Sunderban With Friends

I have been to Sunderban a number of times. Normally we do a day trip. Go early in the morning to reach Gadkhali at around 7.30/8 am. Park the car there. Get into the boat right away. Travel the whole day. Come back to Gadkhali by night fall. Reach home by 10 pm. I had stayed there only on two occasions. This time when Suranjan organised it, he made it a point to make it a 2 nights and three days affair. 

We would start Friday morning (6th November, 2020). Reach Gadkhali as early as possible and travel the entire day in the tiger reserve. Come back to a hotel in Dayapur to spend the night there at a resort. We would travel the next day the whole day in the tiger reserve and again come back for the night to Dayapur. On Sunday also we travel the whole day but by evening we go back to Gadkhali from where we go back home. It is hectic but with friends it is doable. After all we need not walk or sit still in a vehicle.

The arrangements would be done by a guy called Surajit Sarkar (9007820752) who runs a nature travel and tour company called Ichhe Dana (we organise the day trips ourselves). So we need not bother about anything like driving our own car or hiring the boat, food, guide, organising the hotel etc. Despite my initial skepticism and cynicism, Surajit turned out to be a nice affable guy. He is fairly knowledgeable about birds and animals, being a photographer himself and he also seemed to know Sunderban fairly well. He charged us Rs 13,000 per head for the entire trip, which I think is quite reasonable. If I was planning a similar trip I would ask Surajit for help. I can quite endorse the guy. But he doesn't seem very business savvy, which might be bad for his business, in the long run.

The Innova picked us up one by one, starting with Suranjan. I was the second to get in followed by Sumit. Next to be picked up from Peerless hospital was Sujoy Bala. Partha meanwhile came to Metro Cash & Carry from where he got into our car. Shyamal dropped him there and drove back. This was my first trip with Sujoy. He turned out to be a very nice and friendly companion, though much junior to us. I was the only non-doctor in this group. But by now I have got quite used to the endless chats about Calcutta's medical malpractices, discussions about various wrong procedures and treatments done on hapless patients by other doctors, and of course the various CNMC student or professor stories. If I wanted I could easily bluff my way out of any situation where I needed to prove that I was a student of CNMC from mid-80s. The four of them were equally divided between CNMC and CMC.

We had one small tea break on the way to Gadkhali after Baruipur. The car did not have enough boot space for the luggage of all 5 of us. Each had a camera bag and a medium sized suitcase. But Sujoy was very accommodative. He sat on the last row with the rest of the seat stuffed with the suitcases. Partha was also very accommodative and took the hopeless middle seat without a grudge.  

We reached Gadkhali in good time, despite the terrible road conditions after Canning. After reaching Gadkhali we got into the boat right away and the journey started in right earnest. We all noticed that the boat had an unusually quiet engine. By Sunderban standards it was almost quiet.

Those who may not know about Sunderban - during the first hour or so from Gadkhali the launch travels through inhabited islands. This part of the journey is quite boring for us. There is no trace of any forest here. Gosaba island is on your left hand side and Bali island is on the right hand side. You might see some birds on the banks but no chance of any tiger or crocodiles here. We saw several Pacific Golden Plovers and a striated heron on this stretch. I tested my camera and realised that some error was being caused and the camera was asking me to switch off and on again. This was working for a short while and again the problem would crop up. This problem persisted for the entire duration of the trip. The camera was trying to get back at me for not using her for such a long time. The problem hasn't recurred since I came back. I think I will just have to shoot with it more often. Somewhere during this journey through the inhabited islands the two guides got into our boat. I had noted down the number of Himangshu Mandal because he stayed with us for all three days. 

If you are curious about village life in Sunderbans you might catch some glimpses of the villagers going about their daily life. Mostly you can see people walking or cyclings on the roads on either side of the river. You might even see a family getting into a boat to go to the other side. Fisherwomen can also be seen catching "min" with their nets. Life looks boring and dull. These are also the villages - you must know - from where a very large number of unsuspecting young girls are unfortunately trafficked to the red light districts of the country. But that's another story for another day. We will not talk about sad stories of human existence. We will talk about nature, birds and tigers.

