Auli -> Rishikesh -> Corbett National Park -> Varanasi -> Agra
+Previous: Rishikesh to Ramnagar(Corbett)
+Next: Corbett: A struggle in nature
+Go to beginning of the series
My plan at Corbett was to stay at Dhikala, which is deep inside the reserve for a few days, and roam around in the forest as much as possible. But staying in Dhikala was an expensive option and I wanted to make sure it was worth the money. So on the first day, I decided to take a day-trip to Dhikala conducted by the forest department – a 100km journey stretching for 7 hours.
Landscape of Corbett
I was early at the CTR(Corbett Tiger Reserve) office at Ramnagar. My initial assumption that – all I need is to buy a ticket and hop on to the safari van turned out to be wrong. The bureaucracy you have to go through to get a safari ticket is just amazing. You need to fill in an application, and they take their own sweet time to process it and then put you on the van. I think it took more than 30 minutes before I was finally allotted a seat, and another 30 minutes before we started moving! Most of the passengers for the day-trip were picked up from the resorts on the way. oddly, the safari had no guides or naturalists accompanying the tourists, but a guard with a loaded ancient gun escorting us through the journey! I got to sit with the driver and the guard in the spacious front seat and had the best view in the whole vehicle.
We first travel on the national highway to Nainital – a road that goes right next to Kosi River for most of the distance. By the time we arrived at Dhangadi Gate where we enter the reserve, it was already 10am. Dhangadi has a small exhibition complex where they have a display of stuffed animals. A placard in front of each animal has an interesting story, telling how the specimen met its end. One of them was a tiger killed by an elephant. There were a couple of man-eater leopards and tigers that were shot dead. I saw the bullet mark on one of the leopards. And a tiger was killed in territorial wars with another one of its own kind. It is intriguing to look at those huge tigers from so close, even when they are dead!
Gharials
Corbett’s forest is beautiful. Tall Sal trees with little undergrowth are frequently partitioned by numerous streams flowing in the forest. Almost three quarters of the park’s has Sal trees and the vegetation is moist deciduous. Animals were in plenty and the herbivores were seen often. We did not see many birds through the day, but Corbett is a great place to see raptors(birds of prey).
Wild boars on the bank of Ramaganga
An hour into the forest, we stopped at high banks to have a look at Gharials. High banks, as the name says is high viewpoint looking into the river. You can always see Gharials lazing here in the sun. Gharials or Magar as it is locally called, are crocodiles with long jaws and are the only one of their kind that eat fish. There were two of them when we were there, both lying still and lazy as they always are.
Egrets on Ramaganga
As we moved deeper into the forest, trees gave way to a huge grassland. Dhikala tourist complex is situated in one corner of this grassland, overlooking the forest to the east, grassland on west and Ramaganga flowing besides the complex to the north. It is an incredibly beautiful place and when I saw that first, I knew I wanted to spend as much time here as I can. We stopped at Dhikala for an hour for lunch before we continued our wildlife hunt.
A Pallas Fish Eagle
Dhikala and the surrounding grasslands is where all the action is – you spot many tigers in this region. Elephants roam in plenty and so do many other animals. We saw several types of deer, including barking deer, hog deer, chitals and sambars. We also saw wild boars, some jungle cat that we could not identify, a fishing eagle and a few more birds. Even more than the fauna, I fell in love with Corbett’s beautiful landscape and decided to return to Dhikala on the next day.
It was 4.30pm by the time we finished our safari and returned to Ramnagar. I was happy to have arrived at Corbett and spent remaining part of the day negotiating for a jeep that I needed to hire for my rest of the stay in Corbett.
More on Corbett National Park at paintedstork.com
* Images from Corbett
* Arriving at Corbett
* First day at Corbett: safari day trip to Dhikala
* Corbett: In the nature – A struggle between fear and love
* The desperate tourist’s tiger hunt
* Photo Essay: Landscapes of Corbett
* My Days in Corbett
* Encounter with Pachyderms
* Information about Corbett National Park
* Moving on from Corbett
Auli -> Rishikesh -> Corbett National Park -> Varanasi -> Agra
+Previous: Ganga aarti at Haridwar
+Next: First day at Corbett
+Go to beginning of the series
After spending a busy and interesting day at Rajaji National Park and Haridwar, I was ready to leave Rishikesh. My next destination was Corbett National Park.
I spent a whole day travelling to Ramnagar, the town head for before Corbett National Park. Here is the entry from my journal for the day.
“This is a day for journey. Got up easily, without any hurry, got ready and headed out for Ramnagar. The journey, broken at multiple place, took seven hours.
Took a Vikram(a kind of big auto-rickshaw that can take around 8 people) to Haridwar only to figure out that there are no buses to Ramnagar. A bus guy who was headed to Moradabad said I could go to Moradabad and then find a bus to Ramnagar from there. I consulted my map and figured out that going to Kashipur would be a much better option.
