Parambikulam is part of the Anamalaia hills of the Kerala side of Western
Ghats Range of mountains.
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 5th 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.
