Birding In Uttarakhand - Part I

My birding trip was on hold for quite sometime.  Firstly the  place was undecided. A friend of mine suggested Ganeshgudi but getting there from Lucknow seemed tedious ; flight to Goa and then again a 3 hour long drive to the destination from the  airport. I wasn't encouraged for the time being and decided to look for some other place.

Lucknow's weather turned murky  in the last week of October. A depressive yellow - black smog engulfed the city. I stopped my morning walks but staying confined in the home was another challenge . So I decided  a trip to hills  with  camera.

A call to Rohit Nayal got me going. Rohit runs a birding outfit near Sattal which is famous as Himalaya Birding Tours. His establishment - the Damayanti Hotel and Resort is located near the famous Nal - Damayanti pond on way to Sattal. Rohit informed that the weather there was absolutely pristine and I may come in.

I left Lucknow on 1st November morning and reached Rohit's resort around 5 in the evening after an eight and half hours drive. I took an early dinner and decided to catch some sleep in order to be ready with the next day's schedule which was to begin early from 6 o'clock  in the morning.

Met Rohit in the morning over tea while he was preparing to leave for Chopta along with a party of 3 birders. Rohit owns a set up there also . His younger brother Sandeep was to be my guide for  my entire birding trip.

Sandeep took me to the nearby Christian Ashram where he had build a bird hide which is now owned by the Ashram. This place is surrounded by a verdant virgin forest and  an excellent place for watching birds. The bird platform is about 20 feet distant from the hide chairs ; an ideal distance for super - tele lenses up to 500 mm and shows that it has  been built keeping  photography needs in  mind. However it is good to take another standby  camera with a 70-300mm zoom lens in order to cover close group shots which otherwise may not be possible with a tele lens.

Sandeep requested the caretaker to place the  feed and then the magic began. The first to arrive were the White Crested Laughingthruhes followed by White Chested Laughingthrushes. They came in flocks. They departed after 5-7 minutes and then entered the Red Jungle Fowls and with them the much sought after Khaleej Pheasants.

Sunlight had started streaking in by this time and with that flew in the Greater Barbet

and the Scaly-bellied Woodpeckers. It was such a wonderful sight that after sometime I put down my camera and started enjoying the surreal drama  being played before my eyes  by a myriad of stunningly beautiful winged creatures.

In search of Black Partridge, Red - billed Leiothrix , trip to Chafi and Pangot. Read  in Part II.

