Trains are getting lost, flights are getting cancelled, locusts are swarming the plains of north India. As expected, cases are doubling in states like Assam.
August 2020
Floods in Assam, and the sanctuaries and animals are in distress, with no access to highlands for them.
COVID continues its merry spread across cities and states, though it does seem to have slowed in Chennai. And I sill have not finished this post.
Here is another stab at it.
15th August 2020 - 7 months to the day, oh my goodness this definitely is getting finished today! What better way to mark our independence, than write about a visit to a remote corner of India early this year.
Today was the day we were moving to Orang, where we would have one afternoon safari, and spend the night at the town of Mangaldoi, which we would pass actually on our way to Orang.
All woollens packed into my large bag - I was relieved to have brought an outsized bag, as I could just throw stuff in any which way, and now it had an added item - the bamboo "vase" which is about 18 inches long!
We bundled into our cars, said a big thank you to the Florican staff at Manas (I wondered if I would ever return there again), as set off for Orang/Mangaldoi.
A 10 am halt at Nalbari for tea, and we were exposed to the Bihu market wonders - all sorts of things.
A man held a fish as if it was the most normal thing to do - maybe it was for him. Not for me. I gawped, just like the poor fish.
The bamboo baskets all looked so inviting - but I followed a "Only look no buy" policy, and left without anything additional! This was a fishing set.
When I returned back to Chennai, Kamini was scandalised that I had passed by on nolan gur - which was being sold by the tubfulls. Venkatesh (or was it Aparna?) bought some delicious pedas - it was good to be travelling with them - we were constantly eating!
We crossed Mangaldoi, and continued. Mustard fields were in bloom.
At around lunch time - oneish - (yes, time is measured by mealtimes), we arrived at Orang! We were at the gate of the park, a newish resort - Green Planet just at the gate, but it was not large enough to accommodate us all overnight, so sadly we were trekking back into Mangaldoi for the night. But for now, a clean loo was most welcome.
Trying hard to make the boys who were helping us at lunch to understand that no we didn't need plastic bottles of water, but a jug would do nicely thank you. They looked at me as if I had gone mad....I suppose there was a lot lost in translation!
We met Najib, another young naturalist, and now, along with Pranjal and Yuvan, we had a trio of young naturalists! Najib worked with Wild Wings, a local NGO in the area of wildlife conservation, and he was going to accompany us on our drive through Orang.
After lunch, we saw some jeeps, and all of us hopped into them, and waited. and waited. I was with Suresh and Pritam and Shuba. After a bit of time, we heard a lot of Assamese exchanged between Pranjal and Najib and the drivers. It seems that there was a standoff between the drivers and the forest rangers over manhandling of a tourist, and the park was actually closed that day!
After much cajoling and explaining by Hiranya that we had come all the way from Chennai, some kind of compromise was reached and we had to shift to some other jeeps (I guess these were the ones of the forest department and not the ones of the resort), and then we were let in.
I was with cousin Kumar and Usha in the rearranging, and it was all in the family in our jeep.
Orang is a little park - 78 sqkm - on the north banks of the Bramhaputra, and if I'm not mistaken I recall Najib mentioning that it belonged to a Raja of the region. The vegetation was very much like Manas - grasslands, and silk cotton.
The entire protected area was a human habitation till the last decade of 19th century (Talukdar and Sharma 1995). The area was inhabited by different ethnic groups. The villages were abandoned during the latter part of the 19th century, and in course of time, the area became covered by vegetation where animals took shelter. In 1915, it was declared a Game Reserve. The area was declared Wildlife Sanctuary in 1985 and upgraded to a National Park in 8th April, 1999. Entire area of the RGONP is the core part of recently declared Orang Tiger Reserve in December, 2016.
Sitting quietly in the shade was an Asian barred Owlet, looking on seriously at us. Soon it turned its back on us, but Suresh captured it sneaking a peek at us!
The undergrowth was beautiful as was the canopy above...where to look?
