Kolhapuri misal and bhaji, bhakri

 If you are in Kolhapur and a want to try tasty (not spicy) authentic misal then Krushnai misal is a good option. Simple and perfect combination of sprouts, rice flakes, spices and 'chivda'.

PC @Asawari Sawant

&

Samarth food stall is a perfect option if you wish to try authentic 'bhakri', 'pithla', 'bhaji'. Just perfect and kolhapuri taste...

PC @Asawari Sawant

Bihar

This article was initially published on Ghumr.com. To read the article with photographs please click on the following link
http://www.ghumr.com/bihar-gaya-nalanda/

Hidden Beauty of Bihar

Last year (2016) we were travelling to Assam by train. It was a very-very long journey (Kamakhya Express duration 55 hrs!!). We crossed many states including Bihar. We all were amazed by the beauty of this state. It was green almost everywhere we could see. Even month of March which is a season of harsh summer, its agricultural fields were full of crops. Located in Indo- Gangetic Plain, the state is blessed with most fertile soil of our country. The land appeared so beautiful that we decided to arrange one nature camp during next year to explore her natural beauty. After an extensive research and planning, here we were in Bihar in the month of June, 2017.

Bihar is visited by most of the tourists for its Temples – Hindu, Buddhist and Jain temples are in plenty. The most famous is in Bodh Gaya. This is the place where Lord Buddha got ‘Enlighten’ under the ‘Peepal’ tree – ‘Bodhi Vriksh’. This is a why scientific name of ‘Peepal’ is Ficus religiosa - due to its importance in religions. Our first stop was Bodh-Gaya. It is always suggestible to take a guide who is approved by ASI (Archeological Survey of India) at such historical places. Off-course you can explore on your own but having a guide will always give an additional knowledge. Our guide shared many interesting facts about this place. Gaya also has sacred Hindu temple – ‘Vishnu Paad’ (Vishnu’s Feet) temple and is visited by many devotees.

Very few people must be aware about first man-made cave in Asia. D you know where it is?? No, it is not in Gaya. It is located at about 2 hrs drive from Gaya in Barabar hills. This was second stop of the day - Barabar caves. This is Asia’s first man-made cave also known as Lomas Rishi cave. Not much of the carving can be seen inside but what got our attention was the extremely smooth and reflective surfaced inner wall of the cave. At places it appears as if you are looking in the mirror. It has two chambers. Insides being very dark is ideal for ‘Dhyana’. Since we were on a nature camp, we could not resist ourself from looking for some lesser fauna in the cave. We saw some rock geckos here. We heard few Lapwings on while climbing on the way to caves and some Kestrels flying in sky.

Next stop was the world famous Nalanda University (Ruins). It is only after when you visit such places you gain more knowledge about our rich heritage and above all we realize the kind of knowledge that our ancestors had in-terms of architecture, nature, teaching methods, preserving knowledge and off-course respecting knowledge. Our guide said there were about 2000 students studying at a time in this university and each student was given a separate room to stay. The library of Nalanda was once so rich and full of documents that when Gazani attacked the university and burnt is library, it was burning for 2 months! The black fire marks are still visible on walls of Nalanda. Although the place is ruined now, it speaks a lot about the glorious past that it had seen. Again here, while our guide explaining a monitor lizard, Rufous woodpecker and hoopoe still got our attention. It seemed to be a good place for birding.

Now it was a time to stop our exploration for the day. We stared our day at 9 am (which was supposed to start at 7 am but, one of drivers came late by two hours). After having a ‘chai’ we moved to our night halt located another historical place - Rajgir which is about 30 mins drive from Nalanda. We reached Rajgir at 7pm. After having dinner we took a small stroll nearby and had an ice-cream. One year before form now I didn’t even imagine that I would be roaming somewhere in Bihar enjoying my ice-cream as late as 9.30 in night!

