Thursday, January 26, 2012

Manglajodi Marshes

I had first read about Manglajodi from a post by our friend and fellow member of Birdphotoindia Bikramaditya Guha Roy a few years ago. After that a few of our other birding friends like Somadi and Maitreyeedi went there from Calcutta and brought some fabulous photographs. But I had to wait till January 22nd of 2012 to go to the Manglajodi marshes. The co-birders on this trip were Partha, Suranjan and Suman. 


Black-tailed Godwits displaying their strength to a lone Marsh Harrier circling above 


Going to Manglajodi from Calcutta is fairly simple. We boarded the Madras Mail from Howrah at 11:45 pm in the night. It reached Balugaon at around 8:15 where a taxi was waiting for us. We first went to Mr Bhujbal's house in Tangi which is off the main highway towards Bhubaneswar. Had breakfast in the town and then off to the marshes of Manglajodi. Total driving time is about an hour. The Yashwantpur Express is perhaps more convenient as it reaches Balugaon a couple of hours before which gives you more time at the marsh on the first day.

Mr Bhujbal is the man who made Manglajodi into what it is today - a safe haven for birds. It was not so even a few years ago. Locals used to regularly poach on the winter visitors for money (you cannot really blame them as there is hardly any other economic activity in that region and it is difficult not to poach for money in that scenario). A greylag goose would fetch them Rs 600 or a purple moorhen would go for Rs 30. 

Mr Bhujbal convinced the poachers to turn into protectors. Of course it took him years. Today people like Madhu and Sadhu who used to kill thousands of birds every day even a few years ago, guide tourists and show them the birds with a pair of binoculars and a Salim Ali field guide. In the evening they sit together in the cooperative office to discuss what new birds they saw and where etc. 

This dramatic change happened because of the persistent efforts of Mr Bhujbal since the early 90s of the previous century. A very soft spoken nature lover with deep roots in the rustic heartland of Orissa, Mr Bhujbal is not an English speaking sophisticated city-bred birder. I have to one day sit with him and dig out his story. He has a special place in his heart for my family because my wife Monisha speaks fluent Oriya and she used to keep communicating with him about our visit.

Mr Bhujbal had arranged the taxi, hotel, boat and of course the guides in Manglajodi. I am oath bound to bring Monisha during my next visit. He is probably in his late 50s or early 60s. He has had a cerebral stroke, he said and that's why doesn't go to the marshes very often. 


Manglajodi is a safe haven now for these fast disappearing Ruddy Shelducks - winter visitors from across the Himalayas

Here I will post some of the images that I shot during the two-day stay so that it serves as a guide for future travellers. The bird names are given below the images

A Cinnamon Bittern


Booted Warbler



Grey Heron


Oriental Skylark



Oriental Pratincole

Streaked Weaver



Pied Kingfisher pair. Male on left and female on right


Northern Pintail



Ruddy-breasted Crake



Northern Shoveler

Now a few mundane details about the place and logistics. We had initially wanted to stay at the marsh itself. Paying little heed to Mr Bhujbal's advice we did not book any hotel in Balugaon. But upon arrival at the Samity office where we were shown the floor of the office hall we realised that it was not possible for us any more to spend a night in such spartan surroundings. The dirty bathroom, with no running water, was the final nail on the coffin. We decided to stay in Balugaon. This added to the overall cost of commute - Rs 800 each way - and more importantly lost time in the morning birding hour.

As a student, particularly while hiking in the high Himalayas, we have stayed in worse accomodations. But here somehow we realised that we have grown up a bit. The evening chat session at Balugaon's Digantika hotel was highly enjoyable. Suranjan had brought a Single Malt and we didn't spoil its taste with any added water.

We realised to our pleasant surprise that it's been a long time that any of us had travelled in a stag group of close friends like this. We didn't eat our dinner at Avantika but as advised by the taxi driver Durga (09777650472) we had it at a road side dhaba across the hotel. Good food at affordable cost. On retrospect, next time I would like to go in my own car. It will save us a lot of money in commute. Only problem is the waste of two days in going and coming back.



Wednesday, January 4, 2012

Orchha - The Hidden Capital of Bundelkhand

Life is full of small ironies. We saw our first camels of the Rajasthan road trip of 2011 in Jharkhand. The first peacock crossed our path just outside Benares in a moderately urbanised area.  Of course at first I thought it was a hen. But that’s another story. And the first "Rajasthani" fort we experienced during this trip was actually in Madhya Pradesh!!! Welcome to Orchha. The earstwhile hidden capital of Bundelkhand.