We entered the reserve forest at around 11 or so. The reserve forest is on the other side of the huge river Bidyadhari. Here there is no question of any human habitation. This is a huge area of small delta islands criss-crossed by river channels. Some are wide while some are narrow. The reserve forest area has some rules. The launch as well as the passengers need to have permission from the forest department. This was done in advance for us. During the journey the engine of the launch cannot even be switched off and the launch cannot be kept stationary anywhere. The launch can only cover the wider rivers and not enter the smaller, narrower channels. 

What are the chances of tiger attacks on the launch? Extremely unlikely. There is no known history of any tiger attack on a tourist launch in Sunderban. Because tigers cannot jump out of water. Do the tigers come to the villages? No. The sides of the forest facing habited islands are all covered by strong nets. Tigers cannot cross these nets. Since this practice was started there have been very few tiger attacks in the villages. They have happened only when storms have destroyed the nets. 

Then how do so many humans get killed in Sunderban? 

The villagers enter the reserve forest in small hand pulled dinghy to collect crabs which have very high market value. A few successful trips can make you rich enough to afford your own house. This activity of entering the reserve in small manual boats is completely illegal. So they take the chance and enter the small rivulets and channels. These are so narrow that the tiger can jump from the land and grab at least one human. Some survive the fight (I once met a guy who survived a fight with cut marks all over his body) but most cannot fight back and are therefore killed.  

There is another legal way to enter the forest. That is to collect honey. I do not know how it can be legal but apparently it is. Groups of eight nine people are allowed in during certain seasons by the forest department. Tiger attacks on such teams is also quite common. 

The boatmen and the guides all told us that the urban conception that poverty drives the people of Sunderban to take such high risks with their lives is completely wrong. It is greed that drives these people to take such risks rather than poverty, they said. No one is so poor as to not have any other means of livelihood. I am quite ready to buy this theory because these people who go to catch crabs are not employed by anyone. They are all entrepreneurs. No one would take this risk for someone else driven by poverty. We love to believe that poverty is the root of all our miseries. I think lifestyle, greed and lack of proper education is the root problem of many of our miseries. Of course they are not a very affluent society but not so poor as to risk dying for food.

Our first day's safari yielded nothing much but the usual suspects. A few crocodiles (you get to see crocs only if there are less boats and this time due to covid there was hardly any tourist boat), a few black capped kingfishers, collared kingfishers, lesser adjutant storks etc. The big cat eluded us once again. We saw some waders also. Our wish list had white-bellied sea eagle, fishing or jungle cat (preferably both), brown winged kingfisher, peregrine falcon and of course Dakshin Ray - the other name for tiger (villagers don't normally take the name of dangerous animals - they say Dakshin Ray for tiger, or Lata for snakes etc). 

Actually seeing a tiger in Sunderban is a rare privilege and happens purely by chance. It should be on the radar of everyone. You cannot do anything special in Sunderban so that you are guaranteed to see the tiger. You just need to be in the right place at the right time. Lady luck has to smile on you. There is no guaranteed spot, there is no strategy, nothing. It just happens or does not happen. I know people, including very famous naturalists, who have been to Sunderban more than 40 times and have spent days on end yet haven't seen a tiger. Dhritiman Mukherjee, the famous internationally awarded wildlife photographer, hasn't seen one since 2006. 

Arrangements for food in Surajit's boat was grand. Breakfast was luchi, tarkari, boiled eggs and bananas. Lunch was rice, daal, prawn and fish curry. All cooked brilliantly well on board by a cook from Gosaba. 

By sun down we came back to Dayapur and anchored the boat near the hotel. Riverside Hotel. It is a large sprawling resort with two large buildings for rooms and a separate office building. We were allotted three rooms for the three of us. I chose to be alone. Partha and Sumit took one room (they work in the same hospital) and Sujoy and Suranjan took another room. My room was in a different building where I was the only occupant. There were few other guests but the resort was definitely not fully booked.

I thought the room was decently large with a nice bathroom. The geyser was good. The resort had good physical infrastructure but the people were very unfriendly it seemed. Untrained locals. I took a long hot shower and went to Partha's room for the evening party where we had an authentic Russian Vodka brought by Partha. Surajit had sent a large container full of chilly fish to go with the Vodka which like the morning breakfast and lunch was absolutely delicious.