Rajgir was the first Kingdom of Magadha Dynasty. It is originated from ‘Raj Griha’ (King’s home). The capital was later shifted to Patliputra (today’s Patna). One can visit Gridh Kuta, it also has ‘shanti stupa’ and lots of historical structures. There are cab cars available. Rajgir also has a sanctuary which is spread over 35.845 Sq.Kms. Ghoda Katora site is a part of the same. It’s a 7 kms dust road that takes you to the lake inside. There are horse cart available. We could see some birds and on our way back we got to see Nilgai, Sambar deer and Hanuman Langurs. Then we moved towards Nakti and Nagi Dam Bird Sanctuary (NNDBS). The Forest Department of Bihar (RFO & WL warden NNDBS) helped us a lot during this visit. RFO briefed us about the sanctuary, its bio diversity and current situation. The area is hardly visited by outside tourists as this area was once infected by some illegal activities but now Bihar Government and forest department is trying hard to improve the situation and they have succeeded well. Their efforts are highly appreciable. We were taken on a boat ride.  Saw some interesting birds there such as Eurasian openbill, painted storks, common pochards, fulvus whistling ducks etc. Satisfied with our visit we went to Semultala our place for night halt.

Next day morning we took a small stroll in nearby area. There was small forested area. As we walked inside the forest we could see that soil contains Mica. We were amazed to see that. Then we remembered that we were in Bihar that too near to Jharkhand. The area is rich in Ore of Mica. India stands on first position in production of Mica. Bihar, Jharkhand and Rajasthan are main areas where Ore of Mica is available. While we were wondering and wandering in the forest we came across a local lady. She was gathering leaves for making ‘Pattal’ (Leaf plates). She appeared hardworking and confident. W had a word with her. She demonstrated how she makes these plates. We came to know that they get Rs. 30/- for a pack of 100 leaf plates! But she seemed happy and busy so we didn’t troubled her much with our questions. After wishing her good-luck, we kept our exploration going on. The forest was beautiful with all the strata of vegetation and relatively thick. That day we left for most awaited destination of the camp – Vikramshila Gangetic Dolphin Sanctuary.  June being a good season for Dolphin sightings, we were pretty excited to visit this place.

We reached little late by (2pm) to our place for night stay. Luckily, we got some good food at local food joint. Then it was time for trying our luck for a Dolphin sighting. Our local resource person a researcher from Vikramshila Biodiversity Research & Education centre had tremendous knowledge about Ganga, her people, all her biodiversity; the problems the sanctuary is facing. The forest department too helped us a lot for this visit as well. Next day early morning, we took another round of this sanctuary. Both the times we got to see a totally different aspect of The Ganga. We saw lots of birds including river lapwing, little tern, cotton pygmy goose, blue tailed bee-eater etc. Walking on the sandy deposits of the river was fantastic experience. We learned a lot from that visit.

The sanctuary was designated in 1991 for the protection of the Gangetic River Dolphin (the national aquatic animal of India). These are locally called as ‘Soons’ and are categorized as ‘Endangered’ by on 2006 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. There are several threats for it’s (and ultimately our) survival. Threats such as - Multiple dams and barriers disrupting free movement of the dolphins, Pollution by fertilizers, pesticides and industrial and domestic effluents, which are responsible for the death of many fish and are likely to have a negative effect on dolphin population. Also, its hunting and poaching are majorly affecting its existence. As a matter of fact we saw the river getting polluted by domestic sewage being directly released n the river. Local NGOs and Government is trying to change this situation but it is impossible without people’s participation. On this note we ended our visit to the sanctuary.

It was time to get back to Patna for our return journey. We also visited to other important historical places such as Vikramshila university ruins (where we saw Flameback woodpecker and Common Hoopoe), Ruins of Vaishali (for lion emblem) and Remains of old Patliputra in Patna city itself.

We ended our OikoEssence tour to Bihar. But, the thought kept on coming to my mind - till today the Dolphins have survived but their number has drastically reduced and it applies to the rest of the plant and animal species as well. The nature will surely take its own course and ultimately it will bounce back on us. I really don’t know when we will learn from our mistakes OR Whether will we ever learn from our mistakes or not?

Chhattisgarh

This article was initially published on Ghumr.com . To read article with photographs please click on the following link
http://www.ghumr.com/chhattisgarh-bastar-sirpur/

Dakshin Kaushal – Full of Surprises - Chhattisgarh

There are many reasons for us – Indians to feel proud upon our country. Some of them are her natural beauty, her culture and heritage. Due to her varied landscapes and climatic zones variety of cultures nurtured and flourished here. All were (some are still) sustainable and designed according to the surrounding landscapes and biodiversity.  Talking about cultures and sustainable lifestyle some of our tribal friends are really doing a great job.

