EYEWITNE S S Search for tigers in the shadows
Jaagir Manor lies at the pulsating heart of the great Terai ecosystem, home to Bengal tigers, secretive denizens of this little-known wilderness. Words: Mark Stratton
It’s dark when my butler Parvez brings me coff ee and cinnamon buns and I reluctantly haul myself out of my four-poster bed. Amith Bangre, my wildlife guide, waits in the foyer of Jaagir Manor, and we pile sleepily into an open-topped vehicle. We’re heading out to look for tigers in Dudhwa National Park: a wilderness of dense forest and open grassland in Uttar Pradesh, part of the Terai ecosystem that stretches 700 miles along the India- Nepal border. The Lower Himalayan air is cold and biting, and I burrow deeper into my woollen poncho, watching the outlines of farmsteads and sugarcane appear as murky shapes in the dawn. “There’s two ways we track tigers,” says Amith,
as watery sunshine penetrates the sal tree forest, casting a starburst light on our surroundings. “First, we look for pawprints, because tigers move through the forest on sandy tracks, and then we listen for the alarm calls of animals like langur monkeys.” It’s a fresh pawprint, perfectly formed and surrounded by morning dew, that sends my pulse racing. “There’s one close by,” whispers Amith. We linger for a while, yet the tigers of Terai are mercurial. We inspect a tree with deep-furrowed gouges
raking the bark and I subconsciously look from shoulder to shoulder to be sure we have no feline company. “It’s a big male,” surmises Amith. “He’s letting potential rivals know this is his territory.” Big male or not, in typical catlike fashion he’s likely dozing in the undergrowth, and despite
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scouring the shadows, nothing stirs. Elsewhere, however, the forest crackles with life. Thick-furred langurs seem scarcely to need the threat of a tiger to kick up their simian din, while eagles screech overhead and unseen critters scurry through dry leaves carpeting the forest fl oor. Particularly special is the lack of other safari vehicles; we see almost none for the whole day. “See a tiger in Ranthambore and there will be twenty vehicles around it,” says Amith. We plan our next tiger foray back at Jaagir, where
I live a princely existence. The white-painted manor is pure art deco, built and used by British governors as a jungle lodge in the 1940s. Corinthian columns lining the driveway point towards cosy indulgence, with the fl amboyance of an eccentric millionaire aunt. My heritage suite, one of seven, is an original
room with a Victorian ambience and a gramophone. I gravitate to the colonial-style Safari Club lounge with its pool table and bar, where I sip a whisky and club soda in front of a crackling fi re, before heading to the Pavilion dining room. The head chef’s thali could sink a battleship, and I regret my gluttonous over-indulgence at high tea that afternoon, where the cucumber sandwiches come with crusts removed de rigueur. As my tiger quest continues, I accrue ever-
burgeoning sightings of endangered species. Dudhwa National Park is a fabulous wetland expanse of swamps and rivers. Barking deer bound
across our path, sloth bears amble adorably from bush to bush and langurs in the tree tops above are, I suspect, crying wolf. Their whooping triggers prove fruitless, and I take out my frustration on a packed wicker hamper of parathas stuff ed with aloo gobi, served on white linen napkins on the Land Rover bonnet, before a wondrous afternoon on the river spotting rare river dolphins and slender-snouted crocodiles called gharials. “There’s only around 250 gharials left now because of human impacts,” says Amith sadly. On our fi nal foray into the reserve, the pesky
langurs are at it again. But Amith rolls the dice and seeks out their commotion. We park at a crossroads. The forest around us is truly agitated, and wails reverberate through the canopy. “Look,” says Amith, in a hoarse whisper, “there she is, a female.” Calm and completely unafraid, the exquisite feline appears from the trees. She’s more orange than I expected, the colour of hot embers, and she walks alongside the vehicle without so much as changing her stride. We watch in silent awe, before, with a fl ick of her tail, she blends back into the shadows. The langurs quieten, but I squeal with excitement all the way back to Jaagir.
HOW TO DO IT: Abercrombie & Kent offers a seven-night trip from £3,300 per person based on two adults sharing a Junior Suite at Jaagir Manor, on a B&B basis. Includes flights to Lucknow via Delhi, and transfers.
abercrombiekent.co.uk seleqtionshotels.com
IMAGES: GETTY; ALAMY; JAAGIR MANOR
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