Jim Corbett Museum, Kaladhungi and Memories of Arba Minch

This month when we visited the Jim Corbett National Park I made sure that we visited his museum, located in a bungalow that he probably lived in. I first came to know about this legendary hunter and tiger conservationist from my father when we were living in Arba Minch, in Ethiopia, a town surrounded by dense forests and the favourite haunt of African Lions, hyenas, pythons, and all sorts of predators that were attracted to the town because of the domesticated cattle that were to be found. I could somehow relate to Jim Corbett because my dad often took us on post-dinner drives into the thick forest that surrounded the town. More often we drove down the ArbaMinch Addis Abeba highway close to the Cooperative farm popularly known as Lemat. Those were the years preceding the Socialist revolution that took place in 1975. Somehow my memories go back to the days when, on our evening drives we would come across Mr Delville, an American with Native Red-Indian ancestry who dared to roam the forests armed with a bow and quiver of arrows, and not much else!

My father would often be able to tell from the behaviour of the deer baboons and other denizens of the forest that a lion was in the vicinity! Apparently, this was not rocket science for him because it seemed as if the deer and the baboons appeared more nervous and scared, and then there were those warning cries that my father recognized for what they were. Jim Corbett too must have gone through the same experience although he would have confronted tigers and not lions. Tigers talk and attack with the least of warning while lions are more likely to give a warning, more likely to attack from the front. In terms of equipment too, Jim Corbett was limited to a form of a lantern that burnt kerosene oil while today we have mobile phones and powerful battery-operated flashlight.

Our visit to the Jim Corbett museum about forty kilometres from our resort in Dhikuli transported us to the times when we lived in Arba Minch in the Gamugoffa province of Ethiopia. The quaint Charpoy and the rickety cane furniture simply belonged to an age long gone by! The present generation will never experience the thrill of looking at wildlife and nature as closely as we once did, and people like Jim Corbett were an inspiration for us! Of course, I would often step out of my school in Arbaminch in those days and take a stroll in the jungle that started right after the boundary walls, no barbed-wire fence of the school (This is something I never told my parents or they would have given me a piece of their mind!). The bungalow housing the museum reminds me of the kind of houses we had in Arbaminch, adobe houses with tin roofs, and cornice ceilings and no cement except for the flooring!

The above warning rings true, not just for tigers but for nearly everything that nature has given to us! Disappearing wetlands, grasslands, forests, and even the damage being done to the Aravali mountains in Gurgaon is a cause for concern. Tigers, migratory birds, even the now rarely seen sparrows are markers that indicate damage being done to the environment! Jim Corbett was a great man, a writer, a carpenter, a gentleman, and greatest of all, one of the greatest conservationists that India has had the honour to have. This gentleman had a strong conviction that the extermination of the tiger would rob the nation of its finest animal. Unplanned development, greed for money, selfishness and apathy, both the seen in the common man and the administration has led to the loss of valuable forest cover. We need to educate the common man about how important it is to conserve nature, flora and fauna.It is the duty of all the elected members of the Parliament to protect not only the rights of the citizens living in this country but also to protect the interests of wildlife and thereby the habitats they live in.

Today we maintain museums and relics of great people, we enjoy visiting such places, places which have become 'A Must See,' but we turn a blind eye to our existing valuable natural resources. The Aravalis, the Mangar Bani forest, the Basai Wetland, in Gurgaon, all are under the axe of rampant and unplanned development in a region that is headed towards an ecological disaster!

I hope that the light of reason coupled with better technology will help all of us see sense in conserving our environment. Jim Corbett used a relatively primitive kind of light source seen in the snap above, but we today have better light sources, halogen torches, LED-powered torches, mobiles, and laptops, and wifi, and internet, but then I wonder if all this technology has made us better than people like Jim Corbett!