The State of Chhattisgarh, India is an excellent combination of tribal, rural and modern lifestyles. We (our venture OikoEssence along with our participants) have been planning to visit this state from past several years but, it kept on postponing due to several reasons. Ultimately got to visit this state in last year. It was a nature camp to Achanakmar Tiger Reserve. Since it was far a very short duration we couldn’t spend much time in exploring other destinations so there was a need to explore it little more.

I will slowly take you to the wonderful journey that I had in Chhattisgarh.

We reached Raipur station at 5pm in the evening which was supposed to reach at 4pm J (all that I can say is the reputation of Indian railways remained undisturbed). Our first stop was at Gariaband. It is at about hours’ drive from Raipur. We had dinner on the way at Aman dhaba as per the suggestion of Mr. Javed Memon – owner of The City Regency Hotel, Gariaband. He and his team were very helpful and offered us absolutely comfortable and hassle free stay at the hotel. The rooms here are clean, big and comfortable. Next day we started at around 7am. Our plan was to reach Jagdalpur via sitanadi & udanti wildlife sanctuary. This sanctuary plays a crucial role in saving Wild water buffalo (Bubalus arnee) which is listed in IUCN red data of species as an endangered. (more readings : http://www.iucnredlist.org/details/3129/0).  This species has fall prey to the habitat fragmentation and seen in few places in India and less than 4000 individuals are considered to be surviving throughout the world. Which is a real worry when it comes down to the population of an herbivore (that are supposed to present in large number in food chain). Well, we could not see the water buffalo anywhere during our ride through their forest but, we enjoyed it very much and continued our journey to the destination – Bastar. We reached here in the evening.

Bastar is a very important social , commercial and cultural place in Chhattisgarh. It is considered as an original place of Tribal culture in India. One must visit to its anthropological museum to get an idea of how rich their culture is. The way they use/used surrounding flora and fauna for food, shelter, and clothing as well as their fishing nets, agricultural equipment, kitchen utensils and musical instruments is simply amazing. Yet, not disturbing forest on large scale. Their lifestyle is so simple and so close to nature! Another important destination to visit is Kutumsar caves. These are excellent examples of stalactite, stalagmite and column formations of lime stone. Although the column formation of limestone can be seen in various places but it takes hundreds of thousand years to attend a considerable diameter. The columns of Kutumsar caves are very broad. This indicates the ancientness of this cave and forest in which it is situated. We saw a crested serpent eagle sitting leisuly on the tree branch and we spent good amount of time in photographing it. While doing that we saw a giant squirrel as well. The guides there were watching us with the curiosity as we were the only group actually looking and admiring these forest components. The guides although trained by forest department don’t come across tourists that are interested in forest. They are used to “general touristy” crowd. All the national parks and sanctuaries are less visited by the ‘wildlifers” as these are almost devoid of their favourite characters – ‘Tigers’. One has to hire an open gypsy for forest department as the road goes through Kangerghati National park. We saw few birds while going to the cave but, couldn’t spend much time in birding as the driver had to take his jeep back to the main gate to collect more visitors. On our way, he mentioned that this was under ‘naxal’ influence few years back but, now completely out of danger due lots of efforts taken by the Government. There is a waterfall nearby which is a famous tourist destination – Tirathgarh waterfall. Another famous fall is Chitrakote.

Bastar was one of 36 princely state of the state. The name Chhattisgarh itself is derived from 36 garh (kingdoms). Bastar too has an interesting origin. It is believed that when first king was planning establish his kingdom, he worshiped a goddess. The goddess was delighted by his prayers and offered him a piece of cloth which was tied at very high level from the ground. She mentioned that that entire land will be yours from where you will see this ‘Cloth’ – ‘Vastra or Bastra’. Hence name ‘Bastra’ which later became Bastar. Well, this is all what I understood from the guide who accompanied us in barsur- a heritage place which we covered while travelling to Kanker from ‘Bastar’. Basrur is located at 75kms from Jagdalpur. It is a smaal sleepy village and happened to be throwm of power during the tenure of Gangavanshi rulers in as early as 840AD. Barsur is situated on the banks of Indravati River and known as city of temples & ponds. It is believed that it had 147 temples and equal number of ponds in those glorious days. Although Barsur has lost all its glory but, still it four temples – one that has two interesting, huge Ganesh Idols carved in single stone. There are three more temples here Mama-bhanja, Chandraditya & Battisa. Both are less decorative but interesting. Battisa has thirty pillars (battis) and two shivlings inside. These two were established by two queens of King – Banasur. All these temples are from 6^th century. All these temples are ruined and have simple carvings. Only Mama-bhanja temple looks complete from outside.

