PARAMBIKULAM DECEMBER 2014

This was the second time we visited Parambikulam Tiger Reserve this year, it was December 2014. We celebrated our New Year there amidst Tiger Sightings and Early morning bird calls waking us up.

There are several types of accommodation and the show is run by Forest Development Agency, which benefits the Tribals living in Parambikulam. The agency has taken up measures in providing various amenities for the Tribals and has keen interest in their Development. The Agency runs a community based Eco Tourism. The service rendered by them are commendable and the food is excellent. The guests are well taken care and we can see the keen interest they have on Wildlife and their preservation. One can visit the site http://www.parambikulam.org or call Cell No 9442201690  and make reservations at Parambikulam Tiger Reserve  Please remember that the Reserve is a liquor free zone. The very fact that we visit the Reserve and stay there, provides the Tribals a job and keeps them busy. The Green shop sells among other things, items made by the Tribal women like caps, pen stands etc.,which are very attractive. They have very nice T shirts and over coats on display.

The Tiger Reserve was busy with guests as it was holiday season and all the accommodations were full.

We reached on 30th December, by noon as usual, had good lunch, rested and waited for the game drive in the afternoon. The mini bus was full of guests as all the accommodation were full. We saw nothing much in the game drive except for some Indian Gaur and sambar deer. We went for the Rafting and reached Parambikulam, where we saw a Fish eagle by the dam.

Fish Eagle

On the way back, during night drive, we were not that lucky to see any wildlife, except for some Indian Gaur and sambar deer. We came back had good dinner and went to bed early. Next day morning we chose to do trekking early instead of bird watching etc.,

We were lucky to manage a different route and not the routine beaten track. We had a couple of guides with us and took a longer route, the guide was confident of locating tigers on the way. They had heard the tiger roaring the previous day in that direction.

We came across the Elephant carcass we saw last time. We could only see the skull of the elephant, and other bones around, everything else had disappeared, eaten up by scavengers and the insects.

Remains of the Elephant Carcass-only the skull remaining

The river bed where we saw Tiger Pugmarks

We had gone a long way, may be an hour and a half and saw nothing on the way. After reaching a river bed, we saw some tiger pug marks criss crossing the river bed, but no tiger to be seen. We were thrilled to see the pug marks that too very recent ones and expected to see the tiger anytime.

With butterflies in the stomach, expecting to see the Tiger in close range, We followed a track and after some time saw tiger pug marks again in the same direction. This time there were a few of them. The guides explained that a family of 5 tigers were around and the pugmarks were of those tigers. We were repeatedly cautioned not to make any noise, not even to stamp on dried leaves, as the noise will alert the tigers if they are around.

Two tiger cubs of the family of five

We trekked for another km may be and reached a vayal, an open space, grass land. These grass lands are the hunting grounds for the tigers. We rested for a few minutes, a bit disappointed as well as we had come to almost end of the trek and we had sighted nothing, not even a Gaur or a sambar deer. We were in one corner of the vayal, on a little elevated ground surrounded by the trees. As we were watching the vayal, suddenly a sambar deer bellowed and ran into the grassland followed by a few more. We could see they were panicky and the guides immediately cautioned us to be quiet and observe, as they expected a tiger or a Leopard to follow the them.

As expected, a tiger walked out from behind the woods, majestically, following the deer. As we were watching the tiger, another one also walked out, and then another and then another. They were all moving up and down the grassland, and we were a bit confused as to how many were there. They were a bit far from us and we could enjoy the  sightings thru the binocs. The tigers were quite far for the cameras. We saw all the five tigers of the family. There were 3 cubs, about one and a half years old, almost the size of a fully grown adult.

 

We could identify the cubs only when they started to be playful and running and jumping over one another. It was a sighting of a life time, that we had, for all these years we visited Parambikulam.

The next day afternoon we went for the game drive and saw a family of Elephants on the road, when we were coming back from Parambikulam to the tent. All the elephants moved to the side of the road except for one male. He stood on the road and refused to move. We waited for about 5 minutes and the driver raved the engine, so that he will move. He still stood there doing nothing, just playing with the grass at the edge of the road. Eventually when all the elephants had moved away to safety,he moved out and let us go.

 

 

We had the best time in parambikulam and left the next day morning with happy memories.

