Something from Bandipura

Some images from Bandipur National Park

Meet the monitor...

Sambar stag deer - nice that we saw more numbers than any of our previous visits

Jungle fowl - Yet to get a decent capture of this, well i've missed 'n' number of chances!

Well, the story of the tiger we saw but still didn't see!

As our hired jeep approached a narrow road in the jungles of the Bandipur National Park, with the surroundings in absolute silence, and no soul nor sound on the track, we had to stop to allow the approaching jeep to pass by. The drivers exchanged pleasantries and with the passage of information posing the question "Aakade enu illa, eekade? (no sighting in that part, what about this side?). A minute passed by and the other jeep passed over to scan the other areas of the jungle. As we had to ascend an elevation, the jeep started moving slowly and in a moment of shattering silence, the driver excitedly screamed - sir, tiger nodi tiger! (thoughts of our good luck and a hope for a nice pose enveloped my mind as my eyes struggled to locate the huge stripes ahead of us, but just could not figure out where it was!) After moments of disdain, finally my eyes landed on that majestic beast hurriedly darting away into the bushes ahead of us with me getting to see the tiger from the stomach to the hind legs as it entered the bushes to the right of us (still no sounds and complete eerie silence in the jungle, i'm still surprised). But the tiger (not sure of the gender) was an hulk and majestic and it was all that we were entitled too in the safari ride. The next 90 minutes of ours went from excitement to disappointment as we tried to track where the tiger could have gone, rounded up the entire area couple of times, but as it turned out to be, we had nothing to cheer for!

Its been an year since our last sighting and this one was more like a trailer show for us, hope we are due for a full movie soon and I personally hope its 'very soon' :)

Bandipura - A bike ride...

December 2009 - Christmas weekendThis is one weekend when generally we are planned in advance and this time too we had booked the department cottages at Bandipura National Park for a day through Guru in advance, but Nag and Raja dropped out due to personal reasons and only me and guru were ready to go.

The decision was simple, I suggested we ride to Bandipura on his Rx covering Ranganthittu on the way and guru instantly agreed to this. Its always a dream for me to go on long rides on the Rx and now my time had come :) Unless and until you enjoy a bike ride, its difficult to drive doubles on a long drive because once you get uncomfortable your journey gets interrupted with lot of breaks.

We started off early in the day and reached Ranganathittu by 7:30am in the day. We took the boat ride for an hour for birding and we were not dissappointed.

The Pied Kingfishers, Stork billed Kf, Small blue Kf, White breasted Kf, River terns, Stone Plovers, Eurasian Spoonbills, Egrets, Brahminy kite juvenile all made their presence felt. After the customary breakfast at the hotel there we started off towards Bandipura via Mysore through the outer ring road avoiding traffic at Mysuru city, we reached by 1pm steadily driving at around 70 km/hr.

With 2 days to spare and just a day's booking at the dept cottage, we opted to stay at the Bandipur Plaza just outside the National Park premises, we have been here earlier and it was easy getting accomodation there and relatively cheaper than the resorts with the exception of food only. Wildlife is our main objective and intention of being in bandipur and next we had check the alternates for the safari rides into the park. The depat jeeps were not working and the bus rides were full to the brim because of the holiday crowd, finally we had to depend on the private resort, MC Resort for the jeep ride into the park.

Sighting this time was below par with a lone tusker and the herd of bisons being the saving grace along with the normal chital and sambars. The big cats were again elusive this time (no idea when our luck will turn around?) on our many jeep rides into the park area.

Next day we checked into the dept cottage "Papiha" and our first reaction was wow good man, big, spacious and well maintained, we were impressed. Actually the cottage we had booked holds 4 people, but in real sense around 10 people can be accomodated, its that big! Wonder why the dept does not develop these and market them. To get accomodation here, we had to literally struggle and visit the Mysuru forest office numerous times. All the cottages were full according to the Mysuru office, but the reality was that hardly 2-3 of them were full and the others empty... Why are the ordinary people not given preference? Why? Lot of questions and no answers...! The canteen was functional to our luck and the caterers were a new group and the food served was really good and worth for the every penny we paid.

Next day, after the morning safari we checked out and then started our drive back to Bengaluru. The Rx is such a wonderful vehicle, you never realize how far you have travelled, the stress and strain factor is nil and the vehicle never runs out of steam. You, the Rx, its deafening sound and empty roads...

Well a much deserved break and a good bike ride... wishing for more!!!

Care for the nature and the nature cares for you!

Bandipura - Wishes coming true!