We left from barsur at about 6.15 and as per our knowledge our night halt at Kanker was about 3 hrs drive from here. But, the road is pretty narrow, under repairs and goes through the nice, dense forest patch in the beginning. All of this made our journey interesting, lengthy and exhaustive. We reached kanker at 12.00 in the night! But, we saw our first wild mammal –the Wild Dog followed by a wild cat in forest at beginning. Our Kanker hotel – Bafna lawns was really nice and we had a very comfortable stay. Next day we started late as our next destination - Sirpur was actually 3 hrs drive from here. Our stay was at Hieun Tsang resort – a nice place to stay.

Next day was dedicated to Safaris in Barnawapara sanctuary. This name is a combination of two villages Bar and Nawapara – two villages near sanctuary. The animals here are very shy. We saw spotted deer, Sambar deer, Gaur, Neelgai, sloth Bear,  Langurs and Macaques here along with good number of birds. We saw forest owlet for a very long time. It seemed it quite liked our presence and allowed us to take good number of photographs. Here in this forest I had my very first sighting of a Gaur calf. It was around 3-4 days old! Even the fawn of the spotted deer was the youngest of all that I had seen so far. We enjoyed this day the most as there were very less tourists here. The forests in Chhattisgarh unlike other forests of India attracts less “wildlife lovers”. So there was no one to run here there in search of tigers and desperately waiting to shoot them with the camera. So the forest is how it should be - less disturbed. That day we reached the resort late evening but with the beautiful memories of Barnawapara.

Our last day was spent in visiting heritage sites in Sirpur. Sirpur of Shripur as it was known in ancient times, is a small village on the bank of Mahanadi. It was the capital of Dakshin Kaushal under the Sarabhapuriyas and Panduvanshis. Sirur has archeological remains associated with Hindu, Baudhha and Jainism. What attracted me more was the construction of walls massive thickness with the help of bricks at time! The Laxman temple has carvings on bricks! I was amazed to the creativity shown on stone carvings at Buddha vihara. The stories from Jataka are carved here. A snake is shown entering in a hole from one side and comes from other side of the pillar. The bricks prepared in those times are still algae free whereas at certain places where modern bricks are used by the government to hold the structure properly has got algal attack. Barsur also has remains of bazzar of that time. The Mahanadi was used as trade route and lot of trade used to take place here. Now the Mahanadi flow has reduced and it has gone little away from this bazzar leaving only stories of that golden era that this place has witnessed once.

I really hope that the Land of Chhattisgarh soon gets its glory back and attract more enthusiasts that actually respect her natural beauty and rich heritage. Somewhere in my mind I feel that I will make a visit here again through my venture OikoEssence to quench my thirst of experiencing and learning more places, its culture and admire the heritage.

Gangetic river dolphin glimpse captured by Rupali gurav during OikoEssen...

Gujarat Off-beat travel (This was innitially Published on Ghumr.com)

Gir Forest area of Gujarat is state’s most popular national park and wildlife sanctuary. It is Asia’s only region providing natural habitat to Asiatic lions. But, did you know that state of Gujarat also has three other wildlife sanctuaries. Jessore Sloth bear, Balaram-Ambaji wildlife sanctuaries and Thol bird sanctuary in Gujarat have been instrumental in conserving lesser known wildlife species.

