Bird's eye view of Sariska.

Spotting the tiger is impossible here.But this national park is worth a while for wildlife junkies

IT IS WITH some trepidation that we decided to venture out to Sariska National Park. And with good reason. It is possibly the worst place to be if you are a tiger ( or view one if you are a human visitor); its ticket vendors -- park employees all -- routinely cheat visitors ( more on that later), it has very little to offer in terms of hotel accommodation apart from a Rajasthan Tourism hotel and its park guides are definitely the most ill- informed of all the national parks in India ( once again, more on that later).

And yes, the closest semblance of human civilisation is at Alwar which is around 30 km away.

Yet, Sariska for Sariska's sake has a strange charm to it, especially if you visit in the early days of winter when it is not too hot and not too cold, just right. It's a not- to- tiring 200- minute drive from Delhi and if you follow the Delhi- Jaipur Expressway, the drive is in fact a pleasure, provided, of course, you don't bang into cattle or the people that keep crossing the road every 1500 metres ( yes, there is a reason why Indian cars don't have cruise control).

There are several resorts in Alwar, and although it is highly recommended that you stay at the RTDC accommodations close to the park, Alwar's reasonably well- done- up resorts are not a bad option either. Just that you have to pay an obscenely large amount for hardly any service.

Since we had landed up on the Diwali weekend, the staff at most resorts were out celebrating, and the ones at Ritumbhara -- where we eventually ended up at the recommendation of a local zoologist Arvind Mathur -- turned out to be a place where the junior cooks refused to make rice for dinner as they were too drunk.

The gap between civilisation and Alwar's resorts is immense, and both my wife and I, two people who are generally not shocked at weird things that take place at hotels after having frequented scores in at least half a dozen countries, did a double- take when the fully dressed man at the reception we met around 20 minutes ago came to take our dinner orders with his canary yellow shirt completely unbuttoned and displaying a stringy once- it- was- white vest that last said hello to detergent when he was a sprightly eight- year- old.

His nonchalance indicated that it was perfectly normal for him and his ilk to move around the resort in a state of partial undress, even as our restlessness increased by the minute. It was only providential that when he returned to serve our dinner, he had indeed buttoned up his shirt. Not that it was a pleasing sight. A canary yellow shirt, as fashion designers would tell you, do not go with blue jeans that have patches stuck on them.

But who were we to complain? We had come to Sariska slash Alwar to view the tiger and assorted animals in the jungle; so Alwar's sartorial preferences could take a hike for all we cared.

As you drive down to the park, please don't kick yourself of having missed the entrance to the welcome area. It is quite possible that if your car happens to be a rather large SUV, it won't even make it beyond the narrow portal that passes off as the entrance. If you do manage to make it past, please beware of the ticket vendor.

You'd be amazed at how many types of manipulations are possible by just issuing national park tickets, but the man behind the counter -- who later turned out to be an RSS Swayamsewak -- gypped me off Rs 125 as park entrance charges for the vehicle. I did not realise until much later that in fact I had not entered the park, just the parking area.

The outfit must surely be in a bad financial state if its Swayamsevaks have to dupe naE[macron]ve and innocent tourists to the park to make their money. And just where does that leave the BJP? To his credit, the ticket vendor did give me and my family a " Namaste" when we left the park three hours later.

BUT then, shouldn't the park authorities mention that in the price list: One Namaste ? Rs 125? It's only fair, I say. When we hopped on to a Maruti Gypsy for a guided tour of the park ( Rs 900 for three hours), a well- meaning man in his 50s turned out be the driver.

But desire to be remain quiet during the trip and be affable to us was only equalled in his ability to not able to identify even the commonest of birds. So the falcon became the eagle, the coucal became the drongo and the grey francolin became the Indian partridge. After a while, I was just glad he could identify a crocodile sunbathing at the watering hole.

But this momentary euphoria was just that. A Roufus Treepie went unidentified (" It is some kind of bird," he enlightened us) and later, on realising that his wards knew more about birds than he did, he sagely kept quiet for the rest of the journey except at one place where he got down to answer the call of nature and indicated his forward journey to the bathroom by lifting his little finger.

It was here that he found his voice and he asked -- very kindly, I must add -- whether we needed access to the bathroom.

Thankfully, Sariska was not as empty as Gopal Sharma's knowledge reservoir. The sheer number of birds would delight anyone, and with Langur, spotted deer and the Neelgai dotting the place at just about every thicket and clearing, the journey in the car wouldn't be as tiring as I thought it would be.

It was not surprising we did not see the tiger. After all, there are only two in an area of forest that covers 866 sq km. The remaining have been poached and it was realised only last year that Sariska is without its greatest heritage.

If you'd go only in search of the tiger, there are very high chances that they will remain so. However, if you do go inside, watch the other biodiversity. The birds and the animals are a treat to watch, and we even got to see a crested serpent eagle drying itself after a slight drizzle.

It was a majestic sight, at the very least.

Now, if only we had seen the tiger.

sachin. kalbag @ mailtoday. in

GETTING TO SARISKA

Take the Delhi- Jaipur Expressway via Gurgaon and look for the left turn at Dharuhera in Haryana, which will take you to Alwar. You can either stay at Alwar, which is around 30 km from Sariska, or stay in Sariska at any of the Rajasthan Tourism resorts.

FAUNA AT SARISKA

The saddest part of Sariska is the poaching, which led to all its 15 tigers being killed. In 2008, the government introduced two tigers from Ranthambore National Park, one male and one female. Later in 2009, another female was introduced.

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