The woe of an elephant

Trekking in these regions is not difficult. The forest has its own charms to keep you amused, sometimes, to keep you spellbound. But then, you have got to be alert.

It was not a full leg of trekking for us. The jeep transported us as far into the jungle as the rough path would allow. As we were carried jolting along, someone in the group spotted a baby elephant. We stopped the vehicle. I was the first to get off.

I took the lens shield away to shoot it. In the meantime, others had joined. Maybe, it was the whirring sound that attracted the herd. The baby, obviously, was not alone. I didn’t know that. I was so involved looking through the lens that I didn’t notice the menacing march of the herd toward me. But then, it stopped—the herd. Only then did I realized that our own team to was behind me. The elephants were smart enough to outwit us.

One member of the herd caught my attention. There were huge blobs, like the boils you get when you get scaled by hot liquid, on many parts of its body. The ones on the thighs and legs were clearly visible. I thought that pachyderm must be in great pain. I thought I must help this beast.

The only thing I could do was send a photo of this to Ravi Chellam (Wildlife Conservation Society) who in turn asked his friend Dr NVK Ashraff (Wildlife Trust of India ), a veterinary doctor. Ravi replied that the elephant suffered from a common disease called cuteneous filariasis, a common one during the monsoon.


Well, it was learning. As I said, the jungle teaches. It has its own ways of reaching out to us.

I spotted the crested serpent eagle. Amusing! Turning its head to 180 degrees. I was so fascinated that I had not clicked the camera at all. Later  I managed to take one.


I decided that next time I visited a forest, I will do some research before I started. It will prepare me for what to expect.

Mudumalai Again!

This time we did not stay in the log house. In fact, it is a misnomer to call the houses we put up last time as log houses. They were thatti houses.

We put up at Hotel Green Park Resort. It was neither green nor a park. Yeah, the trees around, the garden and the benches in the park were green.

After the morning rituals that included breakfast, we started on our trek. The road narrowed as went deep inside. The jungle authorities seemed to be really working here. We could see electrified fence to keep the animals away from the resort side.

Not a wild beast anywhere, however, the clear-winged Forest Glory caught our attention. The technical name for this winged creature is Vestalis Gracilis. Look at the blue of its long slender body. No better lens than the retina of the eyes can catch the true glory of this colour.

It was then I became aware of the buzzing sound of a flowing stream. The other side of the stream  seemed interesting. How did folks ferry to the other side? Certainly, there was no ferry around.  Our resort dog, (Oh, well, it has along with us since we started out in the morning) showed us the way. It trotted with great confidence, and suddenly walked over a huge trunk of a tree that connected the banks. The dog moved with nimble steps. And we were not so artful as the doggy, and some of us were really scared to cross without others holding them.

Man needs to learn a lot to go back to his roots. The jungle is a good teacher.

Huddled couples at Ranganathittu, The beasts were missing.

We set out at daybreak. And we set out without  breaking our fast. Our driver was ready with his rickety jeep. Rickety on city roads, but a tough one for the jungle. The vehicle seems to have adapted itself to the ways of the jungle.

The jeep dropped us at the usual stop from where we have to go on foot. A few meters inside, we could feel the earth reverberating.  Not those violent ones you see on movies. It was a light vibration, and the driver was quick enough to alert us of an approaching herd of elephants.

We herded ourselves together, an instinctive impulse to secure ourselves.  But that was not needed. We were safe. Imagine seeing twenty elephants at a time in a herd! Cameras whirred, and some guys went to the extremes, taking pictures from various angles as if they were clicking for the Nat Geo.

And the trek went on in an even tenor. Nothing special excepting the crested serpent eagle. It is not a common nor is it rare to spot a serpent eagle. However, call it coincidence, wherever I go I spot one.

There is something about this bird. We shall see more of this in the next blog.

We returned to our deep jungle home for lunch. A bit tired, but we were ready to start once again. It was about three in the afternoon when we reached Rangananthittu. A bird sanctuary, Rangananthittu in Karnataka was inaccessible today. They said that the river Kaveri was in spate. So we went back empty handed. All we could see were young couples in love scattered everywhere. They were quick to cover their faces lest they should be photographed and posted on a blog like this.

Our boys didn’t care. They had come here for the wild!

The Jungle Beckons

The panoramic view was enchanting. Trees, trees, trees—greenery everywhere. All I felt was the light and colour flowing into my retina. I just couldn’t let go of the camera.

“Alight, alight,” cried Sundar, the guide. It was about one in the afternoon. It was not hot.

Were we hungry? I didn’t know until I saw the menu on the board. Yeah, we were at the restaurant of the Deep Jungle Home.

