Indian Wildlife Club Ezine (June, 2002)

Tigers enchanted me long before I read William Blake’s

“Tyger! Tyger! Burning bright in the forests of the night,”

No wonder it culminated in my visit to Sariska National Park by bike. The park is situated 200 kms from Delhi in Rajasthan. A relaxed drive from the bustling capital will take you in five hours to this enchanting place.

This beautiful park encompasses 866 sqkm of tropical deciduous shrub forests. Aravalli range with its ravines and cliffs add to the scenic splendor of the park. A haven for tigers, leopards, hyenas and deers; it also has a wide representation of avian population.

Praying that no wild animal would take a fancy to me, I started the 20 km ride from the sanctuary gate. The fun of the ride was to tackle the hostile terrain of sand mounds, rugged rocks, broken by off beat roads and loose gravel by bike. The end of the track offers the most breathtaking vista of the ruins of Kankwari fort, set amidst an arid scrub-land overlooking a lake fed by a natural spring. The fort built by Parikrama kings was infamously used by Aurangazeb to imprison his brother Dhara Shikoh and later execute him. Part of the fort is in ruins today.

It still has some exquisite paintings on the wall, which have withstood the test of time and scribble of modern Romeo’s to exemplify the skills of art practiced then.

The 5000-year-old Neelkanth temple and the ruined town of Bhangarh built during 1631 Ad by Madhoo Singh younger brother of Amar Singh, still stand to tell us the richness of history Sariska has. Bhangarh town with a population of 10,000 people was built to a perfect town plan. The town is segregated distinctly as a market area with rows of shops on either side. A fort door separates this from an area of temples, of which one Shiva temple has a distinct south Indian flavor of architecture and still well preserved with intricate stone carvings, notably of granite stones. The palace is built on the slopes of a hill camouflaged to the color of the sand overlooking the whole town. This beautiful township’s destruction is still shrouded with mystery. The inhabitants abandoned this place to move to Ajabgarh. The easiest way to reach this town is through Sariska sanctuary; travel 22 kilometers to Thela village and then another 30 kilometers to the town of Golakabas. You have to be ready for a bumpy ride but then Bhangarh would definitely compensate your effort.

The visit to the sanctuary is not all about seeing animals, but also above enjoying the beautiful home of the animals, experiencing the dynamism of the schema of the jungle, understanding the thin balance of the food chain, which has been perpetually threatened by human activities.

As I lie reminiscing in the hide built close to the water spot to watch animals closely without disturbing them, about the events that led me to this visit, I realized had for company three spotted deer or chitals. Their short flirtation before my camera was good enough for me to shoot a good number of pictures. After a short break a hoard of sambhar deer and wild boars visited the water spot. At the end of my two-hour sojourn in the hide, a jungle cat sped past who seemed to be too busy to pause for a snap.

Life in the jungle doesn’t end with the sun going down. The dusk sees another world waking up. I shared a jeep for a night safari to the village of Taal. The village is in the buffer forest area and has a temple with sulphur springs. This place is a favourite haunt for leopards. Our search leads us to the spotting of a cat family in the ascending order of their size. We first saw a common palm civet cat ferociously cleaning his back, and then we a busy Indian small civet cat foraging for food. Our searchlight then caught the shimmering eyes of a leopard, which was lying down probably thinking what a dog’s day it was.

The cool breeze caressing me after a hot day rejuvenated my tired limbs. The drive back to the confines of my hotel in the open top jeep was filled with excitement. I saw a hyena cross the road to join another at the side of the road to feast on the carcass of a wild animal. While I was busy chatting with my guide about the lucky day, I would have missed but for the keen site of my guide a glorious sight, which still lingers in my eyes. As the jeep took a turn to my hotel right near the entrance below the metal road a full-grown leopard was feasting on his kill. We silently parked the jeep and waited holding our breath to enjoy this beautiful cat just ten feet away from us. Not liking our intrusion he grunted ordering us to move away.

The next morning I beat the dawn by being inside the jungle along with my guide. Our trek took us along side a jungle stream: one of the rare natural sources of water for the sanctuary. We walked up the stream passing the hanuman temple to spot the pugmarks of a tiger. The tiger trail led us to a rocky terrain upstream around two kilometers from the temple. The trail ended near a fresh tiger kill of a hapless sambhar. Evidence suggested that the tiger would return later in the evening much before the hyenas could finish eating the carcass. The numerous pugmarks of hyenas suggested a pack in the vicinity.

