Thalli: Experience ‘Little England’

As I mentioned in my last post, in the series of guest posts from some of the incredible bloggers I've following,

Let me introduce you to a fine heritage travel blogger, Arun Bharadwaj who blogs at Payana and is a voracious traveler by himself. The list of places he has seen and covered is worth envying and the amount of information he shares in his post is commendable.

He says "India, as I see it, is a land of surprises. Imagine everything under the sun, we have it- Beaches, Snow, Desert, Hills, Mountains, Rivers, Oceans, Islands, Gulf, Natural Caves, Waterfalls, Places of worship, relics of ancient civilizations... Given an average life of 60 years, I can only wish to cover at least 20% of the exotic country."

He has a liking for archaeological heritage places and visits a lot of 'lost temples', discovering the 'heritage tales and kingdoms' and is an avid traveler too.

His post is about a literally unknown place called 'Thalli', very close to Bengaluru city.
Read on...


Overview:
Visiting Thalli is one of the best ways to beat the weekday stress from work. Being very close to Bangalore, this can be done as a half day trip. I came across this interesting place while going through some website on tourism. And there aren't many blogs on this either.

Away from the prying eyes... Image copyright Payana

So we thought we should make is to Thalli. We left early morning after breakfast towards Hosur Road which was relatively free because of the weekend. We reached Hosur town pretty quickly and had to take a right turn towards Thalli. There are ample boards to guide one to Thalli from Hosur. The weather was cloudy and had cool environs and probably that is the reason that this place is called 'Little England'.

The path into wilderness... Image copyright Payana

We reached Thalli in around 1.5 hrs with breaks and passed through Thalli lake which looked calm and pristine. Thalli is a rustic and laid back town just on the Tamil Nadu-Karnataka border so people speak both Kannada and Tamil here.

'Rain pond', Image copyright Payana

Though there is nothing much to see in Thalli as such, there is a small hillock called Devarabetta just a few kilometers from Thalli. That hill looks great with a couple of temples at the base. The climb to the top is not very tough and there are well laid steps leading to the summit. At the top of the hill the entire region looks so green and colorful and the surrounding hill ranges can be seen. The farmlands below add to the glory of the place. The cool winds blow pretty strongly at the top which feels soothing. The irregular shapes of rocks are the targets of our photography.

'Balance', Image copyright Payana

To sum it up, the hill is aptly named Devarabetta which translates to 'God's hill' in Kannada. We returned back with loads of memories and pictures. This place is very little known to people so the crowd is very less. An ideal place for a weekend getaway from Bangalore.


How to reach: Head on NH7 towards Hosur. At Hosur, before entering the town, watch out for a board for directions to Thalli. Turn right and drive for around 25 km to Thalli.
Regular buses available from Bangalore to Hosur. From Hosur, private buses are available to reach Thalli.

Food/Accommodation: Not many options available for food. Its better to carry food and water from home.

Map:

View Larger Map

Tadoba (TATR) & Hosur - for the Census activity

January and February were busy months for my adventure team with everyone preoccupied with work. In this meanwhile, I got an oppurtunity to take part in the Wildlife census activity at Tadoba (TATR) in January and the Synchronized tiger census in the Hosur forest area in February.

Experience in Tadoba was wonderful, you get an insight into the lives of the department people, their routines and the hardships they face. I and Nag took part in the week long census activity in Tadoba. Walking in the Tiger land armed with nothing but a camera and a solitary department fella accompanying you and roaming for hours together is something cherishable. While walking, you suddenly hear the roar of a tiger right next to you, and your eyes start scanning the surroundings, but our poor sights can't spot them amidst the dense growth, the experience is something you won't forget in a hurry! You might not have spotted them, but they would have definitely seen you :)

Overall it was a good learning experience being a part of the wild roaming around the forests and more special when especially you come face to face with some!

On our last day and during the last field survey session as we were busy collecting samples and entering the records, we heard rumbling and scratching sounds too close by, just as we waited we were face to face with a big black sloth bear only the lantana b/w us. He saw us, stopped, waited for a couple of seconds and then turned around and ran for his dear life. Early in the day as we were nearing our transact area, I could see stripes crossing the road, unmistakably it was the big cat crossing the road in a hurry in the dew. As we were far and visibility poor, no ample proof of our sighting could be recorded.

We were assigned the Mohurli range under the able guidance of Shri Sonanve of the forest department. Our task included walking along the defined transact paths and sighting herbivores, carnivores all along the path, collecting samples of vegetation, lantana at specified interval distances, noting down the light content, observing the scats, pugmarks etc... etc... The weather was cold in the mornings, red hot in the afternoons and again chill after sunset.

We were put up in the forest department dormitory at Mohurli (that is still yet to be inaugarated) and food sourced from the MTDC resort nearby.

A wonderful week spent amidst where I want to be always...!

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Hosur (Synchronized Tiger Census)

I'm a subscriber of kennethanderson groups on yahoo and through one of the digest, i got to know of the census or survey happening in the Hosur forest division. I never realized so close to Bangalore city, forests still exist. The Hosur road that leads to Chennai via Krishnagiri cuts through the forest and there are instances of elephants straying onto this highway.

This time, I participated alone as registration was to be done in advance and I was assigned along with another participant Sai the Hosur range and my range was specifically the Shoolagiri range (Erandapalli). We were accomodated in the Cattle farm rest house at Hosur and the food was also organized.

The forests here are dry lands, often cultivated lands creeping in between and also inaccessible rocky terrain, but what I realized during my two days was this habitat still supported a large presence of sloth bears, foxes and leopards too. As done everywhere, we were assigned transact paths for direct and indirect sightings as well as to note the growth and vegetation and various other aspects.

The forest department Range officers, Guards, Watchers were keen learners and also excellent hosts, we were fed like anything and that too in heavy doses.I enjoyed my field survey here but problems are plenty and hope the nature survives the human onslaught!

Kenneth Anderson Nature Society (KANS) website - www.kans.org.in/

Care for the nature and the nature cares for you!