Pam and I have officially finished our Fulbright Fellowships. As my buddy Hank says we have reverted back to being Halfbrights. We decided to head north to the state of Uttaranchal, which shares its northern boundary with Tibet and its eastern boundary with Nepal. Uttaranchal is a new state since 2000 and had been part of the large state of Uttar Pradesh. I can see why the two pieces of geography were separated. Uttar Pradesh is as flat and green as a billiard table, whereas, Uttaranchal is the foothills and peaks of the Himalaya Mountains.
Our first stop was Corbett National Park, India’s first national park. Jim Corbett was a writer, conservationist, and hunter who was noted for being able to track and kill man-eating tigers and leopards. His biography (1875-1957) is quite a story in itself and his books about the jungles where he lived are very enjoyable.
We signed up for a jeep safari to go into Corbett National Park. No walking in the jungle is allowed, seems they don’t want to convert any tigers to the man-eating variety. After seeing and hearing the tiger in the above image eat a monkey whole, I think the “no walking rule” is a good rule. When this picture was taken Pam and I were safely sitting atop an elephant. The elephant and the tiger had a few words to share when we happened upon this tiger with a very fresh kill. The tiger growled convincingly and the elephant answered with a loud trumpet, and the mahout quickly got the elephant to back up away from the tiger. A tiger eating is not a pretty sight, his jaws are so powerful that he just crunched and ate the monkey whole!!! Our very own Discovery Channel episode.
Besides the eating tiger above we saw another tiger roaming through the jungle, wild elephants, a group of five wild boar, three species of deer (spotted, barking and sambar), a very large python snake, three serpent eagles, macaque and black-faced monkeys, many peacocks, a black stork, and many other species of smaller birds. What a treat.
