Wilderness camp at Semadoh (Melghat Tiger Reserve)

The Melghat sun looked at its best here in this water-body

Forest is something that has captivated me since childhood. It reminds me of the golden-olden school days. Summer vacations were the times when we used to flee away to Kerala. I would pester my grandma to arrange someone to take me to the jungle nearby. The walks were long but listening to the birds, tracking signs of animals, learning about trees coupled with freaky rumors about haunted hills and animal attacks would keep me engrossed (later I realized that the forest forms a part of the Peechi-Vazhani wildlife sanctuary). Wilderness has been my first love eversince.

In a city, you may never be alone but always lonely; In a forest, you may be alone but never lonely :-)

It was early April when friends started planning for some get-away for the extended weekend at the end of month. We (Me, Ganesh and Vipul) have always wanted to go some place where there would be very little tourists tinkering around. We narrowed down to Chikaldhara and managed to convince people for a trip to the Melghat Tiger Reserve (MTR) instead.

12 of us sans Swarup (he's taking this pic)

Plan:

1. Stay:

Since there was ample time, I started with my research on the places and activities around MTR. The MTR starts at Semadoh where there is a Semadoh Tourist Complex, managed by the Field Director, MTR. I also got to read a lot about the Kolkas Rest House which is based 15 KM deep inside the forest. All these are forest officer’s guest houses and admission is permitted only with prior permission.

Got to know from reliable sources that it’s nearly impossible for 12 people to stay at kolkas (it’s a cottage meant only for about 4 people). There is another VIP guest house at kolkas where a larger group can stay which was apparently constructed for Indira Gandhi. But then you got to be a VIP or at least know one. We were neither so didn’t think much about kolkas.

Then we started to reach the field director. We found the number (0721-2662792) and called plenty of times. He was pretty vocal about us getting a travel agent for ourselves and even gave us the phone number of a certain Akash. Since we were almost a dozen people, we decided to shun randomness this time and book with Akash instead.

2. Getting there and getting around:

The trains were booked for 29th Aril 2009 for the 0129 CSTM-NAGPUR Special. It would drop us at Badnera by 10 AM. We arranged for two Taveras from Amravati which would be there with us for all the three days. The temperature around Amravati in May hits 47 degrees (Celsius) so we booked ones with air conditioners. Too much luxury compared to our usual chintzy trips :-). We also decided to use the vehicles for our jungle safaris too.

The cost per day was Rs 1200 (diesel charges extra). We filled up about Rs 1000 worth diesel and it lasted for the whole journey pretty easily.

3. Arrangements:

Then came the real trouble; garner all the necessary permission to visit various areas around the reserve. This is where Akash’s http://www.melghattourism.com/ helped. Though we were initially pretty apprehensive about the local guide, it turned out to be a good idea. Akash was pretty knowledgeable and so was his beau – The wild photographer (sic) Bunty. He was well versed about Melghat fauna and kept the group in good spirits with his wilderness trivia. Bunty was a good photographer and funny chap as well. I would highly recommend them for a big group.

They charged us about 20K for the whole journey. Not a bad deal considering we didn’t have to spend a penny extra in Melghat, including stay and food, except for bottled water!

Day 1:

All of us met at CST as planned. The train journey was fun. A few of us skipped sleep for gossips! I had a nice nap in train to get ready for the day ahead!

Victoria Terminus (CST) in its full splendor

We reached at Badnera by 10 AM. The place was burning.We got into our cabs soon and set off for MTR soon. After about an hour drive, took a break at Paratwada for breakfast. The food was hot as hell too. Bought “imported” sunglasses from street side hawker and started out for the journey through the Ghats.

It was then we realized why the place is aptly called so (Melghat literally means meeting of the Ghats). The intertwined Ghats cease to end. We saw a Shikra flying past but were too tired to be excited. We went through myriad topsy turvy roads for more than 2 hours to reach Semadoh. By the time we all reached, we were all feeling nauseated due to the road as well as the scorching sun and wanted some rest!