A fairy bluebird sat high on an exposed branch
We stopped at a watchtower and took in the landscape
The Eurasian Wryneck
Then there was some scurrying in the undergrowth just below the watchtower, and Najib said it was a Eurasian Wryneck. Now me and my myopia took ages to spot it, but it kept everyone busy for a while as it scuttled among foliage, now you see it now you don't, the shutterbugs getting more and more frantic!
Finally, even I saw it! And even got some hopeless pictures of it.
The Eurasian Wryneck - Jynx torquilla - a lifer for me. It is a woodpecker, but what is it doing on the ground. Strange bird!
It had these jerky movements and was always on the move. I learned that it is a ground feeder and has a long tongue that it uses to probe for ants.
I saw the characteristic "namam" down its back, but it was really well camouflaged, and busy!
There are videos on YT of this bird doing some interesting things with its rather supple neck.
A beautiful capture by Sudar of said Wryneck
And then we arrived at the forest bungalow from Chithra's account! If only we could have stayed here. What an idyllic location! But everything looked totally rundown. But why oh why does it have to be like this? Why do we find forest bungalows go into disrepair, and then new ones get built?
I could imagine staying at this guest house and looking out on the vast grasslands below
If you click on the picture and enlarge the panorama, you see, the view from the rundown guest house - the vast grasslands, in height order it seemed - the pasture and then medium height grass and then really tall elephant grass.
The tall grass, with the trees beyond
We just sat on the wood stumps, soaking it all in, as the sun slowly dipped and the light faded. As the sun lowered, the birds were returning to their roosts.
It was a herbivore bonanza. Swamp deer, hog deer, boar, francolins, rhinos....all grazing peacably. No carnivore in sight. Egrets and kingfishers, drongos and bee eaters.
About 10% of the area of the ONP is wetlands and water - the Bramhaputra river, with its tributaries Pachnoi and Dhanisiri, flow through these areas, and there are also many "bheels" or lakes.
The Indian hog deer (Hyelaphus porcinus)
Another first for me was seeing these small deer, which are supposedly found across northern Indian plains. Their body shape seemed a bit different, with downward slopy shoulders. The white on their tail was more evident when they flicked their tails, which was very often.
Assam seems to be their last refuge these days, as their numbers in areas like Corbett have dwindled. I learnt that these are grassland deer, and were once much more abundant than chital, but as more and more grassland came under fire/degradation, these deer had nowhere to go.
Now under the IUCN endangered list, I hoped that they continue to thrive here in Orang.
As with all of the creatures of the Bramhaputra region, the annual floods mean they have to move to highlands, but with more roads and development cutting off access to highlands, there is huge loss of hog deer every monsoon.
They needs grasslands to fawn, so their successful breeding is under threat with dwindling grasslands.
It was only 430 in the evening, but the sky ws darkening, and it was soon time to leave the park, but we had one last encounter, almost missed. A lone elephant to the left of the road watched us go by. The jeep driver was a little skittish and didn't want to linger - discretion around lone male elephants was what he muttered.
Beautiful sunset views as we bounced along the jungle roads to exit the parks, accompanied by the screeching of parakeets on their way back "home", wherever that was.
We exited the park and stopped for tea, and a tete a tee with Najib and his work. The tea was not worth writing about, but there was much banter as we waited in the chilly darkening evening air.
It was a couple of hours ride to Siddharth Palace, which was named more in hope and wish than in fact, but rather interesting. Steep steps and up and up. Rooms with glamorous velvet curtains behind which were plain brick walls, hmm. And the steps (I kid you not). were not flat but seemed like out of that nursery rhyme - there was a crooked house. All those days at Manas we were served hot simple meals and it was fine. Somehow this veneer of poshness and floating oil always makes me suspicious. So I ate sparingly (yes I can do that, believe me). The waiters were obsequious and supposedly the owner had a Madras connection - he had come to Chennai to do his engineering!! It was Bihu night, and we were in for all night singing and dancing we were warned, and yes they partied all night long to a mixture of Bollywood and Assamese music.
