This park is known world over as a Land Of Trumpet ,Roar and Songs.

As a student whether in school , degree college or engineering ,seniors always advised before exams how to answer the questions to pass the examination. The advice was very simple. The beginning of the answer has to be clear and to the point as if replying correctly and relevant to the question asked . Then you write anything in the middle and finally the end paragraph should be proper and correct. This pattern was followed at most of the places. In fact at that time the marks were given by the examiner based on the length of the answer and no body had the time to go through each and every word of it. Hence this was true for many except for the toppers.One was happy to follow the advice and life went on from school to college and many of them got a decent job.

To me it appears the same way the phrase Land of Trumpet Roar and the Songs was framed as far as this park is concerned . Most of the tourists visit the park to see the tiger. But where is the tiger ?. They observe lot of elephants which trumpet when approached at a close distance and one has to run for the life. They may see lot of birds resident or migratory depending upon the time of the visit to the park and listen to the songs from them.

Where is the roar (middle part of the phrase) of the most elusive BIG CAT which every tourist to the park like to see as soon as he /she enters the park ?

In general most of the tourists goes back to their destinations without having even a glimpse of the tiger because they come with a mind set of seeing the tiger waiting for them at the gates of the tiger reserve.

I have been coming to the park for the past 12 years as a nature lover to enjoy the beauty of nature not available in the town or cities . This is the place best known for elephants and the birds and not for shooting the tigers. As a photographer the subject has to before you and you should be able to record their behavior as per your wish depending on the mood of the animal. Here the subject being wild acts as per his /her mood.

I have been coming to Dhikala just to shoot elephants in the Dhikala Chaur or Ramganga river or in the forest. It has never disapointed as they are very much there from April to June which is the best time to cover them.

This year I came for 6 game drives to the park with my family and it was a dream time for every body .I could see the darling of Dhikala known as Parwali in only one game drive and that was the classical and most memorable .Some of the family members were fortunate to see during 4 game drives in the other vehicle.The presence of elephants and especially the tuskers in the Dhikala Chaur and crossing the river in the early morning gives a feeling as if you are not on this planet. You are in a HEAVEN as long as you are here.

Enjoy some of the shots of only ELEPHANTS from my treasure trove from the recent visit ( 30th May to 2nd June 2017).

About Vinod Goel

He joined Customs & Central Excise service in 1982. As a civil servant, his job takes him to various parts of India, which gave him an opportunity to capture our wild heritage, through his camera. His passion for wildlife photography started in 2004 when he was posted at Raipur (Chhattisgarh) and this passion continues till today.