Don’t scream” said our driver who was a sensible man in his sixties .we all put our hands to our lips to stifle the scream that was frightening to come out .we were driving the narrow path which had step precipice on either sides in the Nagarhole forest in Karnataka to our left in the area below .we had all seen a huge grey mass…an elephant! Naturally’ as soon as we identified it ‘in our excitement we let out a yell and our driver objected. Next he was not prepared to stop ‘single elephants are risky only mad elephant roam all over alone it is better to get away from hare as fast as possible “he advised. But we felt we could live on the edge what is the visit to the forest if it is without adventure? So we each trooped out of the car cautiously and noiselessly to get a better look it took a second to find the grey mass was just a huge stone.

Without searching at the smirk on our driver’s face .we stacked in into the vehicle again and continue drive dipper into the park .which is spread over 634km. lying between Bangalore and corgi about 93km south west of my sore  ‘Nagarhole and the adjacent forest area . Bandipura are not famous just for elephants and tigers but also for teak sandalwood silver oak and rosewood. The name Nagarhole translate nag meaning snakes and hole meaning streams there are many channels and rivulets flowing through the forest an fascinating forest it is overflowing with wild life be these reptiles’ birds or the largest animals like elephants and tigers but they have caught glimpses of elephant herds even if from at a distance.

We were booked in kabana lodge of the previous Maharaja of my sore. builder who was engaged in some construction work in the forest told us of his temporary housing deep within the forest 0 tempted with that idea must against the guidance of our driver we bought onion payolas and jack fruit  for diner.

The dense tree cover dark to the forest rater early and soon we were inside our shack with the parting guidance of our driver ringing in our ears “do not play music loud animal get upset and do not take the foolish risk of walking toward the river we smiled at him and had chose to do just that we could not go back from a wild life with no story to tell on animal seen except lizards

Our host made us a cup of tea and chose to cut the jack fruit first for that would take time he cut the huge fruit into half as were chatting and sipping our tea when we felt anything like an earth quake. May be an elephant into the park which is spreads walking around “my host joked. A silence fell as each one reflected on this probability .A hyand called and sent a shiver down our spine.”He revealed the last time I was hearing …”his voice gets lost as a din arrived along with the same kind of tremor. We were absolutely hearing animals .our hearts and minds seeking adventure animals now shriveled in fear “what was that ?“ we kept asking the others. And we could feel the minutes coming closer. Our shacks were rocking and the audio was below it away. It was then we heard a knock was on the rear screen

Peeping trough it gingerly though we knew no creature would be so polite as to knock we found our driver pushed near our window we let him in elephants are stomping to your hut because of the smell of jack fruit. Give the fruit them “he yelled. By now fear had made us motionless imagine facing the elephant with a jack fruit! So we asked our diver to do the honor he did not wait a minute longer. He opens the door and flung the jack fruit outdoors as far as he could. In one or two minutes the noise started receding and our hears of elephants were going back… so our driver said as he open the door to check out. We were to scads our chair to move our driver said we did get to see many elephant’s backsides stomping apart. The next morning as mee0kar tourists we drove through the entire forest ‘so green and so cool. Bugs and reptiles we saw in plenty. We saw spotted deer we saw cobra sliding in the grass we found them amazing satisfying. You see we were still getting our breath back after the last night’s episode a part of which have elephants have taken away with them forever.