We had our dinner cooked by Surajit's cook in the boat. We retired for the night at well past 10 pm to wake up early next morning so that we could go out by 5 am.

Sadak e Azam 2014

GT Road holds a special place in my heart. When I was about ten years old, my father first showed it to me while we were going to my aunt's house in Howrah. He said if you walked along this road you would reach Delhi, Lahore and even Kabul. I used to feel fascinated by the idea. As I grew older I took this road to go to various places. First real long distance travel on this road was when I went to Benares a few years ago in my Esteem. Next I went to Rajasthan in 2011 but I left GT Road a little ahead of Kanpur and went towards Jhansi. While coming back I took GT Road from Agra (where I came in via Jaipur). In fact the photograph of camels in the banner of this blog was taken on GT Road in Jharkhand during our 2011 Rajasthan trip.

In September-October 2014 the call of the road once again became strong, particularly after purchasing the Duster. So off we went. The final trip became something like this. Day 1 Calcutta to Benares. Day 2 Benares to Agra. Day 3 was devoted to Agra city and I showed my daughter the wonders of the Taj, Agra Fort and Sikandra. Unfortunately I couldn't manage Itmad-ud-Daula. On Day 4 we went first to Fatehpur and Sikri and then off to Bharatpur's Keoladeo National Park. Day 5 was spent in the park. Day 6 we went to Noida via Agra and stayed with my friend Dadu (Abhijit Majumdar). Day 7 and 8 were spent in company of them visiting various historical monuments like Purana Qilla, Qutab Minar, Red Fort and Humayun's Tomb. Day 9 we drove from Noida to Benares. Day 10 was Benares to Calcutta.

Bharatpur was not in my initial target list. I had wanted to go to Jarar near Chambal. But the climate being quite warm I decided against it as there would hardly be any bird around this time of the year and spending Rs 7500 for just one night in the resort there would be pointless if there was no bird. So we chose to go to Bharatpur instead. I was very happy about the decision. Saw a few lifers like Grey Nightjar, White-eyed Buzzard and Eurasian Spoonbill (funny but true I had never before seen this last bird in the wild). 

I want to write down the various sectors of the road so that friends who want to take this journey can benefit. One word on fuel consumption. I had kept copious details of the journey as derived from the trip computer on a daily basis. It is mentioned here too. However, I find that my total fuel consumption is 204 liters, as per actual bills, as opposed to 180 liters as per the trip computer. It can mean two things. Either the trip computer is a little off the mark. Or the petrol pumps have doctored meters. It could be a little bit of both as well. I will check my trip computer in the city and give a better opinion on it later. 

At Purana Qilla parking lot 

September 28, 2014. Day One. Calcutta to Benares.

Total Distance: 699 km
Average Speed - 54 kmph
Fuel Consumption: 38.1 lit
Average FE: 18.5 kmpl
Driving Time: 5:30 am to 6:30 pm
One line sum up: Very clogged highway. Very slow average speed. Six laning is an immediate priority.

We started early from Calcutta. The highway was absolutely clogged with trucks, moving very slowly. I knew the reason. Just too many overloaded slow trucks. The agony ended in a few kilometers after we crossed the bridge near Das Nagar which is operational only on one side. The next agonising stretch was through Panagarh town where the highway goes right through the town and it is a badly damaged road there. I followed a local bus which just jumped the lane and blazed through the opposite lane. 

After Panagarh you pass through Durgapur, Asansol, Kulti, Barakar. This is where you leave West Bengal and enter Jharkhand. There are many trucks parked for the entry tax formalities. But we managed to cross it without getting stuck. 

The journey through Jharkhand was uneventful. But general traffic movement is very high making it impossible to pick up speed. The typical scene is on the first lane there is a slow moving auto rickshaw which is being overtaken by a slightly faster truck. So you have to wait. The important towns that you bypass on this sector are Dhanbad, Bokaro, Parasnath, Hazaribagh. The road is beautiful after Top Chanchi. Hazaribagh district is really very pretty. It is a pity that there is no tourism infrastructure here. 