We did not see the pygmy hogs - another species under threat because of lost grasslands. ONP is a site of some pygmy hog restoration programme.
Day 5 - on to the river!
We of course were up with the lark, but the staff were all hungover and asleep and Pritam came down to find that we were locked in hahahaha. Some Hotel California like situation. After some hollering, we were let out by some sleepy waiters. I went for a stroll and found some interesting things.
An Apollo Chennai outreach!
A doggie with offal
And this rather stern notice for employees of the hotel
which I noticed while having breakfast
I had packed up and come for breakfast leaving Devika in the room to finish and join us downstairs. Cars were getting loaded. She wandered down and told me that she thought I had left my soap behind. So I went on up again on those crooked stairs to our room with the satin curtains, and retrieved my soap, and there I saw rubber chappals, green, near the bathroom door. I muttered to myself that Devika has forgotten her slippers, picked them up with a flourish and went off downstairs after a final look around to ensure nothing else was abandoned.
I marched purposefully to Devika calling out to her and waving the slippers, as she was loading her bag and I very helpfully wanted her to put it in before the bag got put away in the car boot. The waiter from the hotel was following me in a strange fashion. At this point Devika told me, in her usual unhurried and calm voice, it's not mine Ambika, and .....I looked from slipper to her to the following waiter to all the other MNS members standing around looking on. The waiter sheepishly said, woh hamara hotel ka chappals hain (actually I should've been the sheepish one you would think). There was much tittering and guffawing as I hastily handed it back to him and ran off to wash my hands. "What else are you smuggling away Ambika?" was the refrain, and Suresh was sure I had watched the movie If it's Tuesday it must be Belgium!
And then we were off, to our next experience on the river itself.
Mr Ramanan visited Tadoba in April this year, and the temperatures of 49 degrees Celsius thankfully did not affect his photography! The TATR - Tadoba Andhari Tiger Reserve - is in the centre of India, in Maharashtra, and a reserve that I have not visited.
The forest awaited the monsoons, the teak trees were bare and all creatures big and small looked for shade.
This Brown fish owl (Ketupa zeylonensis) was spending its days in the shade, probably close to a water body.At night, it would be out to hunt.
Orange headed Rock Thrush on the dry teak leaves of the forest floor. Tadoba is predominantly teak forests. But is that a largestromia flower peeking at us?
A Crested Serpent Eagle surveys the forest floor for prey
Oriental Honey Buzzard - at the lake. The sanctuary has the Andhari river running through it, and the Tadoba lake. The lake is a great place for sightings.
Chousingha (Tetracerus quadricornis), a small four-horned antelope, solitary by nature, and whose numbers are dwindling, as forests have become isolated. Tadoba is one the few refuges left for this herbivore. A dove walks by in the background.
A barking deer, moving close to a bamboo grove, probably looking for some shade. No antlers as yet for this one.
A massive gaur also at the watering hole. Their numbers have swelled and they are now a common site in plantation towns in the hills.
The sloth bear on the other hand is an uncommon sighting in the wild I have not seen one as yet. Whenever I see pictures of them, I feel that they desperately need a grooming!
As Thyaga remarked, what is it that you didn't see, Mr Ramanan?! The summer heat meant that all animals looked to minimise their movements. In a way its arguably the best time to visit a sanctuary, if you are interested in sightings. Physically uncomfortable, but great sightings! I personally love to visit when forests are green, and so usually end up not seeing very much beyond the lovely magnificent trees. The trees are wonderful in themselves, and I do not regret the lack of sightings.
And just when I thought, ok he did not spot a tiger, I saw these pictures!
A summer snooze for the top carnivore.
This is the cub of the tigress named Rani
There are a 100 + tigers in the 650 odd sq kms of the TATR. Tadoba, Pench, Kanha... one contiguous forest not so long ago, but now islands separated by human habitation.
