Blackbuck'd all over - Velavadar II

Continuing my Gujarat Diaries here is a photolog for the beautiful and the fastest antelope species in India, the Blackbuck (Antilope cervicapra) that is classified as 'Near Threatened' due to their drastic reduction in population owing to their loss of habitat, overgrazing and hunting.

Need to say more... Sit back and enjoy!

horns...horns is all that you see...

the glossy beautiful male comes into sight...

the herd follows the male... some walking some jumping, look at the cute fawns...

more of the herd... comprises of females, sub-adults and fawns...

a male poses...

an alert doe...

female bucks are dull yet beautiful...

2 brothers...? possibly, one brownie one blackie...

off on a stroll...keeping the herd together

my home, my land is the key for my survival...!

to be continued...

Maidenahalli pictures

Some pictures from the Maidenahalli visit.

It was an unplanned visit and I managed to sneak out early in the morning to Maidenahalli while my brother was getting married at D'durga. Great escape!


Roughly 60 odd kilometres from Devarayanadurga and the road conditions are getting worse. The good roads have got lot of scars on their face (potholes) and with the rains looming large, it ain't getting better :( unless like the silver lining, the PWD wakes up and fixes the road, expecting too much, am I ?

Nothing much to write here, just a few moments to share, well we saw a good number of the blackbucks and lot of sub-adults which is a positive sign, hares here and there and a couple of raptors buzzing around.

I'm still waiting for the opportunity to spend a day here and hoping an encounter with the foxes, jackals and the wolf!


The males are beautiful in appearance either in light brown or dark tan appearance and with those lovely knotted horns.

Maidenahalli revisited

A quickfire visit to the Maidenahalli Blackbuck reserve near Madhugiri on a free Sunday. This was our second outing in the Figo and I had the privilege of stretching my legs in the backseat and to snore as only 3 of us were travelling.

We took the same route that we have taken before, but currently the road conditions are poor and in deteriorated state.

Route: There are quite a few routes but mentioned below is the route we took Nelamangala – Kyatasandra tollgate – Sira bypass road – Koratagere - Madhugiri – Puruvara village – Giregoudanahalli – Maidenahalli reserve. ½ a km after giregoudanahalli, an unmetalled track turns right which needs to be taken to reach the reserve gate. The best option would be take the Bangalore-Dabbaspet(below the flyover)-Madhugiri-Puruvara-Giregoudanahalli-Maidenahalli. The road is in excellent condition and a pleasure to drive.

Note: The road conditions mentioned are as of August 2010.
After a nice, heavy breakfast at Madhugiri town, we proceeded towards the reserve.We were greeted by a brown adult male Blackbuck relieving himself at the entrance of the gate.

This time around the entire reserve was looking green full of shrubs and bushes grown everywhere and it was quite a task locating the blackbucks in between. We drove around the tracks for sometime and could spot few here and there. Then we parked our vehicle near the rest house and started walking inside. As I was aware of few spots, we proceeded straight under the hot sun.

We were able to spot quite a few blackbucks but unluckily as these are very sensitive animals, they moved away as we approached closer. Even having my 100-400, I could not manage a single close up shot of any of the blackbucks, need to try my luck next time.

After roaming for couple of hours and as we were resting atop a cliff with plans to return back, far to our left we could sense white spots in the field. On closer observation, we found a huge herd of blackbucks grazing in the open field.

We presume there were anywhere between 80-100 of them (including grown males, females & sub-adults) in the group. We were surprised to see such a huge group in one place. Unfortunately they were too far away and below is only what I could manage to shoot.

While returning back, we managed to catch a glimpse of a fox that ran away even before we could realize. Back to the parking space, we left towards home this time taking the route via Dabbaspet and also visiting Devarayanadurga temples enroute.

Happy to have seen Blackbuck in such good numbers.

Sad to have seen cattle feeding on the green in the reserve.

Sad to see the feral dogs roaming the fields.

Hope this place survives the test of time and the numbers of prey-predator increase.

Care for the nature and the nature cares for you!

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!

