Date: Apr 3, 2009
Warning: A long one, read on only if you have some time in your hands ;)
It was already 6.45 PM as I was waiting in the loooong queue of people before the SBI ATM at the CMBT terminus. The new amended rule by RBI allowing free usage of any bank's ATMs probably saw the first victim in me. I had to wait for 20 long minutes before getting my turn. 'Sorry, unable to process your request' was the machine's answer after I keyed in all the info it asked for! Heights of frustration. There began my jog (I don't want to make people believe I actually ran :P)towards the bus-stand for private buses where I had to board my 7.15 bus to Cumbum. Gasping and sweating all over, finally managed to perch on my seat on time!
Reaching Cumbum at 5.30 in the morning was unbelievable - I din't get a clue of how quickly the bus got there. With less than 100 bucks in my purse, I had to hunt for an ATM first and luckily could spot one in a few yards from the place. Quickly got a bus to kumily - usually the base camp for periyar and got myself seated - much to my ill luck, had to watch one of the crap movies of 'sparrow star' .. and they had 3 TVs to show that !! The early morning mist and the winding roads with huge pipes from the mullai periyar dam criss-crossing them was a delight to the eyes which strived to escape the deluge of TVs kept to haunt me!
So there I was at Kumily as early as 6.15. Kumily is actually the border between TN and Kerala and the border is signaled by the checkpost at the beginning of the town. Buses which belong to the TN road transport fleet stop just before the checkpost. Only KSRTC and other private buses operate from the bus-stand in Kumily.
Having done a lot of research about the place, I had already learnt that the first and the last boat trips at the periyar were the best bets to spot wildlife. So there I decided to skip checking in to my room and decided to set off to the reserve (thekkady) straight away! You should have seen the delight (and of course determination :P) on my face once I got my ticket for the upper deck at 6.30. The entire lake was serene and beautiful - half covered with mist and frequented by the tiny flying inmates of the forest.
Periyar tiger reserve primarily has a huge lake surrounded by dense evergreen forests on all the sides. Ferries are operated by both the Forest department and KTDC (Kerala Tourism Development Corporation) five times a day - these are the only govt organized 'safaris' into the reserve. The Boats operated by the forest dept do not have upper decks while those operated by the KTDC (Kerala Tourism Development Corporation) do. The KTDC boats are charged higher than that of forest dept's. Typically all these boats have names like vanalakshmi, jalasundari, vanamohini, etc .The boats starting with 'vana' belong to the forest dept ('vana' meaning forest) and those having 'jala' are owned by the KTDC. KTDC boats have both lower and upper decks. (Rs.75 and Rs.150 pp respectively)
I could manage to get a corner seat (read plastic chair - plastic chairs are arranged on the ferry , there are no seats as such! :P) as the ferry pulled off from the shores at 7 am sharp. As we sailed smoothly we could first spot cormorants - plenty of them to say , perching on top of the lifeless tree trunks found all over the lake.
A lone kingfisher was basking in the early morning sun as a family of otters enjoyed themselves playing near the shores. A majestic snake bird (also called Darters in some parts of the world) rushed to sit on a trunk top spreading its wings gloriously to assert its presence. There were other species as well - the hornbill, the flycatchers , the vultures - no less in number.
The one and a half hour cruise ended with sightings of a herd of bisons slowly making their way to have their breakfast.The host at Mickeys cottage (where I was going to be put up) was shocked as I told her that I had already finished a boat ride after entering the town :) I checked into the room, refreshed for sometime and went out to explore the town and have a good breakfast. Kumily is basically a very small town with no real big fancy hotels or restaurants in place. I checked out the bus-stand, bazaar road , had food at a local joint ( ananda bhavan I guess) and caught a nap straight away.
Four alarm rings from my phone and i wake up on time to get ready for the evening ride :D.. well I dint want to miss it as well! On the way to the reserve, stopped at the forest office and got myself booked for the 'jungle patrol'- the 3 hour night trek from 7-10 pm. Boy, how excited I was !! Off I went into the reserve, got my tickets for the 4 pm ride and hooked on into the boat. You should see the way in which you are allowed to board the boats - four boats are stopped in parallel and you get into your boat through the others, people for the last boat are allowed first and so on..
