Melghat vistas

Continued from here...

The table tops from Chikaldhara....

The Gavilgarh hills, with their characteristic table tops.

The brown hills are actually covered with teak forests.

Will make a pretty sight, post-monsoon.

The picture on the left is the view from the resort.  Perched atop the farthest hill is the Gavaligarh fort.  The picture on the right is the hilltop with the MTDC resort.  The little speck of a building is the resort.  

Great location isn't it?

Below, the hills at dawn, and then later at midday.

A greener view ...

And the rivers ..

These were at Melghat in the sanctuary.  Tributaries of the Tapti.  The Sibna, mainly.

Below, left is the small pool at Ghol Khas, where we saw water birds like the Black Ibis and the Woolly-necked stork, as well as a Malabar Whistling Thrush, which had to be lost!  Its supposed to be in Malabar isnt it?!

Above right, in the evening light, and below, in the early morning light!
 

The dry river beds revealed the lovely rounded and smooth river stones.  I was tempted to bring a few back....

Beautiful sunsets

Birds profiled against the fading light, on the tree top.

There is a view point called Sunset Point, on top of the tallest hill there called Vairat.

And the wildflowers

... Which were all so pretty.  I checked them out on  Flowers of India.

I got a few ids.

The one on the right is the Mexican Prickly Poppy.  It grows all over India, and give a yellow juice according to the site, and is toxic, so animals dont graze on it.  Pretty though.

The one on the right is either Indian Snakeweed or Blue Porterweed.  

Dahi rabri anyone?

This terrific signboard alerted us to the local delicacy of dahi rabri or rabdi. No, no, not another daughter of Laloo, but a cooling summer speciality that seemed to be the raison d'être for the existence of the eateries that we came across in Semadoh. Funnily, we didnt find it in Chikaldhara, just 26 kms away. I wonder why....

Ordering it with curiosity and enthusiasm, the group fell strangely silent when this was plonked down on the table at Mukund Rao's hotel. Err, what was it? Well, the white clumps are the dahi, and the brown goo it is residing in was the rabri.
It was not re-ordered shall we say.

This was the pet cow that inhabited the front of this dhaba. The first time I've seen a cow behave like a dog - beg for food - gently brining its snout near our plates. I'm sure if we hadn't shooed her away in time, she would have quite happily had the dahi rabri. (Why didnt I think of it then - could've magically and quickly finished it off that way!)

Anyway, near this dhaba was a women's toilet which was an enclosed-for-modesty open to the elements square. One day we found this cow in there, using the facility! Well trained isnt she?!

We settled for rotis and dal, which were really good.  Mrs Mukund Rao sat in front of this chulha, in the scorching summer heat and produced a pile of them.  The final baking was done by the proprietor himself, on another stove.

The locals did not seem to eat a roti-type lunch.  Rather the usual order seemed to be dahi rabri, jilebi and batata wada.

This here, is our trusted jalopy.  It was a Mahindra Maxx, which rattled and shook us around Chikaldhara, Semadoh and the Melghat sanctuary.  The amazing thing was that it did not break down - this particular vehicle - throughout our stay and travels.  

This was Sajid's vehicle.  Sajid was a commendable young man.  Every morning he would be at our dorm at 4:30, drive us through the day in the dust and heat - no power steering mind you - with a cheery grin all along.  he seemed to be the local champion carrom player, because he would report in the morning saying he won a game the previous night.  

A few days down the line, I discovered that Sajid was consuming 25 packets of Gutka in the course of a day.  I also discovered that those rows of colourful sachets hanging in the dhabas were all different brands of gutka, all very correctly carrying skull and bones and health warning messages.  Aren't these things banned?  In my broken Hindi I managed to convey to Sajid in gory a manner as possible the ill-effects of chewing tobacco... he promised to stop.... he shifted to chewing gum on the last day we we were there....I do wonder if he managed to kick the habit?

So, here's a whole generation getting addicted to chewing tobacco, while Anbumani Ramdoss talks about drinking and smoking in films.  Talk about missing the wood for the trees.

I do wonder what Sajid thought of us.  Mad Madrasis is my guess.  Since he was the better/safer/more sensible driver of the two, we women were assigned him, very chivalrously by the men.  We of course spent our time in the van giggling hysterically as the dust rose from the roads, and Raji covered her head, face and was soon just a vague bundle.  We found a lot to laugh about on that trip, everything recounted in the van, to further laughter.

At one point, Sajid decided he would drive the other vehicle, at which point Raji told him (in Hindi worse than mine) that she would only travel in his vehicle, whichever one it was!!  You have to agree, that he was a brave young man, twenty something at the most, facing these 40+ crazy women!

