Koteshwar temple at Rudraprayag

Our travels began at Haridwar.  Read about it here.

July 22nd, 2012

I can't get over how hot it is!

9am - and we set out from Haridwar to begin our climb into the Shivaliks.  Destination Rudraprayag. 900m and about 165 kms from Haridwar.

Cheerful Manmohan was all set, WOW badge and all!

Met up with our guide for the trip, Abhimanyu.  He runs Happy Holidays at Dehra Dun, and was thorough, professional and highly recommended to anyone who wants to travel in Garwhal.

About halfway between Haridwar and Rudraprayag is Devprayag.  The confluence of Bagirathi and Alakananda, to form the Ganga.  Bagirathi is on the left and is a little less ferocious than the Alakananda.  About 800m elevation.

At the viewpoint where the confuence picture was taken I saw a pair of Himalayan bulbuls!  My frst sighting of this bird!

It was still blazing hot.  Check out the yellow vent, white cheeks and black crest.

4:30 in the evening, and we arrived at Monal resorts.  On the banks of the Alakananda

Exploring the Koteshwar temple

The grand cliffs towering over the Alakananda gorge

The suspension bridge over the gorge

The river thundered below

Steps leading down to the riverfront.  On our return, the water levels had risen above these steps!

The temple is inside the cave, and is made up of natural rock formations.  Now, some idols have been installed before the steps coming down.

Reptiles and roots!

This dog was having fun in the water!

Ferns growing out of the crevice!

Abhimanyu had brought Dasehri mangoes for dinner and (according to my dear friend Raji), I ate one piece too many.  Result - an uncomfortable night with constant visits to the toilet.  By the morning, I had purged everything out, and feeling weak and tired.

How was I going to make the trek?  Another long road trip to Badrinath awaited me!

Birding at Yelagiri, interrupted by cyclone Thane

28th Dec 2011 to 31st, with cyclone Thane keeping us indoors all day on the 30th!

Pied bushchats and bulbuls everywhere.

The mermaid-in-the-lake seemed to point to the white-browed wagtail, which was on the rock to her left!  Poor thing, her arm has dislocated with the effort!

Asian Paradise flycatcher, that flitted in and out of the silver oak trees on the 31st morning.

White-bellied drongos - fascinating aerial swoops and dives as they caught insects on the fly!

My first ever Verditer flycatcher - the blue birdie on the wire.

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Frogmouths, leech socks, rain and puttu.

The north-east monsoon is well and active over the Bay of Bengal, but one would think that that is no reason for Kerala on our western coast to get rain, isn't it?

But rain it did, poured according to all accounts, and the MNS group that went to Thattekad and the Salim Ali Bird Sanctuary had their full share of leeches, spiders, birds, lush green trees, flowing rivers and butterflies.

No, I did not go, (Boo hoo!) was attempting to be a responsible parent, you see. Anyways, Mr Ramanan has taken some fabulous (as always) pictures, and Vijay has written this most entertaining and thorough account. (Please note how each meal has been detailed to add to my envy, and leech inconveniences happily glossed over!)

(Actually, the group went well armed with "leech socks" - a kind of canvas covering for the legs all the way up to the knees.)

Click on any of the photos for a larger view.
View of the valleys - Photo by Mr Ramanan
White cheeked barbet - Photo by Mr Ramanan

Vijay's report:

"16 of us boarded the Thiruvananthapuram Mail amidst pouring rain on the evening of Friday, Nov. 6, 2009. ABEL - a spacious bus - piloted by Unni awaited us at Aluva Station on Saturday morning. In about 90 minutes we were at the Salim Ali Bird Sanctuary at Thattekkad. After dumping our stuff in the dormitory and downing a quick breakfast of Idli and Kadalakkuutan, we trekked off into the Sanctuary upto the Watchtower with our very knowledgeable guides Sudheesh and Mani (pronounced Maa-ni).
Racket tailed drongo - Photo by Mr Ramanan

The trees are gigantic...the cheeni (tetramulus nudiflora) towering nearly a 100 feet in height with a base, to encircle which would need atleast 5 persons to link hands. We parked ourselves atop a broad rocky surface and our binocs began chasing the numerous birds which flew hither and thither gleefully beckoning us to play 'catch'. Butterflies too flitted around gaily. The morning ended with the sighting of a pair of Sri Lankan Frogmouths.