The ride this time was more productive - in the sense that I could see some wildlife as such - bisons, barking deer, cheetal, wild boars, and ofcourse the numerous birds. There were bisons almost everywhere! Curse my point and shoot camera , I couldn't capture them in their full glory as they were at a good distance from the boat.
It was 6 15 as I came back from the boat ride and finished my late lunch (!).. I decided to walk to the forest entry gate which is about 2kms from the bus-stand. The walk was awesome as I got to explore the local roads and shops. The welcome board in front of Spice village resort en route had a price list of food items put up at their gates (yeah! ;))and a line at the end read 'Prices slashed due to economic recession'! (:P).. How popular was this R word!
Jungle patrol - The night trek
It suddenly turned dark in no time and I was waiting in front of the guard's room to start the trek. A group of 4 arrived in a few minutes (min of 5 required for this programme) and we set off with range officer Suhaas and another guide. They had 3 powerful torches to spot animals and we were given small LED torches each to watch out on our path for stones or any reptiles (this is what the guide told!!)..The guide held one torch in each hand and was looking for animals on both sides while Suhaas had a rifle and carried a torch and acted as the tail. I was the last person in the group and was bugging Suhaas about wildlife sightings in the area.
As we entered into the buffer zone of the jungle, Suhaas started mentioning about the different trees along with their botanical names. Wonder how he managed to know the Bot names for so any different species of trees! He led us to a tree with a huge hole in the trunk and wow there were fruit bats right at the top of the inner part of the trunk .. Have never seen those before ..
As we just proceeded from there, we could see quite a lot of sambars, barking deer and mouse deer. The eyes of Sambar shine in bright orange when they come across the light beam from the torch and that's how the guides spot them easily. We were now nearby a water stream running parallel to our path. It was quite dark but the guides used their torches to full effect looking out for animals. Suddenly there seemed to a white sheet moving in a swift pace on the other side of the stream. It was so long and fast. We realized that it was a herd of cows running as quickly as they could .. apparently they were running for their lives .. It doesn't take rocket science to decipher the reason for their fleeing - they had sensed a predator around! What was that animal? Where was it hiding? Was it behind them or on our side of the stream .. The eeriness of the dark night along with these questions running all over in our minds was spine-chilling.
The guides started looking out for the elusive predator - all along the bushes, the trees, the pits, everywhere. After almost ten minutes of futile search, they concluded that it wasn't on our side - probably it had stopped chasing when it became aware of some human presence nearby! Was it one of the big cats ? May be, if so, I would at least be content with having made so close to seeing one! Assumptions galore :)
We were almost half way through the trek and halted at the Aranya nivas hotel's park. Aranya nivas is the one of the two hotels owned by KTDC located within the reserve. After some ice-breaking conversations along with the other people, we set off for the next leg of the trek. Suhaas suddenly asked us to be silent and pointed a unique sound that he heard. We couldn't really hear what it was. He said that it was the sound of the 'Makana' elephant scratching the trees. 'Makana' is a rare species of elephant - a male elephant having the features of a female (no tusks!). He said that its a very dangerous species and we leave the place quickly. We crossed the road leading to the reserve and went to the other side. Suhaas asked us to rush through as he heard the sound of a herds of elephants on the other side of the lake. We were there in a whisker and wow, there was a family of five just before the lake! Awesome sight it was at night.. I was disappointed that I couldn't spot any elephants despite a couple of boat trips but now it was a delight to watch them! The magnificent mammoths had overshadowed the other denizens who were standing so close to us quenching their thirst in the lake. Just then, we saw a herd of sambar and cheetal a few yards from us, a group of wild boar nearby and behind us with the younger ones as well, a bison herd right before us. Boy it was like a zoo!! The guides themselves told that even they didn't get to see such a sight so often .. The sight had made my day :)After all I had come all the way for this!
