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What a Day at Sariska
Our team had decided to go on an early morning walk, right after our encounter with the hyena the day before, in the hopes of finding one again. The team split into 2 groups: Minaxi Ma’am, Sneha, and Hastee in one; Mahipal Sir and I in the other. We, the students of Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda have been staying here at Utsav Camp Sariska for a few days, learning everything and anything we could learn, from identifying animals from Patterns, Paw marks, and Behaviour. Every morning starts with walks around the Camp’s Property near Boulders & fields.
Mahipal Sir and I were the ones who left a little earlier than everyone else that day, because we had a larger area to cover. We started our walk around 5:00 am. The walk was easy, soft, and everything felt nice, with a hint of petrichor lingering in the air. We spotted some common birds here and there, as we flashed our lights side by side.
Mahipal Sir and I were having a conversation about yesterday’s snake rescue, well yeah, yesterday was eventful: hyena & snakes, 2 animals I’m very passionate about, both seen on the same day. So, we were discussing how well we’d handled the situation.
Excitement Or Fear?
THAT is when our torch flashed on 4 yellow-white eyes, glowing in the pitch darkness. Everything stopped the moment our eyes landed on those bright, shining globes: 4 of them, staring right at us. Excitement. Fear. Adrenaline rushing through my entire body. I was so scared something might happen (we were too close, hardly ~50 metres away, probably less) but at the same time, I was thrilled that the animal we were searching for was right there, looking dead at us. We could hardly make out what animals they were. We made a wild guess, maybe a blue bull, wild boar... or *leopard*? The tension was as thin as the air. We were unsure what was in front of us, but there we were, scared and excited, standing frozen
Morning, 5:34 AM; The World Was Dark, ALMOST DARK
The confusion lingered for a few more minutes before a pair of glowing yellow eyes decided to step closer, slipping quietly from our sight into the nearby bushes. The distance grew shorter. To our surprise, we lost sight of the other pair of eyes. One had stepped closer, and the other had vanished.
Now, we didn’t know where the second one had gone, and we were standing in front of a possible predator. Sir didn’t look that scared, so for some unknown reason, I didn’t feel that scared either. The feeling was surreal. My heart was pounding hard in my chest when our lights finally revealed the beautiful rosettes. A head, with magical yellow glowing eyes, looking up and down, just like an owl, confused, yet curious.
We didn’t even know what happened in the next literal second. As fast as everything had happened, it ended twice as fast. Someone once said it well: leopards are indeed masters of tricks and camouflage. Because now, after a brief glance, the other leopard had disappeared too.
We waited a good 10–15 minutes, searching around, right where we had seen them, before taking a single step to look around the nearby area in hope. Everything happened too quickly, but it was everything I had been waiting to experience.
It’s been over a month, we are tracking, spotting, and identifying animals, learning many other things alongside, tasks of the front office, dealing with guests, and many more. With that I volunteered to focus especially about the coexistence of Human and Leopard in and around Tehla. My detailed work is available in the link below: Leopard-Human Coexistence.
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