Call Of The Hill Myna...

Photo Credits:  Ameen Ahmed / Diwakar Sharma / WWF-India I sighted my first tiger one summer afternoon in south-interior India's Bandipur Tiger Reserve, I guess in 1981 - 82. This was from an elephant back during a trip with my immediate family. I was 6 or 7 then and the tigress was with its cubs at a waterhole. Ever since, I have occasionally seen tigers in the wild. But I never got close with a camera, like the one below. On 25 June this year, I made my decent use of this oppurtunity, 27 - 28 years later at Ranthambore National Park and Tiger Reserve in North India's state of Rajasthan. I was there with my colleague of WWF-India Dr. Diwakar Sharma. We were able to sight and photograph 'T17', a friendly tigress that roams just behind the entrance gate to the safari area in Ranthambore National Park. She is said to be the daughter of 'Machili', a widely known and photographed tigresses in this park. We were lucky to observe her behavi

This was my first visit to the North-East and I couldn't resist asking my driver to stop the car at dozens of places along the drive from Bagdogra airfield ( West Bengal ) to Gangtok ( Sikkim ). The drive is dominated by Teesta, which seems omnipresent through much of the journey. This was summer and the beautiful river was lazily meandering through the tall and handsome canyons in these Himalayan foothills. The river and valley, I thought, must have been made for each other. I have rarely seen things in my life so nicely supplementing, complimenting and blending with each other...the Teesta River and its valley. View Larger Map Below are the images of the landscape as one drives up from Siliguri. --- For more information about a destination, have a tourist destination or your property listed on this page or to buy an image please email the author at tumkurameen@gmail.com