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A DEAF TIGER

The Major followed the direction of my gaze and remarked, whimsically :
"Admiring my deaf tiger."
"Deaf tiger?" I queried.
"Never heard the yarn ?" interposed the Colonel, looking at me over the match lighting a wheezy briar.
I turned inquiringly from one to other of the two men. We had just finished tea in the glazed drawing room of the Major's bungalow, situated at the summit of a ghat in the Nilgiris, commanding an exceptionally fine panorama of the Mysore jungles unfolding its velvet green expanse 4,000 ft below. My attention had been attracted by a large tiger skin - one of many skins and trophies of the jungle - adorning the walls of the drawing room.
"No," I answered.
"Tell him, Bill," suggested the Colonel.
The Major is a man to whom big game shikar is an obsession. The solitudes of the jungle hold far more attraction to him than the giddy whirl of social life in a hill station. So that, once started on his favourite theme, he does not require much persuasion to continue.
"V a r i u m   et   m u t a b i l e,"  commenced the Major, lighting his own pipe, "is as true in regard to tigers as in its original application. It adds not a little to the excitement of pursuit, because one never can tell just what a tiger will do in any given circumstance. A few years ago, I was in camp at Pirmund in the Kundahs, twenty-five miles from Ootacamund. One afternoon, finding time hanging heavy on my hands, I took my shikari and four other men and left the camp, with the intention of beating likely sholas or ravines, for woodcock. As one never knows what my turn up on excursions like these, I also took a rifle, a .423 Mauser.
"Woodcock failed to materialise. After a three hour trudge my bag consisted of a single snipe, one or two bird seen. It was nearly 5 p.m. , and we commenced disconsolately to return to camp. We had not gone far, when a gun - bearer drew my attention to  reddish, fawn - coloured animal , of vague outline, standing on a grassy spur about 1,500 yards away, on the farther side of the big swamp. I focussed my glasses, and discovered the animal to be a tiger. I watched him stretch out in knee - deep grass, head turned in our direction, the rays of a declining sun showing up his golden flanks and white chest. I quickly took stock of the situation, and decided to stalk him. Leaving others where they were, I changed my gun for the rifle; and , accompanied by the shikari, dropped into a watercourse. Hidden from view , we made a detour towards the spur, until we were confronted with the choice of two routes leading to the top. Selecting the one on the left that passed on the outskirts of a small shola, we hoped to attain a position on the tiger's right. The side of the spur was steep, and the pace was slow : especially, as I anticipated a quick shot when I reached my destination, and hurried climbing up a hill side never makes for good marksmanship.
"When I reached the edge of the summit, I peered cautiously over ; hoping to see the tiger lying about 80 yards away, and much on the same level. I was not able to locate him, and was faced with the conundrum as to whether he had gone or lay hidden in the grass. A closer approach revealed that he had moved, but the wiry grass retained no tracks. What had actually happened was that as we climbed up the left side of the spur, the tiger had come down the right, passing unseen by us within fifty yards. The men left behind had watched the whole proceedings.
"Hearing monkeys chattering in a big shola nearby , from which the tiger must have emerged in the beginning , I feared he had returned and I had lost him. Still, there was a chance that he might fallow a game path over an open spur, leading towards a waterfall in the vicinity -- a favourite line with tigers in these hills. I sat down, and commanded the path. I waited ten minutes; then, as it was growing late, decided reluctantly to abandon the pursuit.
"Rifle slung over one shoulder -- with the shikari fallowing -- I led the way to the small shola, along a path I knew would bring me to the spot where I had left the men. We made no attempt at concealment, thinking it very unlikely to meet friend stripes. Yet, we had scarcely covered fifty yards when, rounding a bend, we came upon what appeared at first sight to be a reddish ant-heep on the path ahead. It was only twenty yards away, as we measured the distance later. A hurried, searching glance in the darkening light showed it to be tiger, head turned in the opposite direction, ears cocked forward, a little of the white of the right cheek showing.
"It was the work of few seconds to unsling the rifle, slip back the safety-catch, and fire. At such close range it was practically impossible to miss, and he fell over on his side. Calling to the shikari, I clambered up hill so as to get above the tiger; from where I pumped in a second shot to make assurance doubly assured. I then dispatched the shikari to summon the men; and , while awaiting their arrival, fired a third shot when I saw the tail twitch in a last muscular  effort. Afterwards, we found that this shot had been deflected by a sapling.
"When the men arrived it was obvious that the tiger was dead. We went forward , and dragged him into better light. He taped 9'-5" between pegs ( without stretching ), and possessed a remarkably fine coat. In build he was disappointing, being lanky.
"While standing near the body, I was puzzled. That sixth sense of a shikari struck me that something in the tiger's behaviour had been incomprehensible. But it was not  until my chauffeur, Bob, who was with the men, called my attention to an old wound in the head, between the eye and ear on the left side , from which pus was oozing, that I realized suddenly I had omitted all precautions to silence. I remembered then that I was wearing heavy hobnailed boots of a type not conducive to silence, and that the shikari and I  had strode carelessly along the path, calling to mind the crackle of a twig under my foot when we had stopped at seeing the tiger ahead. Also, that I had made a certain amount of noise when unslinging the rifle and clicking back the safety-catch. Yet, though normally a tiger's hearing may be likened to a microphone, this one had given no indication of our presence. It was strange , and the only conclusion I can arrive at, unique in my experience as a big game shot, is that the tiger was stone deaf ! It was interesting to find afterwards, that the old wound covered a crack right across the skull : though the impact of my first bullet had smashed up the vertebrae of the neck, and re-opened the fissure.
" How the wound was caused is matter of conjecture. Most likely,  the tiger ran into a spike of wood, though in that case one would have expected to find splinters remaining in the wound. Possibly, it may have been caused  by a bullet fired from some old muzzle-loading gun, whose powder was not sufficiently strong to cause proper penetration, and the bullet dropped out when the wound suppurated. Less likely, the injury may have been due to the horn of a sambhur which the tiger had killed. It is an interesting speculation the truth of which we shall never know."
The Major ceased speaking. The Colonel stretched himself, and said : "That was thirsty work, old man. What about a drink?"
                           
