It was a leisurely morning safari with no agenda of finding anything in particular. We were happy looking for birds and talking about the funnel-web spiders and the tinder fungus, locally known as elephant-foot fungus, observing a Jackal tearing the last bits of flesh from a dead monkey and an Ashy Drongo indulging in aerobatics while chasing a moth in flight.
While driving on a forest road between a plantation on one side and the thick jungle on the other, we were halted by the sudden and rapidly repeated alarm calls of Spotted Deer, Red Junglefowl and Peafowl. The calls were originating from the jungle side and when the pitch of the calls became extremely feverish, we expected the Tiger to emerge anytime from that direction.
Suddenly, the Spotted Deer ran helter-skelter through thick undergrowth and from the corner of my eye on the plantation side, I saw a Tiger walking parallel to us. Contrary to our assumption that the Tiger would come out of the jungle, it was in the plantation, probably in plain view all the time, while we were focusing all our attention towards the jungle side where the alarm calls were coming from. The Tiger walked without any haste, completely ignoring our presence, crossed the road and disappeared in the jungle.
Manoj Sharma, Chief Naturalist, Jim’s Jungle Retreat