India: National Tiger Preserves – Kanha National Park; Bandhavgarh National Park

Pictures, April, 2026 Central India

Post, June, 2026 Raleigh, NC

Blogger’s Note:

All my life I’ve been hyperactive and adventerous. Then, two years ago, turning 80 hit me like a brick. Health issues, physical strength and conditioning limitations, and psychological issues seemed overwhelming. Extended photo trips seemed impossible. I was no longer able to hold a camera with telephoto lens steady. No long hikes, no camping, no enjoyment of heat or cold or rain or snow. My wildlife years seemed over. I sold all my camera gear – except for one camera and lens that I might need if granddaughter Annie remembered that she wanted me to take her University of Georgia senior year pictures like I did her high school senior pictures. (She did and Janice and I had a wonderful time with her!)

Then Rob called – they needed another reservation for a trip to India to photograph tigers. Without another early committment the trip might be cancelled. So I made a downpayment and purchased a new telephoto lens and a monopod …

Working Through the Preliminaries …

Jennifer Hadley is a professional photographer in Raleigh. She is an amazing woman, superb photographer, and plans wonderful photo adventures. She guided us every step of the way. Still, suffice it to say, just getting to India, and then to Kanha National Park and Tiger Preserve in central India, was an adventure. Immunizations, visa, clothing, medicines, goverrnment turmoil, LONG flights, and significant worry. Everything seems harder now. Amazingly everything went smoothly and I was in Delhi! We toured the city – over 32 million people! – then took a plane and van trip to our first park.

The Realities …

Unfortunately, even Jennifer’s magic couldn’t soften the blow of a 4:00 am wakeup! Morning preparations were extremely important – it would be about 4 hours before we reached a safe breakfast and bathroom stop! About 5:00 am we boarded our jeeps, one photographer in the middle bench seat, the second (me) in the rear bench seat. A local naturalist was the driver – these drivers are extremely knowledgeable as well as expert drivers. Each jeep was assigned a park guide at the entrance. These guides were also extremely knowledgable. The park guide sat next to the driver and provided the details of our basic route which was designed to spread the jeeps and photographers throughout the park. Together the guide and the naturalist were responsible for finding the wildlife and getting us close enough to get pictures. Here is the line of jeeps waiting at 6:00 am to enter the park.

Here I am during one of our breaks. We were lucky – we expected temperatures in the mid-90’s but most days were in the upper 80’s, maybe low 90’s. For me, bugs and dust dictated long pants and long sleeves. Much of the time the baklavas were pulled up over our noses to protect against the dust as bounced over the bumpy dirt roads.

As the morming progressed we drove through the park looking for wildlife – any wildlife – to photograph.

Langur monkeys with their infants were everywhere – great subjects for our cameras.

The monkeys congregate in families throughout the park – and since they could reach safety in the trees quickly – they showed no fear.

Wild dogs were less plentiful but still common enough that we didn’t get overly excited each time we saw one.

Wild dogs hunt in packs but we usually saw them one at a time so we knew they weren’t hunting us!

I think that the spotted deer were the most plentiful species in the park. They were everywhere – generally in fairly large groups.

The deer are particularly aware of any tigers in the vicinity. When we spotted this group of deer we knew immediately that a tiger was nearby – and we knew where to look!

Here is our tiger. He walked behind a row of large trees, then suddenly turned toward us! Regardless of our awe, excitement – and possibly a little feeling of fear – we immediately focused our cameras and shot.

The tiger below we woke from his nap! A guide spotted him on his back, paws up in the air, white tummy exposed. Perhaps 25 feet away. He rolled over, up to his feet and joined our caravan of jeeps! Three or four jeeps in front, 3 or 4 jeeps behind. He strolled for perhaps 100 yards before he jumped out of the parade and into the woods.

I’ll add more tiger pictures later – but actually tigers were hard to find. We often would drive for hours and never find one. Jennifer planned 8 days of early morning and late afternoon rides. 8 visits into each park, 16 visits in all. I missed 5 of the visits – I was simply too tired. During my 11 visits I had 7 tiger encounters with 4 or 5 different tigers. So I spent most of my visits photographing the monkeys, birds, wild dogs, wild pigs, gaurs, and other wildlife we saw; I have lots of good pictures to share!

NOTE: The parks were generally closed to visitors from about 11:00 in the morning until about 4:00 in the afternoon. Then they close each night about 7:00 in the evening until about 6:00 each morning. This schedule reduces stress on the animals. Of course, there is no hiking in the park. Visitors are safe in the jeeps, but the iron clad rule is “NEVER GET OUT OF THE JEEP!” There were special fenced in areas for bathroom and food breaks. So all pictures were taken while I was seated in the jeep with my camera on a monopod for stability. A perfect old man’s trip!

So far I’ve shown a couple tigers, and a few wild dogs. Here’s another reason to stay in the jeep – wild pigs. (Our guides and our guide book called them wild pigs – Sus scrofa, but they are called wild boar in other resources.) They are omnivores but not actually a threat to humans. They just look to me like they should be avoided. Here are two wild pigs along a trail near our jeep.