And the journeyman's day has begun

At the Bihali check-post

We got freshened and headed for lunch at a local Korku house (arranged by Akash). The food wasn’t great. Too spicy and rotis were too tough for my battle worn teeth. But then you don’t go to tiger reserves expecting royal treatment and seven course meals, do you?

Post lunch, it was time for the Jungle Safari. We hit the roads again, towards the jungle this time. The Ghats never ended. After about 15 minutes into the forest, we saw another car going back which had witnessed a family of sloth-bear and a herd of Indian Bison (Gaurs) a few meters down. Now the sloth-bear or the aswal, as it is called by the village folks, is the most feared animal for its notoriety. It is known to chase human beings, attack them and in many a cases, even kill them.

We proceeded along and witnessed a huge herd of Gaurs all gazing at us. There were about 15 of them and all were busily grazing away. The leader of the group was standing somewhere in the middle and was the biggest of all. It was a great delight to watch the 1200 Kg animal planting a peaceful gaze at us and obliging by posing for photographs.

The 900 Kg beast is happy to oblige

The herd looks unperturbed

I think we missed the bears by a whisker. On the way we saw another herd of about 8 gaurs around a waterhole. It was a wonderful sight to see its calf. It looks so cute that you almost can’t believe your eyes; how can someone so cute turn into such a monster once fully grown. Well I am sure everyone who saw me as a kid thinks the same now :-)

Another herd near the water-hole

We then entered the territory where leopards are spotted frequently. Sadly, there were no signs of the magnificent panthers this time around. Akash asked the cabbies to halt the car and wait for some time. As the rumbling of the engine ceased, I poked my head out of the car window. I could then hear the usual jungle sounds; the frantic calling of the Sambhar Deer and sounds of the birds filled the air.

We waited for sometime at that spot but the leopard didn’t oblige so decided to move on. As our jeep chugged along, we saw a big flock of peahens flying away from roads towards the jungle. It was a pretty sight; there were so many of them!

We then got into the once-extinct Forest Owlet area of the park. I’d read about the forest owlets in Melghat and was excited to see them. Even the gang got excited when they heard about the rediscovery. We all poked out heads out and looked for it but couldn’t find them either. This was disappointing. As we moved on, we saw another herd of the gaurs. None of us were too excited to witness them again so we moved on.

We went back to our tents after stopping over at a check post. We all got to the top of it and witnessed the jungle in its full glory. I’d read that once of the real problems Melghat faces is wildfires. I realized the gravity of the situation when I saw fires lighting up a far away mountain. I hoped that the animals are safe.

The watch-tower

We got back to our tents to the spot of the flying squirrel. It’s the only mammal without wings that can fly. Actually it’s a glider and can glide across 80 meters. There were plenty of them around Semadoh Tourist Complex (STC). I kept on hitting the flash-light on tree tops and saw probing eyes shining back at me on almost every tree top.

There is also the bone-dry Sipna River next to the complex. When walking towards the Korku house for dinner, I hit the flashlight on the river and saw something else shining over in my direction. We went closer and saw that it was the nocturnal common nightjar. I suppose it’s a lazy bird like me. It never dared to fly even when so many of us kept on flashing torch-light at it.

Post dinner, we decided to spend the noisy people back to the tents. A few of us who were really interested decided to stay back and wait for the animals to come looking for water in a water hole at the dry Sipna. Bunty kept on warning us that it’s a very dangerous situation as this water hole was the only primary source of water for the animals for the next 200 meters and it’s not too safe to stand lurking around there.

After a few minutes, we heard a breathing sound emanating around the river. Bunty hit the torch-light in its direction and we saw two Wild Boars. We then grew restless and wanted to wait a little more but it wasn’t with much luck. Though we heard rustling of leaves nearby, we didn’t spot anything and decided to call it a day.

Day 2:

Morning of day 2 was set aside for some amateur bird watching. It was planned around the much heard Kolkas Rest House. We all set out early and were greeted by an enthusiactic gang of Rhesus Macaques.

