[Leica] Bandhavgarh - Kalua

[jayanand at gmail.com (Jayanand Govindaraj)]

The second installment from Bandhavgarh focuses on one of the dominant males
of the tourist area called Kalua (Blackface). He got his name because he had
more black face markings than the rest of his litter. These are basically
from two encounters that we had with him.

The first time, he was relaxed when we came across him early one morning:

http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/jayanand/Bandhavgarh/Bandhavgarh_20100322_0610.jpg.html

In Bandhavgarh (as in Kanha or Pench), it is possible to hire an elephant,
and track tigers inside the forest. You get very close to animals, as they
do not get spooked by an elephant - the only downsides being the top down
angle for photography, the discomfort of sitting on elephant back for long
periods and the expense! Most professional photographers, however, choose
this method, and I have made up my mind to try this for a day when I am next
in Bandhavgarh. An elephant arrived, and Kalua was forced to move:

http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/jayanand/Bandhavgarh/Bandhavgarh_20100321_0614.jpg.html

The elephant continued to follow him, till he disappeared over a steep slope
to the right of the photograph, where the elephant could not follow:

http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/jayanand/Bandhavgarh/Bandhavgarh_20100321_0619.jpg.html



The second time was when we caught him in perfect light going on a walkabout
on the slope of a hill opposite where we were parked:

http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/jayanand/Bandhavgarh/Bandhavgarh_20100322_0472.jpg.html
http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/jayanand/Bandhavgarh/Bandhavgarh_20100322_0476.jpg.html
http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/jayanand/Bandhavgarh/Bandhavgarh_20100322_0492.jpg.html

There were two elephants with photographers on his tail at this point, a
scene which Howard caught very well:

http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/Howard+Cummer/Final+Tigers/2Els_TigW.jpg.html

He then decided to rest for a while:

http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/jayanand/Bandhavgarh/Bandhavgarh_20100322_0535a.jpg.html

He then got up, gave the massed tourists on the opposite slope a pitying
look and disappeared up the slope of the hill:

http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/jayanand/Bandhavgarh/Bandhavgarh_20100322_0590.jpg.html


Comments and criticism, as always, welcome.

Cheers
Jayanand