Terrific tiger spotting in Tadoba National Park

Mr Aditya Dhanwantay, owner of Tiger Trails Lodge, who also acts as the in-house naturalist for our clients, sent the following update on an exciting tiger sighting which took place at Tadoba National Park last week! Here is an excerpt of the sighting:

A new male tiger that we kept on missing crossing the road very early in the morning was seen yesterday in splendid close up. He was first spotted crossing the road and going into the bush. But since he did not go very deep into the bamboo we could still see his contours, sleeping peacefully. We then parked at the side of the road and waited. He made us wait for an hour, but it was worth it. He got up, walked out of the bamboo and sat just out in the open. Then he did an amazing thing. He got up and came and stood next to the jeep, staring at the jeeps lined up, which by then had become 20 strong, plus 2 local buses. There were excited whispers of people everywhere and he was not the least bothered! For 5 minutes he looked us up and down, turned and stared at the jeeps in front. Then he went inspecting the jeeps in front, walked back along the bush line, behind our jeep, and then back to (our jeep) within 10 feet. I think he decided that we were the least noisy, so he comes and takes a prolonged rest, next to the jeep, giving my lady guest a minor heart attack. She told me later that she wanted to scream but was afraid that the tiger would jump up and land in the jeep! So we stayed frozen in excitement. He was actually so close that we could hear every breath that he took. After another 10 minutes he decided he had had enough of humans for the evening, crossed the road and disappeared into the bamboo. You could see the BIG smiles on the faces of the 100 odd tourists, who had had a spectacular tiger sighting!