Prelude
Before Durga Puja the one
question that all Bengalis ask each other is “so where are you going this time?”
This year, when I said, “Chitrakoot Falls and Jagdalpur town in Chhattisgarh”
all of them without fail said, “isn’t there any Maoist threat in that region?”
To be honest, after a while even
I started to get worried and my confidence almost began to shake a little. I
know there is at least one traveller who went from Calcutta in this same route
earlier with his wife and daughter. In fact I got the idea of the trip from his
travelogue. There was another guy who had come in a self drive trip from Bombay
with his family. So it must be quite safe.
I had also been told by a guy I
met on HVK forum and team-bhp who lives in Jagdalpur that there is absolutely
nothing to worry about on the road.
Yet, when every one you talk to mentions
only Maoists or “long desolate stretches with nothing around”, you do feel a
little concerned, if not worried. Someone even told me precisely where the last
famous ambush happened that wiped out some 24 people, including several
heavyweight politicians of MP and asked me to find out how far my route was
from here.
The worst was reading a report in
The Telegraph that mentioned that Sunabeda Forest had been taken over by the
Maoists some time back (the report was on Tikarpara and how Maoists have
infiltrated there and normal tourism has been suspended). This I read just a
few days before my scheduled departure. I just pretended I had not read it. Sunabeda
would come sometime around 2 pm on my second day of the drive. I did not want
to believe it was under Maoists.
As good luck would have it, a few days before the trip I got a phone call from a customer in "HAL Koraput". I said, "so are you in Sunabeda?" He was pleasantly surprised that someone in Calcutta had heard the name !!! I asked him about the route and he said, "the rains have stopped. Water has subsided. The roads are fine. So there should not be any problem." I didn't raise the Maoist issue. He didn't seem to know about the supposed threat.
As good luck would have it, a few days before the trip I got a phone call from a customer in "HAL Koraput". I said, "so are you in Sunabeda?" He was pleasantly surprised that someone in Calcutta had heard the name !!! I asked him about the route and he said, "the rains have stopped. Water has subsided. The roads are fine. So there should not be any problem." I didn't raise the Maoist issue. He didn't seem to know about the supposed threat.
We had already paid the entire
booking amount in Chitrakote !!! It was too late to call the trip off, despite all the scare mongering.
I got some confidence from my office network. The head of our national customer service gave me the mobile number of our guy in Orissa and said contact him if you are stuck anywhere in that region. In remote regions that means a lot.
Now that the trip is over without
so much as even a tyre puncture, I am going to write about it so that other
motorists from this part of India go there without fear. I do not know what
will happen in future but believe me, on this trip I did not face any problem
whatsoever. There was no Maoist hold up anywhere. There was only one stretch in the hills where we saw a lot of security personnel travelling on motorcycles with light machine guns in
the ready but they did not stop us for even a routine security check. They did
not even look suspiciously at us.
There was one point where some
boys were collecting money from the traffic for Muharram; even they were very
benign kind of people. I told them, “come on, this is collected from commercial
vehicles only and not from private cars.” They just withdrew meekly and did not
bother us any morel!!! Yes, there were stretches that were desolate but nothing
compared to the stretch of road from Jhansi to Kota in central India.
As of today, it is a beautiful
road. It is safe to travel. It offers some of the most scenic drives possible
in eastern India with hardly any traffic. There is scarcely any pot hole on
this entire stretch of some 1100 km. The only problem stretch from a motorist’s
point of view is the one from Chilakapalem to Salur (about 50 km or so) where
all the milestones are written in Telugu. But then it is a ram rod straight
road with a billiard board top. So you do not really need to read the road
signs. Just blast through this section.
The other such state highway
stretch is the road from Jagdalpur to Chitrakote Falls. All of 40 kms but it
has more than 40 speed breakers perhaps. So that is another red flag to
remember.
For two-wheeler riders with a
small tank, like my Duke, there are more than adequate petrol pumps all through
the route. Just remember to tank up at Salur if you have a really small tank,
because the mountain stretch starts from here and there is no petrol pump
before Pottangi. It may not be a good idea to get stuck in the hilly roads.
