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A Letter from Dandeli.
by Ullas P. A. (ullaspa (at) sify.com)
Hello,
This was a long planned mail that I have not been able
to post. I'd been to Dandeli during the first week of June. Here's
the trip report...
I stayed at the Jungle Lodges and spent about 3 days
roaming around the place. What a trip this was! The highlight of
this trip was the sighting of the three hornbills (Malabar Grey,
Malabar Pied and the Great Indian), on all the days during my stay
and a very exhilarating river rafting along the Kali river.
There's a direct VRL bus from Bangalore to Dandeli.
This costs about Rs.300 one way and offers a lot of legroom compared
to the KSRTC bus. The Jungle Lodges campus is situated just outside
this industrial town and is accessible by Auto-rickshaws by paying
about Rs.15-20. The stay at Jungle Lodges costs about Rs.1500 per
person per night and Rs.1350 on subsequent nights.
The food is good and decent; my advice would be to stick
to vegetarian fare. The rooms are real nice and offer good accommodation.
The tents are a little tacky (a bucket of hot water on demand) and
are not too good a value for the money. There are only 9 tents and
11 rooms. Make sure that you get into a room as these have hot-water
geysers that you need the most after a hard day's outing. The campus
is large and spacious towards the back, where it meets the Kali
River. There are hammocks spread across the campus making it ideal
to snooze with your bird book on returning from the field.
The staff is really helpful and luckily this is one
Jungle Lodges that is not like the ones discussed on the list previously.
I can vouch for that. The check-in/checkout is from 12 noon, but
usually there's enough accommodation around to stay those couple
of hours extra. The breakfast and lunch, before and after the stipulated
time is charged extra.
The local naturalist, Pramod Nayak, accompanied us on
all our trips and was extremely helpful. He is very enthusiastic
and belongs to that area, knowing it like the back of his hand.
My advice to anyone going there is to trust him and you'll get to
see a lot of places that are off the regular Jungle Lodges route.
You might need to tell in advance that you are interested in birds
and make it known to him. He was largely responsible for me seeing
the sheer number of birds on this trip. He'd make sure that the
jeep stopped at every bush, if need be to see a bird. Another naturalist
at the place is Basil and he too takes kindly to the ever-nagging
birder asking for the jeep to stop every minute. Sometimes, I had
to ask them to get a move on!
On the first day, we started in the morning for a safari
into the national park. The safari is about a 30-minute jeep ride
from the JL campus before we reach the national park. It includes
a brief stop at a forgettable forest department museum that has
some pictures of orchids and some ill-maintained bones and skulls.
The most pathetic display is what must have been a once glorious
14ft King Cobra, rotting and missing large chunks.
The park offers good viewing and took some time getting
adjusted to in spotting birds for city slickers like me. I could
spot the Malabar Grey Hornbill and the Malabar Pied Hornbill all
along the drive. This ride also took us to Sykes point and the Shiroli
peak. You can clearly see the effects that mining inside a forest
can do here. I had the first sighting of the Great Pied Hornbill,
on this trip, right at this place.
The evening was a visit to the famed Syntheri rocks.
This is a 300ft tall monolith that has a huge number of beehives
hanging from the rock face. I spent about 2 hours just watching
the Blue bearded bee- eaters actively foraging on the hives. They
used to fly from their perch and actively `hang' on the hive, probing
it for a morsel. There were about 20 of these birds. This was the
first time that I have seen these birds at such close quarters and
for such a long duration. The rocks are also inhabited by the Blue
Rock Pigeons.
On the morning of second day, I
visited a nearby Forest called Molangi in the morning for a nature
trail and could again spot all the three Hornbills!! This is a very
interesting place and has a lot of Bamboo thickets. We could spot
a lot of birds and butterflies at this place. The evening was spent
going for another safari ride.
The third day morning was an early riser for the river rafting.
We started on the river at about 4:30 am and rafted 10kms down river.
All the participants were split into two boats. This is one experience
that should not be missed. The river flows through the forest and
you can spot quite a lot of birds if you are looking out.
The rafting is at an extra cost of about Rs. 900 per person. There
are skilled instructors who'd take you thru the steps and train
you before setting off. Just make sure that you don't carry your
binoculars or cameras into the river :) We happened to miss a lone
tusker by about 100ft and had to back-row very hard to stay from
ramming into it! The evening was spent visiting a Siddi tribal village.
The third day saw us going to the Kavalla caves in the morning.
These are caves formed by volcanic activity ages back and are situated
deep with-in the forest. This is a religious place and known for
the Stalagmite linga.
The walk inside the cave is exciting and is full of surprises. I
saw some Millipedes that were pure white in color. These were congregated
on the Stalagmites on the floor. The roof is covered with Stalactites
and bats. The whole cave is pungent with a strong smell of bat guano!
The drive to this place is wonderful and takes you thru the heart
of the park. I spotted the Rufus Woodpecker during this ride and
observed it for over 10mins. The evening was spent visiting a huge
tank having large numbers of Cotton Teals and Jacanas, before catching
the bus back to Bangalore.
Some of the animals seen were...
1. Muntjac
2. Spotted deer
3. Sambar
4. Gaur
5. Elephant
6. Malabar giant squirrel
7. Wild boar
I missed the Black Panther, for which this place is famed, by a
Safari trip. The batch that went between my two safari trips were
able to spot it!
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