A rhesus macaque in an introspecting moment

A herd of macaques

The Kolkas VIP rest house

Kolkas Rest House - Overlooking the Sipna river

It was great to see everyone so much interested in looking out for birds. For some it was like a consolation to see exotic birds, if not a tiger. We saw plenty of birds. A few notable names that we saw:

The very cute oriental magpie robin, Indian robin, pied wagtail, Common/small blue kingfisher, large blue kingfisher, white throated kingfisher, Golden back woodpecker, lesser golden back woodpecker, spotted dove, green pigeon, the babblers, golden oriole, plum headed parakeet, common parakeet, Snake/Serpent Eagle, purple sunbird, Shikra, the red wattled lapwing, White necked Stork with its chick in its nest, Common Drongo, Racket Tailed Drongo, The tree-pie, Indian roller or the blue jay and plenty of other birds. It truly was a learning experience for me from ornithological point of view.

The solitary snake eagle

A pair of Indian Roller

The white necked Stork


Jungle babblers doing what they are best at - babbling

The morning ended with us having poha at Kolkas. We moved back to our tents - scathed and got out for lunch. Akash then took us to the museum inside the NIC (national information center) of Semadoh and gave a good briefing about the place, the korkus, the tigers, sloth bear, fauna found around the place and the general geography of the area. It was another good experience.

Post-lunch, I had a power nap and then it was time for the next jungle safari. We didn’t spot many animals this time around. I vaguely thought I saw a sloth bear moving far-away in the jungle but the car didn’t stop at the right time so couldn’t verify whether it really was a bear. We saw a few gaurs again. I couldn’t believe people got so excited about the bird watching that they started spotting birds flying around instead of spotting animals!

Check-post at KuwaPati

We saw some more pea-fowls and peahens this time around and got back to our tents. We asked Akash to look for necessary permissions and take us to any machaan during the night; which he did. We were all too excited to go wait at a machaan when the night is at its darkest.

We reached at kolkas post dinner and then proceeded towards the machaan there. It was close to a waterhole.

Machaan

A group of gaurs were already posted there to welcome us. I kept on pestering people to keep pin-drop silence.

And pin-drop it was. We could even hear grunting tummies! After sometime we heard noises emanating from eth water-hole nearby. Bunty switched on his flashlight and we could see a sloth bear moving around the water-hole. On one such position, I saw its eyes shine against the torch-light. That looked scary!

We kept on hearing voices around the bushes but not strong enough to interrogate (we didn’t want to drive the animals away with our constant pestering either).

After sometime we decided to call it a day and got back to our cars. While we got out of Kolkas, we spotted a pair of Sambhar Deer gazing at us. They followed good road discipline as they crossed the road keeping a keen look on the vehicles passing. We also saw Indian Hares (Khargosh) around this place. It was then time to get back to our tents and sleep.

Day 3:

There was nothing much left to do on the third day as we had out trains at 10 AM in morning. We started the retreat and got back to Badnera just in time. It was time to bid adieu to the wilderness, Akash and the wild photographer!

If the trip was awesome, the return journey was an experience in itself. The train seemed like a oven amidst the sweltering heat. We couldn’t find tickets for 3rd AC while coming back so had to settle for sleeper. That added to our woes but everyone was sweet enough to take it on their stride, not crib and keep smiling! We survived the heat and got back to our homes just in time to catch some good sleep and get ready for office the next day!

All of us were pretty sure that we had a rocking trip. People were happy with us for organizing a near-perfect trip! :-P.

Some of the sporty gangstas would be leaving soon. A few like Ganesh, Swarup and Apeksha would quit to do their MBA and stuff and the other would get entangled in the rat-race of onsite, weekend meetings and deadlines but the pleasant memories amidst the 44 degree heat would always remain etched in my memory.

Contact details:

Get in touch with a local guide for a fruitful journey. Akash's number is (9822278864) and website is http://www.melghattourism.com/.

Pics: http://picasaweb.google.com/n.rajitr/MelghatTigerReserve

Hanuman Langurs twittering

View from the inside

Nature at its best

And then the sun-sets