Tag: wildlife

Tiger Trails of Central India – Urmimala Banerjee, The Wanderers

By Urmila Banerjee

Urmimala Banerjee of The Wanderers travelled to Pench, Kanha and Bandhavgarh in Feb, 2007 and came back mesmerized and wiser..here is her story


“I am the only person who can show you the tiger”, said Atul. He was a confident man. It was barely two hours, since we had checked into the Pench Jungle Camp. The 6 kilometers drive from Khawasa to Avarghani Village had been back breaking. The kaccha road was bumpy and threw up dirt at every two minutes. It was a dry area with barren Sal trees and few villagers were working on the main road.

However, the resort was a complete contrast. We parked our Ambassador and proceeded towards the reception. The lawns were impeccable with flowers planted in neat rows. Butterflies fluttered about in gay abandon. A French family was waiting to check in, while the waiters stood in attention.

The drive from Nagpur had been good. En route we had stopped at the Dragon Palace at Kamptee. Built with Japanese aid, it was a big complex with a large prayer hall. We were the first visitors of the day. After a 15 min stop, we drove further. As we entered into the countryside we saw huge sunflower fields and villages homes painted white and blue. A considerable area came under the Forest Department and we could see rows of teak trees. This belt started in Maharashtra, while Khawasa came in the Seoni District of Madhya Pradesh.

After a round of hotel inspection, we were in the common dining area. And it was during a sumptuous lunch that we heard Atul speak about tiger sightings. He was telling the foreign guests that he was one of the few people who could guarantee a tiger/leopard on a safari. “That’s really great! I exclaimed, trying to be genuine. Before embarking on this trip, we were clearly told that spotting a tiger isn’t easy. It is by far the most elusive of wild animals in India.

The safari was at 2 pm. The foreigners rushed to their tents to get their cameras while we waited at the lawns. Atul and his colleague joined the foreigners while we were accompanied by a forest ranger. We were slightly miffed that none of the in-house naturalists accompanied us. Somehow, they seemed more pre-occupied with their foreign clients. We reached the gate of the National Park, where the board read “Indira Priyadarshini Pench National Park’. The park also includes the Mowgli Pench Sanctuary and a buffer. Young boys, picnickers, tourists and officials had formed quite a crowd. Our resort’s staff members did the entry formalities. We hadn’t expected this much noise, as this wasn’t a very popular national park (Atleast we thought so!).

 

We entered into the park. This was my first visit to a tiger reserve. The forest was dense and the chattering of langurs filled the air. We became alert and started looking around right from the word go! From a green-forested area, we moved slowly to a rougher terrain. The right side was an uneven plateau with dry Sal trees, while the left side was much greener. Our heads turned right and left in a continuous motion. A moment’s lapse and we could lose out on a sighting. My alertness levels had reached a new height. Few birds were chirping noisily. I simply ignored them and looked around for an animal. They were a flock of Jungle Babblers.

Finally, our guide pointed at a Collared Scops Owl sitting in a tree trunk. It was wonderfully camouflaged in shades of brown. Finally, we saw two beady eyes peering at us. It was hardly ten minutes and we could feel the excitement building up. The area had trees like Teak, Sal, Gagri, Dhira, Saja, Bija and Mahua trees. We then encountered a large male Chital (Indian Spotted Deer) lazily chewing the leaves off a tree. He was gorgeous with his big antlers covered in velvet. This beautiful animal is widely found in Northern and Central India. Another one was relaxing, a few meters away from him. But we couldn’t see it properly.

As we moved ahead, we saw more of them. They were walking leisurely chewing the tender leaves that had fallen on the ground. The guide explained that the Langurs dropped them from the treetops for the deer. All along the trip we could hear the langurs swinging from tree to tree. “The langur and Chital are best of friends. Everywhere you find a deer, you’ll find a langur,” said our guide. “Langurs warn the deer of the approaching danger,” he added.
A mention must be made of the ‘Sadhu Monkeys’ i.e. Common Langurs striking the most sagacious poses. Their perfectly crossed legs made for great meditative postures. We saw many of them throughout the safari, lost in introspection.

