‘Thrilled to sight Bagheera and all Jungle Book characters’

Nagpur: Belgian trade commissioner Jean-Francois Aernouts, who was the lucky tourist to sight a black panther in Tadoba and Andhari Tiger Reserve on Tuesday, said he initially mistook it to be a civet cat. “Naturalist Swarna Chakrabarty saw it with his binoculars and signalled to click pictures quickly saying it was a rare sighting of a black panther. As I was busy with my daughter, my wife Juliet managed to click two pictures,” he told TOI on Wednesday.
As reported by TOI on Tuesday, the sighting took place at a waterhole in Shivanzari area of the Kolsa range. With Aernouts was his wife Juliet Decaestecke, kids Lina, Zia and Ruby, gypsy driver Praful Yerme, guide Shalik Yerme and Chakrabarty.

“Many felt it was a fake picture as the time on the image was 13.52 hours, when the park is closed. But it was set for Belgian time,” said Aernouts who is posted in Chennai and looks after South India and Sri Lanka.

Aernouts said his vehicle was the only one at the water hole. “While exiting, I told other tourists that they had missed a rare chance. The excited tourists asked me to show pictures and took screen shots of the black cat from my camera. It was there at the spot for only a minute,” he said.

The Belgian family had booked themselves for 4 safaris — 3 in Tadoba and 1 in Alizanza buffer. Totally they sighted 3 tigers, 6 sloth bears and many herbivores. “While male tiger Matkasur walked alongside our vehicle, the black panther sighting was magical,” said Juliet.

Aernouts is a wildlifer and has visited almost all tiger reserves in the south and also Yala National Park in Sri Lanka.

“There were so much emotions involved that my daughters could not stop saying they ended up sighting all ‘Jungle Book’ characters — Mowgli, Sherkhan, Baloo and Bagheera (black panther). We looked for Mowgli in the playful kids in the villages surrounding Tadoba,” says Aernouts.

“I only hope that the picture goes a long way in conserving black panthers so that our future generation gets an opportunity to see them. Such sightings also help boost tourism, which will directly and indirectly provide livelihood of locals,” said Aernouts.

“I have a dream that Kolsa becomes a black panther tourist hot spot,” said Juliet.