Orchha Palace at Night. Handheld

When I booked the River Retreat of MP Tourism from their Calcutta office, the booking clerk got quite worried to know that I shall be driving to Orchha from Allahabad. He even pulled out a map to show me exactly how far it would be from Kanpur and explained passionately how tired we would be after the drive. What he didn’t know was I would complicate matters further by starting from Benares (we couldn’t reach Allahabad on day one due to bad jams in Calcutta and Panagarh that ate into crucial daylight driving time) at 9 am.
So we were more than tired when we reached Jhansi on that Monday, 3rd October 2011. But once in Orchha, about 20 km from Jhansi, all our tiredness disappeared. Orchha is a serene little place by the swift flowing Betwa. There is no town or village in Orchha. Just a few tourist curio shops (selling Rajasthani handicraft), temples, chhatris and palaces.




The swift flowing Betwa at Orchha is ideal for river rafting
The resort that we were booked in looks very nice. But at Rs 2300 per night I thought it was grossly over priced. Mampu was very happy to see the swimming pool right in front of our tent. In fact she wanted to go swimming right then and there and was very disappointed to know that she would have to wait till tomorrow.


Mampu at the over-priced River Retreat
By the time we reached our hotel it had got dark. I got out to see the riverside chhatris quite early in the morning next day and what did I see? About 30/40 long billed vultures nesting on the chhatris !!! Of course I couldn’t identify the species right away but I could understand these were not ordinary birds. Rushed back to the resort. Brought my camera, tripod etc and clicked away these critically endangered birds which probably number a few hundred.


Critically endangered Long-billed Vulture at a riverside Chhatri




The riverside is dotted with such cenotaphs or Chhatris, as they call them

Later I realised that the area around the chhatris near Betwa was quite bird rich. Among others I found a lovely Indian Robin, a Spotted Owlet, a Brahminy Starling, a Long-tailed Shrike, several Brown Rock Chats and the beautiful Indian Roller. Many of these birds were either first for me or I had never photographed before.


The Brahminy Starling


Brown Rock Chat


Indian Robin

Indian Roller


Spotted Owlet

With the morning photography session done and breakfast completed, we set out to explore the monuments of Orchha. First we went to the temple in front of the main palace. I think it's the Laxmi Narayan temple. The view of the Orchha palace from the temple is very nice.


View of the Orchha Palace from the Laxmi Narayan Temple


View of the Orchha Palace from the road

Sunday, January 1, 2012

The Hidden Fort of Kumbhalgarh



A few weeks ago, after much pestering by an office colleague, I wrote a travelogue for submission to Goodyear for selection in their Travelogue of the Month that is published in the magazine Geo. Although we went on a 4500 km round trip of Rajasthan I wrote only about the journey from Udaipur to Kumbhalgarh. To my mind that was the highlight of our trip. And no one really is interested in reading a long travelogue about too many places. So I kept the journey short.

Having written professionally for several years, I knew this piece of writing was going to get selected. Sure enough within a week or so I got a call from Delhi to that effect. A girl informed me that it was going to be published in the next issue and wanted some more details about the route. I felt quite elated really. Not because my travelogue made it. With hundreds of published bylines in The Economic Times, I don't really lust for bylines. My elation was in the fact that I could predict it successfully :-) If you have played football you know the feeling. You kick a ball towards the goal from a distance and you know it is going to go in and then it does.

However, within days they told me that Goodyear wants me to write more about the entire journey rather than such a short piece just on Kumbhalgarh. Reluctantly I did oblige them but I was quite disappointed that the "client" ruined a good travelogue. So, while Goodyear is happy to publish my "entire" story, here is the little travelogue that I wrote from my heart.


The Original Story

“WB 02V? Yeh kahan ka registration hai saab?” the curious petrol pump attendant asked me on NH 76 near Iswal. His curiosity and my car’s thirst quenched, I asked him in my broken Hindi: “Kumbhalgarh kaise jata?” (how do you go to Kumbhalgarh?) “Baye service road se daine le lo saab – bridge ke niche se. Aage pura likkha hai” (take the service road on your left hand side and then turn right under the bridge. It’s all written after that).


Iswal is just a dot on the highway NH 76

We were off to Kumbhalgarh and this last piece of conversation with the friendly attendant was a major confidence booster in this land that most Bengalis from Calcutta would consider very beautiful but alien. We had started from Udaipur early that morning and found this dot-on-the-highway called Iswal fairly easily. First come to Chetak Circle, next find out Sukhadia Circle; after that go towards Fatehpura and take the state highway that goes to Iswal.

“From Iswal it’s easy. Maximum an hour and a half”, said the DFO Udaipur the previous night. Although there are some plush high end resorts there, we are booked in the forest bungalow so kindly approved by him.


We met these two little girls on the way. But they were scared of us and ran away

This is our seventh day on the road. Starting from Calcutta we had spent nights (and a few days too) in Benares, Orchha, Bundi, Chittor and Udaipur. Driving on 4-laned highway is one thing but finding your way to a remote forest bungalow deep in the Aravalli mountains might not be an easy task, I had thought. I am the lone driver in my team of three – my wife, my daughter of eight and me. But soon I realised that despite being a very small place, the road to Kumbhalgarh is fairly well marked with adequate road signs and there is no reason to panic at all.



