Leopard – TRAVELTRUNK.NET

April 27, 2026April 30, 2026

In Search of Sightings and Stories in Satpura

The ’Seven Folds’ range, Satpura, feels old and ethereal from the first look. Standing beyond the rapidly depleting Tawa reservoir, the string of dramatically moulded forested hills rise high amid lower ones rippling around them. One can imagine the Denwa and Sonbhadra rivers cleaving their way under the cliffs to emerge from the jungle here. A gate proclaiming Satpura Tiger Reserve’s Madhai core zone on the grassy banks needs no barricade. Adjoining it is a warning sign for crocodiles. Before you meet the wildlife in the jungle beyond you might be at the snapping end of a cranky croc in these backwaters.

Our hunt to sight the tiger has been on and the man and I differ on the tally. We are yet to see one I believe. Barely getting a glimpse of a butt of a sleeping tiger, artfully framed by leaves, seen in the distance in Ranthambore does not count but he differs. I don’t feel bereft… being in the forest, feeling the cold crispness in an open gypsy, the joy of sighting uncommon birds or any animal that does not want to be seen (voyeuristic much), discovering dramatic landscape is soul satisfying in itself.

Make Haste While the Sun Shines

We turn off the highway coming from Bhopal, having crossed the road leading to the Mesolithic caves of Bimbetka, speed over the solidified waves of low hills of Ratapani, the newest tiger reserve here, over the Narmada and then the sandy bed of the Tawa, enjoying the shade of tree tunnels, a relic of the past, pretty much like the winding roads that have been ironed out. An attempt at making the journey a perfunctory process. The range rises in the distance and we make our way between harvested fields, golden where they have not been burned to cinders. This land is as old as time itself. Occupied for millennia, first by hunter-gatherers and now their descendants, the Gonds.

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The Satpura Tiger Reserve, part of the Satpura National Park which also includes the Bori Wildlife Sanctuary and the Pachmarhi Wildlife Sanctuary is our destination. Capt. James Forsythe in search of Tantia Tope in the aftermath of 1857 chanced upon the Pachmahri plateau and what followed was history. The Bori Forest was the first declared forest reserve in India in 1865 and over time the protected areas expanded to preserve this veritable natural bridge between the peninsular south and Himalayan north.

*Is the grass as green on the other side?*

Walking in Mahua and Machan Land

We reach the gate of Jamani Dev buffer zone early in the evening after a short rest and change for a walking excursion. The adjoining fields are dotted with thatched domed machans and mahuas in bloom. The fresh garnet red flowers contrast strikingly with the golden fields.

Three guides accompany us- Varsha, Gopal and Ranjeet. We get off the dirt track immediately and head towards a rocky ravine. The resident Rock Eagle owl is not at home. Below the end of the ravine where there is water and fresh grass a few enormous wild boars snout around. We cross the rocky bed of a bone-dry waterfall and come across a mahua with the most sweet and heady aroma. The tree is central to life here. From food to drink, it feeds culture and the economy of the locals. A sack hanging nearby tells that the produce of the tree- daily yield of flowers and the fruits to follow, have been claimed. A small delicate yellow fruit is offered to us. I have never much cared for the taste after eating a whole mouthful in one go in the hope of getting high as a teenager. Instead of any instant high I had ended up with a lingering taste in my mouth and a queasy belly!

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We cross a ravaged anthill. The handy work of a bear who apparently is more dangerous than the tiger since it is often mistaken for a rock from a distance and it does not mock charge like a tiger might. If it looks like its coming for you it is! Ranjeet once was mock charged thrice by a tiger while walking with a visitor…I think I would have had a heart attack in the first one itself, although any cat owner knows the chase is what goads it on even more. Even then, to stand ground and say, ‘bad kitty’ to a tiger is not my idea of a better option but those are the laws of the jungle.

We reach the reservoir bank without encountering anything, much to my relief and the man’s disappointment. The forest across the low water and the range behind, glow in the warmth of a setting sun. A few canoes with fishermen complete the picture. Retracing our way we cross a tendu tree and I return with a rich bounty of a leaf and a piece of the buoyant bark of a cork tree. A junglefowl scampers noisily in the undergrowth letting out a loud cry. Uprooted lantana, a very sly weed, has been stacked upside down. It will throw down roots immediately otherwise. While searching for the owl we see a Greater Flameback fly into its home in a tree and disappear for the night. So should we since the sun has almost called it a night.

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Tree Tales and Temple Trails

We are out before the sun the next morning waiting to get into the boat to take us across the reservoir for the safari. A perfect half moon hangs in the inky sky. Satpura might be the only reserve with an entrance like this. As we dock across, the sun makes an appearance in a sky pink with promise.

