18th February 2018 – Pench
Pench National
Park is in Seoni and Chhindwara districts of Madhya Pradesh in India. It derives its name from the Pench River that flows through the park from north to south dividing the park
into almost equal western and eastern halves, the well-forested areas of Seoni and Chhindwara districts respectively. It was declared a sanctuary in
1965 but raised to the status of national park in 1975. In 1992, it was
established as a tiger reserve. This park is accessible from Pauni on National
Highway 7 and has two famous entry gates, Turiya and Karmajhiri.
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| Scopes owl |
Pench National Park comprises 758 km2 (293 sq mi),
out of which 299 km2 (115 sq mi) form a core,
the Pench National Park core area and Mowgli Pench Sanctuary. The remaining
464 km2 (179 sq mi) form the buffer zone.
The protected area is covered with small hills and
well-stocked teak mixed forest in the southern reaches of the Satpura Ranges. Elevation ranges from 425 to
620 m (1,394 to 2,034 ft). The temperature varies from 4 °C
(39 °F) in December to 42 °C (108 °F) in May. Average rainfall
is 1,300 mm (51 in).
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| Where's me dinner? |
Will today
be another fruitless search for Tiger or Leopard? We started at 05:45 which
equates to a 15 minute lie-in. It was a cold journey to the Park HQ, but not as
bad as Kahna. After the usual rigmarole we entered the Park. Unlike Kahna there
are fewer vehicles and the flora is quite different. Here the trees are lower
and consist of Mahua and teak with much less undergrowth although there is
quite a bit of lantarna which is an invasive non native plant from South
America. For some reason the park department have decided to keep it in certain
place as protection for the wildlife, hmm and not much good for finding
Leopards and Tigers.
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| A present for a mate? |
We circled
around the park for some time and didn’t hear any alarm calls to indicate the
presence of either predator. The only proof we have that the big cats are here
is from an American lady who had come in from another gate and seen a leopard
less than 1 mile from the gate. At about 10:15 we stopped for breakfast having
seen quite a lot of deer and antelope as well as some birds that we’ve seen
elsewhere.
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| Monitor Lizard |
Arriving
back at the lodge we had a discussion on whether to go out in the afternoon. We
decided that as we had come all this way even when there was only a 40%
probability of seeing a Tiger or Leopard we should go for it.
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| Crested Eagle |
Early on we
saw a monitor lizard that had come out of a hole in a tree to sun itself. This
we took as a good omen. Later we had a very good sighting of a crested hawk eagle
and managed to get a few shots of the male deers with their antlers. As it
approached dusk we started to look for Leopards. That was us and about 30 other
vehicles with up to eight people in them. This reminded me of what the tiger
hunts must have been like, instead of guns trained on the bush the Leopards
would have pictures shot of them. As it got slightly darker and closer to time
to leave there was a load of vehicles on the roads all with people looking into
the undergrowth whilst hearing the monkeys and birds put out alarm calls. It
was at this point that our naturalist Guarav decided we needed to leave as we
needed to be out of the park by 18:00. So, at the end of the day no predators –
bah! Oh, well let’s see what tomorrow brings.
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| Buck Sambar Deer |
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| Whose a pretty boy then? |
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