Trip reports
Trip to Melghat: a report
by Divya RameshMADRAS TO MELGHAT
The morning of 19th April saw 10 MNS members huddle at the Chennai Central and board the Navjivan Express to Badnera Junction in Maharashtra. On arrival the next morning, 2 taxis took us 3000ft above sea level to the MTDC Resort at Chikaldara. It was quite clear that they don't have many visitors, but over the next 7 days sheets were changed, buckets were brought and we acquired the powers to sleep without electricity!
We developed a routine in the coming days which can briefly be described as follows:
4.30a.m – Leave the dormitory
5.30a.m. – Reach Semadoh, 1000ft above sea level. Make entries and take 1 or 2 guides with us in our rickety jeeps.
6.00a.m. – Enter the reserve at Pipalpadav and travel on a combination of any of the 4 trails that have been chalked out.
7.30a.m. – Out of the reserve, tea at Semadoh
9.00a.m. – Back at the dorm.
We learnt the hard way to stay indoors during the day and beat the 44 degrees outside and were greeted with rich bird life outside our windows! Lunch and some sleeping would follow. We would then leave by 4.00p.m and follow the same routine, but different trails and be back by 8.30p.m for dinner.
The 1st day we were thought to be normal tourists and were taken to see an old fort, which we abandoned halfway because of the tremendous heat and no wildlife except a Kestrel. On all our trips to the reserve, we saw Gaur, a herd of 16 including 5 calves! Sighting improved with each trip. We soon added Sambhar, 1 lone Chital, barking deer, wild boar and striped neck mongoose, to our growing list. One evening, we went to Kolkhas, more popularly known as nadi ke kinare (by the river side), the river being the almost dry Sipna (owing it's name to the teak trees that make up most of the forest). We witnessed a pied kingfisher in action, 2 black ibis, red-wattled and yellow-wattled lapwing, racquet-tailed drongos, pond heron, jungle babblers, crested serpent eagle (spotted almost everyday!), wooly necked stork(a nest and 2 babies discovered on another day!), rose-ringed and alexandrine parakeet, and golden backed woodpecker.
On the 2nd day, we added the Indian Pitta, changeable hawk-eagle and grey jungle fowl to the list. Peacocks, spotted doves, turtle doves, little brown doves, painted quail and oriental magpie robins were regulars and seen in good numbers. 2 of the members also observed the behaviour of communication between Gaur, where 1 male called and the rest came down the hill. This was a sight to behold and has been captured by Mr.Ramanan on camera. We were taken to a water hole called Chiklan Point where we saw paw prints of a jungle cat. The 3rd morning was spent in a futile attempt to see fossilised paw prints of animals including the evasive tiger. But the journey was more than 20kms from Semadoh and the roads were quite terrible, so we turned back. While some of us went to Sunset point and Prospect point on a couple of days, the more hardy people made the long journey to and fro the reserve sincerely, and were rewarded with excellent sighting on one particular trek. They saw 4 barking deer, 1 wild boar, jungle owlet, common iora, blossom-headed parakeet, white bellied drongo and 2 leopards not more than 75mts away! An earlier trek which concluded at Kolkhas, revealed a black eagle, little cormorant, white breasted waterhen, little blue kingfisher, grey wagtail, Malabar whistling thrush. A 3rd trek took us to a tiger kill that was about 4 days old. Our last sighting was a honey buzzard near the dorm on the last day and the rock Agama, male and female.
The entire trip was sprinkled with interesting conversations with the employees at the resort, people at small villages nearby, our drivers, guides and each other. It was a great opportunity for us as part of MNS to visit this tiger reserve, still untouched by tourism, with it's own pros and cons. All in all, it was a fantastic trip! I would personally like to thank Mr.Vijaykumar for organizing the entire journey and all the other members for their company, stories and laughter.
Birds seen near the resort : Yellow throated sparrow, red vented and red whiskered bulbul, yellow-cheeked tit, brahminy myna, oriental white-eye, purple rumped sunbird, Loten's sunbird, rufous backed shrike, white throated fantail flycatcher, Eurasian blackbird, Tickell's blue flycatcher, Tickell's flowerpecker, rufous bellied babbler, Indian tree pipit.
Other birds missed out in the narration : Cattle egret, short toed snake eagle, grey francolin, stone curlew, blue rock pigeon, red collared dove, Asian koel, dusky eagle owl, common Indian nightjar, Indian roller, coppersmith barbet, black dorngo, common myna, jungle myna, treepie, house crow, jungle crow, common lora, common babbler, common tailorbird, Indian robin, paddyfield pipit, house sparrow.