Bhadra - Muthodi & Sigekhan IB

Read the Part V here... 9th Oct 2009 - We compromised on the early morning boat ride at River Tern JLR so that we could reach the forest office at Chikmagalur early. Somehow we managed to get our booking shifted for the day to Muthodi and also reserve for the next day there. We also requested the person to formally complain to the DCF about the lack of services / facilities at Lakkavalli IB. We got the dormitory booked for 2 days at Muthodi Nature camp, Bhadra as the cottages were not available. Muthodi was high on our wishlist but somehow all plans had failed and this surprise addition was something to cheer about. We had to wait till afternoon for about 3 hours to get confirmation of the bookings (you know how government offices work!) and then after 2 sessions of lunch and brunch (because not sure of the food availability at Muthodi) at Chikmagalur, we proceeded towards Muthodi, Bhadra.The breezy ride of about 40 kms to Muthodi camp was nice through the ghat roads and multiple curves and a bit risky too as the roads are all quite narrow and the estate jeeps that ply travel at high speeds giving you no chance. At the checkpost, a mud road trail leads inside the Western ghats that needs to be taken to reach Muthodi. From here there are no roads but only mud rocky road and you have no option but to traverse very slow in your small car. Checked into our dormitory and we were bowled over by the campsite and the surroundings. Lush green cover everywhere, hint of rains, the fragnance eminating from the wet earth, call of the winged beauties all across, numerous insects and spiders, malabar squirrels wherever you see and hopes of encountering the big beasts... all made us think the effort taken in reaching here worthwile, in short we were in love with this wilderness! The Malabar Squirrel right next to our dormitory and the Garden Lizard (yet to confirm on this...) kept us busy for the next hour or so. Enquired about the facilities and were more than happy to hear about the resident cook availability and also about the safari rides in the Mahindra Pikup jeep conducted from there. Took the jeep ride at 4:30; it was an Mahindra Pickup open jeep with closed cabins for 5 people only. We four chose to stand behind in the open as that would offer good options for photography and that was a decisive decision taken. Just entering into the gate, a slow drizzle started and within the next couple of minutes the drizzle became a downpour and the downpour lasted the entire safari duration. We had packed off the cameras into the closed cabins for safety and we were here encountering heavy downpour even unable to open the eyes, lashing branches from both sides, shivering bodies, wet to the core and the last piece of cloth and no wonder the whole safari ride was just an formality and the experience is sure to last in our memories for a lifetime! As we started approaching the exit gate, the rains stopped and thats how our luck is!?! Back to the dormitory, dried up and with some good hot tea, the light started to fizzle out quite fast is was dark soon. To pick up few groceries we alongwith a local person had to drive to the nearest village some 5kms away. On the way a Barn Owl greeted us sitting right in the middle of the road and flew away as soon as the car headlight flashed on it. Back again and after a nice dinner and nothing else to do, it was time to retire for the night.

The accommodation options at Muthodi Nature camp are good and cozy with individual cottages, tented cottages and the dormitories being available.

10th Oct 2009 - Being in a jungle and the safari ride is the first thing we do in the morning. Again took the 7.30am safari again standing in the open and were greeted by a Brown Fish Owl roosting on a tree nearby. Indian gaur herd, Barking deer were all that we got to see.

...after the safari, breakfast, freshned up and then were wondering what to do? Jungle trek was another option but somehow we decided against it and instead thought of walking all the way up to the Sighekhan IB, a good 3kms uphill walk. The winding elevated roads was a good path to walk along listening to the chirping birds and nothing else (not a soul around) and the road just goes into one corner, and then another, and then one more, and on and on and on...

Taking breaks, shooting the biggy spiders along the way and chatting, guru and raja drifted ahead and me and nag were trailing behind. At an uphill turn when I was busy shooting an spidey web, the boys Raja and Guru who were ahead came running downhill, stopped near us, took a breath and blurted out "Wild Dogs" ahead...!?! At the next corner they had spotted at first 1 or 2 dogs chasing a wild jungle fowl but later saw one by one, a pack of them coming downhill right straight on to the path where we were walkin up. After they were confirmed it was wild dogs, they started running and from there literally we ran downhill for about 2kms that we had covered walking up so far, and till we felt we would probably be safe from their mighty jaws. Wild dogs are not known to attack humans and they drift away but in such a situation, our minds went blank and the first thought in our minds was "Run" (its a human tendency to Run whenever in danger...) But we wanted to see the Sighekhan IB and with no stamina nor guts to walk up again, we took the car this time all the way up till the Sighekhan Inspection Bungalow.

