My Journal

After Kgudi, Bandipura has been my favorite place for a very long time now. I have fair number of reasons though. At Bandipura,

* I had my first ever Tiger Sighthing

* Had a first look at the wild Dogs

* First encounter with a Wild Tusker

* First good look at a Leopard

* A 4 yr old elephant - Krishna ( Kitty ) has accepted me as a Friend.

I have another real special reason to fall in love with this place. The safari along with the company of a pack of wild dogs .. going where they go, seeing what they see and trying to understand their behaviour was indeed special

Sighted these two, the very moment i entered the forest. At first, they were a lil non-cooperative. They ran and disappeared in the undergrowth. As we waited patiently, they came out to the open but this time with the entire pack. One by one 8 dogs followed the leader and headed in search of their early morning breakfast.

As they explored their territory for any prey, we followed them quitely . As they moved on, the Leader of the pack used to go and have a closer look off the roads, while the rest of the hunting party waited on the track.
The wild dogs are very Agile hunters and hunt in packs, with their hunting success rate measuring close to 98% . I always wanted to see their game plan while they are on a hunt. well this was my chance. If the wild dogs accept our presence as friendly, we stand a great chance to witness a kill.
The Dogs however kept an eye on us all the time. we dint cross their comfort zone and maintained distance. I wanted to shoot them from the front, so moved half a km further and waited for them near a waterhole. The dogs dint take long to arrive and i made some good Portraits.

The party got a lil playful when they reached the water hole and started playing in water. we were busy recording the act and suddenly i heard some movement right next to me.. I turned around to see a sambar deer with a soar coming out of the bushes.. My heartbeat gathered momentum as the dogs diverted all their attention towards the guest. The dogs were with us for more than two hours now and i was hoping that our presence wont distract them. My hopes were turning out to be true as the leader of the pack began its stealth apprach towards the prey followed by another dog. Well, this was it.
I quickly checked all the settings on my camera.. This was the moment i was waiting for. I dint wanted anything to go wrong. The two dogs quietly approached the Sambar. The moment the deer realized that it was in the danger zone, it was too very close to danger and had no escape..
The atmosphere got steamed up and my forefinger trembled to rest on the shutter release button, while i wathced the action through the view finder on my camera.
I was expecting the dogs to circle their prey in their same old fashion and go for the kill. But something happened. Something really strange indeed !! The rest of the pack refused to cooperate with the hunt. The two dogs on the lead called for the pack.. but the pack dint really seemed to be interested. The leaders looked at us and backed off !!! Abandoned their hunt !!!
I immediately took the eyes off the camera and wondered what was happening.. The dogs were searching for a prey for more than an hour and now that they have their food right in front of em, they are giving up !
The guest who was with me in the JLR jeep, Mr Narayanan Nair asked me why did they abandon the hunt ?
All i could say at that time was " Well, i dont know .. its either because the prey is too big for the dogs or they just arent interested " . But i, myself was not convinced with the answer. This was a very strange behaviour the dogs displayed.
Soon after they let the sambar pass away to safety, it seemed like they dint like our presence anymore. The leader indicated the pack to leave us and move on. This fella kept on staring at me until the last member of the pack disappeared off our sight, into the forest. The look said so many words... She was not pleased to meet me. This was the last time he/she looked at me and vanished inside.
We headed back to the camp and that night i couldn sleep as this strange behaviour was all over my mind. I took my camera and previewed the images that i had shot. I was trying to find an answer.
A thought struck my mind and i was Terrified !!!
Mr. Krupakar & Senani's wild dog dairy came into my mind. In the movie, Mr Krupakar comes across a similar situation where the dogs abandon the hunt.
Krupakar gives us a very important clue to understand this behaviour. He says " The tribals in the forest used to wait for these dogs to make a kill. They would then chase the dogs away and steal their kill for meat and skin. The dogs ve seen this happen on numerous ocassions and started abandoning their hunt eversince , if the Humans are seen anywhere near them."

Its unbelievable, but a fact indeed how much we humans have interfered, creating an imbalance in the eco-system.
This is just my thought, my way of analysing this situation. If what i feel is right, ill be terribly disappointed and wil have to think thrice before entering the forest again.. Its a gut feeling.. Im unsure what i should be doing. Stop going to the forests ?? I dont know :(
This might seem like a very ordinary story to many. But its an emotional day to me.
Im sure many of you have better knowledge than me and can help me in finding an answer for this critical situation. What should we do ??
Id request you people to please reply to this post with your thoughts on this.

Id specially request Karthik sir and all you Naturalists and wildlife Enthusiasts out there to gimme your reviews on this.
Thanks !