                                              _____________________________________
                                                                                   
This story had been reproduced from my book ' WILD ANECDOTES FROM THE SHADOW OF TIME ',  a  fine collection of  wild life memoirs and articles taken from the issues of a British era magazine that published in India from 1920 to1938.

Foreword by Dr. Asad R Rahmani. Former Director - Bombay Natural History Society.

Available at Amazon.in , Amazon.co.uk , Amazon.com and Kindle.

                                                                            

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Kishanpur Wildlife Sanctuary : A Wilderness of Paradoxes

Imagine a wildlife sanctuary whose entrance is through a village and which houses another village also deep inside in its core and by which it draws its name - Kishanpur , whose land stands badly encroached and where humans and vehicular traffic of all sorts ; tractors with their oversize trolleys , cycles, motor cycles and bullock carts , ply daily almost day long on the sanctuary road and yet it's being home to an astonishing variety of wildlife including the famous and only of its own kind of feline- the majestic terai tiger , the highly endangered Swamp Deer aka Barasingha, Blue Bull, Wild Boar, Spotted Deer, Barking Deer and about 400 species of migratory  avian during the season besides the local ones which include the rare Bengal Florican, the Swamp Partridge and Bonelli's Eagle. Yes this is Kishanpur Wildlife Sanctuary , a living example of thoughtless  human abuse vis a vis  the most resilient and forbearing side of mother nature.

Kishanpur Wildlife Sanctuary , a part of Dudhwa National Park , is located near the tiny township of Bhira in the Lakhimpur Kheri district of Uttar Pradesh. It is 13 km away from Bhira and about 196 km from the state capital Lucknow. Distanced by 30 km from Dudhwa National Park and dotted with Sal, Teak, Rohini, Mahua and Jamun trees, the sanctuary is spread over an area of 23000 hectares. The entry is through village Kattaiya and the signs of illegal encroachment become visible as your jeep rolls, past the barrier, on the bumpy earthen road leading to the sanctuary.

The first attraction of Kishanpur WLS is Jhadi Taal ; a vast wetland created by the flood waters of river Sharda which flows adjacent to sanctuary's northern boundary and flanked by an equally vast meadow. Jhadi Taal is home to about 1000 plus heads of the highly endangered Swap Deer. Their herds can be seen resting on the small islands in the water body. Climb up the nearby Machan or the viewing tower for a birds eye view of Jhadi Taal. From here you may also watch bevy of smooth coat Otters chasing and hunting fish.

During winters Jhadi Taal becomes home to an amazing variety of migratory birds. For birders therefore it is an excellent place. A round around Jadi Tall will also show the Blue Tailed Bee Eaters, Grey Fish Eagles perched high patiently in wait  for  fish , Swamp Partridge coming in the open on dusty road from their thick grass hideouts in order to pick insects and of course the noisy flocks of Parakeets taking sharp acrobatic flights from one tree perch to another.

With luck favoring a drive on Beldanda road of the sanctuary may reward you with the sighting of  elusive terai tiger. It was here on one April morning this year that I met a huge male tiger on his morning territory patrol.The tiger was busy picking up scent from here and there and also scent marking his territory around. We had spotted him from quite afar and went near him maintaining a safe distance so that he may not feel disturbed. My Guide knew his movements pattern very well and thus we got him again after fifteen minutes in another forest block while the feline was crossing the road.