The other problem that no one
told me about was the fact that there is no mobile network for Airtel or
Vodafone customers in Chitrakote. Only BSNL and Reliance had working connectivity
there. Things might improve in future but be prepared for this. The nearest
point with connectivity is about 10 km from Chitrakote. And all the waiters at Dandami resort in Chitrakote have working phones but no balance. (I wonder what use the phone has to them. Do they communicate just through missed calls?)
In modern day’s connected world
that’s indeed a problem. Our relatives at home expect us to call and inform
them about our safe arrival every evening. On the next day we had to go out of
the guest house area in search of network. After about 7 km we spotted a shop
selling mobile recharge vouchers. He let us use his phone to inform Monisha’s
mother, who promised to inform my mother. This gentleman, incidentally, refused
to accept any money in exchange for doing this favour.
The Route
In Google maps, write Calcutta, Bhubaneswar, Srikakulam, Salur, Jagdalpur
My route from Calcutta was
simple. Drive down the main 4-lane highway going to Chennai upto a point called
Chilakapalem which is just after Srikakulam in Andhra Pradesh. From Chilakapalem
turn right to go to Salur, Koraput, Jagdalpur and Chitrakote. One way, it is
about 1100 km. If you type these names in Google maps you get the above picture.
We broke up our trip into two
days. On day one we stopped at Balugaon, beyond Bhubaneswar. There is nothing
much to talk about the road upto this point except that Bhubaneswar now has a
long flyover and if you just stick to the main road you will come out of the
town without entering it.
One must also mention the
complete mess that Jaleswar was in when we crossed, due to an under construction toll plaza. Millions of trucks were
lined up trying to enter Orissa through a single lane. The truckers, gentlemen
that they are, made way for our “small vehicle”. We broke the one-way
restriction with impunity and crossed into Orissa. Thankfully they have stopped
the illegal collection of some tax from West Bengal vehicles that they earlier
used to.
The rooms aren't as plush as the exterior. But fine for a night. Secured covered parking available
We stayed at hotel Digantika in
Balugaon town, as the Panthanibas (OTDC Guest Houses) Barkul and Rambha were
full. Digantika is a decent private hotel with adequate safe parking space for
your vehicle. We got an AC room for Rs 800. Mampu didn’t like the room as it
was very basic. But being seasoned traveller, I am okay with such basic hotels
for spending just a night. Mampu, hopefully, will grow up soon.
We had reached Balugaon by
afternoon. In retrospect, I think we should have proceeded further and spent
the night somewhere in Behrampore or Gopalpur. That way one gets a headstart the
next morning. But then Balugaon’s Digantika was a known devil to me as opposed
to the unknown devils of Gopalpur. If one wants, one can even perhaps drive as far as Baruva on day one. Baruva is a new beach that is being promoted by AP Tourism. They have a resort there. But then these are a little off the highway.
At Balugaon we had a hearty
dinner at the street side dhaba called Chilika Dhaba, just across the road from
the hotel. Shrimps at Rs 90 a plateful was cheap and well made, though on the "needlessly spicier" side. Monisha did
some basic shopping for food like bananas and bread for the next day’s drive. I
found a newly made watering hole just across the road.
The next morning’s drive again was
completely uneventful. Behrampore is now called Brahmapur. In 2006 when we
crossed this area we hardly noticed any town from the highway. We were told it
was a few kilomters from the road. Now we saw phenomenal urbanisation along the
highway – probably a result of the Tatas’ entry there. I hope the quality of
life for the average Behramporeans has improved.
After Behrampore one comes to the
border town of Ichchapuram. This is the border between Orissa and Andhra. There
were trucks lined up on either side of the road but there was adequate space
for our vechicle to pass and no pandemonium, like in Jaleswar.
From Ichhapuram it is again a straight
forward journey to Srikakulam and then Chilakapalem.
Somewhere along the road
we saw a huge statue being built. I suspect it is a hanuman statue and I am
sure they are trying to create some record of sorts in terms of size. It is
seriously large. It had scaffolding all around but I am sure once it is
inaugurated it will draw some curious tourists just because it is large. I
thought it was obscene.
Immediately after the
Chilakapalem toll gate there is a right exit towards Razam. This is the AP state
highway I talked about earlier. Coming from a four-lane modern highway, entry
into this road might seem like you were entering a small bylane but this indeed
is the road to Chhattisgarh.