So, if any of you fellow travellers of mine remember what it is we laughed about, please do write in.   I remember a few -

#  The wild dog, which turned out to be a goatherds dog

# Wind rustling the roof in the night and Raji swearing it was an intruder tapping the door

# Deepika asking the forest guide nervously as to what to do if she came across a bear in the jungle (his suggestion that she lie down and play dead only made her more nervous!)

# Raji and me winning the laziness competitions hands down

# Mr Kadamkar, the forest officer suggesting cheerfully that we spend the night at Raipur ( a dusty village in the middle of nowhere), and Mr Ranjan saying that he would die if we did such things!

Waiting in line

Definitely more orderly than we Indians at a bus stop! Mr Ramanan from MNS  snapped this terrific moment on a hot dusty afternoon at our Chikladhara resort, on the recent Melghat trip.  The apt title was also his.

The leaky tap proved a delight for us birdwatchers as there were several visiting dignitaries - these red vented bulbuls, yellow-throated sparrows, spotted doves and more.

The red vented bulbuls I am well acquainted with, as they frequent the trees around our apartment in Madras, but I never tire of them. They have a lovely, chirpy musical call, striking colouration and an alert, intelligent look about them, all beautifully captured in this photo.

Check out Mr Ramanan's other photos here.

The majestic Crested Serpent Eagle

This was the sight that greeted our jalopy as we entered the Melghat forest at Pipalpadav one evening.  I think, for me this is the closest I have been to a raptor in the wild.  

The forest was quiet, resting in the afternoon heat, when Divya spied this lovely specimen on a branch to our left.  As we watched in silence, the eagle also sat in silence, ignoring us, and keeping a sharp look out for prey.

Sekar, clicked away and came up with these compositions in brown.  Trees, leaves, bird - almost a sepia print.  

Do click on the photo, to enjoy a full resolution view.  Only then will you see the crest, its hooked beak and the black bar across its tail - all distinguishing features for the Crested Serpent Eagle.  

In Melghat, we subsequently saw a lot of these raptors, circling above, sitting on trees, calling in the forest.

They are fond of well-watered country and also eat snakes, besides frogs, lizards and rats.

That was all we saw that evening.  Not one other creature moved in the forest.

That's the beauty of a jungle visit.  The jungle will reveal when she wants to.  You are unimportant.  A visitor.  

Be patient, enjoy the quiet and you may be privileged to see some small marvel.

When I return from these trips, I am always greeted by, "So what did you see?".  Its kind of difficult to explain that I enjoyed seeing the fallen leaves, the large anthills, the round river stones and the experience of not being "at home".  This is not my habitat anymore.  I am so far removed from it, I am a city person, sure to get lost on my own in the forest.

The dry and dusty teak forest of Melghat.  Initially my mind rebelled.  I want green, I want life, energy and vibrancy it said.  But after about three days, I think it did grow on me.  We learnt to cope with it, and recognise that in Nature there is summer - hot and dry and no running away from.  Life is not always about Spring.

Travel tips for Melghat

So, where do you stay if you do decide to visit Melghat?  We stayed at the town of Chikaldhara, which was 26kms away from the sanctuary gates.  But little did we realise what that meant.  The 26km was bad ghat roads to be traversed in a 20th century jalopy!

So, the Mad Madrasis at Melghat were travelling 104 kms a day to just get in and out of the sanctuary!  Not advisable, no definitely not!  Unless ofcourse you have a masochistic streak and like your bones rattled and reset, everyday!

If your aim is the tiger sanctuary, staying at the village of Semadoh, in the valley, makes more sense.  The problem with Semadoh, though, is that it is HOT in the day, though cool in the mornings and evenings.

It boils down to this - 

Semadoh for proximity 

Chikaldhara for better weather, scenic views of the hills and good birding.  But be warned of the long rides.

If you do choose Chikaldhara, then the MTDC resort we stayed at is best avoided.
We took the dorm, and the pictures below show you the state of disrepair and neglect of the property.
Fans and lights are missing, and the roof looks like it would leak in the rains - see all the stains on the roof?
Missing tube lights and stained sheets as well.
The doors of the toilet would not close, the taps would not work, and everything was falling apart. The enthusiasm and can do spirit of our group ensured that before we left, things were a bit better than when we arrived!
The whole property showed a lack of supervision and maintenance, scrap and rubble all over the place, broken chairs and window panes.
Then of course there was the dining room, where the cook and assistant had gone off on vacation, and we were fed by the boy who is probably a helper in the kitchen. The sunny temperament of this boy and his willingness to accommodate our need for less spice and oil were the saving grace. The kitchen would've been closed down by any sanitary inspector - roaches and grime kept our food company.
The dining room was another Mr Bean moment, with its oddly skewed pictures on the wall, broken window panes and wires running all over the place.