It was retuning time as I was chatting with Suhaas. He had been working there for ten years now and one of the very few people who are entrusted for this jungle patrol programme. He himself admitted that it is a high-risk programme and he has the responsibility of the safe return of all the tourists to the base point. He was telling an experience when one of the elephants once took off one hand of one of the tourists. He was talking about the behavior of elephants like how they are stubborn in nature. Seems that elephants have a very strong sense of scent. If they happen to catch human scent, most elephants back off in a different direction but there are some of them who proceed in the same direction to attack the humans. And once they decide to attack you, there's no escape. He talked about an incident where a person climbed up the tree to save himself from a chasing elephant. The elephant was waiting under a tree for hours together and even tried bring down the tree itself pushing the tree trunk hard. He also showed elephant trench dug out in the buffer zone - elephants can't go beyond this and the staff quarters for all the forest dept personnel are located on this side. These trenches are also present around all the KTDC hotels inside the sanctuary.
So there we were after a 2 hr 50 min venture into the periyar tiger reserve. Thanked Suhaas for the excellent company and bid goodbye to the other guys.. It was a lifetime experience I should say .. I returned to the room and packed my bags to leave for Madurai (and the theme for the weekend had to be shifted from wildlife to pilgrimage overnight ;))..
All said and done, the image of the majestic Panthera Tigris was hovering in my mind all the way .. I told myself that I 'll spot him sometime somewhere sooner or later .. Well, so ranthambore, here I come ;)
Some info:
Getting to Thekkady:
Kumily is the base town for visiting Thekkady - Kumily is located 4 kms from Thekkady (Thekkady is basically the place where the reserve is locatewd and Kumily the entry point). One can reach Kumily in various directions. If you are entering from TN, theni - cumbum - kumily is the route. Theni is reachable by bus from all major parts of TN. There are forest dept run buses to take you into the reserve from Kumily but its best you take an auto (50 Rs.)
Rail and air: Reach Madurai and Take a bus/cab to Kumily (140 kms)
Where to stay:
Well, there are so many options in Thekkady and Kumily from the budget to the luxury.
There are only three hotels within the reserve in thekkady - all operated by KTDC: Periyar house, Aranya nivas and Lake palace from the most to least economical in that order. From what I heard from people, Periyar house seems to be a pretty decent bargain.
Just outside the reserve, you will find quite a lot of hotels and homestays. Spice village and Club mahindra's resort are among the private high-end options.
Mickeys' cottage, Coffee Inn (both have high patronage from backpackers outside India) are good budget homestay options. I stayed in Mickeys and the rooms were very tidy (ask for the room on the backside:))Kumily gate is another option right at the entrance of Kumily.
Where to eat:
There are limited options for restaurants serving Indian food. You will have to dine in your hotel's restaurant better. Ananda bhavan and Arya bhavan are two restaurants serving simple Indian food near the bus-stand but you don't expect anything much over here. You can try Coffee inn, Michael's Inn (offers lodging as well) and Chrissie's for some western fare.
What to do:
Kumily:
- Kumily is basically a spice-trading town. You might want to take a stroll at the bazaar and pick up some spices to take home.
- A lot of tour operators offer plantation tours - visit coffee, pepper plantations, etc. Fixed charges for a day tour.
- Pick a bicycle for hire and just roam around the quaint little hill town all by yourself
At the reserve in Thekkady
Well, here there is quite a lot to do. KTDC along with the Forest dept has so many 'community-based eco-tourism programmes' (as they call it) to offer for the tourists. Visit the website of Periyar Tiger reserve and DTPC Idukki for more details. Must-do activities are boating rides - the first one at 7 am and the last one at 4 pm (pretty good time-slots to catch a glimpse of the animals coming down to drink water at the lake), Periyar tiger trail (if you have 2 days to spare) , the jungle patrol (3 hr night trek - if you don't manage to do the tiger trail)and bamboo rafting.
One humble request from my side: As I have discussed about it earlier here, please do maintain silence while in the jungle. The group which came with me for the trek were constantly murmuring and laughing and it was so frustrating! Also please learn to adore the beauty of the jungle and the surroundings. DO NOT go with the only aim of spotting wildlife to avoid disappointments. The primary purpose pf the trip should be to enjoy the environs and any wildlife sighting should be viewed as a bonus. These are just my two cents :)
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