After Jharkhand the road goes through Bihar. The beautiful Tilaiya lake is on the right hand side. If you are keen to go to Gaya there is an exit here. But our destination is Benares. So we move on through Aurangabad and then Dehri on Sone. It is a very long bridge. My father, I remember, used to refer to Sone as the tears of Bihar. 

Somewhere along the way the exit to Sasaram is also there. But I think I missed the road sign announcing that this time.

The next big town to go through is Mohania which is the border between Bihar and UP. Next meaningful exit is for Mughal Sarai and a little after this comes the Ganga bridge. There is an exit into the town of Benares immediately after crossing this bridge. The road goes down to the left and then winds it way into the town in the opposite direction. I do not take this route (the first time I did) as it goes through winding roads of the town. Instead I go straight down the highway and turn right through the old GT Road as it comes out of the city towards the Allahabad end.

All along the highway outside the city were parked trucks carrying sand. Hundreds of them. I wonder what kind of infrastructure is coming up in the region to require so much of sand every day. We saw the same scene while coming back too.

We were pre-booked in Meraden Grand - Mampu's most favourite hotel anywhere in the world. In the evening we went on our customary trip to Dasassamedh ghat. Ganga Arati was over. Had a total of 250 grams of malai from Pagla's shop in Biswanath Gali. Malai is Rs 400 a kilo and Rabri (which is sugar sweet) is Rs 350.

Hotel Review: On our first trip to Benares we had stayed in this hotel and Mampu fell in love with it for its bathtub. It remains her most favourite hotel anywhere. The hotel is a little expensive but they have a deal with Exide and they give us rooms at a deep discount. If you are going to Benares for Viswanath temple and ghats etc, this hotel is completely impractical. It is quite far from there. It does not have covered parking. But they organise a secure parking lot with 24-hour security. We stay here only because we love Mampu.

On our return trip we didn't get accommodation here so found out a hotel near the station just off old NH2 which is much cheaper, has a basement parking lot of its own and all the other mod-cons. Will review it later in this blog.

September 29, 2014. Day Two. Benares to Agra.

Total Distance: 608.8 km
Average Speed - 56.6 kmph
Fuel Consumption: 33.5 lit
Average FE: 18.1 kmpl
Driving Time: 8:20 am to 7:30 pm
Hotel: Bhawna Clarks Inn 0562 2650400
One line sum up: Kanpur to Ettawah being six-laned with 35 diversions. NH2 through Firozabad and Agra are really terribly jam prone. 

We started relatively late on the second day after the buffet breakfast. Took the old GT Road and then turned right towards Allahabad from the new highway. The stretch from Benares to Allahabad is fairly urbanised. Full of local people, vegetable markets, auto rickshaws and small non-descript towns. Sitamarih is on the way where Sita had to take the test by fire. There are road pointers showing the way to "Sita Samadhisthal".

The Allahabad by-pass is very obvious and you can't miss it. A new development is they have put up petrol pumps there now. It took us about an hour to cross the fully concreted bypass. Till Kanpur the journey is pretty uneventful and there is nothing worth mentioning. It's relatively a little desolate here.

From Kanpur onward the road is being six-laned up to Etawah. There are some 35 diversions due to flyovers (the technical term is underpass). Average speed is therefore affected on this stretch. But once the work is completed I am sure this will be one of the fastest stretches on the journey.

The name Etawah somehow sends chills down the spine. In my school days we used to read news stories of notorious Chambal dacoits surrendering ceremoniously and the datelines of those stories always used to be Etawah or Morena or Bhind. I associate these three names with notorious dacoits of Chambal. Of course now that profession is a dead one. They and their children are all in politics now.

After Etawah I thought driving into Agra would be a breeze. But I wasn't prepared for this small town called Firozabad. It's somewhat like Panagarh in the sense the highway goes right through the town. It's chock-a-block full of traffic. Cart-loads of glass bangles were being taken around. Soon we realised it is a glassware manufacturing hub. Later we learnt it is indeed the capital for this particular industry. There are huge buildings the size of the Exide head office that are selling chandeliers and other lamp sheds - stand alone single shops. I wish there was some decent parking facility. I would have bought some lamp sheds and glasses. But I concentrated on the bumper-to-bumper traffic. I think it took us about an hour to cross the 2 km stretch through the town.