The bus to Kashipur leaves Haridwar and passes through Rajaji National Park. It then goes through the plains of Uttar Pradesh. This is a densely populated region. Concept of free space and open areas doesn’t seem to exist! Every inch of land is taken up by agriculture or construction. There is no free land, no trees or forest to be seen for miles and miles. It took around 6 hours to reach Kashipur, and I was welcomed to this small town by traffic jam caused by trucks.
I got a bus from here to Ramnagar in no time. It is a 45-minute, 30-kilometer journey. There are numerous resorts spread on this road, attracting tourists headed to Corbett National Park. I reached Ramnagar at 6.30 and checked into a hotel close to the National Park office.
My hotel owner turned out to be a helpful guy and gave me plenty of information about Corbett without confusing me much, like many other people did. As I had guessed, staying inside the National Park at Dhikala tourist complex was an expensive affair, and I am glad I had budgeted it. I shall be heading for a visit to the park tomorrow!”
More on Corbett National Park at paintedstork.com
* Images from Corbett
* Arriving at Corbett
* First day at Corbett: safari day trip to Dhikala
* Corbett: In the nature – A struggle between fear and love
* The desperate tourist’s tiger hunt
* Photo Essay: Landscapes of Corbett
* My Days in Corbett
* Encounter with Pachyderms
* Information about Corbett National Park
* Moving on from Corbett
Auli -> Rishikesh -> Corbett National Park -> Varanasi -> Agra
+Previous: Rajaji National Park
+Next: From Rishikesh to Ramnagar(Corbett)
+Go to beginning of the series
After spending a good day at Rajaji National Park, I arrived at Haridwar(also called Hardwar) to witness the Ganga Aarti before I returned to Rishikesh.
My bus left me near the railway station and I took a rickshaw to Har-ki-Pauri ghat. It was like a repetition of events that happened a year ago. Almost the same time last year, I found myself at Hardwar on an evening, unplanned and not knowing what to do. And I was here today because I did not get any bus from Chilla to Rishikesh and had to do a broken journey via Haridwar.
Also see:
* Ganga Aarti in Rishikesh
* Ganga Aarti in Varanasi
Since last year, things had changed a bit on the busy road connecting the railway station to the Ghat. Buildings then looked old enough to shoot a horror movie. Now many of them seemed to be making a vain attempt of resurrection with some fresh paint and patch-work. It was amusing to watch some of these buildings that could well be a hundred year old, recently fitted with a modern air-conditioning unit at the window!
The road became narrower as the rickshaw progressed and was closed for motorized vehicles a kilometer before the ghat. Both sides of this portion of road looked like a devotional super market! They sold every kind of thing that you could use to worship god – many colorful powders, vibhooti, rudraksha, stones of several colors and colorful neck laces, etc.. Almost every other shop sold plastic cans to fill the holy water. Some shops that looked slightly modern, sold devotional audio and video material. The road was busy with a large number of pedestrians and the cycle rickshaws desperately trying to make some way between the ocean of people.
The Ganga Aarti in Hardwar’s Har-ki-Pauri is one of the famous rituals in India. It starts at around 6.30pm after sunset, with large crowds gathered around both the banks of a canal that carries the waters of Ganges. Loud speakers blare songs in praise of Ganga Maiya and Shiva.
The time of Aarti sees a bustle of activity on the ghats. Many babas are seen sitting in corners, hoping to get some donations from the devotees. Men in blue uniform move around with a receipt book, collecting donations that will be used for conducting the Aarti. People keep walking in all direction trying to find a good place to sit or stand. Hawkers sell wick lamps or diyas to float in the Ganges. A friend sms’ed me to float a diya for her and I found myself trying to buy one.
Me, pointing at a diya: Kitne ka hai? – How much?
Hawker: bees rupaia – Twenty
Hearing the price, I walked away from him and heard him shout quickly – Dus rupaia dedo – give me a ten!
A pack of diya comes fully equipped and is self-sufficient! It has a wick lamp surrounded by flowers. There is even a matchbox to light the lamp, so you don’t need to run around looking for one! Two incense sticks also come with it and the whole thing is assembled in a bowl like pack made of stitched leaves. I lighted the diya, floated it down the river like many other pilgrims and continued witnessing the aarti.
It lasted for around 30 minutes. A few people(priests?) standing on the ghat swayed huge lamps backed by the blares of bhajans and instrumental music. Lamps of different sizes light up in the hands of people all along the banks and is a pretty sight to watch in the darkness after sunset. Hardwar’s aarti is an interesting ritual, but it feels too noisy, chaotic and commercialized. I mused of the quite and charming aarti sessions I was attending at Rishikesh for the last few days and could not help comparing it with crowded Hardwar.
It was a long day for me after a trip to Rajaji National Park and then Haridwar. I was pretty tired by the time Aarti was concluded, walked up to the bus stop and quickly headed back to Rishikesh to end my day.