Kumbhalgarh Fort is most stunning at night


Kumbhalgarh is a quiet little fort. For certain mysterious reasons it is not very popular with the whistle-stop tourists to Rajasthan. Probably because like Ranakpur it is midway between the two major attractions of Udaipur and Jodhpur. People spend a maximum of two hours here en route from one city to the other. But they have no idea what they miss in this hurried visit.



From a particular strategic point, far from the fort, the wall looks like a glorious necklace

Kumbhalgarh has history and nature. What it does not have is crowd and the liability of a dirty town. Not a very common combination that you find everywhere in India. And these factors make it highly desirable as an ideal destination for me.



The Aravalli Forest looks beautifully green

Now a little bit of history. When Chittor proved to be too weak to defend against repeated external attacks, Maharana Kumbha of Mewar decided to build a more secure fort and chose this site of ancient Jain temples to build his new fort. The deep forest makes it impregnable and safe and that’s why this fort has never really fallen against any enemy attack or occupied except for one very brief period.
Legend has it that a human sacrifice was made to ensure that the fort’s construction would be a smooth affair. A local priest offered this advice and also volunteered to sacrifice his own life for the sake of defending Mewar!!



Breakfast, lunch or dinner - we spent our time looking at the plains of Marwar in the distance

The fort has a lot of history associated with it. This is the fort where Maharana Kumbha was subsequently murdered by his ambitious son. This was also where Maharana Udai Singh, who later built Udaipur, was hidden as a child by his nanny Anna Dhai when they realised that there was a threat to his life from the then regent. This fort was also the birth place of Maharana Pratap who fought the Moghuls most valiantly and is revered for his valour all over India even today.



The bungalow at night. I saw a juvenile hayena here running away


When I finally reached the outer precincts of the forest bungalow (locally called Badal Guesthouse), some 11 kms from the fort complex and in the middle of nowhere, history of Kumbhalgarh was the last thing on my mind. The geography of the path in front was giving me cold turkey cramps in the belly. An almost vertical climb on loose stones where even walking down without support can be risky.
But I have noticed that fear is a purely a mental state. And once you do what looks very scary, there is nothing much to tell anyone. I just went up the hill and nothing really happened !!! Simple. Hah. Only I know what went through my mind with my wife and child sitting innocently next to me and completely impervious of the potential dangers.



Geetanjali, Monisha, Me and Kesar Lal infront of the bungalow

Kesar Lal, the caretaker of the guest house turned out to be a friendly, extremely talented and efficient vegetarian cook. He served us the best khichdi I have ever eaten in my life as we spent hours looking at the plains of Marwar at a distance. The guest house, I measured with my GPS, is above 3500 feet and one can easily see upto 50 km or so in the distance.
After lunch and some bird photography of overhead flying raptors that turned out to be common buzzards, we went to the fort and stayed back for the brilliant light and sound show which tells the story of the fort and indeed of Mewar. The lighting of the fort is one of the most beautiful I have ever seen. From a distance it looks like a glorious golden necklace. The walls of the Kumbhalgarh fort is apparently second only to the Chinese Wall in terms of its length. However, sections of the wall have been acid cleaned recently and are looking like brand new.



Part of the world's second longest wall (as per information on an ASI signboard outside)


Apart from the rugged and Spartan fort, Kumbhalgarh also boasts a beautiful wildlife sanctuary. It is supposed to have panthers, chousinghas and a host of different birds. There are various options to see this wildlife. We hired a four-wheel petrol jeep to the forest core area called Thandi Bheri. You can also hike it down to the spot with a guide. In fact it is also possible to hike to Ranakpur through the mountains.



A juvenile Changeable Hawk Eagle from less than 8 meters with a 90 mm macro lens !!!

The jeep ride to Thandi Bheri and back is one of the toughest I have ever taken in my life. It is impossible to believe that it is actually possible to drive in a mechanised vehicle over those boulders.
Although we didn’t see any mammals I have no regrets. I concentrated more on birds and saw an eyeful of them. Among the ones I spotted were several plum headed parakeets, white bellied drongos, Tickell’s blue flycatchers, crested buntings and grey hornbills etc, not to speak of the other more common birds like coppersmith barbets or white browed fantails. But the most prized sighting for me was a juvenile changeable hawk eagle that we saw from a distance of about 15 feet. I have never seen a more powerful looking bird from such close quarters.



A Coppersmith Barbet

Regrettably enough, I had two nights and just one full day for Kumbhalgarh. So I couldn’t see the Parashuram Temple or do the hikes. But this is one place that I want to visit again and spend some more days in doing all that I couldn’t do this time. Perhaps my eight year old daughter will be older then and will be able to join me in the hikes.
Till then I will cherish the memories of those cricket calls in the night, the view of the necklace of a fort and that hawk eagle. I didn’t say good bye to Kumbhalgarh. We will certainly come back. I am sure it will stay just as pristine.


From the Badal guest house