Keep following this road through
Razam to a place called Rambhadrapuram. Here you will find a couple of roads. The
one going left goes to Vizianagram. To the right two roads go in a fork. Take
the one that goes to Salur – about 5/7 kms from this point. Curiously enough,
there were lots of foreign liquor stores at this point. I have no idea why.
This travelogue will be
incomplete without telling you about what I saw in Razam. It is just a dot on
the road. We cross many such dots while going to Katwa in Burdwan. Bhatar,
Balgona, Nigon etc. Razam was a different dot. It had most of the private banks
on either side of the road, the eateries were housed in buildings that looked
almost similar to the Exide head office in terms of size. There were a few
shopping malls too. I thought one of the eateries was Pizza Hut but on closer inspection
it turned out to be some local bakery.
We saw two or three two-wheeler
showrooms along the main road. In fact we could not see many small bylanes or
other roads – which are signs of a slightly larger town. For the life of me, I
could not understand the real story behind Razam’s wealth.
There is another state highway
that cuts this road in the center of the town. The traffic jam there was simply
phenomenal. Millions of motorcycles, buses and rickshaws were trying to cross
from all the four corners in a complete free for all. A few helpless policemen
were trying to control this mass of people in various forms of vehicles on
wheels. Needless to say quite unsuccessfully. Being a Calcutta driver with a 15
year experience, I am not easily scared by such jams. Somehow I managed to
cross it without a scratch on the car. On the return journey this crossing was
a breeze. Probably because it was in the afternoon.
The next stop was Salur. I am
told this used to be a pretty little town with one small Lutheran church and a
Leprosy Mission hospital. The town has grown into something dirty, dusty and
chaotic with nothing much to write home about. We completed our lunch over here
from a street side dhaba called Jansi Dhaba. Food was decent but the ambience
may not suit everyone’s taste unless you were a seasoned trucker. We took a
“thali” and fish curry. The fish tasted really nice. I am sure it is wild local
fish, as opposed to the tasteless commercially cultured fish that we are so
used to here in Calcutta.
Needless to say Mampu didn’t like
the ambience and didn’t eat with us.
Monisha bought fresh Aata (I
think the English name is custard apple and Hindi is Seetafal) from a
streetside vendor here who sold her 5 of those delicious fruits for Rs 10. This
deserves mention because it is ridiculously cheap by our Calcutta standards. We
had a similar experience while buying jackfruit from a local girl during our
2006 trip to Araku. The girl gave so much of it for Rs 2 that we got embarassed
and paid her more.
After Salur the hilly road
starts. In terms of steepness of the climb the road is just as good or bad as
the ones in Darjeeling. But the road surface is quite good and there is hardly
any traffic here. We saw quite a few autos and local motorcycles. Soon we started
seeing these security force guys in their camouflage uniform. They were on
motorcycles. Each motorcycle had a rider and a pillion and both were carrying
open light machine guns (LMGs). The guy sitting pillion was holding it ready to
shoot.
We saw at least 50/60 of them.
But surprisingly they just didn’t bother us. I had expected some heavy search
and checks of our vehicles and papers. But they didn’t even look at us. They
were more busy looking out over the valleys, possibly for some movement of
terrorists.
There is just one small hamlet on
the mountain section (locally called “ghati”) named Sunki. The circuitous
mountain roads end at a place called Pottangi. Somewhere in the mountains you
cross from Andhra and get into Orissa. The border is well marked with street
side signages.
If you have mountain motion
sickness please go adequately prepared with proper medicines. Eastern Ghat
mountains may not be as high as the Himalayas but the roads are just as bad
when it comes to circuitous swithcbacks.
It will be unfair to write about
this area and not comment on the scenic beauty of this road. I have been to various
corners of the Himlayas. I have been to Western Ghats too. If we had an
important city like Bombay in the vicinity, there would be many Khandalas and Panchganis
in these mountains of Orissa and Andhra as well. It certainly has the
potential. The Eastern Ghat mountains are simply beautiful, serene and green
with a bluish tinge. It is a pity that there is hardly any tourist
infrastructure here.