Next agonising part was the drive down NH2 through Agra town. Once again a very pathetic bumper to bumper drive. Finding our hotel Bhawna Clarks Inn was relatively easy. It is just opposite the Sikandra Gurdwara which is on your right hand side a little after the Bhagwan Talkies Flyover (a major landmark in Agra). The entry towards the hotel is via a V-turn to the left and then you get the hotel after crossing the flyover.

Hotel Review: If you are driving in from Calcutta Bhawna Clarks Inn is ideally located. It is just off the highway, albeit after you cross the city. It has a secure basement parking. However, the hotel's rooms are rather cramped and so is the bathroom. Food is very expensive. I think three fresh lime sodas in the room cost us something like Rs 400. The hotel is also located quite far from Taj or Agra Fort. Sikandra is just a kilometer away though. The hotel has its own diesel generator.

This hotel is okay if you are driving into Agra and you don't want to enter the lanes and by-lanes of the city with your car. Otherwise it is eminently avoidable. Incidentally there is another Bhavna on the other side of the highway before the Gurdwara, which is fine for a night too. But it does not have a very robust generator of its own. We had stayed there in 2011 for a night and the experience wasn't very good.

Next time I go to Agra for a few days, I am going to stay somewhere close to Taj. It's expensive though.

September 30, 2014. Day Three. Within City

We went in an auto to Sikandra in the morning. Later we went to Agra Fort and Taj by the same auto, Didn't even look at the car.


October 1, 2014. Day Four. Agra to Bharatpur via Fatehpur Sikri.

Total Distance: 64.7 km
Average Speed - 34 kmph
Fuel Consumption: 3.5 lit
Average FE: 18.5 kmpl
Driving Time: 10:25 am to 2:30 pm (includes time spent in FS)
Stay: Shanti Kutir Forest Rest House
One line sum up: Very nice and quiet road. Very well marked out with prominent road directions for drivers from out of state.

The drive from Bhawna Clarks to Fatehpur Sikri is totally uneventful. You hardly need to ask anyone for directions. Everything is very well marked out. You can take the road in front of Akbar's tomb or the road in front of the hotel itself. We took both. One while going and the other while coming back.

Finding out Shanti Kutir FRH in Bharatpur is a little tricky as we didn't know it was right inside the park (there is another ITDC hotel inside the park). There are many hotels outside the gate. The area is called Sarus Morh. We parked our car outside the park's gate and hired a rickshaw to go to Shanti Kutir for booking enquiries. It is a good one and a half kilometer inside the park. I immediately regretted not getting the camera as I saw a jackal within handshaking distance and a white-eyed buzzard (I saw them later too and photographed as well).

Luckily we got accommodation on the first floor for two nights. Went back to the gate and brought the car in. They allow you to take the car inside only if you have confirmed booking in the FRH.

Hotel Review: Shanti Kutir is not a hotel. It is a forest rest house. Basically a government office with facilities for some people to stay. The room is huge (has a two tonne AC and two electric fans) and so is the bathroom, which has a working geyser. It has a basic generator that will light up one tube light and a fan only if there is a power cut. The bathroom light does not work on generator. So it is advisable to keep a candle ready. 

Food is extremely basic. Just "daal-chawal-sabzi". Eggs are fine in breakfast but not the meat of the bird that lays the eggs or any other form of non-veg food. If there are VIP visitors there during your stay (and Bharatpur is very VIP prone with at least two vehicles with beacon lights always parked there at any given point of time) the cooks and waiters - who are all employees of the forest department - will not even look at you. It happened with me too and I had to lose my temper in a controlled way to get my food at 3 pm (they wouldn't serve me till the VIPs finished their lunch and left). 

But all said and done - Shanti Kutir is true to its name. Very peaceful. You can often hear the trucks on the highway a kilometer or so away but birds and insects can often drown that out.