Sri Lanka Frogmouth. The male is more grey and the female more rufous - Photo by Mr Ramanan
The female frogmouth. Their call is supposed to sound like chuckles! - Photo by Mr Ramanan

After a sumptuous lunch and rest we were off again early evening to another part of the Sanctuary that led us to a view-point that gave us a splendid vista of the Western Ghats. We could not spend much time here as it began raining quite heavily and so we were back sooner than planned to the dormitory. Dinner was Rice Kanji, Kappa, Cheru Payaru, Pickles and Pappadam. We retired early as we had planned an early morning trip to Kallippara - 6 Kms. away. Around 11 pm the rains became harder, and continued to be so till 8 am Sunday morning.

The dormitory had a tin roof and so we experienced 'thundering rain'. The din however completely drowned the loud sounds of the inevitable snores. Fortified by a breakfast of Aapam and Veg Curry, we set off by bus to Kallippara, so called because of its rectangular shape. We were rewarded with the sighting of the Crimson-backed Sunbird. Sunday evening, we trekked across the Periyar River to the other side of the Sanctuary looking for the Barred Jungle Owlet and ended up seeing one fly overhead (we did see a couple more though very clearly the next morning).

Little blue kingfisher - Photo by Mr Ramanan
Monday morning was bright and sunny and so we caught a bus and went off 14 Kms. away and trekked to a place called Knacheri. The canopy here was awesome. On our return we saw the Malabar Trogon and the reconstructed Bhagavathy Temple. The reconstruction has been done atop the old Temple remains. We came back famished and the Nool Puttu and Veg Stew awaiting us vanished in no time.
Indian Pitta from below! - Photo by Mr Ramanan
Mid-day saw all of us in various attire scrambling to sight the Indian Pitta, and to our good fortune we also saw the Orange-headed Groundthrush. Kuttikkal was our destination for the evening - the place is so named because it is at this spot that the Periyar and the Edamalayar meet. Further downstream is the old Boothathankettu - a Dam of just big rocks - our destination for Tuesday morning.
Male Asian Fairy Bluebird - Photo by Mr Ramanan

The overnight rain ruled out Boothathankettu and instead, on a very cloudy Tuesday (Nov. 10) morning we trekked 10 Kms. inside the Sanctuary right upto its boundary called Ovungal/Kolumbu. We birded from atop Anachathappara, so called because an elephant is known to have died here. The remains of a Shiva Temple, several centuries old and the watchers' home on the banks of the Periyar were the stops on the trek. Before we began the trek, we were lucky to see the pair of Brown Hawk Owls back at their usual roosting place. They had been chased away by the Bonnet Macaques on Sunday morning. After a late breakfast, we hung around the dormitory and at the bottom of the steps to the Periyar River, rested a bit and began desultorily packing.
The River Periyar flows through the sanctuary - Photo by Mr Ramanan
Soon after lunch, the rains came down in torrents and barely let up to allow us board ABEL to go to Aluva to board the Chennai Mail back.

A rock agama - Photo by Mr Ramanan
Dr. Sugathan, the resident Ornithologist, who was also a close aide of Dr.Salim Ali, said that since the lake inside the Sanctuary had no water this year, the migratory water birds came, stayed for 2 days and went away.

Despite losing around 10 hours of good birding time over 2 days, we still recorded 110 species of birds and around 40 species of butterflies."

A wood spider - - Photo by Mr Ramanan

Aren't the spiders grand?

Looks like they had a great cook as well! (For those unfamiliar with Kerala cuisine, puttu, aapam, etc are all local staples, and highly recommended!)

And the frogmouths do have strange-looking mouths!

Mamandur revisited

Not by me, unfortunately, but by other lucky MNS members, who went off to the Bungalow on the hill.

The Bungalow (thankfully) looks in good shape, though a dorm seems to have also been added. The rate seems to be Rs 500 per head per bead for "fooding and lodging"!