Set 1 - Available on Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday

• Breakfast: Poori with Potato Masala and Rawa Uppma with Chutney Tea or Coffee.
• Lunch: Chicken Biriyani or Vegetable Biriyani, Plain Rice, Dhal Fry, one Vegetable, Curd ,Vermicelli Paayasam
• Dinner: Jeera Rice, Chicken Gravy or Vegetable gravy, Chapathi, Curd Rice.                         

 Set 2 - Available on Thursday, Saturday and Tuesday

• Breakfast: Vermicelli Upma, Idly served with Sambar and Chutney, Tea or Coffee.
• Lunch: Aaloo Parota served with Vegetable curry or chicken curry and White rice, Dhal, Curd, Paayasam.
• Dinner: Chapathi, Veg Gravy or Chicken Gravy, Veg Fried Rice and Curd Rice with Pickle

It was delightful to enter the rooms allotted to us. They were not room, but log houses. There the folks called them ‘bamboo houses.’

We grabbed a quick bite at the restaurant before settling in our log houses.

At three we were, off. The vehicle that carried us this time was the jeep. A rickety old vehicle was good at the forest path. The roads were motorable, but we were allowed only up to a point from where the vehicles of the forest department will transport us to the interior of the jungle.

Far from the madding crowd, the atmosphere was pristine and peaceful. There were indication of upcoming rain. The cool breeze and droplets of water here and there, and sometimes upon us said that the forest shower would show up anytime.

Imagine what should greet us when we were at the portals of the forest? The Bonnet Macaque (Macaca radiata). Nice augury!

Lord Hanuman?

We got off the jeep, and started walking about. It was not trekking. The path was not rough, and the light was sufficient enough to shoot without a marked impact. And then it caught us—the national bird in its full splendor—the peacock. When I said ‘full splendour’ not that it had spread its feathers. The very colours of her body were splendid.

Cameras whizzed, and deep in we walked. Some of the party were tired, but determined to go deeper. Our efforts did not go in vain. The first of the wild to greet us were a herd of Spotted deer or Axis deer. They called it common, but for us, city folks, it was not common at all. Even the sparrows were rare in cities.

The deer indeed is captivating. No wonder, Valmiki used it so well to make Ravana entice Seeta. But then, we didn’t have the time or mind to think of Ram. The forest beckoned us.

Well, the small animals and the birds were just the preview. What we walked into was indeed amazing. The very magnitude of the beast—the pachyderm—the Indian elephant. For people who visited big temples, the elephant is common, but the elephants in the jungle is different. It is not meek, and when it is moving in a herd with a young one in the  pack, you would be buying trouble if you attempted to shoot them with your camera.  I would realize it only the next time when I met the group again.

Welcome to Virgin Nature

When people ask me what I do, I am at a loss. I do not know what to reply. I am a professional photographer, and my working hours are not between 9 and 5. The factory inside my brain is always at work. 

24/7.
When I look at a tree, I not only look at the tree, but also the woods.And I look at it through my mind's lens.

I think my mentors do understand me. That's what I thought when the professor  from the college where I graduated from called me and said that I had to lead a team of junior students to Bandipur forests.

Bandipur! That brings back to me the memories of my first visit. There is something attractive about the name, and something magnetic about the very place. I am close to nature. I love trees, the wild animals, and the very rocks and earth of the forest. Ah, I must have been a wild  animal in my earlier lives.

We planned as usual, only not to follow it up. So instead up Bandipur, we went to Mudumalai forest. It was monsoon, and downpour would make the track unwalkable in both Bandipur and Mudumalai.

Mudumalai was a consolation to me, and a forest is a forest not matter which--Bandipur or Mudumalai.

So off we set, a team of 14 people. Not all the members were into photography by choice or design. Some of them were there by default. But they loved trekking, and that was enough for me to have them in my party.

We didn't carry any security gear such as a baton or an air-rifle. We wanted to shoot only with the camera. Maybe, put all those into paper or picture.


The train was late in the evening at 9.30 pm. The younger people of the team were excited. We checked our gear, and equipment. The train left on time.


It was early in the morning when reached our destination. To get all the fourteen into the van that took us to Bandipur was a task more difficult than trekking. It was almost one hour before got on to the van.


The van tumbled along, and we asked the driver to drop us at the RTO check post . Was it check post we said? Yes.


And so we were dropped at the check post, and were assured that it was walking distance from here.


Only after the van left did we realize that we were dropped at the Tamil Nadu border check post, and not the RTO check post of the forest.

Lucky for us, that I remembered striking a friendship with the forest ranger whose office was nearby.


He came out with a brilliant idea--we should hitch a hike on the lorries that drove into the forest. He helped us stopping the vehicles, and we got on lorries in groups--four for one.

And that was godsend. From the top of lorries we had a panoramic view of the forest side.