The wilderness has been my second home since my teens and among the long wish list of animals to be photographed, the pride of the place was obviously the Black Panther in the wild. Over the 3 decades of wild life photography across the world, the list had considerably shrunk to just a handful and yet the ‘Ghost of the Jungle’ remained the most elusive. August 6, 2017 would be etched in golden letters in my memory. My family and a few friends were on our last Morning Safari of our holiday at Kabini, which had been a great one for the previous days were filled with action including the elusive Tigers and Dholes.  The morning was a bit cloudy as we set out on a Jeep Safari into Zone A of the jungle. Hardly 10 minutes in, we heard a clear Langur warning call. Switching off the engines, checking for the direction of the call and the wind direction, we waited in silence, when a message from the jeep ahead confirmed the call and the spotting of BLACK !!! the infamous code