Travelling in the North-East in the summer of 2006
Guwahati >> Eaglenest >> Tawang >> Nameri >> Kaziranga >> Shillong >> Cherrapunjee
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On our way to Eaglenest, we journeyed through the plains of Assam, leaving Guwahati for Tezpur and then through Sonitpur district to enter Arunachal via Missimari. We returned on a different route, on the Bomdila-Tezpur highway passing through Balipara and Bhalukpong. During both the journeys we were all shocked to see miles and miles of Assam’s plains, which were once thick jungles, cut down into an ocean of no more than a feet high tree trunks! Although I could not figure out the reason for deforestation in such large scale, someone told me that it was intended to resettle the people in this area. I do not know the reasons behind this, but was surely awed by the destruction of a degree I have seen never before.
Assam has it’s share of problems when it comes to protecting it’s environment. The state has a good forest density and has many National Parks to boast of. But the man and nature conflict that we see everywhere else applies to Assam too. Increase in population due to large scale immigration and natural population growth are probably forcing people to make claims on forest land. Conflict with elephants has become a serious problem in Sonitpur district and also in the regions around Kaziranga. Overgrazing and degrading forests had resulted in near extinction of an endemic mammal – pygmy hog. Manas National Park was virtually in the control of militancy group until a few years ago.
But even in Assam, there are people working for conservation and there are some good stories to share. Kaziranga is one of the best protected parks in India and Rhino population has grown considerably in the last few decades, after it was freed from rampant poaching a decade ago. Manas is now returning to normalcy and hopefully the Golden Langurs endemic to the park will flourish in the days to come. In the days when I was in Guwahati, I read several reports in newspapers protesting against inconsiderate destruction of Assam’s wilderness.
There are also many people working in replenishing the environment. I met a conservationist and vet doctor when I was Nameri National Park. He worked for an NGO – Pygmy Hog Conservation Program – and spent his time in Nameri trying to rear nearly extinct pygmy hogs in captivity and release them into the wilderness. He was also working on a project to amicably resolve the conflict of elephants with people in Sonitpur district. Assam has many such NGOs who are the hope for the future of its wilderness.
Arunachal Pradesh has a completely different story to tell. My host in Eaglenest told us a story about its past –
“When we first came here more than a decade ago, we saw trucks loaded with timber rolling down the Tezpur highway one after other. There was no end to their continuous flow. They used to carry huge logs that were sometimes as thick as the truck itself. I once saw a huge tree that was cut down.. They were not able to load it to the truck because it was too big and would not fit into the truck..!”
Fortunately, all that is past. After a supreme court ban on felling timber in the state, Arunachal’s forests have been left alone and have stayed undisturbed. The state has an enviable record of more than three quarters of its area as forest cover.
But all is not well about its future. Tribes in Arunachal Pradesh practice a cultivation technique called Jhum, where they burn a stretch of forest for cultivation. They use it for a few years and abandon it after the land looses fertility, only to burn down another stretch of forest for fresh cultivation. Growing population is putting pressure on the natural resources. A typical family in the state has more than 10 members, and its population growth rate is one of the highest in the country, which may make things go worse in the coming days.
To be continued..
We started from Bangalore on Friday night a 3-day weekend. The places we were planning to cover included Jog falls, Karwar and Kadra, Goa if time permits.
Jog is a well-known waterfall, the tallest in India where river Sharavati falls from an unbelievable 300 meters high. While the number looks big by itself, those who have managed to climb down to the base of the waterfall and hiked back know how tall and steep really it is.
On the way to Jog
Jog Information
The Jog waterfall is approximately 400kms from Bangalore. If you start on a Friday night, you can reach here next morning and spend a day. It is well connected by road and train. You can take bus or train to nearest town – Sagar and travel on local buses to Jog. If you are driving, the entire stretch of road is national highway in good condition but you may encounter a few rough patches. It takes 7-8 hours to reach Jog. You need to take Tumkur road(NH 4) from Bangalore and turn left to NH 206 in Tumkur, drive via Shimoga and Sagar towns. Shimoga is a good place to break for some refreshments if you are driving daytime. Continue for another 30kms on the highway from Sagar town. The waterfall is a short 2kms deviation from the highway.
Places to see
You can spend an entire day around the waterfall. If you are fit, climb down to the base of the fall. It takes around 20minutes to walk down, and may take an hour or two to come back depending on your fitness. You can take a dip in the water when you are in the gorge. Drive to the other side of the waterfall and you can get close to the falling water. In summer, you can even bend down from the fall to see it descending all the way down from up close. It is a great experience, but definitely not for the acrophobics. Drive further down the national highway into deep jungles and enjoy the views of the Sharavati valley.