My Dhikuli Diary (Jim Corbett Park)

After a seven hours drive from Gurgaon, we finally checked in at the Anand Amod Resort at Jim Corbett Park. We reached our destination at about 11:30 a.m. and so after placing our stuff in our allotted we rushed up for lunch since our jeep driver was to arrive at 2:30 p.m. But then this post is not about the safari but the stay at the resort. I would like to add, to my narrative that the Resort that we stayed in is a complete resort with enough things to do to keep the visitor occupied. A clean swimming pool combined with ample lawns walks, a spa, well-groomed gardens and last but not least the chance to visit the Kosi river flowing behind the resort make it a place worth visiting. For my extended family what mattered the most was that the Anand Amod Resort at Dhikuli is a dog- friendly resort, so Candy, our pet pug was able to have as much fun as she could have enjoyed!

A Video of Serenading Sarus Cranes at the Sultanpur Bird Sanctuary, Gurgaon

My Jim Corbett National Park Diary

This time, during the Diwali break, my family decided to visit the Jim Corbett National Park in Ramnagar, Uttarakhand. The Distance from Gurgaon was 300 kilometres. We decided to stay at the Corbett Anand Amod Resort at Dhikuli. We started at 4:15 a.m. and reached at 11:30 a.m. The journey got delayed because of the Traffic Jam a couple of kilometres before the Brajghat Bridge on the Ganga River at Garh Mukhteshwar.

On reaching the resort we quickly checked in to our rooms and then rushed up for our lunch as we had booked our safari for 2:30 p.m. that very day. To our pleasant surprise, the first animal that greeted us, that too immediately after entering the park premises was a spotted deer with antlers!

The Sambur Deer is a larger kind of Antelope and the National Park is teeming with Sambur Deer. This is a relatively shy animal and I found it difficult to photograph it from a distance. The moment we tried to get close to it, it fled into the undergrowth.

Apart from the deer and monkeys, we were rewarded with sightings of Wild Roosters and Khaleej Pheasants. The Khaleej Pheasants were relatively shy and by the time we reached them, they were hidden within the foliage!

The last that I saw such handsome roosters was when I was in Ethiopia many years ago. The male roosters can be very colourful and the driver of our jeep told us that the male rooster has feathers of seven different colours!

The hen, unfortunately, is not as good looking as the male rooster. Nevertheless, I guess they both make a good pair, a loyal pair as such. I was able to take a couple of photographs of the hen from close to where the rooster was.

Apart from the birds and fowls, the grasslands are worth a view. The grasslands stretch into the horizon reminding one of how vast the world is and how small, we human beings are! There are spots in the National Park where you can alight from the jeep and walk on the ground. These are designated spots close to the watchtowers.

Towards the end of our safari in the National Park, we were able to spot one more deer, an elusive dog-sized deer known as Kakkar or Barking deer. It moved too quickly for me and the driver could not stop the jeep in time. Nevertheless, we were able to get a fleeting glimpse of one more species of deer.

Our safari in the Jim Corbett National Park had taken about two hours. We had reached the park gate at three and were out by five in the evening. It would also be advisable for visitors to carry binoculars, although the same are available on hire at the entry gates. Moreover, visitors to the park should have warm clothing on as it can become a bit cold by five in the evening in the month of October. Wearing caps and shades might help from the dust that might be caused by numerous other vehicles on the track.

Save the Basai Wetlands of Gurgaon before it is too late!

The Basai Wetlands are slowly but surely being swallowed up by development that is taking place all around it. The last remaining Wetlands of Gurgaon, the area is home to quite many migratory birds. Just recently when I visited the place, I was surprised to see that it has more birds than the much-hyped Sultanpur National Park, a few kilometres away!

Located right opposite to the water treatment plant, a mere five kilometres from Gurgaon, the Basai Wetland is accessible through a very narrow lane on the right-hand side after you get off from the flyover adjacent to the water treatment plant. My favourite companion is a V-15 bike that comes on its own while riding on loose mud. Its wide tyres and comfortable stance will not let you slip.

In the years to come, the pictures that you are seeing in this blog post will be pictures only and few will remember having seen the spot-billed ducks, or the cormorants, or even the lapwings. The Haryana Government needs to do something urgently to preserve the flora and fauna of the Basai Wetlands. It is an unfortunate fact that unsustainable development, rampant clearing of forest lands, wetlands, and the destruction of the Aravali Mountain's ecosystem has cost us greatly. When these birds go, when all the wetlands go, then man too will have to go!

