3/365 - Melghat Trip

365 Stories

3/365 - Melghat Trip

   

           I have been to Melghat Tiger Reserve (MTR) many times. Melghat is situated in the Satpuda Mountain ranges. Therefore, you hardly find any straight landscape. Whereas almost all the landscapes in Tadoba are straight as an arrow. Therefore, it is easier to locate an animal with black strips on yellow fur in Tadoba than in Melghat. This is the sentence I used whenever I visit MTR can come back without sighting the magnificent creature. This is the story of sighting my first and second bear. (The Mumma Bear with her cub)

 

It was the summer of 2009-10. I was in the Amaravati district. To be precise I was in Achalpur city for Narsimha Navratra. On the last day of Navratra (Narsimha Jayanti), we planned to visit the MTR. After lunch, we six people (me, baba, my uncle, and my four three brothers) left for MTR. Achalpur to MTR is a one and half hour drive. My uncle used to work in the guide training school, Chikhaldara because of him we visited the parts which were not accessible to a common man. 

 

We visited a village and we ate Rodge (Baati) with brinjal curry there. It was super duper good. In the evening we decided to visit an isolated control room situated in the forest. As the area was isolated, we had to park our car outside and walk to the control room. It was very dark. And, on both the side of the road there well tall grasses of nearly 6-7 feet. I was scared as hell and people around me were saying that “The tiger can be anywhere. He/she can be there (pointing toward the grass).” This sentence was enough to scare the crap out of me. I hold my father’s hand till we reached the control room. We were disappointed as we did not witness any wild creatures. 

 

We reached the car and were heading towards the home. On the way back, we decided to visit the Icchapurti Hanuman temple. I was not able to see past 50 meters. We walked towards the temple and bow to the deity. Meanwhile, I wished to see Tiger or leopard or Bear. We left the temple and were heading towards home. 

 

My three brothers did not have any hopes and were sleeping. And here I was hoping that Bhagwan Hanuman fulfills my wish. Lord Hanuman did not disappoint me. We saw a mother bear crossing the road. My father stopped the car and pointed towards the bush. In the bush, we saw a child bear and he crossed the road just like his mother. Later I told everyone about my wish and they were like, “You should have wished for only Tiger”. And, I was like…..damn!

P.S: This is my only encounter with any wild predator in MTR to date.

 

-Aradhya    

14/11/2021