Driving into the jungle we are seen off by a few spotted deer and a discarded bleached antler. We cross drying creeks, the receding water exposing green banks, beds and rocks, sculpted and smoothened into poetic perfection. The langurs let out a coughing call and we chase it back and forth but nothing emerges. They return to feasting on the mahua.

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We explore scattered small pools and the track twists and turns through the dry forested hillocks drained by streams lined with green jamun trees. As we make our way down a steep slope and take a crazy bend I can only very intently admire a khejri tree to take my mind off the angle of the vehicle. We are rewarded with the surprising sight of twin temples. Villages have been relocated out of the core zone but these centuries old stone temples are rooted here as much as the trees surrounding them.

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A Malabar Giant Squirrel, its burgundy coat burnishing a deeper shade in the sun, nibbles high up on a mahua, spreadeagled to get to the last bunch on the branch. We reach the fertile floodplains of the reservoir and halt near a causeway over a stream. There are fresh pug marks of a male tiger from the morning heading to Churna zone but we cannot cross over. We return after being stared down by an irate Serpent Eagle and watching two others having a very verbal face off.

Jungle Jamboree

The junglefowls are active early the next day and we hear them crow raucously and catch a glimpse of a big grey rooster. A rare leucistic Gaur calf with a herd on a rocky mound is pointed out to us.

We soon chance upon a massive bear feasting on mahua flowers. These big black beauties with grey snouts love mahua but get high and then sleep off. Sounds familiar! We get a fill of him while he gets his, of the flowers on the forest floor.

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A drive on flat rocks sloping into a puddled stream puts us in a beautiful valley where the Sonbhadra curves sinuously between wide grassy banks. While the forest here is populated with crocodile bark trees with scaly grey trunks, in the placid water a crocodile languidly makes it’s way.

At one watering hole the langurs let on about a leopard that wants to head to the hillock across the pond. It has more patience than us and we give up and head for breakfast at the elephant camp nearby. As we start back for the same pond our guide spots her. The leopard blends beautifully with the foliage and if she were not on the move we would have missed her. With an unhurried gait she makes her way silently through the undergrowth, soon disappearing. She clearly does not reciprocate our enthusiasm for an encounter.

With every missed tiger sighting I have discovered the joys of the jungle, realising that every forest has a fable. We need to turn the page or we will miss the woods for the trees.

Fact File-

Satpura Tiger Reserve is 170 km from Bhopal.

Apart from jeep safari one can explore STR on foot, by boat and canoe.

For details refer to- https://www.satpuratigerreserve.org/

Note-

As per a Supreme Court ruling mobile phone photography has been banned in national parks. Only cameras are allowed.

March 2, 2025March 23, 2025

Peaceful Pench – Of Ghost Tigers and Trees

The stage was set. The accompanying cast played their part, only the main lead did not get the brief to, well, just show up! Pench is the land of Mowgli and his tribe of wolves, with Bagheera the black panther, Baloo the bear, Kaa the python and ofcourse, Shere Khan the tiger, all to be found in the jungles around Seoni, a place close to Pench. From here the tale with kernels rooted in reality originated. It inspired Rudyard Kipling to write a collection of stories succinctly named the Jungle Book.

Uncaged Jungles

The drive to Pench is beautiful through Madhya Pradesh. We get down from the Malwa plateau on a highway being remade. Ironically all the work through the teak forest to make the new alignment and the tunnelling has made the wildlife move to the neighbouring urban areas it seems. We cross the Narmada where a smattering of Brahminy ducks with their bright orange backs and black beaks bob around like beacons in the water.

The road winds through fertile valleys with hamlets surrounded by hills covered with thick teak forests. It feels like a tiger could saunter across the road at any time. Dried rivulets run helter-skelter promising to be full in season. In winter, only fractured pools hold wishy washy memories of monsoon. A massive reservoir is the perfect place for a break to have the coffee we are carrying. A man tilling his fields by the shore and a flock of white herons give us company.

A high-volume highway connecting Jabalpur to Nagpur passes through the buffer zone as we approach Pench with flyovers at animal crossing. I wonder about the traffic sense of the animals. Must be better than ours. In India we all are jay walkers. Then often bruised and blue jay walkers.

We turn off the highway and cross the Khawasa buffer zone on a narrow road lined with forest which makes way for resorts, fields and hamlets with bright blue and green walled houses. A deflated hot air balloon is an incongruous sight in a field. We reach our hotel near Turia gate and call it an early night.