May 1-3 2009... Just after the previous week trip to Nagarahole, this time it was Bandipura calling... and till date this has been one of our most wonderful, luckiest adventures in the wilderness! As usual we were stuck finding no accommodation at Bandipura (the FRH were as usual out of reach for the common man and the resorts are all very pricey…), finally we stumbled upon a resort called “Tiger Ranch” near to Bandipura. Well we had no idea what place this is and how good it is and the information on the net didn’t help us too much as there were mixed feedbacks on this. As we are all only male group, we decided to give it a try and reserved a cottage for 1 day over the phone (after seeing the place, we decided to continue for the next day). We left home by about 6 and reached Bandipura at around 11. Just after the office building @ Bandipura, a road cuts to the left wherein you need to travel for about a km and to the right you will find a board indicating the route towards Tiger Ranch and Ambuja Farms. Well there are no roads here and its virtually a mud path all the way down till Tiger Ranch. This place is an isolated area surrounded by jungle on all sides and you get a real good feel of staying in the jungle by putting up here. As only few guests were there, it was fine. Food was okay and after lousing around for some time we left for the evening safari to Bandipura. May Day and you expect lots of crowd and we could hardly manage tickets for the bus safari. The safari ride was infused with rains for some time and sightings of the Crested Serpent Eagle, Sambar deer and a pack of Wild dogs relaxing in the sun. Got the Jeep Safari booked for the next day morning and we lazed around the forest office for some time till dusk and went back to the resort. As it had rained earlier, it was a virtual mud slide everywhere for my Alto unable to grip the surface and few harrowing moments (it’s a city car and these things happen if you tend to use it like an SUV!) What shocked us all the more was the loud music and partying at the resort as the darkness engulfed and there were more guests also who had driven in! The cottages were fine (sufficient for bachelors and families please stay away!) for our requirements and we instantly decided to check out the next day after living through the evening atmosphere. There are 4 rounds of the Jeep Safari of 2 hours duration each conducted by the Forest Department @ Bandipura costing about 1300/- in total and you can book only if you can speak well and they prefer not to book rides for people who visit there for more of a picnic rather than passion! The 8 am Jeep Safari ride yielded sightings of Wild dogs again with some distant tusker sighting and the ever normal Sambar and Deer’s & the Stripe Necked Mongoose. No great luck this time too. Scouting for a place for the day we stumbled upon “Hotel Bandipur Plaza” just on the outskirts of Bandipur National Park (i.e., just before entering the park limits when driving from Gundlupet). We booked a cottage for 4 for 1300/- for the stay and then went back to the resort to check out and bid goodbye. The poor sightings of morning dissuaded us from taking the safari rides in the evening and so we decided on paying Mudumalai a visit in the evening. Realized after reaching there that the park was closed for census activity and we came back to Bandipura after a drive till Thorapalli. After lengthy discussions on hiring the jeep again or not, finally decided on booking the Jeep safari the next day again scheduled for the 8am ride. The cottage at Bandipur Plaza was sufficient for us to spend the night. We were up early next day with plans of a bus ride before the jeep safari and we managed to book the 6:45 am bus ride in midst of the big holiday crowd gathered. Langurs, CSE, Stripe necked Mongoose, Deer’s, Sambar and a few minutes later just near the Wesley road junction we could see many jeeps parked and lo behold! A leopardess was making its way down from a tree!! Still in the moving bus I could hardly manage still shots of the beauty, nevertheless what a start for the day! (We got to know that the leopardess along with her cubs was chased by a pack of wild dogs and they had climbed up here, but the cubs were missing!). A few meters’ down the road we found the pack of wild dogs too (Wild dogs are lucky sightings for us as in each and every place we get to see them while many people hardly get the chance!). All excited and charged up, we were again amidst the greens in the jeep ride passing by the same place where we saw the leopardess with faint hopes of her comeback but with no luck. 30 minutes into the ride and finally along the same Wesley road (Kambarlikalar junction) we saw a female elephant with her calf trying to cross the road. After 10 minutes with them and just 5 minutes down the same road we could sense something moving behind the bushes… and instantly realized it was a Tiger as we could slightly see the bright golden orange coat of the beauty. To our delight and surprise we also realized there were cubs around. We had to avoid a few jeeps and the buses by moving ahead and came back to the same place and then started the waiting game! Ahead of us was Mr. Krupakar’s jeep (the same person who has shot the “Wild Dog Diaries” and was once kidnapped by Veerappan along with his companion Mr. Senani!). All of us excited, sitting on the edge of our seats, praying no more disturbances occur, sensing one of our best wonderful wildlife moments just near and the environment suddenly vibrant, all eyes literally popping out … the wait was nearing its climax! Realizing the tiger moving, the other jeep raced ahead and we stopped a little behind and the Tigress peeped on us right in between the 2 jeeps to check how safe it was to cross the road! Sensing no danger at all the queen slowly walked across giving us a lifetime sighting so close by and then followed the little bundles of joy one after another joining their mom ahead. Full credit to the jeep driver Sunil who spotted the little ones first and ensured we got to see the family together. 20 minutes and all over the surroundings was back to normal telling us these are regular things happening, its only you people find it exciting! Leopard, pack of Wild dogs, Elephant with calf and now a Tigress with her litter of 4… What else could we have asked for? We came back to the reception office and as soon as the news spread, there were many people wanting to have a look at our lucky sightings and also popped a few questions like? Were you not scared seeing so close? What if they had attacked?... (Who has the time to think about these questions as we wait for that perfect moment when you get to see these majestic beauties up so close, and they maintain their distance until and unless provoked!) Still with the excitement soaking in, we checked out of the hotel and our way back till home were discussions only about the same! Hope this luck continues in the future too… Our sightings included all of these: Crested Serpent Eagle; Black Kite; Brahminy Kite; Brahminy Mynah; Chestnut bellied Nuthatch; Rose Ringed Parakeets; Peacocks; Indian Roller; White breasted Kingfisher; Green Bee Eaters; Flame backed Woodpecker. Common Langur; Sambar deer; Chital; Stripe Necked Mongoose; Elephants; Wild dogs; Leopard; Indian Tiger. Care for the nature and the nature cares for you!