Jessore Sloth bear wildlife sanctuary provides protection to Sloth bears and their habitat. It was our first destination during our nature camp to Gujarat. We also visited Balaram-Ambaji Wildlife sanctuary and Thol Bird Sanctuary. These are accessible from Ahmedabad and Gandhinagar as well. Despite of being in the same state – Gujarat and located not very far from each other, all three Sanctuaries have their own characteristics and landscapes. Jessore and Balaram Ambaji wildlife sanctuaries are located on the border of Gujarat and Rajasthan states. Both of them act as a barricade protecting the land of Gujarat from getting covered by the sand from Rajasthan.

Jessore Sanctuary

Our train reached Ahmedabad early in the morning but we reached Jessore in the afternoon as we spent some time on small lakes that are present on the outskirts of Ahmedabad. Jessore is in Banaskantha district.  Evening is a good time to go for trail in the forest. The exotic and invasive species Prosopis juliflora is in abundance at Jessore along with few indigenous plants species such as ber, acacias etc. We could not see the sloth bear but saw droppings and scratch marks made by bears (while climbing the tree). We sighted Sambar deer, wild boar and mongoose during the trail. Also, we spotted reptiles including monitor lizard and skink. Jessore has a huge lake which attracts water birds. One can even see good number of land/scrub forest birds here.

The wife of the caretaker prepared food for us during our one night stay at Jessore and no need to say, it was yummy.

Balaram-Ambaji Sanctuary

Next day early morning we left for Balaram-Ambaji wildlife sanctuary. On the way one can feel the noticeable difference in the vegetation. Balaram ambaji sanctuary shows a growth of big indigenous trees such as palash, mahua, beleric myrobalan etc. but, Prosopis juliflora still occurs. The staff of the forest department in Ambaji range was very helpful. Couple of them joined us for the forest trail. We started our walk little late in morning. Still we could see some forest birds and mammals like –  Neelgai, Wild boar, Hanuman langur and three stripped palm squirrel. It was refreshing experience to walk in forest. We also saw a forest calotes. After having an interaction with Regional Forest Office, Ambaji (which was very informative) we left for Balaram range.

Hanuman Langur feasting on Palash Flowers

Balaram temple is very near to sanctuary and many devotees visit here to offer their prayers. One thing really important – there are no restaurants/dhabas nearby. So one should carry the lunch or eat whatever snacks available on the small stalls here. We choose the second option as we had heavy breakfast in the morning. After this we went for stroll in forest. The forest department staff here was very kind and helpful too. The discussion between Forest Department and us was really interesting one and gave us lot of information.

Here we got to see one interesting phenomenon. This forest has only two rhesus macaques. The wildlife conservation team rescued and released them in this sanctuary long time back. These macaques stay with a group of Hanuman langurs. It was really intriguing for me. I haven’t heard of any macaque staying with Langurs before. (If anyone has any records of such associations/s then please feel free to share). Here too the staff of Forest department accompanied us and gave us some valuable information about its biodiversity.

Thol Bird Sanctuary

Then we continued our journey towards Thol Bird Sanctuary. We opted to stay in Kalol which is about at 45mins driving distance from Thol. Next day early morning we visited Thol bird sanctuary.

Grey Lag Geese, Stilt Pochard Shovellers

Thol is an amazing wetland. We got busy in clicking bird photographs before actually entering the official boundary of the sanctuary. Painted storks, egrets, spoon bills etc were busy in having their morning breakfast just outside the sanctuary. When we started walking along the lake we could see lots of birds. It was like a collage of different bird species placed in one lake. One can spend hours and hours observing, photographing and documenting the various bird species that use this lake. Majority of them are listed under either ‘Near-threatened, ‘Threatened’, ‘Vulnerable’ or ‘Endangered’ status of IUCN’s Red list. Almost all of them are schedule one or two species as per the government of India’s rule.

This lake is also a nesting site for many birds and Saras Cranes are one of them. In fact some of us were lucky to see the courtship dance of Saras Cranes and I was one of those. It was something that I will remember throughout my life and feel blessed to witness such a wonderful creation of nature.

The memories are too many and I can go on and on… But, no matter how much I describe here it will not do the justice to the beauty of this place. One must visit to experience!