Jog waterfall
We reached there around 9am and strolled around for sometime. It was raining on and off and many times the view of the fall would get completely blocked by fog. It was a good view to see so much water there after many long years. It comes down to a trickle in the summers, primarily owing to the dams built for the power generation that redirect all the water. Incessant rains this year have filled up the dams and hence there is plenty of water. It was fun watching the fall in the rains.
We moved on after staying for around 2 hours and reached Sharavati valley, a few kilometers down where river flows between the hills and offers amazing view from the top. I took a few photographs; none of them seemed to justify the beauty of the place. One of the lucky pals who had descended the valley a few years back described us the adventure and fun involved. They had gone into the jungle and descended the steep valley, and had camped by the river for a night a few years back! Boy! That must have been fun.
The beautiful Sharavati Valley
Further down, we encountered a stream by the road that tempted us to stop. We walked along the stream for a while and soon encountered a series of waterfalls. We were too tempted to take a dip, and did just that! It’s a great feeling to dip into a running stream and lie down against the running water. Even more fun is when you sit under a waterfall and feel the gush of the water. I would love to be doing that everyday!
Our next destination was Karwar, a beach town. We reached there around the time of sunset. The time did not matter because it was cloudy all through the day. It looked the same – dull and cloudy from morning to evening and you could never tell the position of the sun! After a brief stop at the small port, we hit the beach and stayed on till it was dark. Lovely beach it is! It started raining cats and dogs while we were there and we got wet. Thanks to rain gods, its absolute fun getting wet on a hot day. From here, we left the seashore and drove interior towards the village of Kadra where we were to stay with a friend for two days. Kadra hosts one of the 7 dams to Kalinadi and has a powerhouse. We had made plans to see the scenic Kali region the next day and return to Bangalore the day after.
The beauty around Kali river
Our friend, who worked for Karnataka Power Corporation arranged permissions for us to visit the powerhouses. They are enormous machinery with great level of automation. It houses huge turbines and various assemblies that needs no to day-to-day maintenance and management. Just 3 engineers will be working as stand-by in the powerhouse at any given point of time! While the powerhouse looked good, it was the river, hills and greenery that we were more interested in. We drove further into a 30km long private road that leads us to another reservoir and power station. The road crawls right along the banks of Kali and the river is surrounded by thick evergreen rain forests typical of the Sahyadri ranges. Out friend mentioned about people seeing leopards, Black Panthers and even tigers in the area! He had seen leopards himself! The place looked too good to be true. And it was drizzling all along, which gave a poetic romance to the entire atmosphere. I though – “Oh my god! I would like to spend rest of my life here!” My friends echoed my feelings. It all seemed too beautiful to be true!
We spent the entire day walking or driving around this road. Late in the evening, we saw some fishermen having a nice evening, catching a good lot of fish. We stopped, had a chat with them and took some photographs around the place. Every inch of the place was absolute beauty! A lot of people apparently go swimming in the river in summer. I decided to return for a swim myself, and I certainly will. It was evening and we ended the day’s journey in a very content state.
The next morning, we drove to Palolem beach in Goa for a short visit. The weather was good and the sea was calm and nice. After frolicking for a while, we drove back to Bangalore. We had moved so far away from the town, it took us 14 long hours to drive back. We returned to Bangalore around 4am.
Here is a trip report of a long journey I made 3 years ago. I dug out the trip report lying in a corner in my computer.
With my newly acquired craze for driving and our zeal to see many places, a friend and myself decided to go on a long drive and visit the hill stations of South India in February 2002. The itinerary planned was Wayanad, Munnar and Kodaikanal, and drive through Ooty. We realized later that February was not the best season to visit these places, but nevertheless had a great time in the trip.
Preparation
Since we were travelling in a car and had plenty of room available in, we took as much luggage as we could and did not bother to optimize the load. Our baggage included footwear for trekking, sleeping bags, clothes and other accessories like water bottles, etc. To keep us informed about the road, we carried maps and guidebooks. We also had Salim Ali’s ‘Book of Indian Birds’ so that we can try to track down interesting birds we see on the way.
References
We tried to do as much homework as possible before we started on the journey. Along with searching the web for information, the following resources were extensively used for gathering information.
a. India Over Land Guide and roadmap
b. Lonely Planet South India Guide
c. Rough Guide for South India
While the first one provided us with some useful maps, the latter two had fairly extensive information about every place on the road.