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White Trees, Amber Grass and a Golden Coat

The next morning, we rise before the sun to get into a high Canter with our breakfast basket. The gypsies have already lined up at Turia gate. Inside there are no zones but designated routes and all routes eventually circle to the breakfast point near the Totladoh reservoir. Our guide is an enthusiastic fellow for whom, thankfully, it not all about the tiger. We stop to admire herds of curious spotted deer. The males have velveteen antlers.

A noisy group of massive wild boars cross our path. The full grown, assured ones don’t scamper into the undergrowth. We are near a dry gulley when we hear the call! We go back and forth a little bit but the tiger seems to settle down somewhere and the call dies out. This part of the forest is more undulating and rockier. Perfect leopard country we are told. But Bagheera, and there is a solitary black panther in Pench, remains elusive.

The grass catches the light filtering through the treed canopy and burns a honey amber as it grows between the massive black rocks. We stop near a dried pool and an Arjun tree is pointed out to us. Then a moulting Ghost tree on a mound of boulders. The massive skeletal white tree so aptly named is peeling an onion pink. Apparently, the peel changes colour depending on the season.

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Though the Arjun and the ghost tree look similar at a glance, the former needs moisture rich ground and the latter prefers dry rocky land. We cross a forest guard camp and an elephant is tethered to a tree. He seems to do a jig when someone with perhaps his breakfast approaches him. This is not elephant country since the deciduous forest cannot feed herds through the year.

Massive gaurs ruminate and snooze in the cool morning as we approach the breakfast place. All the vehicles congregate at this mound. There is excited chatter on who caught a glimpse of the elusive cat. Someone says they saw a tigress with cubs and a tiger! In the jungles the ‘have seen’ have a certain mein.

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We are heading back when we are told of a leopard sighting ahead. Only a trained eye would have spotted the sleeping beauty away off the road. He does not even twitch an ear, oblivious to the commotion he has caused, in a shaded grove on a black boulder. His rich spotted coat spread on the rock does not need the sun to glow golden!

Met by Moonlight

I know of no other place that offers the night safari, supposedly a good chance to see the Indian wolf. But surprisingly the wolf is the rarest animal to be spotted here. Mowgli’s tribes’ numbers have dwindled drastically. The night safari is in the Khawasa buffer zone. We enter as the sun sets and the trees close in and soon there is nothing to be seen beyond the headlights. Even though the sound of traffic from the highway never completes abates, it is a little unsettling. The moon throws shadows and when we stop near a towering mound of rocks made pitch black by the canopy of trees, I feel unseen eyes on me though I would not be able to spot a thing until it was at touching distance. We see fresh tiger pugmarks along the track and there is anticipation in the air suddenly, but all we chance upon are placid bluebulls and deer.

The forest is peacefully asleep. A tigress had been seen near a village adjoining the zone but it has clearly called it a night and so should we.

Dancing Drongos and Dhols

We are in a gypsy for the morning safari next day. I miss the height of the Canter. I spy racket-tailed drongo do a quick dance and disappearing before I can focus my camera. The massive ghost tree of yesterday looks like a familiar friend. A tendu tree’s bark is cinder black in contrast. I love this zone with its rocky countryside! We see a sleeping mottled wood owl. Perched on his tree house is by the road, he resolutely ignores all the oohing and aahing. We are not even worth a death stare!

Near the breakfast zone there is absolute excitement and the vehicles go back and forth. A tiger has been seen! But not by us… There is such a smug look, like a cat who has got the cream, on the faces of people who have seen it. We spot a fish eagle and gaurs near the lake. A jackal runs along our vehicle without a care in the world. As we head out in the end we see the one who has got away.. a massive sambar sitting with his head crowned by impressive antlers.

Uneasy lies the head that wears the crown.

Our last safari in the evening our guide tries his best to ensure we see something striped. But neither stripes nor spots are sighted. What we are treated to is a dhol along the road in a merry mood. At first wary of the attention, he then warms to the gallery, trots along the road, rubs his bums on the grass, prances around and puts up an enthralling show. Has us totally spellbound!

A little later a jackal indulges us with perfect profile shots. We are again treated to the owl. Still sleeping! All is peaceful in the jungle in Pench. The ensemble cast’s performance has been par excellence, as if to make up for the main leads no-show. But perhaps Shere Khan only shows up for Mowgli.

Fact File

Getting There-

Nagpur is the closest airport. (Approx 78kms)

Staying-

We stayed at the Madhya Pradesh Tourism Hotel and Pench Jungle Camp.

Safaris-

1. Can be booked online and at the gate counter, subject to availability.

2. For booking prices check-

https://www.penchnationalparkonline.in/online-pench-safari-booking.html

3.The MPTDC hotel has 9 seats reserved on the Canter. A Canter goes on all the routes.

4.Turia Zone is the most popular.