Pench is not particularly grassy, especially in summers. Now, we were driving towards the watering hole. This was a low lying area with dry grass. A lone Nilgai was grazing out here.Seeing us, the shy animal fled. The Blue Bull or Nilgai is found only in India, mostly in lowlands and plains. Moving ahead, we crossed a small path with a dry river bed below it. A Gaur (Indian Bison) was walking over it. He went a little further whereby we couldn’t see him clearly. Though we knew that the chance of spotting a tiger at Pench was low, we kept on asking. Somehow, the thought of spotting a tiger was always at the back of our minds.

Driving along the riverside we saw herds of deer, males and females with cubs in tow. A beautiful Indian Roller made a brief appearance, sitting for 2 minutes on a stone.  We saw two Gaurs (Indian Bison) drinking from the waterhole. As we moved ahead, we saw a whole herd of them. The oldies kept to themselves while the younger ones drank in groups. We drove very close to a young male that was standing alone. After a few minutes when he seemed to get irritated, we moved away.

Pench has a rugged landscape of small hills and uneven plateaus. It was quite a roller-coaster ride driving up and down the forest routes. I got up from my seat to get a better view of the landscape. The deciduous trees were shedding their leaves and the whole park was carpeted with them. A family of wild boars was walking up the plateau. The guide told us that they are known to charge with or without any provocation.

It was almost 5 pm. We came near the banks of the river Pench and rested awhile. This area is known as Sitaghat and is a birder’s paradise. Species like egret, stork, cormorant and kingfishers could be easily spotted. Our British friends seemed particularly delighted. This was their second visit to India and they were on the ‘Tiger Trail’. We left our friends and moved ahead.

The sun was slowly setting in. We drove ahead and saw a couple of jeeps at a stop. The other guide said that they had heard the call of Sambhar Deer. This call is the most important signal for rangers and tourists that a predator is nearby. I stood up on my seat and looked at my left. A herd of deer was resting near some boulders. I saw them getting up slowly and moving away. More vehicles started congregating near us. Our 15-min wait was futile. The guide told us that most probably it was a leopard.

We now reached a different part of the forest. This was a mixed forest with bamboo thickets and dense undergrowth. The branches of the Indian Ghost Tree seemed to shine in the twilight. We spotted a creature behind a bush. It was a female Sāmbhar Deer. On spotting us, she retreated back into the bushes. As we moved further, we saw a mother and her cub. They were ambling along the road. We gave way for the pair to cross to the other side. A little later, we saw a lovely fully-grown female Sāmbhar Deer.

Besides the animals, we saw a lot of birds. Peacock and peahen were in large numbers throughout the forest. A long tailed bird flew over our heads. It was the Racket-tailed Drongo; a rare bird. We left the park in the next ten minutes. On reaching the camp, we were refreshed with tea and biscuits. As we sat before the bonfire late evening exchanging stories, we learnt more about the forest. The other foreign guests had a deep love and passion for wildlife.  Different people from different walks of life all bound with a common love for Indian jungles. The starlit sky was simply gorgeous; we did a bit of stargazing. I don’t remember seeing a star lit sky in Mumbai for ages.


One of the waiters told us that the Chital as well as leopards wander into the resort grounds at night. We didn’t have a lock in our otherwise luxurious tent. At night, we heard a variety of calls and sounds. The forest never sleeps.

Day 6 – Mon, Nagaland – Sivsagar – Kaziranga

I can’t say I was sorry to leave the Konyak region of Nagaland. It was a beautiful soul stirring experience, but I couldn’t wait to get back to solid even grounds and hot water baths. (At 800m-2000m above sea level and 10C temperature, we only had running cold water at the guest house as the water heaters had all gone on the blink. Turning any one of them on would result in the tripping of the electricity to the whole building.)

The region and the area is beautiful, but the hardships that they face on a daily basis is sapping. I was expecting everyone in Nagaland to be dressed in colorful clothes and enjoy a relatively comfortable standard of living but the dirt & grime of reality in Konyak, was unsettling. It induced a strange kind of guilt, of us being able to take running hot water for granted with just the flick of a switch, while it meant chopping firewood, lighting a fire, carrying water from the well, setting it to boil and only then using it, for the Konyaks.