And as I write this, the forests have been further decimated as the Pench-Kanha corridor is witnessing the development of an elevated highway. The elevated sections are supposed to mitigate the effect on wildlife by allowing them to cross underneath.
Is this realistic and what about the interim displacement and habitat loss? Could not the highway skirt this corridor?
The magical Taal Chhapar grasslands in Rajasthan. A tiny little sanctuary at seven square kms on the eastern borders of the Thar. We were coming from the western ends of the desert and the gigantic Desert National Park (more than 3000 sq kms).
The 7-8 sq kms of this sanctuary is filled with grassland and saline rock and khejri trees.
Blackbuck are at home in grasslands, no forests for them. The browns merging with the mothiya grass and only their horns standing out like a ships' flag mast! The grasslands give them an advantage when fleeing from predators, and they do not mind the semi-arid conditions. So, as we convert grasslands into farms, the blackbuck habitat shrinks.
These beautiful antelopes are endemic to the Indian subcontinent, and we are the only country with a sizeable though endangered population. Hunted with cheetahs by our maharajahs, protected fiercely by the Bishnois, they seemed almost mythical and magical as they moved around in the grass.
The males have horns and the skin turns darker with age. The fawns don't have horns and are a much lighter hue. The ponds are formed in the low-lying parts of the sanctuary.
Young males, with a fawn brown colouring.
An adult male posed proudly, its horns resplendent. And those rings around the eyes like big moons.
Those horns! "A well-formed pair of horns on a mature blackbuck male may reach two feet in length and have a nearly equal spread between the tips." observes R K Menon
They grow from the base, do not fall off, grow spiralling outwards and are a pretty handy weapon of territoriality, as we saw later.
As dusk fell, we grew quiet, watching these shadows pass by in the grass, their silhouettes like a Japanese painting.
As I saw the sun go down, I dreamed of the plains of Africa. Would I ever make it there?
But the drama of nature had one more act. A male passed purposefully on the track ahead of us.
And before our eyes, horns were locked and a turf war began.
Just as quickly. it ended, with both the males trotting off in different directions, and to us, it seemed like it was a "draw"!
"Blackbuck are
territorial animals. A territorial animal like the blackbuck male holds a piece
of meadow or land that he defends against invasion of conspecific males. The
male in its white and black coat stands prominently on its territory, which he
hasfought for and taken from an earlier holder or, in some cases,colonised by
himself. The ownership of the territory may pass on from one individual to
another each year or a single, strong male may be able to retain it for several
years. Fights between males for territory possession can be violent.The two
males clash head on to lock horns and push mightily against each other. This is
where the corkscrew shape of the horns comes into use. The spirals of the horns
lock into one another so that they do not slip, much as the antler of deer
like chital lock during battle. Where the males are almost evenly matched, a fight
may continue over a few days. After the first bout, the contestants withdraw for
a short while, only to clash again. The contestants engage, break off, and
re-engage in this turf battle until the issue is settled. When the loser flees,
it is usually chased only for a few yards, and then it may be seen somewhere else
where it is more comfortable. The winner then stands in the
territory waiting for the females to come, for, in blackbuck, territory is the
ticket to reproductive success. When the females do arrive, the male tries to
herd them and keep them within his patch of land. This it does by what is called
the 'head-up' or 'nose-up' display. The male raises its tail upright to show the
white underside, raises his nose till the horns are almost flat along its back,
turns its ears downward and backward and moves with mincing steps, all the while forcing
the females deeper inside his territory. It may also grunt during this
behaviour. The females may move inward in response to the 'head-up' display and
begin to graze there, but if they are not so inclined, they simply walk across
into an adjoining territory. The male has no recourse other than to do
the'head-up' display in front of the wandering female. It appears strange that
once a female or herd of females crosses over into another territory, the
pursuing male will stop short at the end of his territory and not take one step
more. In most cases, the neighbouring male will come forward to escort the
female into its own territory.To the human eye, the exact demarcation line
between two adjoining territories is not always visible."