After Pottangi the next important
town is Sunabeda. But it is just a dot really on the highway. Sunabeda’s only
claim to fame is the HAL workshop that they have there. Otherwise it has
virtually nothing. Similiguda before Sunabeda in fact is relatively larger. There
is a beautiful large lake in Sunabeda. Other than that there is hardly anything
else. The next stop is Koraput followed by Jeypore. Just in case you might
need, there is at least one decent hotel in Koraput and Jeypore each. There might be more but we saw only one each.
Koraput is a very sweet little town. Relatively neat and clean.
The short stretch from Koraput to
Jeypore is through the mountains again. But this is relatively short and the
road is more driver friendly.
After Jeypore comes the small town
of Borigumma and the Orissa border is crossed sometime after this, I think near
a town called Kotpad. Jagdalpur town is a matter of 20/25 kms from the border.
The Chhattisgarh Tourism sign boards are there all along this way upto
Jagdalpur town. If you are going to Chitrakote, you need not enter the town.
Just keep driving with the main city on your right hand side and you should be
there in Chitrakote after 40 km.
The road of course is full of
speed breakers. Mobile connectivity is lost some 10 km before Chitrakote. The
road incidentally ends at the Dandami Resort.
Chitrakote
In Chitrakote there are
essentially three things. One waterfall. A large and obviously new Shiva Temple
with a huge black phalus and a loudspeaker on top blaring out loud music. And
the Dandami Luxury Tourist Resort. Dandami, if I am not mistaken, is the name
of a local tribe of Bastar. There is absolutely nothing else in Chitrakote.
We sought out a local temple here
called Vishnu Mandir or Narayanpal. Because beyond a point you do get bored by just a water
fall – no matter how large it is. We kept on pestering the resort manager and
he suggested this temple for a short visit. It’s about 5/6 kilometers into the
wilderness, across the river Indravati. The temple is beautifully ancient.
About thousand years old and apparently maintained by the Archaeological Survey
of India. I say apparently because there is no sign of any maintenance except
for a boundary wall, a signboard and an information plaque. There is a Vishnu
idol inside with two of his hands missing. Other than that there is nothing
else. Virtually no tourist. No local population. Strangely enough we discovered
a faint mobile signal here.
 |
| Narayanpal temple. About 3 km across the river |
Dandami Resort
 |
| The cottage where we stayed for 2 nights. A much better bet as opposed to the tents |
The Dandami Tourist Resort is
highly over rated. Except the first eight cottages, you cannot see the water
fall from your room or balcony. Not even from the tents that are more pricy
than the cottages. Staying in the tents is a complete waste of money. They are
small. Crammed with silly, unnecessary furniture (very good quality teak
though). The toilet is only a narrow section of the tent with no ventilation of
its own. The cottages, in comparison are much more spacious, have their own
balconies and cheaper than the tents by Rs 1000 !!! It should have been the
other way round.
I could talk about both because
we stayed in both.
The food at the restaurant is
nothing great to write home about. Everything is served with that horrendously over
spiced, reddish brown, cover-all curry that is the all time favourite of all
cooks in India’s mid-sized restaurants. I am yet to meet anyone who says he
likes it but yet that is what is being served for ages now.
We only ordered rice, daal and
French fries with the occasional egg curry or fish. The fish or eggs had to be
just rescued out of the curry and eaten alone.
The waiters are well meaning but
completely untrained local tribal boys. They have no clue about the demands of
the modern hospitality industry. Very polite and nice boys but they are totally
untrained for the job. The rooms don’t have any intercom. So you cannot order a
tea in the evening from the comfort of your room. Electric kettle in the room
is not an option. The rooms have functional TV sets but none of the channels
worth seeing are subscribed to by the management. So it was a waste trying to
surf. The geysers were functional in both the tents and cottages. Thank God for
these small mercies.
 |
| In front of our tent. A ridiculously expensive trap for tourists. Eminently avoidable |
If going on a self drive or if you have a car at your beck and call, Naman Bastar I think is a better option. I haven't stayed there though. It is closer to the town, on the way to the falls.
Bastar Dussera
We were in Jagdalpur town on the
day of Dussera. The day when the 75-day festival of Bastar Dussera comes to an
end in front of the Danteswari temple. We had no clue about this and kept two
days in Jagdalpur because we had nowhere else to go. Thanked God we did that.