I had hoped that a tribal chief system in its purest form, would be a more effective form of governance. But drugs and alcohol seem to be more prevalent here than in the rest of India. A kilo of ganja / marijuana costs 250Rs (5$) while a kilo of pork or dog meat costs 130. A strip of opium soaked cotton costs 10Rs. So drugs are a cheap and easy way to dull the senses. At least for Konyak, the grain, meat and vegetables all come from Guwahati. Are these the same people who are demanding a seperate country or is that just political posturing? I left Nagaland without any answers and more questions than I entered with.

On our way out, we had to let the army post know that we were leaving and the Nagaland checkpoint too. We started early, so we could stop to take in a few sights at Sivsagar that is halfway through.

Sivsagar was the ancient capital of the Ahom kings who ruled over most of the North East for over 600 years, repelling Mughal and British attacks, but finally fell because they requiring British aid to beat back the Burmese incursions. Opinion is divided on where the Ahoms originally hailed from. The ASI says they came from China, while noted guide books claim it was Thailand or Burma. The best place to see remnants of their influence are the temples at Sivsagar. Today Sivsagar is famed as the cultural capital of Assam with all the plays & musical performances that happen here.

The Rang Ghar is the first Ahom Monument you will see while driving along the main road in Sivsagar. This is supposed to be Asia’s first amphitheater. Ahom Kings sat on the first floor of this oval structure, whose roof resembles an upturned boat and watched animal fights and cultural performances taking places in the grounds below. Today there are 2 statues placed in the gardens below to depict the kind of perfromances that took place here.

In 1734, Queen Ambika (of Ahom king Swargadeo Siba Singha) constructed the huge tank in the center of their Ahom capital and 3 temples on its banks. The Shiv temple called Sivdol is 104ft (32m) high and the circumference is 195ft (59 m) at the base. The 8ft high cupola just below the trishul on the top is covered in gold. There are claims that this is the tallest Shiva Temple in the country.

When facing the Shiva temple, the tank (Sivsagar) falls behind the temple. It is believed to be a very Holy temple and while we were visiting, we met some ladies of mixed Bengali and Assamese origin who had travelled from Guwahati to come to this tank to offer prayers for the successful and happy marriage of one of their family members. I struck up a conversation with them, because I was very fascinated by the hand painted pots in their thali.

To the left of Sivdol is Devidol and to the right is Vishnudol. The compound also houses smaller temples to Kali, Hanuman, Shani & Ganesh. Plenty of pigeons and goats are fed on the premises, so if you are visiting as a tourist and want to see all the smaller temples too, I highly recommend that you don’t leave your footwear at the main stand, but take them off just outside each temple. There are plenty of temple offerrings scattered on the floor, so you are better off wearing washable footware.

The path to the main Sivdol is lined with Sadhus and Babas peddling all manner of threads and charms. We didn’t buy anything from them, even though they were quite persuasive. With our SLR’s & Brajesh in shorts, we are often mistaken for the golden geese – “foreign” tourists, until Brajesh speaks to them in Hindi and assures them that we aren’t going to be buying cotton thread malas for 200Rs.

Our next stop was lunch at Sky Chef. The service is abysmally slow. But the restaurant is clean, hygenic, air conditioned with clean loos and the Chinese food was quite tasty. They served my favourite American Chopsuey on this trip so far. Yes, unfortunately, most places we have eaten at on this trip, only offer Indian and Chinese options and not their local specialities.

Post lunch, we visited Talaatal Ghar, a 2 storey Ahom palace built in the mid 18th century. The grounds are beautifully landscaped and its a beautiful walk for 5Rs.

There was a special exhibition by ASI on the grounds of famous Indian monuments. We lso saw some of the before and after pictures that the ASI has taken of the restoration of all the Ahom monuments and I must say it has been a phenomenal effort. The only problem is that the buildings now look new and not a couple of centuries old.:)

Simultaneously, the ASI was also holding an essay writing competition for disadvantaged kids on the necessity to preserve historic monuments. A wonderful effort, the kids were very excited and I hope these initiatives help to make a difference.

After stepping back 400 years, we were ready to come back into the present. We headed to Iora in Kaziranga to break journey before heading to Shillong in Meghalaya. It was such a pleasure to be able to have a hot water bath to wash away all the dust of the last 3 days and soothe our sore bodies. Our North East Chilli Vodka cocktail beckoned and it was with great effort that we stopped at one each, else no pictures would ever have gotten uploaded or blogs written.