My Article on Velas - posted on Ghumr.com

to read article with photographs please click on the following link

http://www.ghumr.com/velas-turtle-festival/

Our nature camp to Velas beach to experience wonderful lives of Olive Ridley Turtles …

I remember I never used to get enough of enjoying by the sea as a child. Mumbai’s seashore is its only natural element that every common man can approach and is free of cost! I remember looking for seashells while walking along the shore and my shell collection used to be my treasure. Later due to my profession as biodiversity environmentalist, I came to know that there is much more life present there than just fish and shells.

I am sure we all have similar kind of memories of our childhood (at least those who live by the sea). Sea has been always attracting lot of tourists. Coastal tourism is really booming. Where other shores of Maharashtra are attracting tourists through lot of fancy adventure sports, there is one coast that has been attracting a huge number of nature lovers – Velas beach, Ratnagiri. We planned a nature camp to this beach in the month of March 2016. It was to watch babies of Olive Ridley Turtles making their way to the sea.

There are two ways to reach Velas along Mumbai-Goa Highway – one from Mandangad and another one from Shriwardhan (this involves car ferry). We chose the second one. We took a ferry from Bhagmandla jetty and reached Vesavi jetty in about 10 mins. Velas is about 20 mins drive from Vesavi jetty. We had booked a home stay there. I recommend all Ghumrs to reach there by afternoon just in time for lunch, as the local food you get here is really yummy.

Velas is one of the few examples of conservation that involves joint efforts from locals, government and NGOs. Earlier, due to lack of awareness the villagers were ignorant about the importance of turtles in nature and its conservation. Every year, Olive Ridley turtle females used to visit this beach to lay eggs. Either villagers or stray dogs/jackals took these eggs after digging the nests. As a result very few Olive Ridleys’ could make it to the sea and ultimately the species faced threat for their survival.

A local NGO – Sahyadri Nisarg Mitra Mandal came forward and started putting their efforts in turtle conservation by taking the villagers in confidence. They formed a committee that provides protection to the eggs. They also regulate hordes of tourists visiting the coast to witness baby turtles coming out of eggs. A lot of villagers are member of this committee and tourists can stay in their house. They also provide information on the lovely species of Olive Ridley Turtles.

There is almost zero chance that any visitor getting cheated here as the committee also decides homestay charges. So whenever you are in Velas you can expect transparency. We reached pretty late in the afternoon to Velas. After having delicious lunch, we went to the shore in the evening. The babies that hatch in the evening start their journey to the sea immediately. They follow the moonlight. Due to increase in electrical lights on the land some hatchlings get confused and start walking towards land instead of sea. This is one of the biggest concerns in their protection. It was a magical experience to witness these young ones making their way to the sea.

Olive Ridleys got their name from the color of their shell. Adults have heart shaped shell that is olive green in color while the young ones are grey in color. They are omnivores with diet consisting of crustaceans, mollusks, tunicates and fish. They have two visible claws on their paddles. Olive Ridleys do not live in groups unlike fish and reside in occur in warmer water and Indian Ocean is one of them. They migrate hundreds or sometimes thousands miles every year. Only time they come together as a group is during Arribada – when all the female turtles return to the shore where they had been hatched to lay their eggs. They use wind and tides to reach the beach.

Female lays hundreds of eggs at a time and it may nest up to three times a year. The incubation period of their eggs is about about 52-58 days. They have lot of natural predators. In addition, humans slaughtering females for their meat and skin, fishing nets frequently snagging & drowning these turtles adds on to their threat to survival. The replacement of natural sand barriers such as Ipomoea species (climber) with exotic tree species of Casuarina equisetifolia is creating a disturbance for females to dig up the nest. As, the roots of this tree don’t spread on the superficial soil surface and females cannot dig through that. The baby turtles have to combat all these forces to come out of eggs to experience life!

During our visit, about 21 hatchlings came out and this was the highest number so far for this year. But, the number of tourists that came to see them was around 500!! After looking at the crowd behavior, all of us decided to volunteer to control their movement. Some people didn’t bother the barricades and crossed the lines. It was dangerous for the hatchlings as even our footprints can act like a huge hurdle for them to cross. Almost everyone was trying to get best shot and selfies with the hatchling. The situation was really worrisome and crazy.