Here are two cooling off in a mud pond one very hot afternoon.

And here is a surprising (to me) sighting of a spotted deer and a wild pig calmly grazing together. Perhaps this is a survival advantage – tigers will hunt and eat either but together one may sense the threat and provide a warning to the other.

Next are the birds. I have yet to mention the birds because I was the outlier. I wasn’t particularily interested but everyone else loved photographing birds! They’d sit still for the longest time just for the chance of getting a good bird photograph. I got a few – including these two images of peacocks but I’d rather photograph animals that sit still longer! I did find it interesting that these male peacocks will lose their huge plumes after the mating season.

These peacock males were easy to spot – I never saw a female so I wondered why we saw so many males displaying their beautiful patterns.

I was also fascinated by these strange looking Malabar Pied Hornbills. Evidentially the upper beak magnifies their call so that they can be heard a long distance way.

For fun, this is as close as I’ve ever gotten to a decent bird-in-flight photograph!

Bouncing along as we did in our jeeps, here is a small collection of three more wild dog photographs that fascinated me.

Next, bouncing back to birds – here are 4 images: a Lesser Adjutant Stork, two Indian White Eye birds probably courting, and a Crested Serpent Eagle in the top row with an image of two Asian Green Bee-eaters in the bottom image.

And for my birding grand finale: (Top row, left to right), Indian Scops-Owl, Jungle Owl, and a Crested Hawk Eagle; (Second row, left to right), Indian Roller, White Rumped Vulture, and a Painted Stork. And finally, on the bottom, a Painted Spurfowl male! (Of course I thought it was my next door neighbor’s Rooster – but I didn’t say so aloud!)

I think I should have earned an Audubon membership card for all these pictures. However the local Audubon Society takes my dues but won’t admit me to full membership until I can rattle off all those names without looking up each and everyone of them – they also expect me to recognize each bird by its call! I’ll never earn my card!!

Now another trip highlight. As we drove we learned that a sloth bear might be nearby. Native to India, they are somewhat rare and hard to find. The naturalist and guide discussion sounded like this would be another boring hours long search with very little chance of success – so I said let’s move on. I was out-voted. Amazing, within 10 minutes the guides found it! I guess I can’t always be right (cue the laugh track!)

Sloth bears are a bit deceptive. A smallish bear about 200 pounds – the size of a small American black bear, their simple diet focuses on ants, insects, termites, and fruits. But they are responsible for many human deaths and injuries. They think their best defense is a strong offense and will stand their ground and attack whenever they feel threatened. They will even attack tigers! Our sloth is a perfect example of the species …

As our sloth bear ambled by I got this quick picture. Note the claws on the front paw and look at the extended lower lip. Both help the bear dig and gather up ants and termites. Now look at the series of pictures below. Sensing a meal, the sloth bear sniffs around then starts excavations with his claws and lower lip. You can clearly see the open gash on his forehead – he has been in a recent fight with some animal. And if you englarge one of the images by clicking on it, you can see a scar near the top of his nose which is probably a remnant of an earlier fight.

This sloth bear is on the hunt for insects or ants – but after finding little he ambles off.

I think that we can see that all of the animals of the park have become accustomed to the hundreds of jeeps that pass through daily. All of us photographers and sightseers appear to be part of the vehicle and pose no threat. The animals simply ignore us and go about their business.

Still, I definitely am not going to get out of our jeep! Below, we sit in our jeeps as our guides and naturalists look around, listen, and plan our next move.

The landscape around us usually looks something like the forest our jeeps are driving through in the picture above or the mixed grasslands and forest shown in the two pictures below.

We photographers also spent hours – watching and listening. Patience is a virtue I told myself – more than once!

Now I’ll return to the spotted deer we found everywhere …

The tall grasses were a two edge sword – they provide cover making the deer hard to see or to follow. But they also provide cover for the tigers. Tigers are big, heavy beasts so they are fast in a sprint but tire in any long chase. Hiding in the weeds may help them get close …

There is also variety in these weeds. Besides these deer we saw these Blackbuck Antelopes …

and more langur monkeys!

To me, it was amazing how the infants instinctively hold on to their mothers as the mother races up a tree. Surprising too because the infants hold on underneath mom, not riding along on top as I naively expected.

And I really loved how the young spotted deer followed mom ….

Meanwhile, the Gaur were also a common sight. Similar to our North American bison, these huge animals peacefully grazed and ate leaves. I was delighted to catch a long tongue reaching upward, then actually grabbing the leaf and delivering it into their mouth.

Now, let’s return to our stars – cooling off in quiet, remote pools …

or, resting before moving on for the hunt …

I’ll leave you with this last image. I feel his power and am glad that he is not looking at me as his next meal!

For now, I’ll rest – probably for about 6 months or more – as I recuperate from shoulder replacement surgery. I hope the recovery time will give me time to plan my next adventure! Anyone want to come along?