In these days of vanishing forests, good to hear that the forest still continues to exist and flourish.  Mamandur is not a mammal/cat kind of place, but more a birding and nice-quiet-place-to-enjoy-nature type place.  From all accounts that continues to be the best description.

 The undisturbed huge anthills

 Iora I think

Rat snake!

This group seems to have had several snake encounters, which we didn't!  This rat snake was in a stagnant pool of water in the dry riverbed, and was after frogs.

Here's Sripad's description:

Then for a second I thought I had seen a head come out of the water I looked through my camera got a shot and immediately zoomed in to have a look, it was a Rat Snake!!! There was a Rat Snake in the small pond filled with Toads……after I alerted everyone about my find we waited for everyone to give their comments the snake by this time interrupted by our load voices and ugly faces went into the water and came out only after a ten minute wait. When we waited for the snake to come out the second time we watched the ecosystem around the pond there were Damsel flies and butterflies sucking up minerals from the wet soil around. As we waited for the snake to show its head we watched the pond for entertainment and we got to see nice toads with lots of character.
When we thought the snake won't show up again the snake resurfaced and as though watching an alien from another planet all of us watched the snake with awe and me being a great fan of the snake clicked away like crazy. I did manage to get a few nice shots of the snake.

Damsel butterflies

Tree Pipit?

(Mr Ramanan took these photos to help us id the bird)

The intitial consensus was tree pipit.  But looking at the bird books have confused me more.

Also, we always saw it in the scrub below and not in a tree....

So, could it be Richard's Pipit?  But the I dont see the long hind claw.

Paddyfield pipit?  Its a bit bigger than a paddyfield isnt it?

And what about Blyth's then?!!

Please pick your choice!

My introduction to butcher birds

The heat and dust of Melghat did knock me off for a day. With a heavy head and a fever I decided to stay up at Chikaldhara one morning, and not take the jungle ride down to Melghat. I did wander through the lanes around and also had the privilege of getting morning tea. (Given the way the MTDC place was organised, it was a real and rare privilege believe me!)

As I sat in the verandah overlooking the valley, a rufous-backed or long-tailed shrike came and sunned itself on the bare tree in front of me. I have not seen this bird before, about a foot long, but immediately recognisable by its profile, and my constant thumbing through bird books. It was quite enjoyable, I must say, drinking hot and sweet chai, sitting in a chair in a verandah overlooking a valley, the cool morning air and the birds come and parade in front of you!

When the group returned I told them about my morning, as they briefed me on their morning walk through the forest, seeing a mamma stork and her 2 juveniles, and coping with an increasingly nervous Deepika!

Shoba then enlightened me about these shrikes - also called butcher birds. They have hooked beaks, and have this rather nasty habit of impaling their prey for future eating. So, tasty worms, bugs, lizards, mice and such like are stuck on to a convenient thorn or barbed wire, and eaten later when they are hungry.

I was quite appalled when she first told me about this habit, but then on reflection I realised its not such a big deal is it?  They are just being clever and planning for future needs isnt it?  Well we do it all the time in our refrigerators - keeping more food than we need!  Okay, its not bugs and lizards, but so what?

And then I saw this video......

A flycatcher and a Colonel

(Photo credit: Mr P Ramanan)
I saw this lovely little bird on my recent trip to Melghat and Chikaldhara. The MTDC Chikaldhara resort did have many feathered visitors, and all we had to do was sit around with our binoculars, and sure enough you would see a daily parade.

One afternoon, Mr Ramanan wandered in excitedly with his camera, and showed us this amazing capture - a Tickell's Blue Flycatcher. Though we all rushed out to try and see it, it had whizzed away by then.

I remember idly flicking through Grimmett and Inskipp's book on birds of South India, and wondering whether I would see any of the lovely, colourful flycatchers on Pg 180! And I was in luck! He showed up again the next day, and I was ready and waiting. Under the fig tree this time. Something blue whirred past my ear, and darted from branch to branch seemingly snapping things out of the air. When it settled for a rest, it was the same Tickell's Blue!

He kept me fascinated and enthralled for a while, as he showed off his flying skills, trilling excitedly (or so it seemed to me anyway!) These flycatchers eat, well flies, and so do need to do these fighter-plane type dives!


