vehicles laden with people too joined us,, she did not bother to look, when she did it was when she decided to. Since we spotted her and were there first, we were in the best seat (gypsy parking) the show could offer.

She finally decided to move after about three hours as she was looking intently, ears up and alert..in the very opposite direction from where we were and within a few seconds disappeared in the bushes and trees. We moved our gypsy in reverse and tracked her at first clawing a tree and spraying it, thus leaving her bench mark before she moved on to the prowl,, slowly moving and sitting to assess the source of the noise of her prey which was unseen or un audible to us . It was getting dark and the timing too perfect for an ambush or hunt, after her success she would get her cubs to join her. We photographed her until she was about 600 yards away, the light did not allow us more than we could shoot.It was 5:50PM.

We only could manage a very minute glimpse of her super predatory skills that made it possible for her to survive and bring up four male cubs to adulthood.

Captured by Dr, Ghosh, in March 2009.
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Mother of cubs in above photograph.
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Deep gash (on chest) healing, probably by a horn or antler of its prey as concluded by Dr. Ghosh and I.
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Piercing eyes that can freeze prey.
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A yawn exposing canines and and ulcer under the tongue.
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Always wary.
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Attracted by the noise deep in the jungle, probable dinner.
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Finally up after nearly 3 hours.
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Me… atop the gypsy frame trying to get a better angle. By Dr. Ghosh’s camera.
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A wider angle of the radio collared tigress at rest.
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Others too waiting for the action.
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Assessing, analyzing and waiting for darkness to set in.
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Meanwhile marks a tree in her territory.
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Followed by spraying.
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Moving deeper in.
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A wide shot.
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Acute hearing prowess at work.
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Waiting and watching.
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Many times you realize you focused on the wrong thing (leaves here) and got the subject out of focus, but only after seeing it on the laptop.

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Friends,
I realize it is appropriate to start a new thread than continue on the ‘THAR revealed’ thread.

Communication with the Mahindra head office, and a final approval from Mr. Behram himself ( as his floor in the factory is out of bounds for all visitors at the Mahindra plant in Nasik) I was fortunate to be invited to test drive the THAR. On 18th April 09, on the dot of 12:30 pm I was at the gate of the plant, time of appointment with Mr. Behram (Parsi’s are known to be very punctual and methodical) so I did not want to make a bad first impression.

Mr. Behram recevied me at the gate and took me in his ‘Special Application Scorpio’, first to his office where I was introduced to the proud team behind the THAR, all youngsters under 35 years… beaming with confidence and wearing a very confident smile. After coffee we all moved to the place where two gleaming THAR’s were parked, one left hand drive and the other right hand drive.

I am omitting all the technicalities and just narrating my experience driving the THAR, here.

The neatly packed engine bay was enough to make me speechless, then the team of 6 including Mr. Behram and I moved on with the jeeps to the ramp to inspect the under carriage of both Jeeps. Had a first hand feel of the suspension, chassis, gearbox and engine, after which I was first given the right hand drive prototype on the oval test track, did not know what to expect but expectations were very high. The vibration free engine was the first feel and engaging it in the 1st 2nd and 3rd was smooth as silk and the Jeep was accelerating menacingly ahead but with unimaginable control and within a minute I was doing +90kmph, then came the first left turn on the track as this was my first lap I slowed it down and took the turn and was surprised as the body roll was very very minimum (compared to 540/550’s) due to the advanced suspension.

Mr. Behram had clearly instructed me not to comment until I test drive both left and right hand prototypes for about 2 hours.

All this while on-board were the 6 persons THAR team , who were I think initially nervous about my driving, with kind permission of Mr. Behram who was on the front passenger seat I was free to drive it as I wanted,,, took it at 100+ as by the time I wanted to go higher it was time for a left turn again, now gaining in confidence at the way it handled I took tight turns at about 80kmph and each time the way THAR controlled amazed me (we would have rolled out of control had it been a 540/550).

I was then asked to drive the left hand drive and comment if there is any difference apart from the driving position. What I first noticed was the left hand had faster acceleration and handled far better on tight turns.

Later I was told by Mr. Behram that the left hand drive THAR’s ECU had been manipulated and also suspension was different from the other version.

On the straight part of the track both jeeps were taken up to +90kmph ( I had forewarned the on-board team that I would test the Brakes by jamming them at high speed so brace yourselves). When I hit the brakes as hard as I could for sudden braking, at this speed it came to a dead halt between 12-15 feet. Further hit the brakes at tight turns too and experienced a never before control in a Jeep.

The last test I did was, driving in the tightest possible figure ‘8’ at the highest speed I could. Here I did not notice the speedometer as I was thoroughly enjoying the very superior control, the new found turning radius, the screeching tyres and very in control body roll.

Two THAR’s test driven on track, but a Jeep is supposed to be more of an off-road vehicle, Mr. Behram and I moved on to another location about 10 kilometers from the plant, where a black THAR was running on a "TORTURE TRACK" for months, a vehicle that runs on this track for a 1000 kilometers equates to about 50 000 on-road kilometers. It had all kind bumps, ditches, steep inclines, 2 feet deep water filled trough’s and is used for torturing Mahindra commercial vehicles.

Now the legendary driver Mr. Behram was in the drivers seat as we took the black THAR out of this test area on to the open Trimbak highway, he was driving at +110 kmph for about 12 kilometers until we reached a mountainous area,
we took a left and at high speed drove upward to a very high incline (real time off-roading) it was shocking to notice that the THAR was never engaged in the 4X4 mode all through. The sheer burst of power was enough to take you upwards over a 30 degree incline for more than a kilometer.

We headed back to the ‘torture track’ and Mr. Behram was driving at the same speed we came, his driving skill and the THAR complimented each other.

It is not easy to meet your expectations when they are already high, but for me the THAR proved this theory wrong.

The IFS suspesnsion doubts by many can be laid to rest should they see THAR on the ‘torture track’ and off-road, the 1700kg power to weight doubt will fade away should they drive the THAR on the road and off-road.

My conclusion was however or whatever we do to our 554/ 550’s they will be no more than vintage or fossils in comparison to the THAR, its engine, suspension, ride quality and all.
Finally there is no parallel to a brand new jeep with a world class engine, new generation chassis, warranties, after sales service and finance options.

I have been maintaining all along without revealing my experience with the THAR that, when a Major sells at 4.8 lakhs, how can you expect a THAR to sell at 5-6 lakhs? The leap in technology is incomparable!

The THAR will change the complexion and standards of Indian off-roading is my conviction.

It was a pleasure meeting the man and the machine.

This post could not be shorter than it is, pardon me for that.

p.s. In 2006 I had also been invited for the test drive of the LEGEND and gave it a loud thumbs down.

Regards,