Parambikulam

Parambikulam is part of the Anamalaia hills of the Kerala side of Western Ghats  Range of mountains. 

http://www.parambikulam.org/

We visited in Oct 2011. A rainy season, the forest infested with leeches. Five of us let from Bangalore in the  Pajero. This was our 5^th visit to this beautiful wildlife reserve. This is declared as Tiger Reserve and hence the authorities are very strict on the visitors. This is however, the first time we are writing about it.

To save time, we left at 11p.m from Bangalore and drove thru the night. We reached Pollachi early morning around 6 a.m and had breakfast there, a welcome break. From Pollachi, we drove to Sethumadai, which is the foothills of Topslip(Tamilnadu side)en route to Parambikulam. 

There is a check post at sethumadai, where in you pay for the cameras and for passengers entering Topslip. It took us 2 hrs to reach Sethumadai.  From Topslip after a km drive, we hit the Kerala check post . We registered at the check post and gave them the particulars of our reservations for stay. TAfter confirming with their list of reservations and after checking our luggage and vehicle for prohibited goods, especially liquor,  let us thru. Liquor is banned in Parambikulam. This procedure took about half an hour.

The Kerala Forest office is located at Anapady, which is between Kerala Check post and Parambikulam. The entire stretch is thru forest and has a well tarred road. There are several options for stay in Parambikulam Reserve. For the adventurous, we have accommodations deep in the reserve, like Sambar Machan, Thellikal I.B. Unfortunately now, only these 2 are available. For the less adventurous, we have Tree tops, Tents and other lodgings around Anapady Office and also at Parambikulam, which is about 20 Kms away from Aanapady. We had made the reservations about a month ago for the accommodation inside the forest.  We carried all our requirements, food, drinking water etc., as we stayed deep inside the forest. There is a small shop selling almost all our requirements for staying in the forest, except water, as plastics are banned in Parambikulam. We need to carry our own drinking water. We were accompanied by 2 guides from Anapady office to our accommodation. The forest department normally provide for torches to the guides, together with flash lights to be used at nights in the jungle. We always carried our own torches to be on the safe side.

Day 1, we stayed at Sambar Machan. To reach, we drove inside the forest on tarmac for about half an hour. The road is a bit rough. It will be difficult with a sedan to do this drive. We parked the pajero  just before the wooden bridge beyond which vehicles are not allowed. After a 2 km walk, we reached the Sambar Machan. This Machan about 25 feet from ground with a deep hole dug all around to keep the elephants away. Food at Sambar machan is not a problem, as there is Thatha’s(Old man’s)house, near the bridge,wherein he can cook  for us with the ingredients we carried. We also enjoyed a lot of Katta Chai(Black Tea) made at Thatha’s place. We left the food items at Thatha’s place for him to cook and trekked  to Sambar Machan.The accommodation can sleep about 6 to 8. They gave us beddings for the night and there is toilet facilities also. This is a very peaceful place and we had a nice cold water bath in the river near by. Later at about 5 pm, we came to the nearby rocky place and sat quiet expecting some sightings. We heard the barking dear and nothing much in the evening. Food was brought from Thatha’s place and we had dinner. As we were getting ready to go to bed, we heard the Leopard growling (sounded like sawing) and a deer panicking and bellowing several times. The air was echoing with these sounds and we were all awe struck with it. A little later an elephant trumpeted and every thing became quiet after that. We could hear all this very clearly as there was no other noise and it was very peaceful.

Day 2 at 6 a.m, we decided to trek back to the pajero and take a drive.We sighted spotted deers, Monitor(Udumbu) and a croc in the banks of the Thunakadavu Dam. The morning drive was very good and refreshing as the air was unpolluted. After about a 2 hour drive, we came to Parambikulam and had breakfast at Lakshmi Mess-hot  Idllis and dosas, it was very tasty. One shouldn’t miss Lakshmi Mess food –tiffin or meals-its too good.

At about 3 pm we decided to do some trekking on the route back to the Sambar Machan with a slight deviation en route to Full Moon Census Machan. This Machan is now closed and no trekking is allowed any more as it has been declared a core area.  It was very cloudy and we expected a lot of rains, so no cameras, only Binocs. We also prepared ourselves for leech bites and applied snuff powder mixed with neem oil, it did help a lot. As we trekked, we saw a lot of spotted deer, a couple of Bisons hiding  in the very nearby bush and Nilgiri Langur in close quarters and were calling. 

