Even though my search for India’s revered jungle ghost remained unfulfilled, the experience was far from lacking. Because a jungle safari is more than a tiger sighting. Often, the most memorable moments are the ones you weren’t looking for.
Here are five of them.
1. Where The Jungle Book comes to life
Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book was inspired by the wildlife-rich reserves of Madhya Pradesh in central India. Most notably, Pench National Park, not far from Panna and home to similarly diverse landscapes and creatures.
Step into a world that feels unmistakably Kipling. Teak and ebony rise overhead, interspersed with bamboo, mahua and crocodile bark trees, shaping a canopy that shifts with the light.
The tiger may remain unseen, but other characters reveal themselves. A sloth bear foraging for termites. A golden jackal pausing in a patch of sunlight before slipping back into the bush.
For me, it was a series of firsts: chital, nilgai, langur, sambar, chinkara and wild boar. A leopard, glimpsed mid-stride through tall grass. A jungle cat, momentarily frozen, eyes fixed on ours, before vanishing just as quickly.
And then, a dhole.
Close. Unfazed by our presence. Yet as elusive as the tiger itself.
Our guide, visibly elated, told us he hadn’t seen one in months. Now endangered and seldom seen, an unhurried sighting of a dhole is not easily come by.
It’s these moments that shape a safari.