This park has a rich population of fauna; if we can spend time not being obsessed with sighting a tiger, then we can equally enjoy the sightings of wild boar, jungle cats, Indian small fox and a high population of ungulates.

I will do no justice if I don’t mention the rich avian population the sanctuary has to offer. They were a source of delight with their music and presence. A pair of brown fish owls which are considered to be rare in this sanctuary was trying to nibble a little of the dead sambhar. The other birds I could spot and identify were gray-headed fish eagle, black winged stilt bird, red-welted leap wing, velvet and red ringed parakeet. There are a lot more for the avid ornithologist who can spend time identifying them.

I want to finish this account and share my excitement with all, along with the message that as responsible enthusiasts of nature and wildlife let’s respect the home of the animals and jungle dwellers. Let’s help in keeping their places clean by bringing back all non-degradable wastes like plastic and litter with us.

By
Baladev Manning

Amitabh Agarwal and Vinai Shukla, last month's winners, have again given all correct answers to this month's bird quiz. Congratulations!

Toby Ninan retired from Delhi Zoo about two years back. With his varied experiences with the wild animals in the zoo, he is the right person to direct your queries to. Hear what Ninan has to say about his life and chosen career!

Animals are very interesting but humans are quite so too. It was a very normal day at the zoo and there were just the mundane affairs to be attended to.

I was wrestling a few files when I had a visitor who looked very troubled & anxious. He was an elderly man whose dress was neat but well worn and had obviously seen better days!

I asked him to sit down and tell me what was troubling him and how I could help. This was a common occurrence in my experiences at the zoo; usually people would approach me for bits and pieces of mammals, birds & reptiles which ranged from feathers to bones, bits of sloughed off skin and other unmentionable parts of the anatomy of bears, tigers and what have you.

Well this gentleman wanted something different. He wanted the dust from under a lion, a tiger and an elephant. This seemed easy enough but since there was a pile of paper tigers on my desk all of which were growling for immediate attention I could not oblige the visitor immediately. 'Aha' but what would he do with the dust from under the feet of so many denizens of the forest who were my charges? All these "dusts" were to be consigned to the flames of a "havan" and his son would get a smooth passage to one of those far off climes across the seven seas.

I promised our dear worthy that come rain or shine no animal wild or otherwise would stand in my way of such a worthy cause and I would produce the required dust in a couple of days time as this is the time required for my friends to shake off the dust from their feet.

A couple of days passed and true to myself I completely forgot all the promises I had made. Well, that day I was in a pensive mood and sitting on my chair and staring out at the great beyond of my beloved park when lo and behold I saw our friend coming down the steps resolutely making a beeline to my doorstep. I was shaken out of my reverie and shook myself and the grey cells up violently trying to find an "instant -dust-from-under-the-feet of what you know!

The only way I could think of was this. I ran out with a sheet of paper behind my office and after offering a short prayer got three generous pinches of dust and packed these into packets put the initials "L' "T" & "E". As our friend walked into my office I was back at the desk with three packets carefully ensconced in the drawers of my desk. After the usual greetings I passed on the precious packets thinking that only the Almighty could help him.

Three weeks passed. I was inspecting a monkey moat trying to think of ways to clean it up when our friend came charging upto me and nearly fell at my feet. My dirty shoes did not seem to bother him and he blurted out his tale-His son had just been offered a good job in the U.S of A and would be leaving for those beloved shores shortly!

His joy was complete and I was left figuring out how the dust from under the feet of an alley cat inhabiting the piece of land behind my office could have brought out such a miracle.

Screening of Films World Wide Fund for Nature-India organized a screening of Sarang-The Peacock followed by a painting competition based on the film at India Habitat Centre, Lodhi Road, New Delhi on 12th of May 2002.
The program began at 10.45 am. Mr. Nalin Sharma and Mr. Rajpal Singh of WWF-India welcomed the audience. Dr. Susan Sharma introduced the film explaining how the short film is the result of observing peafowls at Tuglakabad Fort area and Deer park, New Delhi for one and a half years. The screening was followed by a painting competition for the children from the audience. They were given freedom to express their impressions about the film they had just seen. The paintings were a riot of colours as the children painted peafowls in the wild. WWF gave out prizes to best paintings in four age groups.