The Journey
We started on a Sunday afternoon from Bangalore. The plan was to reach Wayanad by sunset and stay in one of the towns – Sultan’s Battery or Kalpetta. We drove thru Mysore and Gundlupet and entered the premises of Bandipur Wildlife sanctuary early in the evening. We had to drive thru the sanctuary and cross it to reach Sultan’s Battery.
Bandipur Wildlife Sanctuary
Sun setting in Bandipur National ParkThe sanctuary, along with Muthanga wildlife sanctuary in Kerala and Madumalai forests in TamiNadu, forms the Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve. The area consists of thick dry and moist deciduous forests and is home for Sambars, Gaurs, Spotted Deer, A large number of elephants and some tigers. While travelling on the road passing through the forest, you can often sight some wild life if you are lucky. While approaching from Karnataka, the vegetation is dry deciduous and consists of mostly short trees and shrubs, which slowly give way to moist deciduous forest. On our way, we were lucky to spot a majestic tusker enjoying the evening, splashing itself in a man made pond. It so happened that we were travelling on a full moon day just after sunset. The serenity and silence of the forest on such an evening is best experienced than described. We also happened to spot a few deer near the road late after the sunset. Moving from Bandipur towards Kerala border and reaching Muthanga sanctuary, the trees start getting taller and greener. To the other end of the forests is Wayanad district, and the first town – Sultan’s Battery.
Wayanad district, Kerala
We stayed in a small tourist home in Sultan’s Battery. Tourism here seems to be opening up only recently unlike rest of the state. A large population of the locals are tribal, a good number of them still living in the forests. Hence it looks like clashes between the tribals and the forest department is very common. When we were there, a major war scale confrontation was reported between the two sides and more than 40 people from the forest department were held hostage by the tribals!
Chembra Peak, Kalpetta and around
Tea estate on the way to Chembra peakOur next morning’s plan was to climb the 7100 feet high Chembra peak, return back to Kalpetta and spend rest of the time in the evening sight seeing around the town. Kalpetta is another small town in Wayanad around 20kms away from Sultan’s Battery. We started early in the morning around 7am.
The foot of the hill is around 30 minutes drive from Kalpetta. You need to pass through a large tea estate on the way up. You can drive your car until half way up the peak and then start walking. We were running late and it was around 10-30 by the time we started walking. It was a very sunny day, although it was foggy early in the morning. One of the best parts of climbing Chembra peak is that you will encounter a small lake half way up on the hill. It is a great place to rest and enjoy the view of the planes below.
We took a little more than 3 hours to reach the top. It is amusing how one feels after reaching the top – there is an urge to go on conquering the next taller hill, and then the one after that and so on. The peak we climbed was the tallest one around and there is a twin peak close by which is almost as tall. Looking around from the top, it appeared like there were plenty of hills and greenery further that was worth exploring. But naturally it requires some more effort and preparation.
We reached back Kalpetta from Chembra around 4-30pm and checked into the best hotel we could find in the town. Since we had two more hours to go before dusk, we decided to explore some good places around. One thing that must be appreciated about this part of Kerala is about availability of tourist information. The tariff-card that our hotel guy gave us had everything that we wanted to know. Armed with that, and lonely planet and rough guides, it took no time for us to decide where to go – Phookot Lake. It is a beautiful naturally formed lake in the forest. It is now developed for tourism and is hence disturbed by boating, a small resort and lot of people coming in. We walked around the lake, sat there for sometime and returned back to the town around 7pm.
Our next day’s plan was to head to Munnar. After fiddling with numerous maps of Kerala and TamilNadu, we were disappointed a bit to see that there is no direct road that takes us to Munnar. We had to go far to the west to Kozhikode or far to the east to Ooty and then drive south to Munnar. Since the Ooty road was much shorter than the other one, we decided to take that. Later, we realized it was not all that a good decision.
Roads and driving in TamilNadu.
The general experience we had of driving in TamiNadu was disappointing. We often had to struggle through roads in terrible shape and sometime unreasonable toll on the roads that hardly seem to exist. I have written about the experience in my weblog.
Ooty
Waterfall near OotyOoty is probably the most famous hill station in South India. After driving through the place, I realized it is worth its fame. This is probably the only place down south where you can see some coniferous vegetation – like pine trees. Although they were once planted in the place of natural forest, now they are in big numbers and have formed self-sustainable pockets. Besides, Ooty’s temperature is known to reach as low as zero degrees and that makes the climate very suitable for these trees. The Gudalur to Ooty road is so scenic that I could not stay away for long from this place and returned here only 3 weeks later! But this time, since we did not have enough time to cover Ooty, we did not stay here and simply drove on to Munnar.
