Albino Sambar

An Albino Sambar was photographed at Corbett National Park at jamunagawd beat.

Refer: 167:107 (3), Sep-Dec 2010, Journal of Bombay Natural History Society

Oceans calling back....

After spending about 18 months on land , travelling from Elephant country of corbett to mangrove forests of sundarbans, hilly tracts of Satpuda to grasslands of kaziranga, my first love, oceans, is calling me back. I am in a fix , time is flying past , gotta take a decision soon....will be back with another adventure..

Field training at Rajaji National Park (henceforth RNP)

After a few days of briefing and ecology lectures, we moved to Rishikesh for our field training part. On 19th December, 2009, we left Dehradun for Rishikesh. The journey was short (one and half hours), and all of us, around 28 tiger project fellows, 2 volunteers , Chittu bhai, raju bhai, Dr. Karthikeyan Vasudevan (KV) and Dr. Yadavendradev Jhala (DJ) reached Garhwal Mandal Vikas Nigam’s (GMVN) hotel “Bharat Bhoomi” at Rishikesh in the afternoon. There we met some other people like Dr.Anil K Singh & Milind (WTI), Dr. Gautam Talukdar and Suniti (RF on elephants). They were there to assist and guide us during the training. After the lunch we made our first trip to RNP.
Rajaji National Park is located at the centre of 3 main cities of Dehradun, Haridwar and Rishikesh. It has about 822 sq km area spread across the plains of Ganga and Yamuna and the hills of Shiwaliks (created from debris of Himalayas formation). The terrain is undulating and the vegetation is mixed deciduous type consisting mainly of Sal, Teak, and other plantations. Rajaji falls in the Shivalik zone of northern India that lies in the sub-himalayan tract. The area is characterized by highly dissected and undulating topography popularly known as Bhabar tract. This tract is drained by numerous rivers and streams running north to south, most of which remain dry in late winter and summer. These dry beds are locally called ‘raus’. Sal forest, with an understory of unpalatable shrub species such as Ardisia solanacea, Clerodendron infortunatum, Colebrookia oppositifolia, Desmodium spp., Flemingia spp. and a sparsity of grass, does not offer much forage to wild ungulates.
The forests of RNP boasts of major carnivores like Tiger, Leopard, Hyaena, Jackal and Sloth Bear. The ungulate population is diverse with Chital, Sambar, Nilgai, Wild boar and Gorals. But the charismatic animal of RNP is Elephant and it has given it an Elephant Reserve status too. There are an estimated 300-350 elephants all over the park. There are about 315 species of birds in the park esp. like Golden Oriole, Oriental-pied Hornbill, Indian Roller, Merganser, Osprey etc. RNP shares its border with Corbett Tiger Reserve and thus serves as a sink of animal movement from Corbett.




Due to closeness to major pilgrimage centres, RNP has a host of problems. There are gujjar settlements on the periphery of the park which gives rise to severe problems like livestock grazing and wood cutting. The construction of a canal in the middle of the area has completely obstructed the natural corridors of elephants except a narrow bridge. Over the years the growing human population and its demand for more forest land for agriculture and various development projects have broken the forest continuity along the west bank of the River Ganges and along the Kathgodam–Haldwani–Lalkuan Highway. The pressures on the remaining forests by the pastoral Gujjars, people in the adjacent towns and villages, and their livestock, grow day by day, severely threatening the wildlife values of this area.

We reached Chilla range of RNP at about 1400 hrs. The whole team was divided into 5 groups by DJ. We were given an intro on GPS units by Gautam sir. Soon the first three (I was in the 1st) teams were sent with Dr. Karthikeyan Vasudevan through the main gate of RNP while the rest with DJ near Ganga Kinare. KV briefed us about pugmark identification, elephants, trees etc as we walked 3-4 km in the jungle. The first walk was all about getting the feel of the jungle.
We spent 5 more days at RNP. We did five transects in triplicates for determining ungulate density, three sign surveys for intensity of use of a beat by carnivores, map reading, transect extensions and other stuff. There were many experiences worth sharing but that should be on another blog. The training ended a day after Christmas and we packed back to Dehradun for data analysis.

first days @ WII

I joined Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun on 14th december as a research personnel in the All India Project on Monitoring tigers, Co-predators, prey and their habitat. There were around 29 more candidates who joined with me on the same day.The day started with lectures on general wildlife and statistics. Our group's PIs ,Dr. Yadavendradev Jhala and Mr. Qamar Qureshi, Large mammal expert Dr. Sankar, Dean Dr. V.B.Mathur and some other wildlife experts gave brief lectures on different topics. We were intoduced to the Tiger census report of 2008 which estimated tiger population in the country to be 1411 (approx; excluding Sunderbans).

On 15th I shifted with others like Manas (Jhunjhunwala,Mumbai), Deb and Sudip (Jadavpur Univ, Kolkata), Gaurang (Garware, Pune) to the Tiger Den at Turner Road, Clement town. This was going to be our residence for the next full month.

A new journey beckons

After successive failures and 6 long months of working in no direction, the road ahead seems a bit open to me now. the decision will either be in favour of mind or heart but that doesnt matter now. I am a pro in taking risks head -on. so soon the blog is going to be flooded by posts of limitless travel and adventure. keep watching......................

Parched country

Just returned form an across the country tour. as the train moved from delhi to western Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra , the same sight welcomed us everywhere, the sight of cracked soil and dried ponds. though the situation is much better in western ghats , the areas of bundelkhand and west UP are rain parched.

Gorakhpur - a town bustling with activity

Gorakhpur is a big town, if you look at population and size but its roads, people, and thier daily routine still has a reminiscence of old days. It was a good time to go there as the summer was coming to an end and monsoon has just started. amid power cuts and hot climate, the one thing that really saved city's pride were Mangoes. Mangoes were available in all shapes and varieties. Dashehri, Langda (Kapoori), Chausa, Safeda, Ganwarjeet and many more tastes had my tongue busy throughout the stay.
Another characteristic thing about this town is road traffic. people just go about thier business without minding the signals and turns and ofcourse rules, in a way this is baffling but I found this quite hilarious. I drove several kms from Betiahata to Shahbazganj to Sahara city to Gorakhnath and liked it thoroughly.
more on gorakhpur but later............................