Masinagudi - Into the woods...

It all started with our failed attempts of getting accommodation at Bandipur lodges maintained by the government for the last week of June just before when Bandipur is closed for monsoon in the months of July and August. Once again it was my mallu friend Joshua who came to our rescue and suggested Masinagudi as an alternative. Till then we had no idea where this place is! Masinagudi is rather a quite, secluded place at the foothills of the Nilgiris on the way to Ooty from Mysore. In a way its good that Masinagudi is not so famous as its neighbor so that the nature as well as the wildlife has enough space to themselves. This place is a pure wildlife hotspot (the luckiest ones even get to see tigers here) with good sightings of wildlife and numerous birds to keep one busy and on the tenterhooks, and added to this the pristine Moyar falls is quite ecstatic. Here cheap accommodations are difficult to find until and unless you know some place because it’s infested only with resorts and resorts. This time again, our help came in the form of Joshua who arranged accommodation for us at a rather secluded place right on the fringes of the forest, just what we wanted and thus started another of our adventure tales. 20th June 2008: Left Bangalore rather late in the night with uncordial notes ringing at all our homes for opting the night driving in our car; this was the best option for us as we could reach early in the morning and save precious morning time by this. The route to Masinagudi is itself a pleasure to drive for wildlife enthusiasts; after the bad stretch after gundlupet, took a much needed break at the CCD outlet at gundlupet,

at the CCD outlet, gundlupet

the road smoothens up and it’s a cruise right up to Theppakadu (mudumalai) through Bandipur. From here there are two paths, going straight leads to Ooty via Gudalur, and turning left from Theppakadu leads again to Ooty through Masinagudi with the much talked about 36 hairpin bends. Unluckily we couldn’t spot anything till Theppakadu because of the pitch darkness or rather due to our lack of knowledge of observing wildlife in the dark. As we turned left from the Theppakadu junction, our first sightings were in the form of two huge gaur bulls (forget 6 pack, they had 12 pack abs) staring right into our faces grazing on the bunds on the sideways of the road. The road on this stretch is narrow compared to the other highway and infested with wildlife as we realized later.

early morning views @ masinagudi

We reached on the scheduled time and checked in by 6am, quickly got ready for the forest trek organized by the hosts with guides. Its such a pleasure that you step out of your backyard and you are right in the forests and you often get to see many wild visitors right in your backyard. So almost all resorts / home stays here organize treks into the forests with the help of local villagers as guides who have this uncanny knowledge of what is what and can blindly take you through the terrain without getting lost in the wild. All five of us were excited for the forest trek and in spite of a sleepless night to our credit, we were all charged up and raring to go. The forest patch was dry and quite bald and we could spot langurs and sambar deer with numerous birds but luck still eluded us as we could not spot the biggies and we lost the trail of the wild elephants that we were trailing. The only solace was at a waterhole inside the jungle where we could spot footprints of many a wild animal which made everybody start guessing which is which!

pug marks found @ the waterhole - during the forest trek

Still, this being our first wild trek, we realized a lot of things of what to wear, what to carry and the most important thing “Silence is golden”. We spent the afternoon making a quick dash to the reserve forest area at Anekatti, which is accessible only with prior permission;

monster lizard at anekatti reserve area

later in the evening we went to Theppakadu hoping to get into the last safari, but as our bad luck continued, there was already a long queue and we had to return back without any safari ride for the day. So we just drove along the Gudalur route and luck started favoring us; we could spot quite a few huge bisons and many peacocks along the way.