Feeling rather pleased with my "sighting" I went off and announced to all the others, rather grandly, then read up about it, and wondered aloud who this Tickell was, who seems to have a lot of birds named after him.

Then, the next day, this little fellow was down by the leaky pipe - remember the one I wrote about here and I took this picture on the left. He is quite small isnt he? Then, of course everybody got a view, and so now all the Melghat gang have seen this bird!

On our return, I did a desultory search for "Tickell", and guess what, he showed up rather quickly, on Wikipedia at that! (What would we do without that marvellous tool?!)  There's even a picture of him there.  This Colonel of the British army seems to have been one active birder, and there's this little blue marvel, plus a flowerpecker and a leaf warbler and a thrush named after him.  

My salaams to Colonel Tickell

Mad Madrasis at Melghat

We did make it!

75 + birds species

Dry - I mean really dry - teak forests

Five dry rivers

Brown everywhere

Including the gaur, sambar and wild boar

MTDC horrors at Chikaldhara

A leopard seen while on foot

Bone-rattling jeep drives

Dahi rabdi at Semadoh

40 degrees + temperatures with no power

New friends - Sajid the driver and Neelkant the make-shift cook boy

MNS camaraderie

Endorphins released to last us a year, I think!

Nothing-is-impossible Vijay

Been there done that Mr Ramanan

Ever giggling and helpful Divya

Sweet-tempered Shoba (doesnt anything make her mad?!)

Mr Ranjan from Kochi

Deepika and Shoben - between them we had everything from a knife to bottle opener to kakras and teplas

Raji - our quack doctor with her Himalaya ayurvedic supplies

Stoic and wry Sekar

A trip full of memories and incidents to last a lifetime.  Pioneers, maybe we were?  I wonder if there is anyone in madras who has been to Melghat?!

More, as and when I recover!

Continued here.

Orang!

The one-horned rhino

WWF had announced a trip to Kaziranga, and as my husband and I dilly-dallied on should we shouldn't we (go I mean), the group was filled up. So, a set of MNS regulars went off to Kaziranga, and a few proceeded to Orang. Dont ask me where Orang is - I dont know!

Well, I just looked it up. Its 140 kms from Guwahati, closer to Tezpur. The Orang National Park is a small park - less than 80 sqkms and is in the Darrang dist.

So, here's Chitra's account of the trip, with pictures from Geetha and Arun:

Got back from a memorable trip to Assam – Kaziranga National Park and Rajiv Gandhi Orang National Park on Saturday, 22nd.

Our visit to the former was organized by WWF-India and was a well planned, orderly trip with our stay in a posh resort and visits into the park arranged by the resort for WWF.

We returned to Guwahati on the 16^th, when the WWF camp got over.

Completely in contrast to this was our trip to Orang. Out of the 12 people who went to Kaziranga, 4 of us decided to go to one other sanctuary in Assam having come this far and we chose Orang, a small sanctuary (78sq. km) 145 km to the North East of Guwahati.

When I decided to join Preston, Arun and Geetha on the trip to Orang, I thought they knew what they were about and was planning to just be a passive member of the group. Arun had downloaded an article on Orang that said that for a small sanctuary Orang offered good sightings of Rhino, Tigers, Hog deer and even the Bengal Florican besides having some beautiful untouched wilderness. The descriptions in the article sounded really inviting.

All that was before we set off for Orang on the 16^th…

Once we started making enquiries for taxis/jeeps/buses that would take us to Orang… I found that all of us had only a vague idea of where the sanctuary was actually located! When the forest ranger, Mr. Joyonto Deka, was contacted for permission, he seems to have mentioned vaguely the non-availability of transport or food near the park, and asked us to bring provisions with us for our duration of stay. Of course, we didn't believe him completely, but we did stock ourselves with rice, daal, turmeric powder, chilli powder, oil (mustard), salt, tea, sugar, a couple of loaves of bread, jam, a few packets of Maggi noodles (If we had allowed Arun to buy the provisions we would have been stuck with bread, noodles and biscuits for the whole trip!), potatoes, tomatoes, onions and thanks to the vege vendor 4 large cauliflowers!

