Travel With a Couple

As the dawn was breaking the Sambhur belled
Once, twice and again!
And a doe leaped up and a doe leaped up
From the pond in the wood where the wild deer sup.

Every morning, Mowgly and his friends perhaps would have woken up to this scene. We too were hoping for the same.

The early morning drive from the Maharashtra side of Pench Tiger Reserve to the Madhya Pradesh side of Pench was filled with expectations. Never mind the rattling of the old Toyota Qualis and the chilly wind. We had to cover the 50 odd km and reach the Thuria Gate at MP before the safari counter opened. We stayed at the Sillari MTDC resort on the Maharashtra side.

Pench Tiger Reserve is spread across two states with Maharashtra having a share of about 20% of the total area. Maharashtra government declared the area as a wild life sanctuary much later than the one in MP was formed. While we planned the trip, we did not have a clear understanding of geography and options available. So we decided to have Sillari as the base, do the safari, and keep a day and half for experimentation/exploration.

Sillari is a tiny village in the outskirts of the sanctuary, though one has to pass through the jungle to reach there. MTDC resort, as usual did not disappoint us. With the help of resort staff and some locals, we figured out that on the same day we could do an evening safari in the Maharashtra forests and give the MP side a shot the next day. If we could reach the MP gate before 6 in the morning, there was a good chance of doing a safari.

In the evening, we hired the only Maruti Gypsy available at the resort and headed to the forest. Leopards and tigers remained elusive. We had to whet our appetite with Indian gaurs, deers, sambhars, wild dogs, and a variety of birds including peacocks. The wild life sanctuary also included the Meghdoot reservoir and the catchment area. The old watchman near the dam shared the stories of massive work involved during the making of the dam, the landslides, the accident deaths and more. Dams have always fascinated us. It has always been a mixture of fear, awe and surprise. We also did some exploration on one of the tributaries of Pench, which had some interesting rock formations.

The MP side was five times as big and much denser. By 6 am, there were over 30 open jeeps filled with wildlife enthusiasts lined up at the gate of The Indira Gandhi National Park (as it is called). We joined them.

Shivering, we started the jungle safari, but soon got warmed up by the sight of many birds and animals. More than that we spotted during the previous day’s safari at Sillari. The vast expense of forest meant that the safari was over 5 hours long. In that delightful 5 hours, we forgot about hunger and breakfast. Despite some wild chase based on the alarm calls by deers, we could not spot the majestic tiger. We left Pench after just seeing the scratch marks on a tree, where a tiger sharpened its nails or marked its territory.

If only we could meet Shere Khan’s successors …

More photos on Pench (Maharashtra) and Pench (Madhyapradesh)

Sillari is about 110 kms from Nagpur. Sillari has an MTDC resort. Thuria gate, which is on the Madhyapradesh side is about 150+km from Nagpur. There are many private resorts on the Madhyapradesh side.

One of our early treks was to Karnala. Karnala, with its thump-shaped pinnacle on its top cant be missed when you take the Mumbai-Goa highway. An easy climb. Till the pinnacle. Conquering the pinnacle calls for technical rock climbing.

The trek is more interesting as it is through the Karnala Bird Sanctuary. If you can combine early morning, keen eyes, and luck, you will spot many winged creatures. In our first trip we spotted a crested serpent eagle and an owl.

This time, on May 1, we decided to celebrate Maharashtra Day by taking an early morning hike through the sanctuary looking for some birds. Karnala itself has changed a bit. The forest department had put up a board depicting the birding trails, which was very helpful for us. We explored the longest trail.

The leafless trees against the backdrop of blue sky offered some frames for the camera. En-route we got two knowledgeable and avid bird watchers – a father & daughter – for our company.

Birds, we spotted. But also an unfair share of plastic waste strewn across the forest. Soon we started picking up the bottles, cups, carry bags, the works.

Maybe, as a token of appreciation, nature let us spot a rare-to-see bird – Shama.

Half-a-day well spent.

Karnala bird sanctuary is about 61 kms from Mumbai, on the Mumbai-Goa highway. See more photos here

A rubber factory is an unlikely place to be written about in a travel blog. And certainly not a rubber factory in Harihareshwar, a quite village known for its temple and pristine beaches.

Harihareshwar for sure did not have a rubber factory. But we did find something closer to that. More like a factory’s waste yard. A little away from the beach, on the rocky coast, we saw loads of abandoned, worn-out, damaged pieces of footwear. Laced with a few plastic bottles as well. Plastic bottles are no surprise, since they already form part of our natural environment, nurtured carefully by all of us.

We did not understand how there is so much of these chappals, concentrated in one place. And could not ask anyone about this ‘unnatural’ wonder.