I SAW A TIGER !!

In an Indian Monsoon Forest, summers are the best time to go sight seeing for tigers, because that's the time they are forced to come out to the larger water spots like lakes to quench their thirsts. During the rainy and winter seasons the multiple small pockets of water that form in the deep forests are enough for these cats to survive - and so they do not need to come out in the open to the lakes.

In the summer of 2003, I finally got lucky to spot a tiger in the wild - rather a tigress with two cubs in tow. They were seen chilling out in one of the many road-side shallow wells or 'water holes' that have been constructed at many places in the forest. These holes are periodically filled with water during the summers for the animals...

Yes ! I did take a quick picture people ! - To see the tigress picture I shot with my Fuji digitalcam - Click here. You can clearly see her head while she sits in the water hole.

In the whole excitement , our driver tried to bend forward for a better look and unfortunately set off a loud van honk in the process - which resulted in our tigress springing off into the jungle with her cubs...:-( But it was one of the most valuable minutes of my lifetime !