As with all government properties, the MTDC place has a superb location, and the view into the valley provides great birding opportunities, as also the fig trees on the campus.

The district was also in the throes of systematic power shutdowns. The notice board carried a weekly schedule of the timings of the power cut. While there was definitely no power during the times promised, it did not mean that we were assured of electricity the rest of the time!
These are issues that you expect to face while on the move in small town India.

The only thing that bugs me is the apathy of government officials, and the complete indifference of the public sector employees. My point is, why is the government in the business of running hotels in this country?
The most memorable and telling quote is probably that of the manager of the MTDC place, who moaned to us that even he could not get tea from the kitchen, leave alone us!
That summarises beautifully the state of affairs - the complete lack of accountability of the system, despite the dozens of registers, and the customer is not important attitude of all the staff.

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.

Will we make it to Melghat?

Our train tickets to Badnera are still waitlisted, for our journey to the Melghat Tiger Reserve in Maharashtra.

So, silence for the next ten days on this blog means good news, and that we did make the train.  Else, I'll be back and blogging my blues away.

Where is Melghat?

Good question!  I was also ignorant until a month ago, when the MNS trip was announced. Now, I know that its in the Gavilgarh hills, which is an offshoot of the Satpura mountains in northern Maharashtra.   

What I am looking forward to is the 5 tributaries of the Tapti for which it is the catchment area supposedly, as also the peak Vairat, which is at a height of 1,000+m, and the forests and the cool weather (I hope!).  Maybe the Gavilgarh fort as well.

How are we getting there?

We are taking Navjeevan express from Chennai to Badnera, a 19 hour journey, and then driving down to Chikaldhara, where we will probably stay at the MTDC accommodation.

And will we see the increasingly rare tiger?  

Here are some links about the state of the sanctuary:

Project Tiger Status Report for Melghat, 2001

The Business Line report on the state of the sanctuary in 2003

Sanctuary Spotlight in The Hindu, 2005

While I was away....

it looks like my husband was busy with the birds (thankfully the feathered kind!), and caught our daily visitor in fine form.

(To really enjoy these lovely photos, please click on them and see them full-size.)

Now, I am quite convinced that he's the same chap whom I wrote about here. He knows us so well, that he doesn't budge even if we eyeball him. Should probably take to modelling. Look at the fine pose he has struck, and since he didnt fidget this time, these picture came out really sharp.

He obviously spends a good deal of time on his daily toilette. Notice how all the white on his chest is really white. I mean he does this without soap or detergent! They look so soft and downy as well. All the brown feathers are groomed and not one is out of place. And then on his head, look at the lovely grey streak all the way to the back.

He stops on the ramp, then turns around and allows us to see his tail as well! And all the while he goes chirrup, chirrup, and looks at us impatiently. Should name him... What though? ... Sparky... Perky.... Chirpy... Cheeky... Ginger...

The red-capped postman

Thats what he reminds me of. (Actually my postman is dressed in blue and has no red cap.)  Or is it a schoolboy in uniform?  Or maybe a fireman from a Noddy book?

Sinna kukuvaran in tamil....

Or Chempukotti in malayalam

Or Coppersmith Barbet

Or Megalaima haemacephala

Another sparrow-sized bird, that goes tonk-tonk outside my bedroom window, on the Millingtonia tree! My husband was lucky with these pictures, as Mr Barbet usually shows up early morning, when the light is poor.

As he sits there, his head moves jerkily back and forth as he calls out in that repetitive tonk-tonk, sounding like a melodious version of the worker banging on the steel rods in the construction site next door.
I never tire of looking at this bird, its lovely red cap and red chest. And that stout bill.

Poor Mrs Barbet, she has no such adornments and is a rather plain green, as you can see below. Unlike the sparrow, its rather shy, and flies off at the least movement at my window.
I wonder if they eat neem fruits, since they are frugivorous, and that's the only fruit tree on our street! They're supposed to feast on figs, banyan and peepul fruit..

There are some great photos on Flickr of this little bird.    My favourite is Ryan Brookes, who has captured the bird in that large urban sprawl Mumbai.  Its amazing how amidst all the noise, dust and hustle bustle, you can still find these treasures, if you only look.

