Grand Southern India Train Odyssey Feb 21—Mar 06, 2008
Posted by David Bishop
David Bishop
David Bishop loves his vocation and cannot imagine anything better than exploring wild and beautiful places in Asia and the Pacific in the company of friends and clients. H...Related Trips
This was yet another VENT world first, exploring and birding a delightful part of Southern India aboard the Deccan Odyssey train. From the bustling city of Bangalore—India's equivalent of Silicon Valley—we drove on pleasantly quiet roads (praise be to strikes on this occasion) and back in time to the lovely and surely medieval village of Kukri Belur. Replete with nesting endangered Spot-billed Pelicans and gloriously-colored Painted Storks, this village really is everything one imagines of another age. Other goodies here included a lesson in the production of silk worms and a very obliging Blue-faced Malkoha.
In the attractive city of Mysore, our accommodations at the Lalitha Mahal Palace were quite splendid, indeed. Those not so entranced by the lure of the museum and Mysore Palace (although I don't think anyone that night who looked upon the palace all lit up will ever forget that scene) birded the grounds of our "hotel" and, thanks to the hospitality of the manager, sat and sipped lemonade while watching a pair of Spotted Owlets at their nest.
Our second morning in the field brought us to the small and yet richly-endowed Salim Ali Sanctuary at Ranganthitoo, a little piece of paradise. Set on the Cauvery River, this important sanctuary is the nesting home to seemingly every conceivable large wading bird. How marvelous to enjoy such close proximity to breeding plumaged Eurasian Spoonbills with their golden throats edged in scarlet, chattering Asian Open-billed Storks, and all the while huge mugger crocodiles watching balefully from their basking rock. Noisy Stork-billed Kingfishers, a silvery-male Paradise Flycatcher, a charming colony of Streak-throated Swallows, and gigantic fruit-bats all added to an exciting, effervescent scene, and reminded us of the biological diversity of the incredible domain that is India.
Uphill and down dale we trundled across ever and ever increasingly wilder countryside until we reached the gates of the vast Nagarhole National Park. Nagarhole, together with the adjoining Mudumalai, Bandipur, and Wynaad reserves, encompasses an area of approximately 2,000 sq km. During the next couple of days we concentrated our efforts on Nagarhole with its relatively more luxuriant, lower elevation forests and, consequently, more diverse array of birds and mammals. This vast area supports one of the highest tiger prey densities anywhere in Asia and, as a consequence, Nagarhole supports one of the few truly thriving populations of tigers anywhere within the great cat's range. Similarly large numbers of leopard too are present. Notwithstanding, neither species is easy to observe, as they have learned well to hide themselves from man. Nevertheless, with the aid of open backed jeeps and boats, we ventured out at dawn and dusk to quietly seek out these and the myriad of other wildlife for whom Nagarhole is home.
"Nagarhole is everything one might imagine wild India to be; vast, vast woodlands alive with bird song and the territorial calls of barking deer, only silenced by the nerve tingling roar of courting tigers; herds of elephant, sometimes a hundred strong, wading unmolested across the delightful Kabini River; giant gaur somnolently munching on rich pasture, or an Indian Nightjar trilling from our path as we make our way home in the dark."
Nagarhole is a reminder of what wild India was really like—seemingly endless forests and grasslands teeming with wildlife. Some of the species we encountered here included: amazing views for nearly everyone of a male Malabar Trogon perched right alongside the road; a roosting Mottled Wood-Owl; several Gray Junglefowl and Red Spurfowl; hordes of Alexandrine, Rose ringed, Plum headed, and Malabar parakeets; an exciting coterie of woodpeckers, including the diminutive Heart-spotted; Forest Wagtails; Orange Minivets; and a goodly collection of "real" birds (babblers, for those not yet familiar with this wonderful group of Asian birds!). But the mammals stole the show. An adult female tigress chasing off a huge male (she presumably had cubs nearby), and a superb male leopard that hunted for ten minutes right in front of our jeep will be memories indelibly inscribed forever. But that wasn't all; herds of enormous gaur on a misty woodland morning; ruddy mongooses on the prowl; elephants here and there, well-scattered at this time because there was so much water available; and a fine supporting cast of several species of deer, monkeys, and squirrels. This is the India I so love and revere.