We decided to pay more attention towards hatchlings safety and control self-proclaimed “nature lovers” from getting close to baby turtles. The baby turtles can still get harmed after they enter the waters as they are pushed back to the shore by tides. So few volunteers paid a strict watch on them. There is no doubt that everybody came there with the good intention of witnessing this natural miracle. But getting too close to get the best shot should not harm the eco-system around us.

Luckily, the situation was better the next morning during sunrise. The number of tourists was less and everybody was following the rules. Since it was a morning time, we spent some time in nearby mangrove patch and along the hillside of the coast. Some of the mangroves were flowering. Some of our bird sightings included white-bellied sea eagle, white-breast water hen, Shrike, Parakeets etc.

It was the time to leave this beautiful place and we left this place with a heavy heart, promising to visit here again. Since it was a Sunday there was huge rush at the jetty. We had to wait for about 2.5 hrs to our turn in the ferry. While waiting some of the participants saw dolphins. So this wait did not bore us at all experiencing another unique species of water!

Brahmaputra’s Kaziranga

Sharing my article based on Kaziranga, gibbon and nameri - Assam published on ghumr.com

to read with photographs click on following link
http://www.ghumr.com/assam-brahmaputra-kaziranga/

Awesome Assam

Brahmaputra’s Kaziranga

Wildlife doesn’t necessarily be seen only in forest ecosystems. Different pants and animals are adapted to different habitat such as fresh as well as marine water, marshy lands, grasslands, alpines etc. Each habitat has its own beauty. We Indians are really very lucky to have almost all types of ecosystems in country and it is surely one of the many reasons why we should be proud of her. She has plenty of rivers - some huge some small but, they all support great number of biodiversity. Brahmaputra is one of the massive rivers that our country has.

We decided to experience this different habitat in the month of March, 2016. Although many people prefer taking a flight to Guwahati and continue from there by road but, to save cost one can take a train to Guwahati and continue the further journey by road.  We decided to take the second option. It was 58.5 hrs train journey (two nights) from Mumbai. The train passes through the varied and interesting landscapes of country. We reached third day morning to Kamakhya. Kaziranga is about 210kms away from this station. One of the three and half ‘shaktipithas’ (places of Goddess Shakti) - The Kamakhya temple is on the way to Kairanga.

We reached Kaziranga in the afternoon. Our hotel was near central gate of the national park. There are five zones of the park. We booked our stay near central gate and did five safaris from 3 gates – the central, eastern and western. We had one elephant ride, three jeep rides and one boat ride in the national park.

Kaziranga is located near Karbi Anlong Mountains/hills and also listed in UNESCO’s World Heritage Sites. It won’t be totally wrong if one says that Kaziranga has got its landscape from the river Brahmaputra. It holds ecosystems such as grasslands, forests, lakes etc. The area gets its fertile soil from this river. There is a particular species of grass called as Elephant grass grows here and it is a favourite food of one of majestic animals – the Greater One Horned Rhinoceros. Elephants, Swamp deers and hog deers are some of the few commonly seen animals here. Earlier, India was home to all the three species of Asian Rhinoceros – Javan, Sumatran and Greater one horned. Now only one species is surviving here that too comes under ‘endangered’ category of ‘IUCN’s Red Data List’. Rhinoceros are majestic creatures. When I first saw them I just kept on looking and forgot that I was carrying a camera. But, I was satisfied as I could admire the animal very well. Its skin folds across its flanks and tubercles give it look of armour-plated body. The horn that they have is actually a thick hair. It grows throughout the life and can be regrown if broken. It is considered to have medicinal properties. That is a reason why they are poached and it is a reason behind them getting endangered. As a habit they follow regular paths and defecated as the same place creating piles of dung. This makes it easy for poachers to find out their location and hunt them down. We also saw a mother and baby (one month old) while we were having an elephant ride. The baby gave us demonstration of how perfectly his mother was teaching him to grow. One of the safari elephant went too close to mom-kid pair. Immediately the kid took an attacking position, warned the elephant to keep the distance and managed to shoo him away.

Elephant sighting was another remarkable moment. When we first saw, it was only one male elephant with tusks and it looked disturbed. We thought it might be because of us and we kept a very safe distance from him. But, we were wrong as immediately we saw a group of another four elephants that were trying to shoo him away from them. That group had two females, one immature female and one Makhna (male with no tusks). We still kept a safe distance as none of them looked in good mood. We observed them nicely for about 5-10 minutes. If you are wondering how come earlier we missed the group of four elephants? Then the answer is the grass here grows really tall. Elephants can easily get hidden in this grass. Only tops can be seen.