From a distance  an antler watched its nemesis pass by with a nonchalant curiosity. In route I met a tiny Barred Jungle Owlet perched deep inside the woods in a Rohini tree. A Crested Serpent Eagle was also met while it was busy foraging on the ground. However the most significant sight was that of a Bonelli's Eagle perched in a drying Sal tree. Sightings of these two Eagles confirmed the robust and very healthy Eco- system of the sanctuary despite its being abused by we, the humans.

My Guide advised to wait for the tiger at the Beldanda waterhole hoping that since it was quite hot , the tiger may drop in for a drink. Thus I waited there for about an hour but without any further luck. The sun was getting harsh and unbearable. And directly in front of me was a little monkey spread leisurely on a tree branch watching me with his little eyes and perhaps wondering  what I was up to in that sweltering heat. The hint was well taken and I called off the safari.

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The Survival Crisis of Big Cats in India

India is home to the most  magnificent  of the animals on the earth - the Royal Bengal Tiger. The other big cats found in India are the common Leopard , Snow Leopard and the Asiatic Lion . While the Snow Leopard is confined to the upper reaches of Ladakh region , the Asiatic Lion is found  in the state of Gujarat only and faces no threats as such to its survival. But among the most threatened ones are the first two - the Tiger and the common Leopard.
At the beginning of the 19th century India had a sizable population of tigers in the wild - around 80,000 to 10,0000  heads. But the sport of tiger hunting and trophy gathering, which was so very popular among the British officers in India and the local Royalty , almost decimated the tiger population in the country. This situation prevailed even after the British left the country and until India put a complete ban on hunting in 1970 and then coming out with the "Project Tiger "in 1973 to rehabilitate tiger in its natural habitat  . The credit for this initiative goes to the late Prime Minister of India Mrs Indira Gandhi who really loved wildlife .  Her successors didn't commit the same zeal except for the lip service but nevertheless now India has 50 tiger reserves and its tiger population is somewhat stable ; around 1900  in the wild though the official figures are a bit hyperbolic-- 2226 as per last countdown.

The wildlife experts in India are very hopeful that the Indian tiger population can make a dramatic recovery and the country could have 5000 tigers in the wild by the end of the century provided the Government walks its talk and pays proper attention to the task of tiger conservation. The leopard population is sightly better off than the tigers. There are about 10,000 leopards in the country.

Despite the optimism expressed that appears to be a difficult task. The prime reasons  for it are two. First , the systematic deforestation and second, the menace of poaching which continues unabated.
The forests in India are under tremendous pressure. The rising population of the country demands more land for agriculture, industries, mines and infrastructure projects like irrigation dams and creation of new highways and roads. So the ages old forests have been cut and still are being cut to accommodate the demands of the civilization. As a result the carrying capacity of the existing tiger abodes has reduced considerably . A male tiger needs about 40-50 km of territory while females need about 20 km or so. Thus it becomes an uphill task for the new mature tigers to carve out a fresh territory of their own . Tigers being extremely territorial such attempts by a new contender lead to infighting which result either in death of a contender or moving away from  the core to the buffer areas which generally have human habitation on the fringes which means more chances of man-animal contact and conflicts and ultimately death of the animal by snare, electrocution, poison or bullet. More or less the same applies to the leopards also. Their own rising numbers and pressure of tigers compel them to move out of the forest and wander near human habitations in search for food. Their small size , agility and capacity to survive on a very large and varied kind on menu makes their task easy but here again conflict with humans, sooner or later, becomes imminent. And in most of the cases it is the animal who suffers most ultimately.  Under the circumstances what required is the expansion of existing buffer areas by relocating the  fringe human habitations. The new highways need to be made wildlife friendly. That means lot of underpasses in the highway/road lengths so that animals could be saved from road accidents.

