Sanjay Gandhi National Park:An Amazing experience . Review on Sanjay Gandhi National Park, Mumbai

( I have deliberately written a long review as I thought that a few words cannot do justice to the national park and its beauty.)

I am sure that almost everyone residing in Mumbai must have been to the Sanjay Gandhi National Park (Borivali National Park) at least once in their life time. Some might have been there when they were just in school or some went there in their college days, or some even went there with their girlfriends just to have a quite moment.

And I am sure that every one must have loved the serene beauty of the lush forest and the small flowing streams in the rains and the kaneri caves. But I will tell you my experience in the national park as I have been there more than 100 times in 22 years of my life. And by the time I am done, u will not need any more motivation to visit this park.

Now some of you may have noticed that when going to the Kaneri caves, there is a small police chowky with a barricade blocking a road towards the right. This area leads to the area within the park which is restriced to the normal public. Ethier you really have to interested in the willife in order to get a pass to visit this place or you have to be a hotshot. Since I had peskered Mr.Bharti, the deputy conservator of forest, a lot in all my visits he was certain that I was genuienly interested in the park and its animals and hence he gave me the pass.

I last visited the park about 2 months ago, and I had made a reservation for the forest bunglow for the night in the forest itself by making a reservation with the forest department which consist of the most helpful people of any government office. So I got a reservation in the forest bunglow in the restricted area as well as a 2 day pass to visit the interiors of the jungle.

The untamed Wild, no walls , no protection. I arrived at Mr.Bhartis office at 11.00 am in the morning and was rearing to go. I had 4 friends along who were also my mates in all my adventure stuff. Bungee jumping, river rafting etc, but thats another story. So we were taken to the jeep and we were there at the lodge in about an hour. We unpacked our bags and then took our cameras and binoculars and we were out in an hour.

It was about 1.30 by now in the afternoon and there was not a soul to te seen in this area as no public was allowed in this area. The first thing we noticed was that was no plastic anywere to be seen, no bottles and no paper. Everything was so natural , so clean. There was no one to guide us, no ranger no guide, no one. We had to go in the forest on our own.

We decided to go to the lake first. The lake was full of water as it was the rainy season and there were a few tribal women washing clothes there. We asked them if they had seen any wild animals there, they said that they had seen leopards, panthers, dears, and even crocodiles. We were really excited and started moving towards the lake. We were just walking at the shore looking for pugmarks of animals. We saw a lot of marks and couldnt make out which animal it was, but there were a lot of different marks.

We continued to walk and we came to a machan sort of structure which was made at the bank but it was broken down and was not at all useable. We kept walking and the, one of my friends saw a black outline far away in the distance. We looked at it with the binos and there they were, basking in the sun 4 of them. Crocodiles. They were absolutely amazing, we were like 30 yards away from them as we were moving closer and closer to the crocks.

Then someone spotted a worn out broken down house at the top of a hill and we decided to walk up there for the evening and see how it would look. We started walking up the patch. It was slow and winding and there was a lot of trees all around. It was difficult to see between the trees for a long distance due to the thick vegetation.

We kept on walking spotting the ocassional bird and the different insects. We reached the top in about 2 hours and we could see the whole of tulsi lake from the top. It was really beautiful. Then while walking back while we were walking down we spotted a green coloured snake who was corssing the path and going towards the jungle. It was scary and beautiful.

Then we kept on walking further and was getting a bit dark and we were getting a bit uneasy due to the quiteness and no other human to be seen. So we started walking fast, as we were walking a heard of deer just ran in front of us towards the lake in full speed, there were about 15 and were gone in an instant, and there was a baby deer too. It was such an amazing site to watch such beautiful creatures running free.

We all were really happy to see all these anymails in their natural beauty and started walking towards the resthouse. The forest looked amazing and scary in the night as there was not even a single light. But it was all Fun. We were really amazed at all the animals we could see in mumbai itself in all their natural splendour. So all of you living in mumbai make sure that you visit the interiors of the jungle if given a chance.

You can get down at the borovali station and take a rick from there to the park and it cost the minumum fare. As for the forest rest house, you can make a request giving a letter to the forest department in the forest and they might give you a pass for 200 Bucks.

Just pesker the forest department a lot and they will give you the information you need. Or just mail me for the information.

Just some advice : KEEP IT CLEAN.

And also go with only those friends who are interested in wildlife. Believe me you will save yourself from a lot of frustration.