October 2, 2014. Day Five. In Bharatpur 

The day was spent exploring the park. Got lucky with a Sarus Crane's mating call which I managed to record with my new recording gear Marantz PMD661 Mk II and Sennheiser K6/ME66. Migratory birds had still not arrived. But Eurasian Spoonbills, Black-headed Ibises and Painted Storks or Asian Openbills were found nesting. 

October 3, 2014. Day Six. Bharatpur to Noida.

Total Distance: 268.2 km
Average Speed - 66.9 kmph
Fuel Consumption: 14.3 lit
Average FE: 18.8 kmpl
Driving Time: 9:35 am to 2:00 pm 
Stay: Friend's House in Noida Sect 21
One line sum up: Yamuna Expressway is quite an experience.

The drive from Bharatpur to Noida is totally uneventful except for the Yamuna Expressway, which is quite an experience. It is a 3x2 six laned totally concreted highway with barbed wire fencing on either side and guard rails as well. It is also the country's most expensive road. Toll was Rs 320 for one way journey. There is hardly any traffic on the road though. We saw a maximum of perhaps 30 cars and two trucks. The road starts from Agra and ends in Greater Noida. I think the road was created for the F1 circuit - Budh International. There is a huge sports city that is coming up. It has a cricket stadium too. I wonder if all this is just a bubble. But the road infrastructure as it is now is fantastic. All of this is owned by the Jay Prakash group. I can smell corruption here. But who cares. Even if the company that created this underutilised road goes under, the infrastructure will remain.

October 4 and 5, 2014. Day Seven and Eight. In Noida.

In Noida we stayed at our friend Abhijit Majumdar's house at Sector 21. We also met another school mate Sarit Dutta who lives in Delhi's CR Park. We had a happy time visiting the various monuments of Delhi over the next two days. Together we covered Purana Qilla, Qutab Minar, Red Fort and Humayun's tomb.


October 6, 2014. Day Nine. Noida to Benares.

Total Distance: 787.1 km
Average Speed - 68.8 kmph
Fuel Consumption: 42.8 lit
Average FE: 18.5 kmpl
Driving Time: 6:05 am to 5:00 pm 
Stay: Hotel Jahnavi
One line sum up: Roads were relatively less congested. Probably due to Eid.

The return journey from Noida to Benares was down a road that had considerably less traffic. This is probably because this was the day of Eid. We had hoped to clear Firozabad through the quiet of the morning. However, the highway was closed well before the town and we were made to go through the old state highway. I think it was a good 20 km detour and certain parts of the road was simply pathetic. If I was in a small car the bottom would have given way.

On the Expressway I had kept a steady pace of between 90 to 110. I got a fuel efficiency of 22 kmpl. However, overall FE was 18.5, which is fine.

We reached Benares in good day light. Much to Mampu's disappointment Hotel Meraden Grand was full. We found a decent hotel in Jahnavi near the Cantt station for 2k. Just as you turn right towards Ratha Yatra from the old GT Road, this hotel is on your left hand side.

The hotel has its own basement parking lot, albeit small and an instant diesel generator. The food is also decent. Godaulia is Rs 50 by rickshaw. I went alone for my customary Malai fill.


October 7, 2014. Day Ten. Benares to Calcutta.

Total Distance: 699 km
Average Speed - 63 kmph
Fuel Consumption: 35.9 lit
Average FE: 19.6 kmpl
Driving Time: 9:30 am to 8:30 pm 
One line sum up: Terrible truck traffic in the Burdwan-Calcutta sector

We took it a little casually on this last day's home stretch. Left the hotel at 9.30 am, which was a stupid thing to do. It got dark after crossing Barakar/Kulti. My speed dropped considerably in the dark due to constant light of oncoming trucks. I hate driving on this stretch in the dark.

Anyway, reached home without any fuss.

One funny thing about these long journeys is that once it is over without any remarkable incident there is nothing worth mentioning :-) Prior to the journey your mind is always filled with an unstated, quiet tension. After it gets over you are personally relieved but it doesn't make for any spectacular story. It is just another journey that was completed without anything going wrong anywhere.

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.

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, 3^rd 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