Poaching of tigers and leopards for their body parts and flesh sadly continues unabated and India has earned the credentials of being the biggest center and market for illegal trade in wildlife. And for that both  the present wildlife legislation , which hardly has any deterrence, and the law enforcement agencies are squarely responsible. What India needs is a new Wildlife Protection Act making big cat poaching and trade of tiger -leopard body parts an offence inviting a mandatory life imprisonment.Similarly India requires separate wildlife courts for dealing with wildlife related offences. The existing system of civil courts also trying the wildlife related offences is deficient and needs an urgent change. The enormity of the wildlife crimes in the country can be judged by the fact that in the first 3 months of year 2018, (January-March) India  lost 162 Leopards and 36 Tigers . Out of these, 35% of the tiger and 37% of the leopard deaths have been found to be unnatural which means poaching by various methods. These killings need to be stopped with a very heavy hand with full force of law.

Mahabharata, the Hindu scripture of India , describes a golden rule of tiger conservation. It says that "don't destroy forest with tigers and don't make forest devoid of tigers. Forests can't be saved without tigers and tigers can't live without forests because forest protects tigers and tigers protect forest".(Virat Parva)

I think this sane advice is true to India  this day also as it may have been some 3000 years ago.

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Tadoba Report . May - June 2017.

Tadoba was in the news from the last week of April though for reasons less pleasant. First came the news of a fire breakout in the Telia region on 27th April. The fire had spread wide destroying quite a large area so much so that the Park authorities decided to close down Telia region  for the remaining tourist season. Next there was killing of a Forest Development Corporation employee on 11th May deployed in the Tadoba lake area on fire watch duty . That unfortunate soul had gone for his morning ablutions when he was attacked and killed by a tiger. Opinions are divided. Some blame the dominant male tiger of the area called "Matkasur" while others hold the tigress P-2 aka "Maya" responsible for the killing. Anyway it could be either of the two . A week after came the news of a leopard attack in the village Mohadi . This village is located about 8 km east of Kolara gate. The feline had picked up a goat from the village taking her to a nearby culvert. Some villagers followed . Soon  about 150-200 men crowded the spot all shouting to flush out the leopard. The result was tragic. The leopard escaped but not before punishing 3 spectators for disturbing his meal.


As per my plan I reached Tadoba on 28th May and took the afternoon safari. Since the Telia area stood banned temporarily all the tourist traffic from Moharli and Navegaon gates stood diverted to Jamni- Panderpavni area. Some 50 odd vehicles , 6 Canters and about 45 Gypsies , were in competition on the road in an attempt to occupy  vantage point for  sighting and photography. The result was chaos.  The narrow Jamni road was chaotic, noisy and unruly. I wondered at the wisdom of Park authorities . Why some other area was not opened in lieu of Telia closure? That would have certainly  eased pressure on a single area and also on the animals . However despite of the chaotic conditions tigress P-2 aka "Maya" didn't disappoint . I found her at "Äinbodi" water hole and as she finished off her cooling session a Sloth Bear came in . The day was really hot. The next day I saw P-1's sub-adult cub on the Jamni road. In the evening "Matkasur "male and a fleeting cub of "Devdoh" female were sighted. I sometime wonder at the fate of Tadoba tourism if the tigresses P-1 and P-2 were not there !

Having had enough of  Jamni I decided to explore buffer areas and Kolsa range. Next day I went to Kolara buffer. The buffer jungle is very beautiful and very rich with wildlife. My guide  told me about the shifting of a few tigers there from Telia region due to the fire incident . However I didn't spot any.

I spent next 2 days at Kolsa range. Though the distance to Kolsa from Kolara gate, where I was staying, is about 50kms but it was worth exploring Kolsa .Since only 3 Gypsies are allowed from the Pangdi gate , the entrance to Kolsa , there was no traffic rush nor any chaos inside the jungle. I found Shivenjahri empty but   met the Hirdinala female along with her 3 cubs late in the evening near Sukhdibodi. The next day  brought more luck  when I met the Kuhani female with her 3 cubs. The Kuhani female is a magnificent tigress . One needs to see it on order to  appreciate her immense grace and beauty.

