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!

Har ki Pauri at Haridwar

July 21st 2012

Arrived Delhi T3 along with Gapi, to join eight other ladies on our trip to Valley of Flowers in Uttarakhand.  Three from Gurgaon, two from Bangalore, one from Erode, one from Pondy and one from Mumbai.


Set off in a Tempo Traveller, with Manmohan our driver.  The countryside through UP is full of sugarcane fields, mango orchards and it is quite green. Fed by canals of Yamuna and Ganga I think. Lot of dusty, crowded towns too, traffic is quite bad. We passed Roorkee where the IIT seems to be the raison d'etre.

And guess what,  Baba Ramdev's huge HQs!! It is massive!! We had a stop at a highway resort called Moolchand where we had tea and idli with north indian sweet sambar!! The grilled cheese sandwiches were also good.

We reached Haridwar at around 6pm and went directly to har ki pauri. This is a bathing ghat on the banks of the Ganga where every evening there is an aarti in honour of Gangadevi.

Baba Ramdev posters exhorting Indians to go swadeshi

The huge Shiva, seen enroute to the canal where the aarti is performed.  Receiving Ganga in his locks?

The Har ki Pauri bathing ghats

And what is SC Bose doing here?!

Aarti offerings.  And huge cans for taking back Ganga jal?

The Sringeri temple

Tourists, pilgrims crowd the bridge before the aarti. During the aarti, this bridge is kept clear.

This is the canal, diverted for the aarti purpose I think.  The clock tower was built by the Birlas, and is a landmark.  "Meet me at the clocktower", or to the left of it, or in front of it!

The place was teeming with tourists, pilgrims, exotic hippies, flies, roadside shops, blaring speakers.  I put my feet in the water, and it was chill but muddy! Flows swiftly here.

We went and took our place on the steps to watch. A man next to me was loudly discussing a relation's illness on his mobile phone! By the end of the aarti I knew that he had poor regard for lady doctors, the patient in question being asked to just eat well and not having been given medicines!!

On the river's edge jean clad purohits were helping people do pujas. Raji and I were feeling most irreligious and also mildly worried about the possibilities of a stampede!!

But, every few rows there was a temple administrator maintaining some order. It always amazes me how with these huge crowds and seeming chaos, we go through with these events.

The puja started, it was broadcast on a public address system. And then the "real" pujaris showed up, or so it seemed, with veshtis!!

The MC priest for the evening

As the sun fell lower in the sky, the prayer ended, the aarti lamps were lit, the conches blew and the bells were struck.  I liked this part best.

An interesting modification I thought was the priest asking us all to take an oath promising not to dirty the Ganga, and to work to keeping it unpolluted.  All through the evening, there were loudspeaker announcements asking pilgrims to throw plastic in the bins and not into the river.

Given my knowledge of Hindi there was some comic relief.  This is what Raji, Gapi and me heard - "Sabhi log apne patni ko haath me le jaaiye.  Patni ko nadi ke kinare chodiye math.  Patni nahin chahiye, tho dustbin me daaliye."

What?!  Was this a joke?  Our Punjabi friend Vattsala clarified patiently that they were saying "panni" and not patni.  Panni being Hindi for plastic!! 

Gangadevi murti

By 8pm, we made our way out, finished with this bit of Indian exotica.

9am departure next morning for Rudraprayag! Where the Alakananda meets Mandakini.

Balcony birding with a rainbow

One tailorbird flitting
Two Bulbuls singing
Three sunbirds twittering
Four barbets cocking their heads
Five parakeets winging and screeching
A few mynahs preening
Several babblers, busily pecking
Dozens of pigeons, gurgling
And of course those countless crows, cawing.

I wonder if they were excited about the rainbow too?

From my balcomy.  To the left of the Millingtoia filled with birds, first.

