Bannerghatta National Park

We got up and went to Bannerghatta National Park today. It was a tough morning. I was very tired and disappointed to see that they had arranged us a small sedan for five people. That meant three in the back on a road with lots of stop-start jerky driving.

We got there in due time and soon enough I had gotten us tickets for the Grand Safari. We opted for the private bus, which was significantly more, but still not bad.

So the deal is, part of the National Park is cordoned off as this sort-of drive through zoo and safari. Jurassic Park style. We get the full tour, so it's us, our driver (?) the combi driver and a spare guy to help take photos that no one asked for.

We go through the herbivore section with deer and buffalo and some fun birds. The driver would stop the car when he spotted things in the underbrush for us to see. The Bear Section was next. They were those weird Chinese-style bears with the goofy mouths. I have some shots on Flickr of them. They were fun, foraging for tamarind and such.

We also saw lions, but that there wasn't much going on there.

The star of the show were the tigers so of course they came last. When we first rolled in we didn't see any anywhere. Big disappointment. We got to the end and saw that the animals were being cordoned off somehow. There was wide open areas with large areas to roam, but they seem to control their movements with feeding. So, the let the tigers out and right away they come up to our vehicle. We had run over some elephant poop earlier and they were pretty interested in that.

The bulk of them disperse, but a 3-year old white male hangs out near the car in the shade. He seems like he just wants some peace and quiet.

But here comes this chick and she isn't having any of it. She repeatedly went up to him and pestered him. He would put up with for a bit, and then move away. She stalked him, her body all tense and slow while he flicked his tail indolently in the shade. Our driver dutifully moved with him to catch the drama unfolding.

Eventually it got more heated, and instead of just moving away, the young male would make his displeasure more known. They would rear up together at some invisible cue, snarling and swatting. This repeated several times until:

Tiger fight!
They tussled repeatedly like this. It was pretty intense to watch. The trainers, who we had all but forgotten about, shouted them down and they returned to their tense state of detent.

It was quite a show.

After the safari was over we had kind of a tiff with the unwanted-photo guy. I tipped him out of respect, but he asked for more, putting his finger into my wallet. I told him to step off, that he hadn't taken any shots for me so be cool. His aggressiveness led to way-over-tipping by the group and it left a sort of bad taste in our mouths at the end of an otherwise-great trip.

Next we checked out the zoo part. It was hot and by the end of it I was ready for a break. Sweetly, the end of our walk was the elephant enclosure. The mahoots would encourage you to come up and touch the animals, posing with them for photos. Of course I did.
The hairs on an elephant's head are wirey- like cleaning brush bristles. The trunk is leathery, but soft. So, a rough texture, but pliable, giving and dry.

Lois had brought fruit for the monkeys we hoped to see and busted out an apple:

Shwam! Jumbo took it downtown. This resulted in a general tumult as more elephants come over, extending their trunks gently across the gap into Lois' bag to get more treats.

We stopped for an ice cream and then went and got ready for an elephant ride. There was some confusion about this due to language difficulties and when we get where we thought we belonged, there were no rides going on. Aha; no elephants loaded up yet! They had to saddle them. The mahoots shoo'd us out of the way and loaded up the beasts right in front of us.

This had a profound effect.

We were very pleased to see the process of loading up the cart and to see the handlers mastery, but it was sad to see the old girl sit ponderously down and put up with the process and the burden. Suddenly we felt kind of like we shouldn't go. Fortunately, that didnt last very long and then it was off with the shoes and up on the elephant. It was a nice ride and good cap to the day.

But then: as we walked out, we got hit with the old mother-and-child-beggar combo. I gave some as always but quickly ran out of low denominations. This resulted in some beggars not getting paid and me getting hounded all the way back to the car by incredibly-pathetic sad eyed babies. Not good.

It led to some more moral quandries and gray areas. Which got me thinking: why did the tigers fight? There were bears who were aggressive to each other that were separated. Why let out two tigers of different sexes and species in front of us? Unless the resulting aggressiveness was for our benefit? I don't know. It was cool, but was it engineered, and if so, how cool is that? I think it's best to notice these thoughts, but not to dwell on them. My motto in India is to go with whatever it offers. And today the offerings were pretty good.