
We are off on our nature adventure! It began with a chaotic and intense security screening at the Delhi Airport to board our flight to Lucknow. My hand luggage was put through security 3 times, as the somewhat sadistic screeners found small 1” scissors which they confiscated and a penlight flashlight which for some reason they were very interested in. They attempted to take away Bill’s single trekking pole but he stayed firm and asked to speak to the superior officer who finally agreed to let it through. This is why you may need 3 hours at an Indian airport before departure. My guess is that everything confiscated later disappears and is sold.
It was foggy, very foggy, as our car and driver exited the urban airport of Lucknow and headed out to the small towns and then smaller villages of the Palia Kalan part of Uttar Pradesh State which borders Nepal. Although this is Bill’s 5th trip to India and one of many for me, every scene we passed was utterly absorbing in its brief flash of color and intensity as we drove by.
The many-colored road-side fruit stands, the small wooden stalls selling packets of cigarettes, detergents and bags of snacks hanging in strips, carts selling scarves, pants and shoes, one with bottled water and white eggs in open flats, food stalls selling fried foods sizzling in open pans, stores specializing in bike parts and each little town has at its beginning a number of shops selling old tires of different sizes. A group of wooden shacks, each a little different, with piles of drying cow dung patties outside along with a goat or two is a common lifestyle. The variation goes on and is all captivating in its own way due to its distinctive difference from our accustomed way of life.

And then we are out in the country, large swathes of emerald green fields of young growing wheat, interspersed with fields of yellow topped mustard plants. But everywhere, sugar cane is king. Now ready for harvest, its brown and green stalks standing 8-10 feet high, this crop dominates the land and the road, where tractors pull trailers filled with the cut canes, and brightly painted trucks are loaded with bundles of cuttings that are piled so high they seem very precariously laden. Passing these swaying trucks is a hair-raising leap of faith in balance.

It is still foggy out but it is unclear how much, if any, is due to air pollution. We pass several large sugar-cane factories with lines of tractors and trucks waiting to unload their goods while large smoke stacks belch out clouds of white and black smoke. Small fires burn where people are living in their thatched roofed shanties. And tractor and truck exhaust contributes to the problem.

All this is before we arrive at our lodge and are suddenly encompassed in quiet luxury. The Jaagir Manor was once a British hunting lodge which was bought after independence by a Punjabi family and now outfitted in great style to serve as a small-scale resort (13 rooms) and offer safari-style excursions in open jeeps within the Dudhwa National Park. The park complex is known for its tigers and rhinos brought back from near extinction after hunting and then poaching left few big animals here in the wilds.

Our rooms are magnificent and the food is deliciously cooked to our specific needs. There are 3 naturalists who are available to us — as we are the only guests here other than a small Indian family. But it is very cold and foggy when we set out at 5:30 the next morning, at first by closed car and then at the entrance to the park, moving into the open jeep with our 2 naturalists. The wind chill factor felt severe as we drive sometimes fast on rough roads chasing the possibility of a tiger sighting. It is not physically comfortable, as we have to brace our bodies for the bumps and dips on the road causing neck, shoulder and back tensions and despite my 3 layers of coats, I am shaking with cold. Nevertheless, riding in the forest is beautiful and we are learning about the flora around us but the fauna remain elusive, except a few spotted deer and a number of land and water birds.

This land becomes flooded during the rainy season, June-October, and there are existing swamps and ponds and lakes providing habitats for the wildlife. In the afternoon, we enter the rhino conservation area and see a mother with child and a little further away, a single male. We were told the Greater One-Horned Rhinoceros was actually hunted to near extinction in this area for their horns but 5 were brought from elsewhere in the 1980’s and there are now about 50 in this part of the park. Although there is an electric fence, tigers still get in under the wire so the rhinos only predator, now that man is kept under control, still occasionally roams the land.

Our second day also dawns with cold and fog and I face several miserable hours with cold winds and we spot nothing of any great interest. However, as the sun begins to lift and sift through the leaves, it is a beautiful vision of the way this forest area once looked before the need for life-sustaining agriculture caused the decimation of the native forests.

Bill and I had accepted we would not see a tiger — and as it was not the reason we were there, we had no problem with this probability. But our very skilled naturalist said that every group he had taken out on at least 2 safaris in the last season had seen a tiger and he was determined to find one for us. In the Kishinapur part of the park, we saw several jeeps waiting at a crossroads and were told they had heard a roar and the alarm call of the spotted deer indicating a tiger was near. So we all sat waiting but it was our guide who discerned a shadow that might be a tiger and we rushed fast ahead and saw a magnificent animal calmly walking near us. We were told that he is the largest male tiger in Asia, 8 years old, who our local friends called Bhaloo. We spent the next hour following him along the road at various places and I must say it is amazing to see a tiger walking directly toward you. What surprised me the most is how much distance he could cover with his slow continuous gait as we raced on roads to keep sight of him. Our guides were jubilant and it was a perfect ending to our time in Dudhwa.

