India

[Axeman]

I am currently on vacation....travelling around India. I have to say the amount of wildlife in both urban and remote settings is absolutely thrilling. When I'm in large cities such as Mumbai and Delhi, at any given moment there are HUNDREDS of birds about...pariah or black kites soaring by the hundreds in layers stretching almost a km high...mynah birds, parakeets...pigeons of course...I've seen ravens in the city of Mumbai...the Indian crow is a striking bird....in a large city like Agra, there are water buffalo roaming the streets...lots of cows...in smaller towns you'll find domestic and feral camel....wild boar in small towns and remote areas...lots sambar and chittal (two forms of deer), Nilgai (a really large antelope....and the highlight so far...we were fortunate to observe a wild tiger for about a half hour...I forgot...Tons of monkeys....lots of feral dogs...they roam in packs but are not threatening...

With the amount of wildlife and domestic animals roaming freely and the number of vehicles at all hours, there is little road kill.

Actually...with the number of vehicles (cars, motorcycles, scooters, trucks, vans, agricultural tractors -- lots..and on urban streets too, horse carts, camel carts, bicycles, bicycle rickshaws, motorized rickshaws, and pedestrians) on the roads...not everyone travelling in the right direction...squeezing 4 sometimes 5 lanes of traffic into 2 or 3 marked lanes...with horn honking being the accepted mode of communication (trucks will actually have signs saying Please Horn) ....I'm just amazed that there is absolutely NO road rage here....I've driven in Rome....I couldn't drive here.

[Pat Hodgson]

Yes, bang on.  I too was astounded at the near total absence of road rage despite the constant overcrowding.
I hope you can get out of town into some natural areas too, though.  Unfortunately they are somewhat small and under pressure, if I may massivley overgeneralize.

[Rotarran]

Yes, bang on.  I too was astounded at the near total absence of road rage despite the constant overcrowding.
I hope you can get out of town into some natural areas too, though.  Unfortunately they are somewhat small and under pressure, if I may massivley overgeneralize.

Because they lack the sense of entitlement that is killing our society here.  Everyone here thinks they're more important than everyone else.  In places like India, people have no time for bs like that. That kind of egotistical nonsense is irrelevant (and probably counter-productive) to survival.  Sometimes I think people in the west have it too good and need a good wake-up call as to what real survival can be like.

[Axeman]

We did visit rural and remote areas -- we were in Ranthambore National Park where we saw lots of deer, antelope and a tiger...and we were in the Himalayas for a few days....I was hoping to spot Yeti. No Yeti but I did find bear crap there.

We spotted a Tim Hortons in the outskirts of a city in Punjab -- on entering we found it was a knock off.

Near the Udaipur airport we found "Panther Crossing" signs -- leopards.

How do I post photos ?