“It was an uncanny sight,” recalls Vijay Prabhu, founder and owner of Littlearth chain of boutique hotels in Udhagamandalam, about spotting a tiger on a sunny afternoon.
He was driving from Udhagamandalam to his property The Mangifera located on the fringes of Bandipur Tiger Reserve. “Bandipur forests have the highest density of tigers. It was an hour past noon, and this fellow stood there by the side of the road, may be 10 feet away, simply staring. I could also hear barking deer just a few feet away,” says Vijay, a lawyer, whose heart lies in offering holiday-experiences to people.
He bought the 7.5 acre property, back in the 1990s, basically to have a place to rest as he was shuttling between Chikmagalur, overseeing his coffee estate and Udhagamandalam, where he was a practising lawyer. “It involved risky long drives during night inside the forest where elephants and other wild animals roam freely as the forest check post closes at 9pm,” he explains.
