Diary entry on a narrow escape from a tiger
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I was excited when my father decided to take us to Bandipur National Park during the summer holidays. It had been a dream of mine. I packed my camera, a pair of binoculars and a copy of The Book of Indian Birds by Salim Ali among other things.
On May 21, as dawn broke, my parents and I started for the National Park from Mysore in a taxi. It was a 90-minute smooth drive. At the check post, we changed over to a van and went into the forest. As soon as we entered the trail, we were greeted by a Crested Hawk Eagle hovering over a cluster of trees. It is a bird of prey, with a slender brown and white body and black streaks. It has a long, narrow crest behind its head. Then we saw a solitary Sambar deer looking intently at us. We moved ahead and saw a peacock in all its splendour strutting and posing for our cameras. A group of Hanuman langurs was jumping from tree to tree. In a clearing, a solitary gaur was grazing placidly as a Muntjac deer scampered across our path. This goat-sized deer with its reddish fawn coat barks like a dog. So it’s also called a barking deer. We saw a White-bellied Treepie with its beautiful chestnut body perched on a tree stump.