Birding with Ram Gopalakrishnan: Panna: truly a well polished diamond

She walked straight towards us, mindful of the excited whispers and click-click-click of the dozen or so cameras focused on her. When barely a vehicle length away, the large female tiger turned away into the tall grass beside the road. We collectively exhaled!

Vistas of rolling plateaus with a crocodile filled river snaking between them, woodlands and grasslands melding imperceptibly and containing almost all Indian herbivores, vultures in numbers you cant see nowadays in India and most importantly tigers, tigers, tigers…! That’s Panna Tiger Reserve and National Park for you.

Panna is a short distance away from the world famous Khajuraho temples of Northern Madhya Pradesh. The word Panna means diamond, formerly mined at the nearby town from which the reserve gets its name. The tiger reserve's lifeline is the river Ken which runs in a northeastern direction through the park. The park was notorious for being in the news when all its tigers were poached out a decade and a half ago. However the 50-70 tigers here now are a true testament to a successful translocation program starting with just three individuals from other reserves in MP. Leave them alone in an undisturbed habitat and these prolific breeders will do the rest.

Panna constitutes the easternmost range of the teak tree Tectona grandis and the khardai (Anogisesus pendula). The park is quite different from forests like Kanha and Bandhavgarh in having a unique series of plateaus: this permits for both savannah grasslands on the tabletop and dry deciduous forest elsewhere. This multitude of habitats supports a variety of herbivores, which in turn offer a bountiful prey base to the apex predator. We saw herds of sambar deer which is quite unusual for this relatively solitary main staple for the tiger. The chousingha or four horned antelope, a reclusive animal that flees on first sight, is probably best seen in India on the tabletops here.

Imagine a three-sided gorge with its sheer cliffs supporting a couple of hundred critically endangered vultures! This is exactly what you can see at Vulture point, a highlight of any trip to Panna. We saw White-rumped, Indian and Egyptian Vultures at the gorge and the Red-headed in numbers nearby. In winter, the migrating griffon vultures congregate here as well making the gorge one of the must visit wildlife spots anywhere in India.

And the tigers are here in numbers. A mother and her two cubs gambolled in the setting sun on the Ken river, making for some spectacular photos. A sub-adult padded away on the riverbank as we followed her from the opposite bank. Tiger tourism is well organized here with knowledgeable guides and most importantly, absence of the tiger traffic jams that dog most popular tiger reserves.

Despite the 45 C summer heat, we ran up a bird count of 125. An unusually bold Black Bittern enjoyed its fish lunch in the open. “Painted” species were regularly seen: Francolin, Snipe, Sandgrouse, Spurfowl! Savannah and Jungle Nightjars popped up everywhere on the ground, invisible to all except the drivers who knew their locations. And of course the vultures.

All is not well in this paradise however. The improperly thought out and highly controversial Ken-Betwa river linking project threatens to drown much of this iconic forest for uncertain economic benefit: one hopes against hope that it will not be completed and this resurrected tiger habitat remains one for generations to come.

So next time you get the tiger itch but want to avoid surging crowds and a traffic jam, combine a trip to this unique tiger reserve with a detour to the Khajuraho temples: you wont be disappointed!