On the way to Munnar
Before we reach Munnar, we had made plans to go to Indira Gandhi national park in TamilNadu. The national park also had guesthouses inside its premises on the top of a hill, called as Top Slip. Unfortunately the park was closed for summer to prevent forest fires and we were not even allowed into the park, forget staying inside. So we ended up staying in nearby town, Pollachi.
Munnar is nearly 3 ho
urs away from Pollachi. We had to travel in hilly region and the journey was slow. The initial part of the journey was dry planes that gave way to shrubs, and as we climbed higher and higher, we saw more greenery. But sadly, there is not much forest that is left in and around Munnar. You can drive for hours and hours all around Munnar only to see tea plantations and just that. If you are there in rainy season or early before summer, you can see a few beautiful waterfalls originating from sholas. We thought of climbing one of the best looking sholas and reach for a waterfall above that, but instead just drove on to Munnar. We reached Munnar in the afternoon around 1pm.
Munnar
Tea estates of munnarMunnar is a small town. One thing unique to this place is that you can see a lot of private tourist information centers that help you around for a fee. Places to see include some natural lakes and some artificial ones formed by dams, plenty of tea estates, some hill top viewpoints and Eravikulam National Park. Anaimudi, South India’s highest summit is inside Eravikulam National Park. Our plan was to climb this peak and move on from Munnar, but unfortunately we were denied permission since it is in the core area of the national park. That was a real dampener. We were hoping to see some Nilgiri Tarhs(mountain goats) which did not happen.
With Anaimudi ruled out, we trekked around some hills and tea estates in the first day of our stay in Munnar. The next morning we took for Mattupetty dam, around 10kms away from the town. The dam forms a large artificial reservoir around the hills and looks beautiful early in the morning. You can go on from here to Top Station – a viewpoint from a hill and take the road further to Kodaikanal. While we wanted to take this route to our next rendezvous – Kodai, since the road would require a sturdy 4×4 vehicle, we decided otherwise. Instead, we returned back to Munnar and headed to Kodai on a better road.
Kodaikanal
The road to Kodai is steep and curvy, and because it is narrow, is also a dangerous. The road offers some excellent view of the planes below all the way. There is not much forest left around Kodai too. Unusual as it may seem, people here grow plantains on the slopes!(They are normally grown in planes in places where you can get plenty of water). Where you don’t see plantains you will see the natural vegetation replaced by Eucalyptus trees.
We reached Kodai early in the evening. Accommodation is cheap in Kodai if you go in off-season. Kodai is an ‘association country’. There is probably an association for every profession in town. If you walk through the main roads for a few minutes, you will find boards of many of them – like taxi driver’s association, tourist guides association, builder’s association, eucalyptus oil makers association and a lot more. I assume these associations try to control prices(and many other things) to ensure good business. You will notice that cab hiring prices are fixed, and steep even on days when they hardly seem to have any business. Tourist information is hard to come by and you will have to struggle for getting maps, guides or permissions where needed.
Once we got settled with all the info we need and a place to stay, we went to explore the Kodai Lake. The lake is surprisingly clean and beautiful, doubly so in the evening. There is a road that goes along the shore where you can walk, cycle or drive around. it was around 6-30pm when we reached the lake and it was deserted for good. We walked the entire 5kms around the lake and came back tired and ready for a good dinner, and crashed out after eating. The next morning, I drove down to the lake again, with my Camera. Since I went in early, there were not many people except for a few morning walkers and I managed to get some beautiful pics. There was not much wind and I managed to get some excellent reflections from the lake.
After breakfast, we took to PerumalMalai peak, around 12kms from the town. The climb to the peak begins at a village called Perumal Malai. We drove up to this point and started climbing at around 10am. The peak is more than 7000feet above sea level, and is a 10km walk from the base. It is a moderate climb and we took around 3 hours to reach the top. The peak offers a good view of all the four sides. We had our lunch at the top and sat there for nearly an hour or so. During the descent, we decided to go off the path, went around bushes, lost our way briefly for a while and spent some time walking around. We reached back to Kodai around 4pm.
View from Perumal Malai peakOnce in Kodai, we went to Pillar rocks, a vista point where you can see some huge pillar like formation of rocks and a view of the valley below. The place is beautiful and worth a visit. And that was pretty much the end of all our sight seeing and treks. Later on, I bought a few packs of delicious ‘home made chocolates’ that are supposed to be locally made. These chocolates are good and can be added to ‘not to be missed’ list in Kodai.
Scene at KodaikanalThat was our last day of the 6-day trip. We started back for Bangalore next morning and reached the town in the evening.
