Basur Kaval & Final thoughts

the earlier Part VI here... 11th Oct 2009 - We left early as we had to search this place "Basur Kaval" near Kadur / Birur and go via Chikmagalur. Well past Chikmagalur and onto the road towards Kadur, the roads are horrible and heavy rains... it reminded us of our first day... similar conditions!!! There were no specific pointers towards Basur, the only pointer we had was it was close to Birur.

Ok. first let me tell how I came to know about this place... Vijay Cavale, one of the founders of INW, his wonderful website is a source of inspiration for many... and here is where i first saw the mention of "Basur Kaval", the blackbucks and the wolves. Well some more information from his site... Kavals are grazing land for the cattle and Amrut Mahal is one such breed of cattle that is drought resistant that requires huge areas of vacant land. Blackbucks also prefer such areas and thats why their predator the Wolf survives here, and with such good prey base can the leopards be far away? :) The recent notification published in the papers just before the start of our trip mentioning Basur Kaval as protected area for the Blackbucks inspired me no end not to miss this place.

Its roughly around 30kms drive from Birur, but we barely managed to find this place, going around, the villagers were confused and mentioning Amrut Mahal and Jinke evoked the right pointers and finally we managed to reach the signboard that said the place is a protected area for Blackbucks. Finally! Wanting to reach here early morning but ended up here in the hot sun, even the slightest hints of sighting the wolves were out and we only hoped to catch some blackbucks in action. Finally after some rounds, first we got to see a lone male resting in the open and persistent tracking yeilded sightings of a huge group with a lone one-horned male leading the pack. We got out of the car and ventured so as to approach them closer but Blackbucs being very shy and attentive too off giving us no oppurtunity to approach them. Birdlife was plenty but the heat was getting to us... and we had to reach home the same day. We had to leave Basur Kaval, but next time hope to be here with proper directions and the area map and spend as much time as possible and wish probably to sight the "Wolf". We returned passing by the Kardi Kal betta and the panther stories related to it (the recent reports of leopards being sighted here) has made this place a must visit for me again. From here we took the route to Kadur that was surprisingly more easier and a good tarred metallic strip and from the highway all the way to Bangalore was a cruize, the only highlight being the heavy downpour for about 15 minutes near Tiptur that virtually blinded us off and literally all vehicles were running with the hazard lights and the headlights on roughly at around 3pm.

Back home.. finally and this was another wonderful trip with loads of adventure and memories and filling us with the zeal and enthusiasm to pull off the unprobable Karnataka Anveshane 3 in 2010. But I must admit due to last minute changes and more safaris we undertook, the cost went up this time and this point needs to be taken care during our next trip. Ok.. coming back to the sightings of the avians and the mammals... 1)Purple Rumped Sunbird 2)Common Hoopoe 3)Indian Robin 4)Brahminy Starling 5)Jungle Babbler 6)Sirkeer Malkoha 7)Bay backed Shrike 8)Yellow Wagtail 9)Brahminy Kite 10)White breasted KF 11)Barn Swallow 12)Racquet tailed Drongo 13) Spotted Dove 14)Crested Hawk Eagle 15)Malabar Pied Hornbill 16)Malabar Trogan 17)Black Eagle 18)Asian Fairy Bluebird 19)Heart Spotted Woodpecker 20)Golden Flameback Woodpecker 21) Lotens sunbird 22)Black lored Yellow Tit 23)Indian Grey hornbill 24)Rose ringed Parakeet 25)Green Pigeon 26)White cheeked Barbet 27)Weaver bird 28)Golden fronted Leafbird 29)Jungle Mynah 30)Malabar Whistling Thrush 31)Oriental White Eye 32)Swift 33)Jungle Fowl 34)Yellow browed Bulbul 35)Red Whiskered Bulbul 36)Munia 37)Tickells blue flycatcher 38)Velvet fronted Nuthatch 39)Asian brown flycatcher 40)Small Minivets 41)Eurasian Golden Oriole 42)Asian Paradise flycatcher 43)Rose ringed Parakeet 44)Blue tailed Parakeet 45)Barn Owl 46)Brown Fish Owl 47)White backed Woodpecker 48)Neeltava 49)Shikra 50)Indian Roller 51)Pied Kingfisher.

1)Indian Gaur 2)Barking Deer 3)Sambar Deer 4)Malabar Giant Squirrel 5)Monitor Lizard 6)Garden Lizard 7)Scorpion 8) Tarantula spider 9)Spotted Deer 10)Jackal 11)Blackbucks 12)Giant Wood Spider 13)Elephants 14)Bolmet. Many thanks to Raja, Guru and Nag for putting up with me and making this yet another wonderful trip that will be etched in our memories.

Care for the nature and the nature cares for you!