Wow! the forest view from here is just amazing and all that you see is the green all around and nothing else in sight. The sunrise and sunset are sure a show stopper from here. Birdlife is in abundance and occassionally few sightings of the wild canines here and there. If you are on a visit to Muthodi, one should definitely not miss visiting the Sighekhan IB and enjoy the serendipity nature offers here. The bungalow is and old structure and the garden here is very well maintained by the gardeners some 2-3 people in succession.

As we drove down, the Malabar Giant Squirrel was reluctant to leave us and we got some good sightings of this shy creature. The evening safari too was dry except for the Indian Gaurs and Barking deer. Another day, some body shivering experience and we live to tell a tale :)

11th Oct 2009 - The last day of our Karnataka Anveshane II and we were quite slow in getting up and readying to get back home. After nearly 10 nights and 10 days we would be going back home traversing another 1900 kms in my Alto but loaded with lots of adventure tales, experiences, learnings, discoveries, viewing the natural wonders and lots more...

Well, Basur Kaval and the final thoughs in the last part!

Care for the nature and the nature cares for you!

Maidenahalli again - for the census activity

Hi, This time around my solo visit to the Maidenahalli Blackbuck reserve was to participate in the census activity conducted jointly by the KFD and the WANC. Here are few pictures of the same... (kindly forgive those shakes / depixalated ones)

(kindly forgive those shakes / depixalated ones)

Route to Maidenahalli (Jayamangali) Blackbuck Reserve:

1. Take the NH4 from Bengaluru towards Tumkur

2. 3.5 kms after the Kyathasandra highway Toll gate, about 3 kms before Tumkur city take the Sira road (by passing tumkur city)... go straight

3. Proceed 4 kms to reach the under construction overpass (Anthrasnalli industrial area). Go North (turn right) towards Madhugiri town.

4. Travel 41 kms to Madhugiri town.

5. From Madhugiri town, take right to Hindupur town (i.e., drive east right turn). 1.5 kms from madhugiri town - road splits into two, take the Hindupur road on left (north east).

6. 11 kms from here, before the bridge over Jayamangali river / Kodigenahalli village, you will reach Puruvara village.

7. Take left (north) and travel on ID halli village road.

8. After 1 km off Girigowdana halli, (a very small village 8 kms from Puruvara village), an unmetalled track turns north east. Take this track

9. 4 kms down the track, you will reach the gates of Jayamangali blackbuck reserve.

Caution: The country roads are not in the best of condidtions currently, beware of the surprise humps that is sure of unsettling you and your vehicle.

After Puruvara village, traverse at a lower speed, else you would definitely miss the right turn after girigowdana halli.

You can drive around in your vehicle in the reserve (but ride with caution during monsoons)

There is an IB there, accommodation is provided on prior request from Madhugiri forest office.

U can also check my previous experience at Maidenahalli...

http://adventureanytime.blogspot.com/2008/10/maidenahalli-jayamangali-blackbuck.html

and the article in the papers...

http://www.bangaloremirror.com/index.aspx?page=article&sectid=42&contentid=2008111620081116201827966c0055c30&sectxslt=

Care for the nature and the nature cares for you!

Maidenahalli (Jayamangali) Blackbuck reserve!!