My next four safaris, and the last also, were in the Alizanza buffer zone. This newly opened buffer is about 12 kms south of Kolara gate in the vicinity of a village of the same name. It has a rocky terrain with two current hotspots , Kinichua and Jharna , for the big cat sightings. I found Jharna empty . The resident tigress had moved out along with her four months old cubs due to increased vehicle movements in that small area. However the Kinichua was very much alive and I witnessed some very interesting scenes there enacted  by its resident male tiger called Rana .


The Kinichua area is a small depression ensconced between  the hill slopes on its eastern and western sides.  The northern side  has a sloping green meadow of about thirty acres with a small stream flowing through  supplying water to the Kinichua waterhole  which is accessible from the northern and western sides. It's a good birding spot also. I found Kingfishers, Asian Paradise Flycatchers and Hawk Eagles there. Herbivores especially the Indian Guars come from the northern side as it provides a clear visibility to the waterhole. The western side passage, though short in approach , is through a dry Nala which is dark with a steep left turn . Rana, the tiger, ambushes it prey on these two spots and the whole area appeared to be a graveyard of the mighty Gaurs. Rana had killed a calf and the mother Gaur at the western entry a day before and was enjoying both the kills at his leisure.

                                                                               

In the  evening of my last safari when the visiting hour was about to be over, Rana stepped into the waterhole . I was near to the entrance and aimed my camera instantly. The tiger was not pleased . See his displeasure in the photo below.

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Meeting a Green Warrior

Finding people devoted to some worthy cause for the benefit of the society at large without expecting rewards or personal gains is rare indeed these days. But nonetheless such people exist. And I am glad to introduce such a person who I would call a green warrior devoted to the cause of wildlife conservation and showing people how to live harmoniously with the wild animals around them without any conflicts.




Meet Mr Anurag Kumar. Tall, humble and very soft spoken Anurag is in his forties. Despite being a government employee he finds time for what he loves most ; working for and spreading the word of nature and wildlife conservation. Operating from his modest tenement in the village of Bansinagar, on the periphery of the Dudhwa National Park which is just four kms away, he teaches wildlife conservation to village children and takes them, from time to time, on rescue walks around the village and along the Mailani- Gonda meter gauge railway line which passes close to his tenement at about twenty meters away. Many creatures, during the course of such walks, especially of the crawling type, have been saved from the impending death under the rolling  wheels of the passing trains that ply on this rail route.




I came to know Anurag a year ago just by chance. One early morning while driving to Kishenpur Wildlife Sanctuary from Dudhwa, where I was on a safari, I saw a pair of turtles crawling on the narrow public road at about five hundred meters away from the gate. I asked the driver to stop and  pick up and release them across the jungle fire line on the opposite side of the road. This started a small conversation between us when I asked the driver why the forest staff didn't patrol the park adjacent road area just to take care of such cases. Driver's reply was negative but he did tell me about Anurag saying that at some distance away in the village of Bansinagar there lived a gentleman, a wildlife enthusiast, engaged in such kind of work. After few minutes we drove past the village located on the road side about four kms away from Dudhwa National Park.




I met Anurag in the last week of November 2016 at his residence in Bansinagar where he had bought half an acre land and built  his tenement thereupon some ten years ago. Though he was interested in wildlife since childhood, it was a chance sighting of a tiger and what transpired thereafter that inspired him to work for wildlife conservation. The spark came from Anurag's Dudhwa visit where, up at the Sonaripur watch tower, he heard a tiger growling  hidden in the nearby bushes. He wished hard for a sighting but the tiger didn't oblige.






While driving back to Lakhimpur after the safari he met with a tiger head on in  broad day light  around 11.30 am on the narrow public road with a crowd of passers by stopped and transfixed watching the feline from both ends of the road. The tiger stayed in the road for about 4 -5 minutes and then crossed over disappearing in to the adjoining sugar cane fields.




Anurag was so enchanted with the sighting that he stopped at the toll tax post, which used to be there during those days near Bansinagar village, and started enquiring about  tigers and other wildlife around Dudhwa National Park. His queries went largely unreplied but for a man, incidentally from Bansinager village only, who took him to village and told him whatever he could. And while departing the host commented casually that unlike the people who visited the park, in an obvious reference to Dudhwa, for wildlife sightings he enjoyed such scenes at home as there was lot of wildlife around his village itself. That comment proved to be deciding for Anurag for he bought land there  just two months after.




