I saw through the corner of my eyes that a young female Leopard had crouched on the ground as soon as it heard our vehicle approach. As we stopped, it looked at us and we were looking into eyes of each other.
On the morning of 06th Nov, 2014 we were assigned Zone-1 for our visit and we were happy since Noor aka T-39 was spotted with a kill there last evening. Our friends had been very fortunate to have seen her carrying a kill of small fawn of spotted deer on 05th evening. We entered Zone – 1 and proceeded slowly and cautiously in the zone hoping that we will be able to sight Noor and her cubs somewhere. However, after about 75 minutes of patient waiting there was no sign of them. We decided to take a drive on the other side of Sultanpur Chauki towards Gadhadoob.
As we proceeded to 'Gadhadoob' and went up to the last point on the trail but could not see anything of interest except few birds. While we were returning back, the river was on our left and the jungle on the right, and we heard alarm calls from Monkeys and Indian Peafowl in the jungle on the right. We contemplated that these calls declared the presence of a Leopard in the vicinity. I was excited as the Leopard was one of the five big cats of genus – Panthera, of which I had not yet taken a decent picture. This is because of the fact that Leopard is very shy and evasive of Humans and can reach a speed of 58 km/hr while running.
We proceeded cautiously and slowly in our Gypsy vehicle and reached the point where a tree had fallen. There we stopped the vehicle and waited for some time. The alarm calls continued for some time and then subsided. As the calls subsided, we decided to go ahead and try our luck with Noor and its cubs. As we proceeded further, Ajit Singh who was on my left side and has proved to be an excellent spotter of animals in the Jungle, squeezed the shoulder of Nischal Goel sitting in front of us and asked the driver excitedly to stop the vehicle. Within friction of a second, I saw through the corner of my eyes that a young female Leopard had crouched on the ground as soon as it heard our vehicle approach. As we stopped, it looked at us and we were looking into eyes of each other. Within a friction of second as I lifted my Camera and tried to focus on it through the view finder, it was already leaping ahead and almost vanished. We asked our Guide as well as driver to proceed cautiously so as not to loose the animal as well as to maintain safe distance.
As we went forward, it was not to be seen anywhere and once again Ajit Singh asked the driver to stop the vehicle and gestured me to have a look at 8 o’clock position towards the back left side.
There I saw it sitting under a tree behind some shrubs and foliage. Fortunately, sunlight was falling on it whereas the undergrowth around it was under the shade. I picked up my Nikon D610 (Owned by Nischal, who graciously offered me to use it) with my Nikon 200-400 mm f/4 AF-S VR-II lens. As soon as I picked the camera and peered through its view finder, I knew that I had a good click although the Leopard was behind leaves & branches of some shrubs. I took a couple record clicks and then disengaged the auto focus on my camera lens and manually focussed on the animal’s right eye. The result is here for you all to judge.
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