Then, a sliver of rainbow, above the Millingtonia

And then, the sun caught the raindrops to the right of the Millingtonia

And all this time, the birds twittered and chirped and gurgled and cawed.
And the cars honked in the street below and the motorcycles gunned their engines.
Was I the only observer?

Koel season again

The Ko-el crescendoes last year, inspired me to rhyme.  It's that time of the year again.  Koel breeding time, and the black male birds call out in their what sounds like a desperate bid to woo their mate!

We can vouch for a rise in the Asian Koel population.  Morning and evening, we hear them, tirelessly calling.

But what has been different this year, according to me, is that they seem to be more "bold" than before.  In the past, it would be difficult to spot them, as they called from well-leafed trees, hidden in the canopy.

This last week however, we have seen this chap, in full view of all, calling from the bare branches of the Indian Ash, in my neighbour's garden.  The Indian Ash (Lannea coramandelica) goes through many an avatar.  Post-mosoon, it is full of leaf, and the tree resembles a teenager with overgrown hair!

Lannea in full leaf, post-monsoon.

Lannea in flower!  March/April

In spring or early summer, it looks like this, strings of amber flowers.

Then, it sheds all its leaves through the summer, and looks quite bare.  It is on this bare tree, that this koel sits and sings these days.

He is so regular this last fortnight, that I am tempted to give him a name.

And the lady koel...sometimes I feel she is fed up with his song, as she seemingly flees from one tree going, kr-kr-kr-kr-kr!!  Or is that a "come hither" call?!

Samyak Photography - Bird Poaching at Siruthavur

Samyak Photography - Bird Poaching at Siruthavur

One hot summer sunday, when me and my birding buddies went out to Siruthavur lake (located at the outskirts of chennai), we were welcomed by the gunshots from the other side of the lake.
  Instantly, we could see a flock of birds taking off from that place. They moved to little away from gunshot place and settled down for their feeding.
  Our binoculars and lenses came out promptly trying to figure out the source of the shot.
  Not able to find anything, we went on our activities of birding and started noting down the birding activities at the lake.
  While I moved on near to lake, trying to "shoot" some close flying shots of cotton teals, rest were scanning the grounds and water for birds from the road itself.
  We heard few more gunshots and as usual, unable to find out the source (as the poachers were hiding) during this time too.
  Below photo story is as developed during this couse of time.

  Location : Siruthavur lake, Thiruporur, Chennai, India.
  Photos by : Gnanskandan (GK), Subramanian Sankar, Samyak Kaninde. Deepak and Gayathri were constantly keeping watch on poachers and forest officials during all this drama.

7:32AM - The poacher (in khaki) came to the light to collect the dead birds. Seen here are two local boys walking along with the poacher.

The poacher (in khaki) and local kids (helping them) colleting the dead birds. The Painted Stork (Mycteria leucocephala) as seen here.

The Little Cormorant (Phalacrocorax niger) or The Glossy Ibis (Plegadis falcinellus) being handed over.

The Purple Heron (Ardea purpurea) pair - one having a fish in the beak and other landing completely ignorant of what is happening in the background.

The two standing birds near the boy collecting dead birds are either 'live birds tied with ropes in muddy soil' or 'dead stuffed birds' kept their as bet to attract other birds flocks. The green patch beside the boy is a hide used by the poacher sitting there with a loaded gun. He was still hiding while the others were kept collecting dead birds.

The first poacher went behind a hide and the the shooter poacher (old guy with turban)came out. The local boy is inspecting the baiting bird. Not sure if it was 'alive and tied' or 'dead stuffed bird'.

7:49AM - After collecting almost all birds, locals and poachers parted their ways. The forest guards had just arrived and we briefed them about this and showed the poachers and asked them to hurry up to go behind them to catch them red handed.

The FD guards were shouting from behind and running a great distance towards poachers. Looking at this, the poacher ran with his bags towards the FD fellows. We could not understand what was happening and what is to happen next.