Villagers were very suspicious of the people coming from outside found Anurag and so he thought of building a small two room house on the purchased land and spend his free time there as much as he could afford. Thus over the years he became a "Bansinagarian".




Anurag hopes village children to be the future champions of nature and wildlife conservation. He finds them very open minded and ready to learn new things unlike the village elders who, as per him, are less amenable to suggestions and guided more by their stored experiences, good or bad. In the course of time he appointed a lady teacher to teach children about nature conservation as this subject was nowhere in the curriculum of the local schools where the village children go for their education. I was pleasantly surprised at the subject knowledge the children had and Anurag was quick to explain that since all of them assisted their families at the farm fields some time or the other they knew a lot about wildlife. As the sugar cane is the main crop of the area, the sugar cane fields have become home to a variety of wild animals including tigers and leopards that prey upon wild boars, many species of herbivores and Rhesus monkeys that destroy the sugar cane crop. So the big cats are welcome here.

A green class in progress

                                                               Anurag at his tenement




Anurag told me about a male tiger who, he says, is a regular visitor to the village. Almost every second evening the feline is said to enter the village from the railway line side.

                                           Village pathway from railway line end. The Peepal
                                              tree is on the left.




Walking on the brick soled pathway to the village it stops and sits under the grand old Peepal tree( Ficus religiosa) which is just at the entrance of the walkway to Anurag's tenement. The tiger, being a regular  for quite some time, has come to recognise the sounds of mobile ringtones and music which permeates around from the transistor radios in the village. I was speechless to hear that.




My car, parked on the pathway to Anurag's tenement, had attracted notice of villagers for they were anxious to find about an outsider's presence in the village. Exhibiting a deer like curiosity some had gathered around listening to my conservation with Anurag very attentively. Under the circumstances their impromptu participation in the conversation was something that wasn't unexpected when  one from them opined that he was reconciled to the tiger's presence in the village and that the animal had so far never harmed anyone in the area, not even the village cattle. "Öh, don't you know the reason behind" interjected the other "that it was all due to the mercy and blessings of the 'Bramrakchhas Baba' who lived in the Peepal tree. The tiger is a baba devotee and that is why it comes there regularly. And you must  know also that it stands warned from Baba not to harm any living sole in the village be it a man or animal". Others kept silent and nodded in agreement to that very authoritative sounding statement. Anyway whatever may be the truth ,  villagers belief  in 'Baramrakchhas Baba' is tremendous . Every year in the month of October a village fair is held wherein population from the surrounding villages also participate in worshipping and propitiating the tree ensconced spirit.




Anurag took me on a guided tour around the village. We walked to the railway line and from there turned to left. It was decided that we shall go up to Nakahuwa rail bridge about 700 meters away and then cross over the railway line to descend on the other side in order to walk back to village.




Bansinagr village fields lay on both sides of the railway line and those on to our right  seemed to merge almost with the forest line of Dudhwa National Park. The sugar cane crop had matured and harvesting was to start soon when chances of sudden encounter with tigers would increase. As the tall sugar cane crop provides an excellent cover, tigers,  especially the tigresses, like to rear their cubs in the sugar cane fields. The abundance of prey  and many perennial water holes around, make the area a preferred sanctuary for tigers as they can live there for months together totally undisturbed and away from human interference and sight.

Fields merging with forest. Dudhwa tree silhouettes on horizon.

                          
                                         
  We reached the Nakahuwa river rail bridge after a brief twenty minutes walk. Like the river Suheli in the vicinity and all other rivers of the terai region, Nakahuwa is also home to Crocodiles or the  'Magar'as the amphibian is called locally. I saw many of them in the river and on the banks basking in the sunlight.