The kingfisher was seen fishing in the waters. It looks like there are a lot of fish in the wetlands and they are able to sustain a large number of water birds. At stake, therefore are not just the birds, migratory birds, but also the fish that dwell in the waters of the wetlands. I just hope that people wake up to the disaster that would take place if these remaining wetlands of Gurgaon were to be destroyed!

There are rumours on the grapevine that there are plans to create a waste treatment plant at the spot where the wetlands exist today. It is already a matter of concern that apparent apathy on the part of the administration combined with lack of educated awareness of the citizens things are falling apart. If only the common man, residents of Gurgaon could realise how valuable a treasure they have in the wetlands of Basai and how they could lose it forever, only then will something be done to save the wetlands! The destruction of the Basai Wetland will result in increased dust pollution in the area. Residents in that area will face a lot of problems should the wetland be destroyed. 

Animals of the Sultanpur National Park, Gurgaon

Although the Sultanpur National Park is a notified park, a sanctuary that is meant to protect migratory birds, one can find all sorts of animals, domesticated or wild. I don't know what I have done with my photographs of dogs chasing Asian Antelope across the lake, but then that is the truth! The Sultanpur National park is also home to domesticated cattle and dogs vying for space with the migratory birds that arrive every year to a lake that is dwindling in size!

While the Asian Antelope might be condoned for their presence in the National Park, (being wild themselves) the presence of oxen and cows, especially during the nesting season of migratory birds might be a bit of a danger for visitors. In many cases, I have had to walk past many an Ox with my heart beating in my chest wondering lest the bull should lunge at me. It is my request to the park authorities not to allow oxen into the park!

However, one is equally likely to come into confrontation with a full-grown male Asian Antelope while walking on the tracks and paths inside the Sultanpur National Park. This happened the day my brother and I were walking back towards the interpretation centre after spotting a couple of Saras Cranes. This huge specimen of the Asian Antelope stood at the end of the path and stared at us for a couple of minutes. We stopped where we were and waited to see what the fellow would do. Fortunately, he left after some time!

Some of the Asian Antelopes, the does and their fawn might be as curious of the people with their cameras as people might be about these beautiful creatures. The Asian Antelopes should continue to be protected.

Yes, those are definitely clothes hanging on the branches of the tree. This snap was taken on the first of October when the part had just opened. There were apparently hired workers who were gathering stalks of grass to make nesting islands in the park.

Of course, squirrels too range the trees and some of them like this one might even confront you. Most of these animals form part of the fragile ecosystem of the Sultanpur National Park, others, like domesticated ones should be re-located.

Sarus Cranes Serenading at the Sultanpur National Park

Just today, my brother and I had a pleasant surprise when we visited the Sultanpur Nationaal Park close to Gurgaon. The surprise came towards the latter half of our visit, on the second half, to be precise. I was leading the way and I had reached a path jutting into the lake when we heard a strange sound of perhaps a few really angry birds. We paused, wondering what could have made such a ruckus when lo and behold, a couple of Saras Cranes stepped out of their hiding places in the bushes and then they made a stately stroll towards the waters of the lake right in front of us. What was amazing was to see how synchronised their movements were. When one of them bent down to groom itself, the other mirrored it! It became clear that we had passed what had probably their nest on the ground, and they had made a noise to frighten us away. 

Saras Cranes are monogamous and they stay together for good. These cranes are characterised by their large size reaching 1.8 metres in height. and eight kilos in weight. Saras cranes are found in Australia, and parts of Asia. Their numbers are dwindling in India and very few remain. These beautiful birds have a red patch on their heads reaching down to their necks. Their habitat is close to human settlements with abundant wastelands. They build their nests on an island of weeds and grass a few inches above the water level.

I could not, unfortunately, get very good photographs of these birds as I was shooting into the rising sun and the lighting was really bad!