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.

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!

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.

A Walk in the Woods

Radhanagari & Dajipur - Originally this article was published on Ghumr.com. To read this article with photogrphs please click on following link
http://www.ghumr.com/a-walk-in-the-woods/

Radhanagari, Dajipur Wildlife Sanctuary

Sometimes I wonder how beautiful our country is! She holds treasure in terms of variety of languages, cultures and of when it comes to biodiversity; she is stands in top ten in the World.  I have a dream to visit and re-visit the maximum of its wonderful places. Especially those ones that are well known for their biodiversity, culture etc. Luckily through my profession I get to visit such places. Through nature camps it the world of various plants and animal opens in front of us. Then it is up to us, how much energy/knowledge to absorb from this. We (me and my friend along with campers) go for nature outings to various places. One of such outings was the Dajipur and Radhanagari wildlife sanctuary. It is located in Kolhapur district of western Maharashtra region. The area of this sanctuary is about 351.16 sq kms. Generally, people approach this place from Kolhapur. But, we thought it will be great if we could cover both the coasts and forests of Western Ghats. Hence, we decided to visit this from Kankavli, Sindhudurga of Maharashtra state. Tasting Konkani food and exploring Konkan region were amongst the other intensions behind choosing this route.

The Western Ghats of India are blessed with natural beauty. Its rich species diversity adds up to it beauty. It covers western coastline of states – Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka and Kerala. It is home to about four thousand species of plants and thousands of faunal species including 325 globally threatened species (as per IUCN). Unfortunately , due to so called ‘development/progress’ Western Ghats (WG) is losing its species diversity and ultimately the forests and clean coastlines. Due to this the natural wealth is under threat and the WG is also listed in the 25 World Bio-diversity hotspots. However, some regions still hold rich flora and fauna. 

A new tiger reserve has been declared in Maharashra – Sahyadri Tiger Reserve. Dajipur and Radhanagari are part of it. (Sahyadri mountain ranges run parallel to the western coast; start from Nasik and merge in to the Nilgiri ranges of Tamilnadu). One requires a prior permission from The Kolhapur Forest Department of Maharashtra. It is famous for Indian Gaur (this animal is by mistake sometimes referred as ‘bisons’ that are not found in India). The other species diversity is worth watching too.

We reached to Kankavli in the morning and after sometime we went to Mithbav – a creek nearby.  The site was suggested by one of the Sr. Scientists in SACON, Tamil Nadu (Salim Ali Centre for Ornithology and Natural History). His students showed us the project site and gave information about their work. Then we went for a nature walk with him. Fishermen were busy with their fishing boats ready to catch the day’s fish. It had a small patch of mangrove. Good number of waders and other land birds were seen even though it was June – the onset of monsoon. We spent lot of time in looking and clicking the fiddler crabs – well adapted species for mangrove ecosystem. It was wonderful to observe them. The male of this species has two claws (like other species) but one of the in far bigger than another. The function of this claw is to attract female. It does that by waving their bigger claw. After having a good walk and clicking pictures we realized that we all were hungry. Our driver Mr. _____ was a local person from kankavli and he knew the about place where one can get the home cooked food. After having a good meal, we headed towards another Dhamapur bird sanctuary. There was an old temple and next to it was a huge lake. We just sat upon the staircases on the bank and searched for birds. Common kingfisher, a pair of marsh-hawk gave us a chance to have a look at them for a very long time. We still had some time in hand so we went to Kunkeshwar temple situated right next to the sea. The waves was breath taking. Roaring of sea really takes charge of one’s soul. While returning, it was getting dark. And we got to see a pair of quails making their way near road or probably trying to cross the road. They hid behind the bushes and we did not disturb them. If somebody else had seen those then, there was chance of these quails getting killed by villagers/ truck drivers as quail meat tastes good. By this time Mr. _______ got used to us and he used to stop the vehicle as soon as he spots any bird while driving.

Next day was a day for Radhanagari and Dajipur. On the way we halted at many places to see various trees like oroxylum indicum (Tetu), Erythrina indica (Indian coral tree) and birds like the commonly found in konkan – Malabar pied hornbill, Kestrels, parakeets etc. Radhanagari forest department provided us a guide for nature walk inside the forest. He explained us the forest and its species. Radhanagari is a catchment area of Shahu Sagar and Laxmi sagar. The forest has three types: Southern semi evergreen, Southern Moist deciduous forest and Southern evergreen forest. Since it was first week of June (not a peek season), there were no tourists at all inside the sanctuary.  So, it was only us and the forest. We clicked many insects, birds, plants… simply trying to absorb the forest as much as we could and linking ourselves with it. There was small house of a farmer and both of children were very pretty and curious about us. They offered us some water. Elderly people had a quick chat with us as they were really busy in plaughing their rice fields.

