11 January 2014 / leggypeggy

Ranthambore Tiger Reserve’s tarnished crown

Red-vented bulbuls

We’d heard all the hype about Ranthambore being the top tiger reserve in India, but our little group thought it was poorly organised and not really tourist-friendly.

A canter on the left with two Gypsies

For starters, Anand found it impossible to book a Gypsy (a little 4WD) at a reasonable price, so all three of our safari drives were going be in a 20-plus-seater canter. We’re not exactly sure how the vehicle booking system works at Ranthambore, but Anand speculated that a ‘middle man’ might book out the Gypsies and then charge scalper prices for hiring them out.

Young sambal deer

Unfortunately, a canter could be more accurately called a bone crusher. They’re uncomfortable to begin with and not made for Ranthambore’s extremely rough roads. Plus our drivers had a cavalier approach to driving. Management at other tiger reserves must think canters aren’t the way to go, because only two parks in the country use them.

Disappointingly, Ranthambore has shorter hours too. Parks we’d visited earlier opened at sunrise or soon after, with safari drives that lasted anywhere from three to six hours.

Indian gazelle

But Ranthambore’s gates don’t open until 7:30. The zone we were to visit was simply a drive in and out, following the same route both ways. We were heading back to our campsite by 9:45.

Of course, India’s tiger reserves aren’t zoos and there’s no guarantee you’ll see anything, so we can’t complain about not seeing a tiger there. But we can whinge about the fact the drive in and out were so fast that our chances of seeing tigers were unfairly reduced.

Landscape

Near the entrance

Animal evidence

So we looked forward to our afternoon drive. It got off to a ridiculously bad start. The canter arrived an hour late, and then waited another 20 minutes for a knucklehead passenger who stood in the distance chatting on his mobile phone. He finally boarded—all smiles and arrogance. Gary snidely said something like, Thanks mate, nice work holding everybody up. In response, the fellow flipped Gary the bird.

Spotted deer

Anand shot into action. He leapt to the front of the canter and confronted the fellow (who happened to be an Indian) in Hindi. He reminded the guy that the gesture was considered a chargeable offence in India, and would not back down until the fellow apologised to Gary.

It certainly wasn’t a heartfelt apology, but it put the matter to rest. It was also obvious that the fellow’s travelling companions were not impressed by his behaviour.

So after a late start, we hoped to have a late finish, but no! It was another shortened version over the same road we’d covered in the morning.

I did get some good wildlife pics—mostly of animals and birds we’d seen in Panna, Pench or Kanha. We saw our first Indian gazelle at Ranthambore, and also our first red-vented bulbuls.

But the really big bonus came as we neared the exit. That’s when Poor John spotted a sloth bear off to our left. It trundled itself into the bush so fast I couldn’t get a pic, but we were thrilled to see it. We were sitting at the very back of the canter, and don’t know whether all the others even saw it. They didn’t seem to react. In case you didn’t know, Baloo, Mowgli’s best friend in Rudyard Kipling’s Jungle Book, was a sloth bear.

Male nilgai

Female nilgai

Back at the campsite, we had a little group discussion and agreed to pass on the third safari drive. The next day we would get a mini trip through the grounds when we drove (in a Gypsy) to the Ranthambore Fort which is located within the greater national park.

Rufous treepie

Anand and Deepti promised that we could make up the lost drive in another reserve. I like to think the replacement was the third drive in Rajaji when we saw three leopards.

But to be honest, our time in Ranthambore wasn’t a complete write-off. In addition to a couple of new species, we saw a local dance performance, had an authentic Rajasthani meal and visited the fabulous Ranthambore Fort, which which I’ll write about next.

P.S. I know that lots of people have had wonderful experiences in Ranthambore, but we were generally disappointed. I posted a review of our canter problems on Trip Advisor and, within a couple of days, a woman wrote to say I’ve just come back and due to a maniac driver have a severely injured right knee. Just want to say ‘thank you’ for your posting as it confirms that I’m not going mad! She definitely isn’t going mad and it makes me think our experience may happen too often.

P.P.S. So if you go to India, think twice about spending the money to visit the tiger reserve at Ranthambore, but don’t miss the fort.

And if all this reading has made you hungry, please check out my cooking blog.