I think they were formally dressed for some dance party scheduled for later in the evening
Our friend from the town, Avinash
Acharya, arrived like a God-sent to us. He took us around town. Showed us all
the temples, the important shopping areas, the right shops for sarees and
artefacts etc etc. He even told us a little bit about the history of Jagdalpur
town. Without him our trip of Jagdalpur would have remained incomplete.
There is a small anthropological
museum outside Jagdalpur town. It could have been better kept. But as with most
government establishments, the management seemed more perfunctory than proactive.
Most of the tribal societies are changing fast. The museum can play a very
important role in preserving some of them. But I wonder if they have enough
funding support and management skills to do that. They don’t unfortunately have
any souvenir shop selling tribal art or artefact. But what is available for viewing is good enough to give a visitor a basic glimpse into the lives of the tribals. It is certainly worth a visit.
Tribal art on display on a wall in a demo hut inside the Anthropological Museum campus
We ended up not buying either
Kosa silk saree – a local speciality – or bronze artefacts. We thought they
were really overpriced. Monisha did not like the designs of the sarees
vis-a-vis price. So we gave it a pass.
 |
| Guiding grandpa to the Danteswari temple |
 |
| Three faces in the crowd. Monisha asked the woman on the right about her anklets and from where she got them. In Hindi, Oriya and Telugu. She kept on smiling at her. She didn't know a word of these three local languages. |
There was just one man selling
tribal artefacts. We thought the items were overpriced. The seller – a man in
his 30s – interestingly had a nose ring on. This is something that I have never
seen before.
I could not understand much about
the puja. It is quite a complicated one and I need to do more research on it
before commenting. I can only comment on what I saw. Tribals from many villages
were coming and going with their local deities to or from Danteswari Maa. They
were playing various musical instruments and making a big show of the journey.
Many tribals seemed to be staying
in the royal palace cum temple complex with their deities in palanquins
stationed outside the palace. I am told the local head priest on behalf of
Danteswari Maata, does an annual appraisal of sorts for the local deities. She
rewards some for their good work and punishes some for bad work. The punishment
can be reduced against some fines.
 |
| Monisha driving a hard bargain with some rug sellers from Orissa. Hand made rugs cost Rs 100 each !!! |
There was a huge chariot that was
parked outside the temple. I believe the chariot is pulled over many days and
the journey ends near the temple on the last day of Dussera. We missed this big
event. But there is always another time.
Jagdalpur Accomodation
We stayed at hotel Akansha which
is just off the Chitrakote Road towards the temple (if coming from the falls
turn left near Anupama Talkies). It is very well located. The temple is just a
short walk from here. The hotel has excellent parking facility. Though open, it
is within the complex with proper security. Housekeeping is not the best but
then in a small town you do not really expect anything much. It was centrally
airconditioned and hot water was on tap !!!! These two features were quite
unexpected.
We got a suite with an exclusive
sitting area for Rs 2200 per night with complimentary breakfast for two (we had
to pay Rs 130 for Mampu).
Food was nothing great but
okayish. For lunch we went to Mayuri on the Chitrakote Road on day one and
Keshloor Dhaba on day two.
Keshloor is on the way to Tirathgarh
falls. We went there late on our second day’s stay, thinking that it might be
just as boring as the Chitrakote Falls. Turned out it was a very interesting
place deep inside a jungle. Next time when I come I intend to spend more time
in Tirathgarh and Kanger Ghati National Park where the Kutumsar caves are.
I have just one regret about the
trip. I should have gone there after better research. The single most important
destination of the trip turned out to be a damp squib but the other places that
I didn’t attach much importance to turned out to be a lot more interesting.
A Few Important Notes
- The official spelling of the place is Chitrakoot. The locals write Chitrakote to distinguish itself from the other Chitrakoot near Allahabad. So, theoretically both are correct but it is best to follow any one though
- Salur ghati sees road blocks due to rolling boulders and landslips in monsoon
- In monsoon the entire region gets flooded by Indravati and other local rivers. It is best to enquire locally about road conditions and flood situation before planning a road trip in high monsoon.