Another great one is Pixelography, who's got two of them on a branch, in Chennai.

Memories of Central Park

"Where else can you get a half a million things,
All at a quarter to three", sang Huey Lewis and the News, about New York.

Our summer of 2005 was spent at New York, and besides the wonderful times with our family there, I have very happy memories of Central Park. It was my first chance encounter with birding as well.

In Madras, one has to live near the beach, and in New York you have to be around Central Park!

We arrived, just at the end of the winter, and as we drove in and through the park, the winter brown was contrasted with this lovely burst of yellow.

In a fortnight, though, it was different, the lawns were green, and the trees too, and New Yorkers just hung out taking in the sun. So did we. 

I remember in the bad old days, we Indians would be terrified of Central Park, and were constantly told how innocent Indians would definitely get mugged there. During my previous visit I was given strict instructions by my mother not to wander alone in the park!


Then came the flowers, and the tulips, in colours to take our breath away. I went crazy and kept clicking away, I remember. Digicams zindabad!

My son, ten years at that time and I would hang around the conservatory pond, where you could rent a remote-controlled sailboat, by the hour, and watch it zip across the water as it caught the breeze. Each visit there would be something going on - a wedding party, the horse patrol, and of course the Hans Christian Anderson statue.

What I remember with amusement though is Pale Male, a red-tailed hawk, which had taken up a nest in one of the buildings across from the park, much to the excitement of local birders. Back then, I had not been introduced to the strange and quixotic world of birders and birding, and was tickled pink to see a Pale Male viewing telescope, set up at the pond! There was a lot of buzz around Pale Male that summer of '05, since the building residents wanted to get rid of the nest, but naturalists and birders united in protest and successfully stalled the operation.


There is also a small boating lake where we came across these turtles, sunning themselves. The whole area is filled with birdcalls generally.

Going through the papers one weekend, my sister-in-law mentioned that there was a morning walk to see the birds of Central Park that Sunday. Out of curiosity, and the thought of another walk around CP, we both went off the next morning, bright and early. I think between us we had two fungus-filled binoculars. And of course, since we were going birding, it had to be a drizzly, overcast morning. (This has been the story of my birding - overcast skies and rain, be it Pulicat, Penchalakona or Central Park!) There was a group of older, white women (we were the 2 oddities there I remember), and our leader was a man (David I think) who had run up a list of some 800+ odd birds seen in his life, and was looking to cross a 1,000 that year. Anyway, off we went through the parks lesser used paths, and every now and then he would stop and point out some lovely bird and there would be oohs and aahs all around, while my sis-in-law and me would squint desperately through our binoculars and not see it most of the time. I think I managed to spot one robin and a wagtail! After a bit of this, the birder could not bear it anymore. He suddenly thrust his binoculars into our hands, and said take a look through this.

It was then that my eyes were opened - quite literally almost - to the beauty of these little birds, and the joys of birding! I resolved to get a good pair of binocs, which my husband eventually indulged me with, before he was also drawn into this pastime, and then we needed 2 pairs.  Oh well.

So, to cut a long story short, my new-found interest in the birds can be traced back to that day in Central Park, and to my sis-in-law, I say thank you!  There is a Birds of Central Park site, and also a book called Club George:  The Diary of a Central Park Birdwatcher.  

Then there was the day we hired bikes and went riding up the Greater Loop, only to get lost, with my son having better navigation skills than me.  On top of that, those bikes did not have a conventional brake, you know the kind we have on the handle bar,  Instead you have to pedal in reverse to stop the bikes!  I shall not go into the details of my undignified cycling, but it definitely kept my son amused.  

And how can we forget the Central Park Zoo?  More on that, soon, as well as our encounters with Gus, Ida, Breezy and gang.

Golden oriole!

This Golden Oriole came visiting - to the Neem tree outside my second favourite window. (If you remember, my most favourite window is the one with the view of the Millingtonia.)

I was at work, on my computer, when its sweet call caught my ear, I looked up to see it sitting there! Lovely bird isnt it?

I hurried off to get my binoculars, and grabbed the only camera at hand then, and came up with these two grainy pictures!

It has a striking streak of black around the eyes, and this male bird that I saw has black on the wings. The female, which I have not seen, is supposedly a duller colour without this much black styling.

Salim Ali has a lovely description of its nest - "A beautifully woven deep cup of grass and bast fibres bound with cobweb, supsended hammock-wise in the fork of a leafy twig, 4-10m up". Lets hope I come across one some time, as the eggs are spotted as well.

New age birds these. Papa and mama share all domestic duties!