I would have never expected my not-so-misspent youth rambling the forests of western Pennsylvania would one day find me leading photo safaris into the jungles of India in search of India’s elusive Bengal tigers. The forest of my youth held many discoveries to feed my natural curiosity and offered up subjects to train my camera on. The forest here in Bandhavgarh National Park continues to feed that same curiosity today.
This is not my first time here and revisiting the jungle this year reminded me of how rich an experience the sal and bamboo forest of Bandhavgarh National Park can be. While cool temperatures prevailed during the first two days of our photo tour making for more leisurely cruising on the bumpy, sun-dappled trails of the park. With this early cool weather, we found ourselves putting more effort into finding tigers, soon the season heat returned, and we found our daytime temperatures reaching up into the low 100s, and sightings of the large cats became more reliable subjects to train our cameras on. A relatively good growing season left the meadows of the jungle with tall luxuriant grasses. Water levels at the seasonal waterholes were slightly above normal for this time of the year, indicating that there was likely more water to be found in the forest recesses.
In my relatively short career of leading tiger photography tours in India, I have learned much. Thanks to the knowledge of the experienced local guides we work with, the jungle and its inhabitants have become familiar to me, and I have a much deeper understanding of the day-to-day life of Bandhavgarh’s tigers. Of course, these local drivers and guides are the most crucial part of this photo tour when it comes to finding tigers and this year was no exception.
Cruising the jungle on safari in our jeeps can sometimes be a random search while other safari drives may be more calculated as to where the movements of a particular tiger may take us. This season the forest was alive with bird song, really alive! I do not remember past tours having the intensity of an avian chorus like we experienced this year. While driving along, bird songs rang out and at every stop you could pick out the various songs of barbets, kingfishers, cuckoos, and babblers just to name a few. Excitement would ensue as the bird chorus would be punctuated by the alarm calls of deer and monkeys off in the forest, alerting us to the presence of a tiger on the move. Without the eyes and ears of the forest, finding tigers would be far more difficult and much less fruitful.
Bengal tiger sightings have become frequent enough that I must remind myself these magnificent creatures are among the rarest big cats in the world. Their survival depends on remaining elusive for much of the day. As with any tiger safari, patience is key—each moment of tracking alarm calls and chasing leads adds to the anticipation. Our determination to capture them on camera led us to spot 26 individual tigers, many of which provided exceptional photographic opportunities. Interestingly, the most striking encounters seemed to occur in the tall grass meadows, where the dense vegetation presented both challenges and visually captivating compositions.
While tigers undoubtedly steal the spotlight, it would be remiss not to acknowledge the other remarkable inhabitants of the Bandhavgarh jungle that often capture our photographers’ interest. Between tiger sightings, we frequently turned our lenses toward the ever-present langur monkeys and the mesmerizing displays of peafowl. The spotted deer, amid their rut, provided countless opportunities for striking compositions against the backdrop of the forest and sprawling meadows. Sambar deer, always vigilant, foraged along the forest margins and were often spotted wading into waterholes to feed on the nutrient-rich emergent vegetation.
Among the avian wonders, crested serpent eagles, brown fish owls, and the diminutive jungle owlets proved to be favorite subjects. Though leopards are part of this ecosystem, sightings remained elusive—despite spotting several individuals, no photographs were captured. The same was true for the fleeting glimpses of sloth bears we encountered along our photographic journey. Such rare sightings serve as humbling reminders of the rich biodiversity that thrives within the depths of Bandhavgarh.
Perhaps it all comes down to the simple thrill of discovering what lies just beyond the next bend in the trail—or maybe it’s the way we draw energy from the exhilarating sight of a rare, charismatic mammal that fuels our passion for exploring the forest with a camera in hand. Each journey into the jungle is an opportunity to learn, and by capturing the tiger’s mystery in images, we ignite a deeper desire to uncover more of the natural world’s treasures. Curiosity, after all, might be the greatest driving force behind exceptional nature photography. And when surrounded by fellow curious photographers, a photo safari transforms into a truly rewarding adventure, just as ours did. Just living in a world where big toothy things still exist is a much more exciting world to live in.