WildScapes - PhotoExhibition at Habitat Centre, New Delhi

" Photography is about light, the right moment and magic. It will appear, sometimes for a few minutes, sometimes longer- you must be ready and let it happen. When it does appear, it is like some very special gift, prepared on a beautiful stage- It is nature"

News........

IndianWildlifeClub.com in association with Fuji Film organized 'WILDSCAPES- Nature and Wildlife by Young Photographers' at the Convention Foyer of Habitat Centre on 11 and 12 May 2002. Five members of IndianWildlifeClub.com- Jayant Deshpande, Saurav Ghosh, Rahul Dutta, Aditya Singh and Anantika Singh exhibited their stills taken in Ranthambhore, Mula mutha Bird Sanctuary, Corbett and Sariska and Nainital. The two day exhibition inaugurated by Mr. Vimal Khemka of Jindal Photofilms Ltd. attracted a large number of discerning individuals. A total of 50 photographs were exhibited. Two first prizes one from the 'Nature' section and one from 'wildlife' were sponsored by FujiFilm. 'Behind the Bush' ( picture shown on right) shot by Aditya won the first prize in the 'Wildlife' section.'Lone Twig' by Ramita Chowdhury won the first prize among nature stills. The panel of judges consisted of Ms Madhu Prasad ( Orient Paper Back), Mr. Nalin Sharma, WWF(I), Lt.Col. Ashwin Baindur ( National Defence College) Mr. Shashi Sharma ( G.E Capital) Mr. Praveen Agarwal, ( Agarwal Jaitley Associates) and Mr. M.K.S Pasha (Wildlife Trust of India).

While we received over 150 VERY positive comments in our Visitor's Book reproduced under are some of the remarks which encouraged the effort made by IndianWildlifeClub.com in organizing this photo exhibition.

The thematic display of the photographs was appreciated by many. Special thanks for organizing the display goes to Mr. Sandeep Pandey. , a young and upcoming art gallery expert.

Here is what some of the visitors had to say.

" The work definitely isn't of amateurs. The photographers are gifted and their work talks of complete professionalism. " : Kounteya Sinha

" Excellent. The rare sight of a tiger leaping over a stretch of water is beautiful. " : B.M. Kar

" Awesome effort. And it's such a pleasure to see people indulging in things close to one's heart." : Rahul Banerji

" The photographs are superb- makes you long for the jungles. " : Bhavna Ledle

" Excellent. Our way to motivate Indians to protect nature and its habitat. " : Wg. Cdr. Sharad Chaturvedi

" Makes me want to get out- into the beautiful countryside. " : Dr. M. Parry

" Very Nice, made me think about getting into photography" : Pranay Manchanda

" Great art expunged from the heart of Nature " : Sumeer Rawat

" Pretty good, came very close to reality " : Jaideep Saran

" Please bring this exhibition to Mumbai " : Rani Singh

" Fantastic! Fabulous! Amazing! Feels like just came out of a jungle " : Gayatri Khanna

The last word is by Mr. M.S Gill, Ex-Chief Election Commisioner of India
" See the wildlife of India while it lasts. The photographers capture what is sadly passing away. " : M.S. Gill

Trek in Asola Sanctuary

As a part of the 'Cathay Wilderness Program', the annual event organized by Cathay Pacific Airways to choose winning students for an all paid African Safari, IndianWildlifeClub.com organized a trek to Asola sanctuary ( part of the ridge forest of Delhi) with the help of the Delhi Forest Department. The trek is took place on 3rd of May. Eager students participated from the following Delhi schools.

Presentation Convent
S.M Arya Public School
Kulachi Hansraj Model School
Delhi Public School
Air Force Bal Bharati School
Modern school
Army Public school

The participating teams from colleges were asked to prepare projects on a variety of topics "Air" "Water" "Landuse'' "Garbage" & "Energy" within ten days. The subjects were chosen by eac team by a draw of lots. On 13th the presentations on these topics were arranged at WWF-India at Lodhi Road, New Delhi. A panel of judges consisting of Mr. Shanu Mukherjee, Cathay Pacific airways, Dr. Sandeep Behera, WWf and Dr. Susan Sharma, IndianWildlifeClub.com chose two winning teams from these presentations. These winners will then appear for interviews with the Cathay selectors who will decide on the two lucky winners.

and Views......

