This is meant for those people who go into the jungle in great anticipation of sighting an apex predator called tiger.
Usually these people can be classified in three categories viz a traveller who has come for an outing and visits the forest for a change, the second category is of wildlife enthusiast who does visit forests on a fairly regular basis and have some knowledge about wildlife in general and the third category is of professionals who come and pay visit to the forests often for the purpose of study, research, documentation and in-depth analysis. But one thing is common among all the three categories, i.e. to sight a striped cat.
People from the first category are generally happy go lucky ones whose basic endeavor is to spend a quality time somewhere out away from their home and hectic routine. These are the sort of people who will do couple of rounds to the jungle and if they happen to see a big cat in the wild even if it is a glimpse they will consider that they have got their money's worth. The fortune of their tiger sightings totally depends on the driver and the guide accompanying them, their travel agents and of course luck also plays its part. Their probability of sighting is very less and is about 10-20 percent or maybe even low.
Now folks from the second category are bit more wiser, they know few things better than the masses from the first category. Their aim is to enjoy wildlife clubbed with few tiger sightings on the way. These people do more rounds to the jungle than the first ones and their probability of sighting a tiger goes up. Their sightings depend on factors like accompanists, their knowledge which they have acquired over a period of time and their luck. Sighting probability of these type of people is around 20-40 percent.
As far as the people from the third category are concerned their ratio of sightings are the best just because of the fact that they are more experienced, well trained, their sense of timing and the immense knowledge they possess about their subject. It's not that the accompanying guide and drivers along with destiny doesn't play any part in their sightings, on the contrary these wise men often choose the best in the business for themselves because every sighting is a matter of bread and butter for them. Their sighting probability is usually about 60-80 percent.
Many times people say, tiger sighting is all about to be at the right place at the right time which is true to some extent but I always say if you want to see a tiger, don't purely rely on your luck alone, make things happen for yourself and work hard for, to be at the right place at the right time. So what does it means is the obvious question ? I say anybody who is visiting a wild and have a desire to see a tiger in the wild can enhance one's probability and match it to the ones of the professionals, provided you do your homework first . Now what sort of homework does one need to do is the question? The answers is below.
Try to take as much information as possible from the locals, guides and drivers. Ask things like when was the last sighting reported? Try to understand the habitat of that particular jungle, zone and route allotted to you and try to figure out the presence of number of tiger / tigers on a specified route. For those who don't know let me tell you tigers are highly territorial animals and they will often been seen in their own marked territories. Try to know about the major locations such as lakes, waterholes, grasslands, valleys etc.on the route specified.
Be alert and patient. Keep your eyes and ears wide open. Try to listen to the alarm calls raised by different animals in the vicinity and always keep an eye for pugmarks on the dusty and muddy jungle floors, you may get a clue or two as to which direction a tiger have headed to. Always drive slowly and check the strategic locations such as nallahs, firelines, waterholes more frequently. At times biding your time and waiting at a particular location such as waterhole for instance also pays rich dividends. Always feel the air in the jungle, you may come across a stench smell of a rotting carcass in any particular area. Think from the point of view of a tiger and question yourself as to where would you be at that given point of time had you been a tiger yourself depending upon the climatic conditions.
Always try to utilize the full time allotted to you for the safari, and make it a point to go in first and come out last. I am sure by following the above points your success ratio of sighting a tiger goes up drastically and by doing so you are not doing any harm to your probabilities on the contrary it will help you in becoming a better wildlifer.
And at last but not the least, even after following the above guidelines if you don't get to see a tiger, then you may surely say that you weren't destined to sight a tiger. However I would say do not get dishearten and comeback rejuvenated and follow this routine again, luck cannot elude you every now and then.