A day with the Krishna mruga's (Blackbucks) The herd with many females and the solitary male were busy grazing, I stopped close by to them, they saw but could not differentiate between me and the car, they continued their grazing, I took out my equipment, loaded it, aimed at the solitary male, locked the target and then…. Click! Click! Click! I had shot the Blackbuck; I had shot the Blackbuck… in real sense I had shot him with my camera… Back to the desk: I had never heard of this place rather I was unaware of this place on the peripherals of Bangalore and where blackbucks are sighted! I too as others was surprised to know this fact that there is a Blackbuck conservation reserve near Tumkur, known as Jayamangali Blackbuck Conservation Reserve or Maidenahalli Blackbuck reserve that comes from the name of the village where it is located. This reserve is located 23kms to the north east of Madhugiri town and about 20kms to the west of Hindupur town. It’s a 798-acre patch of grassland with the largest population of Blackbuck (Antilope cervicapra) in Karnataka apart from the Ranibennur Blackbuck Sanctuary (another surprise). Laudable here are the efforts of the Tumkur based Wildlife Aware Nature Club who have worked hard in getting the protected area status to the reserve. With the place of visit decided, the next big thing was to find the route to this place, initially this was not easy but our task was made simpler from a lot of help from the net, in particular this site of Ameen , who is a member of the WANC and directions to the place are given in detail.So with everything in place and directions in hand, on 26th July 08, we left Bangalore by 6am and reached the reserve area by 8am with the help of our listed directions as well guidance from the villagers. The roads were in good condition with bad patches here and there and the catch is you are too sure to miss the deviation to be taken if speeding on these good roads. We were lucky enough just to stop at the point of deviation and ask a local villager who ever happily told “etlaage hogi balakke” (go to the right). As we approached the gate of the reserve expecting forest guards but were surprised not finding anybody to welcome us, we went inside and hardly few meters ahead we saw a male blackbuck on the right happily grazing, he gave us a quiver look and then not finding us dangerous enough continued his grazing and slowly moved out of our sights. Blackbucks are very shy animals, they run away at the very sight of humans, but they cant differentiate humans sitting in a car, as we knew this we didn’t step out of the car and neither the blackbucks ran in spite of seeing the car. In a span of 15-20 minutes we had sighted around four blackbuck males in addition to a large herd of female blackbucks. We stalked them very slowly and stealthily, in order not to disturb them and make them fleece but also kept jostling inside the car to get some good sightings and snaps. The roads inside the reserve are mud roads and with stones popping all over, driving in small cars need to be with care so as not to get some hard hitting underneath. Somewhere on to our right we could sense something happening and our instincts made us step out of the car and enter the grasslands. There were blackbucks, which upon sighting our movements moved deeper inside, we stealthily followed them camouflaging ourselves between the shrubs until we reached a rocky plateau at a considerable height from where the valley could be seen as far as our eyesight could manage. Suddenly we could see from the height a huge herd of blackbucks running across with some 2-3 small predators chasing the herd. No sooner we realized the animals were not predators but dogs that were chasing the blackbucks! We were shocked to see dogs chasing but still got to see some acrobatic and scintillating jumps from the blackbuck herd that were being chased, but neither our reflexes nor our movements were so fast to capture those amazing moments which you don’t often get to see when in the wild. We got back and went ahead on the defined path till we reached the end point where electric fence was put up for demarcation. We turned around, came back and stopped for a while at the watchtower and whaled some time gazing at the grasslands and posing for our routine photography. We took another of the routes which ran deep inside the reserve, we just kept going on uphill, downhill, mud slashing, on the rocks virtually however we could manage, the blackbucks were still reluctant to see us go, so we got another good sighting of a solitary male probably from the nearest possible distance – they look beautiful, the dark body color, the tweaked horns all combine to give them a beautiful outlook. We continued onto this path and went on and on and finally landed up on a tarred road leading to a village! Traversed on this path to Madhugiri and after a light lunch from there back to Bangalore. So there ended our destined meeting with the blackbucks and left us convinced and happy that in spite of such rapid urbanization all over, there is space for wildlife to co-exist. Time duration: about 3 hrs traveling on the right path. Route: there are quite a few routes but mentioned below is the route we took Nelamangala – Kyatasandra tollgate – Sira bypass road – Koratagere - Madhugiri – Puruvara village – Giregoudanahalli – Maidenahalli reserve. ½ a km after giregoudanahalli, an unmetalled track turns right which needs to be taken to reach the reserve gate. Food: Carry food and water, madhugiri is the nearest place for these. Camping: Possible with prior permission from the forest department.Caution: Don’t litter the clean place; leave no traces of your visit. care for the nature and the nature cares for you!