Last day we decided to visit costal side starting with Sindhudurga fort. On the way we spotted a brahminy kite sitting on a coconut palm. It appeared as if it was sitting in peace. I don’t know from when it was sitting but we spent around half an hour in clicking it and it did not move. Ultimately we had to move as there were few other destinations we wanted wo visit. When we reached the fort, iIt was closed due to wave actions and it was declared as dangerous to enter in that water. SO, we went on exploring places like Kudal, vengurla etc. We came across a very interesting well. That was built in Chhatrapati Shivaji’s time for Horses. It was step well. A gigantic ficus tree was standing next to the well. We also got one nice birding spot on the way. It was full with waterlilies and other reeds. Reeds provide nice shelter and feeding area for water birds. There were coots, Purple moorhens, bronze winged jacanas, brahminy ducks, grey herons and few dabchicks. After spending about an hour here , we decided to move and catch the train.

This visit had really given us a lot in terms of peace, calm mind, energy, natural beauty, sightings, understanding people and their well adapted life styles and off course a very good food. I really wonder when people say I finished Konkan sightseeing in three days where as we could not finish even a 1/10^th of it in three days. To understand any place properly one should sufficient time to observe its people, their lifestyles, geography, climate, nature and biodiversity basically everything. And try to relate them with each other after. After doing you may realize that nature rules upon us really.

Thanks for reading.

Chakrata Chakkars

Bissu Celebrations

There are few places that remain in a corner of your heart and there are few places meant for you. Well, these are just my thoughts. 'Chakrata' is the place for me, I can never get enough of visiting this place. However, I will not suggest any "tourist" to visit here. If you are looking for entertainment, exciting sightseeing, loud music, restaurants, bars or any such "hangouts" then, it is better that you avoid visiting Chakrata. But, if you have true respect for nature and people living in-harmony with it then you can think about visiting here. Locals here are proud of their culture and place (and they have all the reasons to be). It is more important to learn from them instead of asking for better facilities and in a way forcing your (urban) lifestyle upon them. I don't want to be rude or selfish here but, trying to avoid the consequences of 'tourism'. Luckily, the regular tourist flow to Chakrata is very low . Majority of the visitors are nature lovers/birders/botanists/wildlifers. Even though, I could see lots of changes happening here ever since my first visit in 2005. I can't even imagine if regular tourists starts coming in good numbers and demand for their needs to hotel-owners / locals/ government. What if they try to fulfill these? what will happen to the locals and their ecosystem?..... I am scared, certainly don't wish 'Chakrata' to turn into another 'Mussoorie'. (Mussoorie is a nice place, you will understand this if you truly understand the importance of natural ecosystems and local life) It is a calm place overloaded with natural beauty and I really hope, from bottom of my heart that it remains as it is including its people. People here are as calm and beautiful as their surrounding nature. 

A village house. I so wish that I had one like these here

Chakrata is located in Uttarakhand, about 3 hrs drive from Dehradun. It is a cantonment area. The vegetation consists of broad leaved (oaks, rhododendrons, Berberis etc) and needle leaved trees (mainly deodars and pines). In the year 2008, few nature enthusiasts had butterfly summit here. 

Himalayan Vulture

Woodpecker

The bird life is too good. pheasants such as khalij, monal; scavengers - himalayan vulture, griffons; mynas; magpies; bulbuls; tits; red starts inhabit this area. 

Red billed blue magpie

Valley view from Himalayan Paradise

The place where I stay - Himalayan Paradise has a spectacular view of Himalayan cliffs (which I keep on staring for no reason at all). On these cliffs, nest the Himalayan vultures. According to me the entire team of this Himalayan Paradise is one of the many reasons why many people intend to visit this place again and again. My first visit was as a student of a post graduate diploma and then in next year I came as a Botany leader for next batch. After that I kept on coming here with my friends. Deoban, Kanasar,Budher are few places that people generally visit.

On the way to Deoban. Making way on the snow covered road

Burans flowering

This time (April 2015) I got a chance to experience the spirit of 'Bissu' fair . It is a celebration of spring. Burans (Rhododendron) indicate the season. The flowers are offered to god, made in to the garlands. Houses, vehicles are decorated with them. It seems this festival is celebrated for flowering of Rhododendrons. People get together in villages, perform traditional dances singing traditional songs. It's lots of fun, happiness, joy and masti.

New construction besides tiger falls.

There is one famous waterfall here - The Tiger fall. All the five times I visited there and have noticed many changes. This year (April 2015) I saw a construction work happening just besides the fall. They were building small hotel/overnight halting place. I do remember that, in 2005 this place was covered with thick vegetation. This really made wonder, will it happen to all the places that I visit after coming here? I do understand that this place will change ultimately but, I just wish that this change takes a very very very long time to Change.

Visit to Forest Research Institute (FRI) Dehradun. Before reaching Chakrata

FRI has marvelous piece architecture

FRI

In 'Chakrata', the fun continues...