Heard at the Yahoo group called " onlineenvironmentalmanagers "

'If most people really cared about ecology politicians would have to do something about it to get votes.'

'Sunday past I listened to a radio program dealing with science. An activist was interviewed who, in my estimation, took the bull by the horns and squarely blamed the PUBLIC - not the politicians for our current environmental problems. He argued that the politician is a creation of the public; he depends upon the public's votes in order to survive. If the public does not give the environment a high priority, neither will the politicians. At the present time, the degree to which people can deny the reality of climate change and the dangers it poses is amazing. The interviewed activist, for example, pointed out that HIS VERY OWN SON, who lives in a large city and hence has no need for a gas guzzling Sports Utility Vehicle, drives - you guessed it - an SUV! Activists today have to face this Alice-in- Wonderland of Climate Change Denial as a simple fact of life. A friend who lives in the U.S. State of New Jersey wrote to tell me that many(?) people in her state LIKE global warming because it means the winters are milder...................'

For those wanting to to go to the Valley of Flowers and beyond during the peak season, here is an offer from Nature Expeditions India (P) Ltd.

Dear Adventure travelers/ Partners,
Greetings from all of us at NEI!

We have had several request from agents/ clients for the group departure tours, so on their demand we enclose a group departure tour for Ladakh's Markha valley, starting in Leh on Monday 5th August and terminating in Leh on Saturday 17th August 2002.

WE CARE FOR NATURE.

Deepika Vohra can be contacted at deepika@indianwildlifeclub.com

Buceros bicornis

 The largest of the nine horn bill species found on the Indian subcontinent, the Great Pied horn bill also has one of the widest ranges, living everywhere from sea level to heights of nearly 5,000 feet. Doing justice to its name, the Great Pied hornbill can have wingspans of nearly five feet, with tails that can measure three feet. It is an incredibly beautiful bird as well, covered in black plumage, with a yellow bill that curves downward. Most distinctively, the horn bill's head is topped with an ivory formation, also known as a casque.

 This particular species of horn bill is chiefly fruit-eaters. Great Indian Horn bills like to eat various types of berries. Horn bills swallow most of their food whole instead of breaking it down first. After they consume the food, they'll regurgitate what they cannot digest such as bones, and pits.

 The males and females are mated for life. The usual clutch size is about 2-4 white round eggs. Th incubation period is about 28 to 40 days. It takes for another 4-8 week for the youngsters to mature. The mothers, during this maturation period, remain with their offspring. The males take care of the females when they are incubating, and the offspring when they are young. The males would eat the food, regurgitate it and give it to the young horn bills.

 The female Great Pied horn bill's inability to leave her young is a story unto itself. She seals herself inside the hollow of a tree using her own feces (males help with the process from the outside), and stays there until her young are born.

 Nearing Extinction?

 Now these wonderful and beautiful horn bills are becoming rare. They are near the verge of extinction. The main causes of their endangerment are people hunting them for their meat and destroying their natural habitat.  Large-scale killing of Horn bills occur  in Pakhui Wildlife sanctuary ( A.P) for their out-sized beaks, which the Nyshi tribals wear on top of their headgear in line with an old tradition. Wearing the beak, the tribe believes, is a sign of valour and masculinity, and the fact that the Nyshi form 50% of Arunachal's population is a measure of the threat to the species.

 Wildlife Trust of India has made the saving of these endangered species a special project. As part of the project, a large hoarding carrying a warning that Horn bills are protected by the Village Forest Development Council, which would impose a fine of Rs 5,000 on anyone found killing the birds, was erected at the Seijosa check-gate of the sanctuary.  WTI's Rapid Action Programme quickly had a consignment of fiberglass beaks fabricated in Delhi and sent to Seijosa to wean the tribals away from killing Horn bills. 

 To muster maximum support and participation in this conservation effort, a host of key officials and other individuals were roped in to participate in the inaugural  function at Seijosa-- the District Commissioners of East Kameng and Pashighat, Chairmen of the various VFDCs, the Honorary Wildlife Warden, State Forest Department officials, village elders, local villagers, State Wildlife Advisory Board members, and representatives of the ANWF.

Van Rakshak Project.

WTI's campign against hunting horn bills continues in Arunachal Pradesh. 

Details of  five main types of horn bills which are found in India are given below.  These large birds are fairly easy to spot in our National Parks.