Assam Day 5 - Seeking the dolphins, encountering the Osprey - the gigantic Brahmaputra

 Continued from here.

15th Jan 2020

On to Kaziranga, from Mangaldoi, today.  But first, we were to stop at the Brahmaputra and take in a river cruise as we searched for the Gangetic dolphins.

We were headed west, staying north of the Bramhaputra, a 3 hour journey.

We stayed on NH15 for the most part, the highway was in good shape.  As we reached Tezpur, there was more military presence and large, walled military compounds.  I learnt that Tezpur is one of the old cities of Assam, and there is a lot to see here, but we were not stopping.  The British made it into an army Headquarters for the region.  

Aparna wrote this in our trip report:

The place Tezpur was named for the rivulets of blood that flowed there. Legend has it that this was the place where the war between Banasura, who was King of the area, and Krishna took place. Banasura’s daughter, Usha, dreamt of Anirudh, the grandson of Krishna. Her friend Chitralekha drew his portrait and through her magical powers brought him to Usha. Banasura refused to give his consent for the marriage. That is when Krishna went to war. The war was actually fought between Shiva and Krishna as Banasura was a devotee of Shiva. And much blood was shed.  It is said that Brahma had to intervene to stop the fight. However Shiva gave in to the reason of Krishna and relented.  

We drove on to the river bank, close to the Kalia Bhamora bridge that spans the river over here.  

We walked across the fine river sand to the boats with colourful canopies.  It was close to 11am and the sun was blazing through, but the river was a vast expanse of a still dull, muddy colour.  To me, at that moment it felt like this large, silent, somewhat sullen, sleeping beast.  The currents were strong but one wouldn't guess it, due to the vastness of the river.

As we chose our boats, there was a sudden commotion, with everyone telling Shuba not to move.  She was startled but complied to the urgent orders.  On her ghamsa-covered head was what looked like a little colourful brooch! 

The butterfly brooch - Delias descombesi, the redspot Jezebel

Chinese fishing nets.  I read somewhere that the river supports some 222 species of fish! Tezpur is one of the important fishing centres on the river.  But the fish population is greatly depleted, due to human activity (of course, what else).

I think Pranjal mentioned Grey throated Sand Martins flitting along the river banks - but I did not see them (as usual).  

On returning, I did some reading on the sedimentation and turbidity of the river.  A 2017 NDTV article mentioned that the turbidity measure at Tezpur was 195 NTU (Nephelometric Turbidity Unit), as against a permissive level of NTU5!  Aparna, who collects river waters, dipped a bottle in, and I was quite surprised - the water was clear, not turgid as I expected. The heavy sedimentation adversely affects fish life as also the Gangetic Dolphin, that we were out looking for.

That's us - adding colour to the river.  Picture by R Shantharam

The Brahmaputra river system is one of those huge carriers of sediment, and this sediment forms sand banks and islands - chapori - which can support a lot of bird life.  

You could also get small grassy islands in the middle - so vast is the river.

The Gangetic Dolphin (Platanista gangetica)

Several of our group had already gone on this boat ride on their last trip to Arunachal and they asked us to keep our eyes peeled.  We were warned that it would not be like some NatGeo movie where it would gently, gracefully and in slow motion arc out of the water and show itself to you. It will be in and out in the blink of an eye. A grey shadow in the water. And that's exactly what it was. 

We had a lot of these fleeting 'darshans' of the greyish brown snouts of these endemic, poor eyesight river Dolphins, which are highly ecologically stressed. They are on the IUCN red list

We were in two boats with a canopy that shaded us from the sun.  The boat engines created a hell of a racket, and he would cut the engines every now and then, and we would drift. Those were the best moments. The river was a dull grey brown and placid.  The whole scene was tinged in grey and brown.

They spend an average 107.3 seconds under water and 1.26 seconds above water. Once, the most commonly sighted aquatic mega-fauna in the Brahmaputra river system, it now faces extirpation from most of the major tributaries of the Brahmaputra and restricted to a few pockets in the mainstream.

Unregulated rise in human activities is causing serious degradation in dolphin habitats in the Brahmaputra. Acoustic vision being the primary mode of perceiving the environment for these animals, increasing noise levels and industrial activities cause major disruption in their perception of biologically critical sounds.

Scientists find conservation efforts of river dolphins in the Brahmaputra have largely ignored the aspect of Acoustic Habitat Degradation.

2019 North East Now

I didnt realise - dams on the river have isolated dolphin populations.  There are supposedly more than 50(!!) dams of different sizes on the Brahmaputra, fragmenting these populations, making them in-breed, disturbing the availability of their food.  So, not only on land are forests being isolated, but even in the water.  

The Osprey encounter

What I managed to photograph...

Osprey (Pandion haliaetus) - have seen them before, but this was a thrilling experience to see this one so close, and then take off and glide lazily through the sky.  Pranjal had said that we would most probably see one of these fish eating raptors over the waters, and yes his prediction was right.  

.

Photo by Elumalai - as it sat, an emperor of all it surveyed, or a masked bandit?  The Osprey is supposed to be the only raptor with all toes being equal in size.  interesting, did not know this.  Does that make a difference in how it perches?

Photo by Elumalai - All set to take off, possibly disturbed by our outboard motor.  Rounded talons and a reversible outer toe means that it can catch those slippery fish with two toes in front and two behind.  

Photo by Venkatesh, as it took to the air, showing us the "fingers" on its wing feathers, and its spread out short tail.

Photo by Venkatesh - the white breast and the golden brown upper wings - what a magnificent sight it was!

Photo by Venkatesh - we gawked at the wingspan - a good 4-5 feet, as it flapped them in slow succession  and moved away from us.

This photo by Suresh - of the brown upper parts and those four long finger-like feathers, with the fifth being a bit shorter.  The drooping hands are a characteristic flight posture of this piscetarean.

We chugged along back now under the bridge and what seems like the new Brahmaputra bridge coming up alongside.

Mountains of concrete, as Man looks to overcome natural "obstacles"?

Add caption

Do we need another?

Off the boat, and we found little "loo huts".  

A group picture and some tea and potato biscuits, before we set off for lunch and then Kaziranga.

Very tasty!  A new discovery.  Potato "biscuits".  They were so yummy, I brought a couple of packets back home.

Tree sparrows

A reminder of what was going on in the country.

We were coming across to the southern bank of the mighty river, and turning east, to Kaziranga. 

Assam Day 4 - Orang!

May 2020

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.  

14th January 2020

Continued from here.

Goodbye Manas

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!

Orang - the first I heard of the place was in 2008, from Chithra,  as this back of nowhere place - and now I was there/here, never mind!

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.  

Bird community of Rajiv Gandhi Orang National Park, Assam

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.

Assam Day 5 - Seeking the dolphins, encountering the Osprey - the gigantic Brahmaputra