leopard update – spotted one in wild

We were on an office outing to BR Hills, last weekend and stayed in Jungle Lodges, K.Gudi. This is the first time experience for me to stay inside a jungle, inhaling fresh air and listening to all strange sounds of birds, animals (read monkeys) and other insects. Thanks to the team, especially Sandeep, for choosing this place for a weekend outing.

The trip was a very short sweet trip with 24 actual hrs in the jungle zone, spreading across 2 days. The schedule is like…
Day1: Leave Bangalore by 7am, Check in the lodges at 12.00noon, freshen up, lunch, a mini walk, a jeep safari till evening, tea, a wild life movie show, dinner, campfire(not in rainy season), sleep.
Day2: Bed coffee, a guided trek, breakfast, elephant ride, relax, check out at 12.00 noon, reach Bangalore by 6.00pm.

Details…
We 10, in total, boarded 2 open jeeps, 8 of us in one and 2 others in the other jeep, headed towards the animal habitat zones of BR Hills. After 30 minutes of drive into the forest, yes, we got to see an Indian Leopard, happily sitting on the tree, and staring at us, crossing. The experienced/trained forest driver Mr. Kumar, spotted it from a distance of at least 100 metres.

We started clicking pictures, Shivu, shooting at 6.5frames/sec with his 300mm lens, mounted on Canon D40, Sarah with her 55mm on Canon 350D, and Saravanan, with my Nikon D80 at 135mm. It was a scene for a minute and half, and when kumar started announcing through on his walkie-talkie, about this leopard, two other jeeps came in to the spot, and thats too late, as the leopard, already moved out of the place, into the deep forest zone. Though, the men, women and children in the other jeeps felt bad that they could not see the leopard in wild, shivu’s picture served them the purpose.
Here is a picture, from my D80. (a cropped version)

Ok.. now to finer details…
Is spotting a leopard in wild, a big thing? Was that a great thing, achieved?
Guess, for most of us, YES…

But, at least for me.. a BIG NO. Its just like an other creature, roaming in the forest. I know, how it is, thanks to my LKG books (hmm… I read L for Leopard) and believe, there is nothing great, at least for now. Probably, over a period of time, my thoughts may change, when its extinct (hope this doesn’t happen) on earth. The particular moment, when we were looking at the Leopard, i was reminded of Suruchi and the discussion, we had in IIMB on wildlife photography, when she said, she spotted a leopard in Bandipur.

Fine prints…
The Indian leopard (Panthera pardus fusca) is a leopard subspecies native to the Indian subcontinent. Despite being the most widespread cat, the Indian leopard has faced several types of threats. The animal shares its habitat with other predators, which include Asiatic lions, Bengal tigers, bears, wolves, hyenas, and wild dogs. Leopards are in danger. As many as 226 of them could have been killed last year alone. The last leopard count — in 1997 — had put their number at 7,273.