The poacher had hid the bags with dead birds in the green vegetation(the egret flying over that patch on RHS) and started running back to join his old mate waiting at the other end. The two local boys were as clueless as we were to understand what was happening.

7:54AM - Finally, we could see the Forest department guards reaching the scene. Later they told us that they were shouting and posing as a potential buyers for the birds. The local kid was dragging one of the dead bird to be taken away but later he threw it away. Probably, as we were watching from road, the kid thought of not carrying it in hands.

The FD guards negotiating with one poacher while the other is little away. The other poacher still had the gun and the FD guards could have been in trouble too.

Once both the poachers were at hand, the FD guards had them caught over and a long talks and long wait to see them at the roads started. The local boys escaped from the other side and went back to village.

09:05AM - Meanwhile, one more FD guard came in and joined the two. The old poacher was apparantly doing some drama about not feeling well and this new FD guard was attending him at the other side. The previous FD guards got hold of one poacher and were taking him to their department on the bike. The FD guard showing the dead The Eurasian Spoonbill (Platalea leucorodia).

Finally, Mr. Moorthy, a forest ranger from thiruporur division, came promptly in a jeep to take away the old poacher to take into custody. Fortunately, the local boys also turned up on a bike this time to take away the dead bird. We told ranger about it and he took them into custody too.
Below - the dead birds were taken out of the bags and kept on the steps of forest department office.

The dead birds at the FD office.

9:57AM - The Cotton Pygmy Goose (or the Cotton Teal) (Nettapus coromandelianus) - one dead, one alive. The alive one was having a broken legs and was sent to the zoo to be taken care of. It later succumbed to the injury and shock and died later. The cotton like white color of this bird was all soaked in the blood red. Unfortunate to see such a beauty in such a state.

This was the second poaching incident I witnessed within the span of 3 months after the last kelambakkam incident(read below in links). The places are quite nearby to each other and done by the same people (Narikurava tribe mostly). But, the prompt response by the forest department from Thiruporur division was something pleasantly unexpected. The ranger and DFO were following it with us about all happening in the field during this 2-3 hour drama. With our experinece from these incidents, I would like to make following observations :

1. We need a dedicated hotline number for a city/state/country (depending on the feasibility) to report the poaching realted incidents. Most of the time, we are spending a lot of time in ringing our friends, getting the correct contacts and talking to the officials. Sometimes, the officials/forest guards does not even turn up at the incident (like my previous kelambakkam poaching incident).

2. The task force which is specialised in handling poachers and work on the ground to nab them red-handed is required. The forest guards did not even carry a stick while they were running behind the poachers who were having guns. Fortunately, nothing happened in this case.

3. The poachers, moreover, require an alternate livelihood. Unless, we find solutions to their bread and butter problems, we can not stop poaching.

4. The poachers were let off by paying a fine of just 10000/- which we think does not do justice to the repeated killings of these birds. The law has to be strengthened for stringent punishments according to the different wildlife classification of poached birds.

5. GK with help from others, is working on a list of contact numbers to report such cases directly to the forest department rangers/DFOs, we shall share that soon once it is ready.

If you have different ideas/suggestions/feedback, please put them down in comments below. The debate might not change the situation on field in a day, but could be a beginning for a betrer world in future.

  Links :

    -- TOI - news article

    -- Conservation India article by GK

    -- TOI - news article about kelambakkam poaching

Ouch! Phew!

It's that time of the year again.  Valley of Flowers is on the mind.  Same as last year.  I bought my books, wore-in my trekking shoes, and was all set.

But the rains came, and then there were landslides, the state of Uttarakhand suffered.

A trip that never was.

It is 42 degrees Celsius in Madras as I take out and dust off those treeking shoes again.  The trio of Gapi, Raji and me are planning again. 

I can tell you it is no fun walking in those shoes.  I went Ouch! as I walked (or rather huffed and puffed) last evening, and went Phew! as I sank into a chair at the end of 90 minutes of torture!