We managed to get a Maruti Omni driver to drop us off at Orang (after much debating whether to bus it), and the driver assured us that there were jeeps to be had at the park entrance for going around and we believed him. On the way we stopped at a place for directions and were told that Orang was a Bodo area and there was bound to be trouble there. Our driver, not the bravest of persons told us to keep our eyes peeled for signs of trouble. As soon as we heard this Arun stuffed all his money into his socks in the hopes that the smell would keep the Bodos at bay!

We managed to reach Orang safely around 7.00 ish and met the Ranger, who told us where we were to stay and introduced us to our cook cum guard –Rohit, who was to take care of us during our stay there. He did warn us that there was no running water or electricity but there was a hand pump for water. That was when he also told us that there were no vehicles in Orang save his own jeep!

So we were actually stuck there with no vehicle.

The guest house from the rear

The taxi took us 4 km into the forest and we found the guest house that was to be home for the next three days. It had two rooms, a dining room with a fancy glass topped dining table, and six porcupine chairs, and a fancier sitting room with cane lounge chairs and a cane roof! There were two more dining tables that hung around in the porch area. There was a kitchen with a single wood stove and store along with a room for Rohit in the adjoining building. We found that there was solar lighting in the rooms though the toilets were all in the dark. The less said about the toilets the better. That was when we discovered that we hadn't bought candles or matches. We managed to beg another guard to get those for us the next day.

Rohit prepared rice, daal and aalu subzi and we had eaten our first meal we were all set to crash when we heard a series of loud snorts so close that we thought that it was from outside the sitting room area. We all rushed to the windows of the sitting room only to confront pitch darkness outside. Rohit calmly informed us that it was the Rhinos snorting. We spent a slightly uncomfortable night when we realized how inadequate the locks of our rooms were and how close any animal could get to us!

Next morning the dawn chorus got us up and we got to see the breathtaking location of the guest house. We were perched on a high land, behind us were huge trees that formed a sort of small wood. Behind the trees was a sea of grass – mostly burnt out, rhino land. In front and below the guest house about 30 feet below stretched grasslands, immediately below us were the short grasses (up to ankle length) and beyond them were the elephant grasses interspersed with silk cotton trees (Semul) – a lush green vista.

Adjutant stork

There were a couple of small ponds with water in the smaller grass where the adjutant storks, would come and solemnly hang out. There was a grey fishing eagle that haunted one semul tree in front of the house. Our early morning visitor, was a shy blue whistling Thrush, who would take off at the slightest movement from us!

Black-hooded oriole

The ranger arranged for a vehicle for our first ride – but it turned out to be a Tata Sumo – not the kind of vehicle to go into the park and he (the Tata Sumo Owner) charged us the earth for the two hour ride that we decided to have no more rides – but we managed to cajole him into taking us to the nearest village where we got some more provisions. We did try to travel rooftop initially on the vehicle but before long we realized that we'd have no backsides to speak of if we continued.

The park has about 20 trained elephants which are used by guards for patrolling and which are also used to give tourists rides once in a while. We requisitioned two elephants for the three days we were there.

Chakradhar

Padma and Lohit

The first evening we had two elephants – one tusker called Chakradhar, who came all three days and one sixty year old matriarch – Padma who came with her latest baby Lohit a two year old shy and yet inquisitive elephant. Both elephants seemed well fed and huge! The little fellow was a delight to watch. He would gambol between the two adult elephants, but what was really fascinating was his attraction to the dung dropped by his brother Chakradhar (also Padma's son). Every time Chakradhar defecated this little fellow would joyfully break the ball open and pick a choice morsel out of it and eat it. We were horrified, but were told that all babies do that.