peacocks, gaur @ masinagudi; evening view of masinagudi

Dinner at the rest house and then we had the option of driving along again or just retire for the day. Young blood, always wanting more and always willing to take chances and with no fear of roaming the jungles in the night we set out for the night drives with the hope of catching something big and wild. Well wildlife can be spotted all around Masinagudi – on the way to Theppakadu, Gudalur, Bandipur, just about every other road. We were recommended the Moyar road and the Singara road by Joshua, which as we found out was indulged in eerie silence and absolutely cut off from the rest of the world. We took the Singara road first, this roads ends up at a private estate and all along the way is pristine forest, we went ahead driving slowly, our car headlight being the only source of light. We spotted a male tusker having dinner just beside the road; with no mood to confront him in the jungle, we moved ahead till we reached the fringes of the estate, we turned back and passing by the same tusker reached Masinagudi. Now we took the Moyar road, this road leads up to Moyar village that is around 10kms away and we can cover as much distance as we want. 4kms into the road, without spotting anything, we were disappointed and turned around to our way back to the rest house, but the lady luck was reluctant to send us just like that, because the next 5minutes of sighting was all that we were waiting for anxiously from the time we reached Masinagudi. Just on the fringes of Masinagudi as we were inching ahead, we could see something big crossing the road right in front of us. Long tail, hefty body, spots all over, we instantly recognized it was a leopard which we were seeing and in a quick dash it crossed over the road and vanished into the bushes. Those few seconds of wow was all that we required keeping us in high spirits for our entire trip irrespective of what was to unfold the next day. Came back to our resting place in high spirits and were eagerly waiting for the next day's events to unfold. 22nd June 2008: Early morning we had two options, another trek in the forests or safari at mudumalai, we chose the latter as the forest trek the previous day was unfruitful. We could spot herds of deer along with many birds on the entire stretch from Masinagudi to Theppakadu.

deers, hoopee, peahen enroute theppakaadu

@ mudumalai (theppakaadu)

The deer’s cross the road in such a systematic way; two of them stand at either side of the road keeping guard until the herd passes from one end to the other and when they sense any vehicle coming, they back off into the bushes with the herd; surely they have a lesson for us on basic road sense. Being a Sunday, the safari at mudumalai was full with many people coming over, still the sightings were good with herds of deer, elephants, wild dogs, wild boar and many peacocks to see; still the big cats eluded us.

tusker family @ theppakaadu; posing near mudumalai forest office; tusker on roadside,masinagudi

roadside tusker encounter @ masinagudi

Even the safari route inside the Mudumalai Park is quite different from the others with dense green forest cover and the jeep track winds through the forest. We started to chug along the path back to our resting place for the much-needed breakfast, some way ahead we found a huge male tusker bringing down branches at the roadside. We stopped and luckily he was very quiet and went about his munching activity even in our presence. We gave him company for almost 15-20 minutes with occasional vehicles stopping and passing by, till a van full of guys came along and started shouting in excitement irritating him. We sensed trouble and moved ahead; later all that we heard was a loud growl from the tusker that made the guys scamper for cover! After the sumptuous breakfast, we went ahead to our next destination Moyar falls on the same stretch of the Moyar road where we had seen the big cat the previous evening. Here permission is required as the viewpoint is in the reserve forest area and wild animals are sighted very frequently here.

@ the reserve moyar falls & group photo @ the hosts place

The place was entirely empty (maybe because of the permission); we sneaked in and had to walk for about 15 minutes till we reached a dead-end; Phew! From there it was a majestic sight of the falls that is in between the woods. Milky white water falling like crystals in between the green cover of the forest area and the surprising thing was that rains were yet to start; still this waterfall was in all glow. We rested there for quite a long time, satisfied our appetites with n number of photographs and left with no mood at all to budge from there. We came back to our nest, bid goodbye to the hosts and started on our way back to home only to realize we were running out of Petrol! Ouch! The nearest bunk was some 30 kms away; we somehow managed to reach there with heavy rains accompanying us and then trudged on our way back to Bangalore taking the same route by which we had come. Recently read a news article stating Masinagudi area will be declared a buffer zone as it is on the fringes of mudumalai sanctuary; that means less human interference. Well, that’s good news for wildlife but what about the people who are surviving purely on this? Quick notes: Distance: Approx 250 kms from Bangalore Route: Bangalore - Mysore - Gundlupet - Bandipur - Theppakadu (mudumalai) – Masinagudi - Ooty Accommodation: Plenty of resorts available (info on the net) Ideal time: All round the year except monsoon season Food: Mostly included in your resort packages, otherwise smaller hotels available at Masinagudi. Petrol: No bunks at Masinagudi (Essar bunk is now defunct), nearest is either Gundlupet or Thorappalli. Tips: Respect nature, maintain silence in the forests, don’t irritate the wild animals, conserve forests and leave no traces of your visit behind. Wear light colored clothing during treks / safaris, avoid bright colors. Drive slowly when driving through the wildlife zone (from gundlupet up to Gudalur). care for the nature and the nature cares for you!