Sawai Madhopur Things to Do

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This craft centre was really worth the visit. It has been established to give the lower-caste local women an outlet for the beautiful hand made clothes, bags , bedspreads and other textile crafts that they produce. They get a decent share of the profits, and it provides them with much needed financial assitance. We bought clothing there, (Richard still wears his favourite shirt) and I bought handbags, a wall hanging, and various bits and pieces. The craft centre is situated in a leafy glen, with the women sitting quietly outside, doing the hand sewing. They were colorfully dressed, and shyly covered their smiling faces when I approached, asking if I could photograph them. Needless to say, they obliged.

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The pictures show the tiger having a drink in the lake, then rubbing the mud off in the grass (he'd been keeping cool in the mud), before walking past our jeeps. It was amazing - we were so pleased to see this, particularly given we had seen nothing in the morning but evening we see the Tiger.

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Until very recently, this was a hunting preserve under the ownership of the Rajput leadership in Jaipur. This was of course long after the fortress became ruins, so the period during the late nineteenth to mid-twenty centuries, provided an opportunity for royalty to get away from the din of the city. Along the jeep trails are various lodges and other buildings from this period.

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The park derives it's name from the famous fortress where an entire Radjput army, with women and children, were once besieged and slaughtered by Mogul forces. The fortress has been a place where tigers roam, and may not be open for visitors at the time of arrival. However, the entrance steps to the fortress are right near the ranger station, and the walls can be seen from various places in the park.

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Tigers will actually go after whatever opportunity they find for meat, including monkeys, peacocks, peahens, and so on. These animals are not easy prey to catch, but happenstance can provide a quick meal during times of desperation. Kingfisher, monkeys, and wort hogs, were plentiful.

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My best still shoots were naturally of the landscape which is surprisingly varied. Early in the morning, a mist from the lake shrouded the trails in beautiful hues, whereas later in the afternoon the almost parched upper trails made me want to reach for the water bottle quite often. It was in a narrow canyon jeep trail where we came across the lone female tigeress.

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The lake tends to dry out during part of the year when the monsoons are not watering it. So, the animals wade well into the lake, feeding on the rich supply of floating grasses and other flora. This feeding by cloven animals in particular provides an opportunity for both tigers and crocodiles, who will often contend with each other over a carcass. The lake has many scenic advantages, and there is a Rajput era hunting lodge that has a pleasant view across the lake, can be seen from the jeep trail.

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Since tigers need plenty of raw meat, the entire ecosystem needs to be rich in game of all sorts. The lake in the park is home to the tiger's greater competition for meat--freshwater crocodiles. The lake is so rich in hydroponically growing plants that the cloven hoof animals love to wade into the lake to feed. However, both tigers and crocodiles are known to hunt these animals during such feeding. the park is host to spotted deer, the Indian Sambar, and the Bluebull. Sorry for the limited number of stills here. I mostly used the video camera for wildlife image capturing, and I haven't taken time to screen capture any particular images from that tape. But, these few stills will provide a rough idea of what to expect.