We also saw recent leopard pug marks on the track. It started to rain heavily and we took shelter under a huge tree, watching a few sambar deer in the nearby vayal. We were there for about ten minutes and wondering how to get back to the vehicle in the rain. All of us were fully drenched, but still trying to spot animals thru the Binocs. Suddenly our guide Babu, saw some thing moving by the corner of his eyes and whispered “Puli,Puli”-Tiger. All of us scrambled towards him asking where? Yes, we could see in the pouring rain in the distant vayal, very near the Sambar deer, a beautiful and majestic Tiger. He/She was gracefully walking past the Sambar. What a sight it was, there was silence amongst us. Everybody spell bound. The Tiger walked past the sambar very close and went beside a bush. The sambar were vigilant and was just watching the Tiger. The Tiger turned around and went past the Sambar again and into the bush. We sighted the Tiger for may be just about 2 mins only, but the sight was fantastic and very very rear one and worth walking thru pouring rain and bleeding from leech bites. The rain came down a bit and we found our way back to the Pajero fully drenched.It was an amazing trek even though it was only a short distance that we went. We reached Thatha’s place had a couple of katta chai and warmed ourselves. Nightfall came and we had an early supper, discussed a lot about the Tiger sighting  and went to bed happy as it was one of our best days in Parambikulam.

Day 3 We got up at about 7, had a wash finished our morning routines  and packed our bags. Had b/fast and chai at Thatha’s place, settled his bill and started driving back to Parambikulam. On the way we sighted a pack of wild dogs on the road, about 7 of them. They were a bit curious about us, walked a bit towards our vehicle and turned into the bush later. We spent about 10 mins watching them. 


We reached paramikulam,  picked up some eggs and veggies for our stay at Tellikal I.B. We drove back to Anapady office collected the keys for Tellikal I.B. We have to come back half way to enter into the forest to trek to Tellikal. We parked the Pajero close to the road, nearby a forest office, which is by the side of huge Dam. There are 2 new guest houses by the dam. We repacked our dresses, food to be taken to Tellikal and left the remaining clothes in the vehicle. We have to carry all our food, clothes,water etc. and trek about 5 kms to reach Tellikal I.B. We reached in just over an hour or so. We spotted some Bison on the way and a lot of Sambar in the vayal just opposite Tellikal I.B, This accommodation is like an inspection bunglow, which was recently done up and can accommodate about6-8 persons. There is no power and water has to be brought  from the near by river. The guides put up the beds and brought water and cooked the lunch. After lunch, around 3pm we went for trek to the nearby vayal after permission from the forest officer who stays by the vayal. We saw a huge herd of Bison in the far end of the vayal. It was cloudy, and they were grazing, looking up every now and then. We spent almost an hour there watching the Bison and expected some action. A sambar deer was panicking and came running towards the Bison herd and disappeared in the bush. We don’t know for what reason it did that.It was getting dark and we had to return to the I.B. We cooked dinner, while it was still drizzling. It’s a lot of fun when all of us take part and do some cooking. We do it every time in Tellikal I.B and never got tired of it. Had dinner and sat outside with our torches to spot some movement. We could see the same sambar herd we saw earlier in the vayal opposite. We heard a few bellowing of the sambar nearby  and expected some action but nothing else happened. The night was quiet and we could clearly hear the Langur calling far away, may be leopard or a Tiger  was on the prowl. We went to bed later in the night planning to make another trek to the  vayal in the morning.

Day 4 It was drizzling thru the night. Got up early, because of weather, only 2 of us went for trek, others went back to bed. The trekkers came back, no sightings. We all started to pack, the guides were busy making breakfast and cleaning up the place. After b/fast we all trekked back the distance to reach our Pajero. Almost near the dam, the guide in front suddenly stopped us and signed not to make any noise. We heard branch being broken off the tree and realised that Elephants were in the nearby bush, almost on our track. We waited for a few minutes and decided to back track and come around, as it is dangerous to go further near the elephants. Coming around, we saw 3 of them feeding almost on the track we took earlier. We spent some time watching the Elephants and then left for our vehicle. We started to drive at about 11 am, thanked and dropped the guides off at Anapady office, had some tea and left for Bangalore. A long drive back, talking about our sightings,and planning our next forest visit. Sighting a tiger was jackpot for us. We reached Bangalore at about 10 pm. It was a fantastic trip as usual, but extraordinary this time because we sighted Tiger.