Oct 27, 2006 11:39 AM
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Jim Corbett has always been my favourite author in the subject of Indian Wild life. And Kenneth Anderson also has written extensively on wild life on the western ghats. And whenever I cross any place quoted by Anderson, I overflow with joy. After travelling through many jungles and sanctuaries, this is the first time I ever passed through Bandhipur. We had plans to visit Hampi, but it turned a fiasco, as one of our friends could spare only two days for the trip. Ok, let us make to nearby Mysore, we proclaimed and the route was via Sathyamangalam and Samraj Nagar from Coimbatore, on the Deepavali day, missing all the sweets and savouries of the festival. After crossing Thimbam, we were shocked to see a herd of elephants on the road in broad daylight at about 11AM. What a sight! Lorries were halted on the other side and here we were on this side. The wild life photographer in me tried to come out to take snaps, but our friend who was on the driving seat was creating a huge noise, while taking our little Maruthi on the reverse. Ok, I clicked from my seat. And when they trotted into the bushes, we crossed the road.
Our trip to Mysore was lousy, except the visit to the zoo, where great animals like giraffe, African elephants and gorilla were behind man made boundaries giving pathetic looks. Yes, we will return to Coimbatore via Bandhipur to see some uncaged animals, we decided against the wishes of two of our group. We were four altogether, straight from Satyajit Ray's classic 'Aranyar din ratri', from different walks of life, but united in our love to frolic in different terrains. The road from Mysore, via Nanjankud to Kundalpet is smooth to ride, and when you cross Kundalpet the roads are filled with potholes, and riding will be very slow and you must be very careful. And we experienced this kind of travel upto Mettupalayam, the plains.
Bandhipur National Park, as we all know, covers a great area combining the forest territories of Karnataka , Kerala and Tamil Nadu. It is thickly populated with elephants, tigers, langaurs, Nilgiri gaurs, sambars, chitals, flying squirrels, sloth bears, boars, wild dogs etc. Especially during monsoon, travelling through it was a feast to the eyes. As a traveller, I have no great regards to forest lodges, as they are very costly and fleecing. Anybody who would have stayed at the private lodges of Masinagudi would vouch for this. We stopped at a forest lodge named 'Pugmark restaurant' for our meals. It was very well maintained, with neat furnitures and a dining hall facing the road with a buffet arranged. We were informed that veg buffet costs Rs.100 and non veg Rs.150. The staff were courteous and the food was good. Only after eating, we found that the restaurant was owned by the Karnataka government, and they were organising Safari trips etc. When we discuss about Bandhipur, we should defenitely include Mudumalai sanctuary, which is the Tamil Nadu part of the former. This area consists of beautiful spots like Theppakkadu Elephant camp, where you can go on an elephant safari through the jungle, watch the Elephants feeding great chunks of cooked rice and sugar, perform puja etc. Singara and Moyar Electricity board camps are in this area, and if you have any influence with EB people, you can stay in the modest guest houses there, with beautiful suites and verandahs to nightwatch animals. And Singara is connected with Glenmorgan by winches that climb up and down mountains for kilometres together and this ride will be a memorable one. For the idea of how this winch may look like, see Mahendran's 'Mullum Malarum' in which Rajnikanth acts as a winch operator. Mostly the road to Moyar is always blocked either by deers or elephants, and Moyar boasts of a lengthy waterfall, for viewing.
And from Masinagudi, the village, you can enter the sigur range via Vazhaithottam to enjoy the flora and fauna. I remember the bygone days, when wild boar hunting was licenced, when I accompanied a hunting party, roamed through the jungle night and day, feeding on wild boar for breakfast, lunch and dinner. And may my head burst, if I do not narrate the following incident from my expeditions. It was an illegal hunting tourage. I was supposed to be the official photographer. The range was Chinnar, along the western ghats. We were five, and our assistants (unofficial slaves of our zamindar friends) were seven. After two days and nights, we spotted nothing except a herd of nilgiri gaurs. What is the use of leaving the jungle without devouring a hunt? Breaking the norms of true shikari khandaan, our leader handed over the rifle to one of the tribal guides and requested him to hunt anything and he needed it for lunch and that was an order. After hours, we heard a shot and then arrived the hunt. It was a huge sized she-monkey. Eating a monkey...? She was skinned and laid down for chopping. The sight was unbearable. It was like the corpse of a woman, and we were like cannibals. Everyone refused to eat and we returned empty handed during this great expedition.
Reminisicing old memories may be soothing for me, but defenitely not for you. I will come back to the present journey. We met a group of langaurs on the road. Usually we can meet common monkeys on the roads, made beggars by human beings. But here langaurs were waiting for biscuits and other eatables thrown by passers. I came out of the car, took photos and they were just sitting without taking me seriously. Then a whole herd of elephants were standing by the road in broad daylight and a group of people in vehicles looking at them from a safe distance. From the morning, shooting animals at Zoo and langaurs on the roadside, made me think as a great wildlife photographer. With protests from my friends, I got down from the car, walked near the herd and started to take photographs. One large cow, suddenly let out a loud trumpet and charged towards me. I was stunned, but managed to run towards the car. With my heart thumping, disturbing the silence of the jungle, I jumped into the car and had a narrow escape from that place. Just 10 minutes after, a similar scene and now it was a kid, outside her Tata Sumo shooting the herd with her video camera. As we shouted at her to get in the car, one Jumbo rushed at her from a small plateau with the speed of a deer. As it touched the car, the girl jumped in and they flew from there. The jumbo turned a triumphant look and gently went inside the bushes.
We were all shocked for hours at these incidents, and crossed Ooty without stopping there for even a tea. But what affected me most was not the scene of Elephants chasing, but of a mentally sick man in tatters walking on the silent roads of Bandhipur, where we had been forbidden even to park the vehicle on the roadsides.