If you have plenty of time in hand then a visit to Hoollongapar Gibbon Sanctuary or Hoolock Gibbon Wildlife Sanctuary – an area created conserve the only Ape species found in India the Hoolok Gibbon. The very distinct difference between other primates and apes is the lack of tail in apes. Apes can walk on the hind limbs for a considerable distance. It takes 3 hrs to reach there from Kaziranga. It has dominance of Hollong trees (Dipterocarpus macrocarpus) hence the name Hollongapar. Hoolock Gibbons got theier name from regular calls they make that sound like ‘Hoos’.  If you here their ‘hoo’s ‘ then you will remember it for ever. The protected area of the sanctuary is currently surrounded with tea plantations but it was once the patch of huge forest that continued till Nagaland. So, one can imagine the kind and intensity of the pressure on the forest and the life within it. We got to see many primates as well like – stumped tailed macaques, northern pig tailed macaques, eastern Assamese macaques, rhesus macaques and capped langurs. We saw one family and one more adult pair. The males have black fir whereas females are brown. The white eyebrows of males are very distinct. Observing hoolocks is a great experience. They hold and hang to a smallest twig with such an ease as we walk in gardens. This place is also good sight to good number butterflies that one can find in North-East part of India. The Variety of arboreal ferns such as bird nest fern is remarkable too. We were supposed to stay here for 2 hrs. However we spent about 5 hrs in roaming here and observing the diversity. It is advisable to keep the entire day free for this sanctuary. After this we returned to Kaziranga in the evening.

One should not miss the chance to experience the vastness of River Brahmaputra. She appeared almost like a sea to me. There is also a chance of freshwater dolphin sighting. Apart from these the water birds like herons, egrets, adjutant storks, openbill storks are seen in plenty. We also saw Great Hornbill. It nests there. We had initially planned for only three rides but after looking at this place decided to have two more jeep rides and we are really glad that we did it.

We visited orchid gardens before we left for Nameri. Orchid garden is another nice place to visit. But please keep about 2 hrs in hand to see this place properly. Nameri is located at about 5 hrs drive from Kaziranga. Nameri is another beautiful place. It has a really good forest that holds good amount of biodiversity. People come here for observing birds and butterflies. We reached here little late and it was a cloudy day so we decided to visit the nameri village. It was worth having a stroll in the village. The houses are built in unique. There is a different kind of satisfaction and calmness I have always observed in any village that I have been. I am not saying that villagers don’t have problems but there is still one can get peace here. After enjoying evening stroll, we came back. Our stay was in tourism department approved hotels at kaziranga (namdang house) as well as here in Nameri. The food that we got at both these places was too good. 

Next day we went to Pakke tiger reserve which is in ‘Land of the rising sun’ – the state of Arunachal Pradesh. It was decided to visit here as it is very close to Assam and all other sanctuaries in Arunachal Pradesh are far away from this. So the best way to visit here is through Assam. If you are not staying overnight in Pakke then it is advisable to carry packed breakfast and leave early in the morning for Pakke. There won’t be any shop open at that time. We started at 4.30 in the morning and reached Arunachal border by 7am. After some time we had breakfast the we carried with us and had chai at local tea stall. Surprisingly here too no one was in hurry. Even women from villages were having their morning tea from the same tea stall. People are very friendly here. All of them have a sweet smile on their faces. Pakke has few villages nearby and really good and thick forest. We did birding for some time and decided to return as we had booked for river ride in Nameri. We had our lunch at a local lunch home. It was Rs. 40/- for a full-fledged thali. River ride on raft was another fun. We saw many raptors and water birds on the riverbanks. Next day early morning we left for Guwahati airport. We wanted to save on time so we opted for flight. On the way we halted to see birds at Pobitara Sanctuary. One must keep about two hours extra to enjoy birding here. We too enjoyed a lot and did some bamboo baskets shopping at the roadside shops on the way. Overall it was a memorable trip. Looking forward to make another visit to Assam as six days are not enough.