The elephant grass is truly huge growing to well over 10 -15 feet as we discovered on our elephant rides. Either the people ahead of us appeared to be suspended in mid-air or disappeared completely in the grass. Geetha and I rode Padma, while Preston and Arun had Chakradhar. On our first ride out, we saw many but it was going through the grass that excited us the most. About an hour after we set out, Chakradhar stopped suddenly and our mahout whispered 'Rhino' and eased our way abreast of Chakradhar. I had just had a glimpse of the rhino, and as I was getting Geetha's camera ready for a photo shoot, things happened quickly. There was a shout and I saw the Rhino charge, both mahouts, who were armed with guns fired simultaneously, the baby elephant charged into the grass behind us and Padma, catapulted and bolted after her with the Rhino at our feet snorting away! I never knew elephants could move, maneuver themselves so fast. Anyway the Rhino gave up the chase and went back to her baby which had been there all the time. To my surprise the mahout turned direction and we went back the same way, but we found that the rhino had moved off with her baby.

We had two more rides on the elephants – but nothing as exciting as the first day happened though all the rhinos we approached were all set to charge if we attempted to get close, which we judiciously didn't. We also found that Chakradhar was chicken hearted! Every time we sighted a rhino, he would about turn and refuse to proceed till he was whacked a couple of times. It seems he was attacked by a rhino when he was younger and has been traumatized by that since then! The last day Geetha and I had a Makhna called Indrajit (Makhnas are adult male elephants without tusks and are usually aggressive males). He was a stout hearted fellow and seemed unfazed by the presence of the rhinos. I believe he was attacked once by a tiger which tore one ear up. As tourists are rare in the park, these elephants are not used to wearing the howdah (seats) and after the first day, fussed and protested. But the mahouts would give them a couple of whacks and get them to wear them. Chakradhar would then come all the way to the mounting stage trumpeting loudly and with tail raised. It gave us the heebie-jeebies to see him thus!

On our second night there we experienced tremors, and were told that tremors were common there.

We met the Ranger formally on the third evening and he told us the sad story of Orang. For a 78 sq km sanctuary he is the only ranger with 40 guards or so. Poaching is rampant there, and the guards have no vehicles to move around, and have to rely on walking or the elephants. Till last year they didn't have wireless radios or even a phone for communications. So the guards are armed at all times. There is no electricity in the park. With poachers, Bodo rebels, Bangladesh refugees as well as all the animals to keep track of, the guards have a lot in their hands and not much help from the powers that be. I understand that for a sanctuary to get funds they have to meet some requirements which Orang apparently doesn't. I would have thought that with both Rhinos and Tigers (they have 28) Orang would have qualified for more funds for the upkeep of the park. Popular parks like Kaziranga and Manas seem to grab most of the funding. Assam has a number of small parks like Orang that may soon vanish for lack of funds and government attention. It would be a pity if like Manas, Orang loses all its rhinos and tigers to poachers due to lack of support and funds.

On day three we realized if we didn't get the ranger's vehicle we'd never be able to get out of the sanctuary! Both Arun's and Preston's mobile phones were not working and we used Geetha's phone sparingly and anxiously watched as the charge slowly get lower! The ranger went off to Guwahati the day after we arrived and got back only the day before we left… more anxiety for us but the poor man readily offered his vehicle to us when we asked for it.

Yet, We almost didn't make it to the airport on the last day. We were to be dropped at the nearest bus stop (Silbori) by the ranger's jeep early Thursday morning from where we were to take a bus to the main road and from there to Guwahati. But when we reached the Silbori bus stop we were told by a few villagers that there was Bodo trouble and buses wouldn't run. Just when we were beginning to show signs of panic the bus driver got into his vehicle and started the engine… Needless to say that there was no trouble at all and the villagers were indulging in some mischief.

We all flew to Kolkata, where Preston and I parted ways with Geetha and Arun. We were taking the train back and it was due to leave at 11.45 pm. We hung around at the airport till 8.00 before trying for a prepaid taxi and found that the taxi queue was a serpentine one! It took us more than 45 minutes to get a taxi! More anxious moments!

When we got to the station we found that the whole of Kolkata and the north east had decided to travel by train that night! The station was packed with families/ full tribes parked everywhere. We walked all over in search of dinner at 10.00 pm before we found a place! Did I mention that it was raining?

Our train arrived around 11.30pm to the platform and there was a mad rush to get in, Preston was traveling a/c and his compartment was quite close to the start of the platform but mine was a km away at the other end! Anyway that was the last I saw of him.

For any of you readers intrigued enough, please contact Chitra!