Anurag at the bridge

   

  

  Nakahuwa crocodiles

We crossed the railway line and  descended down to the other side of the village fields. Anurag cautioned me to walk very carefully and only in the middle of the narrow path lest some tiger or leopard hidden in  the sugar cane fields touching both  sides of the pathway takes a swipe at me. My adrenaline levels shot up and I did find tiger pug marks on the dusty pathway leading forward towards the village." Is tiger also walking to village with us"  I couldn't resist asking Anurag. A few steps ahead  we came across a troop of macaques busy enjoying a sweet  party.

Anurag was conferred the prestigious "Green Teacher Award "instituted by Sanctuary Asia, a prominent wildlife journal, in the year 2015 for his pioneering work. Mr Shyam Benegal, the famous Indian film director and screenwriter, presented the award at a glittering function held at Mumbai

.

PS: You can get my book 'The Vanishing Stripes" now at discounted price from Gumroad.com.

Looking forward to your support.

                                               

Pench Tiger Reserve

It was for quite sometime that I was planning a trip to the Pench Tiger Reserve in the Seoni district of M.P. India. Finally I booked my safaris in the last week of November 2016 and landed at Nagpur, the nearest airport . Pench from there is  about 97 kms away. It takes about  ninety minutes time  to reach there by car.

Pench is quite historical . You find its mention  in the Ain-e-Akbari of Abul Fazl . But it was late Rudyard Kipling whose 'Jungle Book' gave it the real name and  fame. The 'Jungle Book' incorporates its setting and topography from Robert Strendale's books 'Seonee' and the "Denizens of the Jungle'. And  "Mowgli", the fascinating hero of  Kipling's 'Jungle Book', portrays the wolf child who was caught by Lieut. Moor in the jungles of Seoni in the year 1831 near the village of Sant Vavadi located just ten kilometres away from Seoni and about whom William Sleeman wrote in his book  'The Journey Through the Kingdom of Oude". It is believed that Rudyard Kipling had visited Pench  while he was in the service of erstwhile state of Dewas.

Pench Tiger Reserve derives its name from the river 'Pench' which flows through the reserve from north to south dividing it in two equal parts and in two revenue districts that is Seoni and Chindwara respectively. Standing on  the Mahadev Ghat side you are in the geographical limits of Seoni while the other bank on the opposite side falls in the district of Chindwara.

 

Pench Tiger Reserve was upgraded to 'National Park' in the year 1983. It comprises an area of 758 sq km .

Dense,dark and deep that is how I will describe the Pench forest at this time of the year. Right from entering the Turia gate,  the forest on both sides of the jungle road captivates you with it beauty. Its teak tress are simply magnificent . Straight and tall reaching to about 100 feet in height ! Its two tourist zones called popularly as route 1 and route 2 take you around the forest. Route 1, in comparison to route 2, is  quite hilly and preferred by the tourists for tiger and leopard

 sightings. However both the routes are rich in their natural beauty.


Pench hosts a variety of wildlife, flora and fauna. Tiger, Leopard , Indian Bison. Jackal, Blue Bull , Spotted Deer , Sloth Bear, Black faced Langur, Wild Boar and Sambhar Deer are some of the wild animals found here. The interesting animal character 'Tabaqui'- the Jackal of 'The Jungle Book' has a good population here and so is of 'Bagheera'- the Leopard. But I didn't see any wolf . Among the birds you find Parakeets, Crested Serpent Eagles, Crested Hawk Eagles, Owls, Green Bee Eaters , Blue Jay's, Peacocks. Jungle Fowls , Drongo and many water Birds.

 My keenness to sight the big cats of Pench was successful on my last safari  almost around the closing  hours. While coming back I met a jeep on the way which informed that the 'Raiyakassa' , the famous male tiger of Pench Tiger Reserve, was still at the banks of 'Beeja Matta' waterhole. My driver reversed and speeded back and as luck would have it I got the feline walking on the bank of the water hole . It scat marked its territory  and then descended down in  the waterhole area. The daylight was almost gone and darkness has started setting in. However I jacked up the ISO setting and got some shots just for the record.

    Pench Tiger Reserve is beautiful indeed. I will visit again in May 2017.

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