Bandvahgarh National Park, India

Bandvahgarh comprises a dry deciduous forest and is one of the best places in India for spotting the Bengal tiger, numerous deer species, and a very considerable number of bird taxa. While it is a Sal tree dominant forest, the diversity of tree taxa and forest architectural features is astounding. I went on approximately 40 hours of jungle safari, including jeep and on foot.

Highlights of this adventure included tracking of Bengal tigers, Leopards, Sloth bears, Golden jackals and other mammals using pawprints and alarm calls of indicator prey. The guides and rangers were not allowed to use radio communications for animal tracking, so that this was a throwback to life without technology....a good throwback. I was lucky enough to have good sightings of Bengal tigers, Golden jackals and one Leopard. Some of these sightings were at ranges of two to five meters.

For me, the forest architecture was quite exciting....and a challenge to identify the great diversity of tree taxa, which are entirely different from forests in the Americas or Europe. I was lucky enough to have a superb guide, Saurabh Agrawal, who taught me enormous amounts about not only tree identification, but also forest ecology. Consequently I was able to assemble ecological relations to animals as well as lichen species

Posted on 17 April, 2017 04:51 by c_michael_hogan