Salt Licks are the favorite spots for any animal living in the jungles. These spots contain deposits of salts/minerals such as Sodium, Calcium, Iron, Zinc and Phosphorous etc.,  which are essential for their growth and to keep themselvesin good health. These animals discover these spots intuitively and visit often whenever there is a need in their bodies.

We happened to witness this female elephant in an early morning at Bandipur, about a few months ago. It was so busy at its task and was least bothered about our presence. We spent around one hour with this animal, taking numerous shots of its varied behavior.

It first loosens the mud with its foot and then carefully sucks the mud containing the salts/minerals using its trunk. It sends the mud into its mouth by pushing the air through the trunk. It was so interesting to see its act as it was creating a smoke around its mouth whenever it was pushing the mud into its mouth.

Shot Using Canon 1Ds Mark III mounted with 70-200 lens.

Summer had just started to show its fangs…I was in Bandipur on 7th and 8th February 2009. Green Leaves have turned to be brown and trees have started to shed their dry leaves.  Animals had already started their migration from this park to other places where they would find water and food.

The road in the above image is a Highway running through the Bandipur National Park connecting Mudumalai Wildlife sanctuary of Tamilnadu state. Thousands of vehicle ply night and day causing the sanctuary a big disturbance.This sanctuary is under Project Tiger and is a very sensitive forest.  Recently Karnataka government, banned the night drivings  through the park and this brought big relief to the Nature Lovers.

It is always a habit to shoot landscapes with wide angle lenses…but on the contrary I shot this image using my 70-200 canon lens, hand held.

Zoom at 78mm, Shutter 1/200sec, Aperture f/13… ISO @ 200

As the summer approaches, the forest fires are inevitable. The fire happens  due to various reasons and among them the main reason being Tourism. Irresponsible tourists throw their ignited cigarette buds on their way, and this sparks the heavy fire.

It was 11-30 pm in the night and I was returning from Bandipur. I saw this forest fire on the way. I stopped the car at a far away place and changed my lens from 70-200 Tele to 17-40  Wide  mounting  on a tripod.  I started to approach the fire slowly as the heat and its radiation was very high. I took several images trying various compositions.  It was very windy and the fire started  spreading its fangs ruthlessly in all directions. At one point of time I realized that I am almost surrounded all around by the fire. Immediately started running away with tripod to escape. I found a safe place and took this shot.

We were traveling very slowly in our car on the high way connecting Bandipur and Mudumalai sancturies. It was around 12-30 noon and the tigress came out of the lantana bush to our surprise on the left hand side of our car. By the time we realized the presence of the tigress, the car had gone a few meters away. We returned back to the spot and saw the tigress in the bush,  scanning the vicinity. To our further surprise, we saw the cubs behind her a few meters away . They were 3 in numbers.  May be, the Tigress was studying the risk factors of crossing the road with its cubs..