A fury of colors hits the eye as the jungle unfolds itself into a collage of greens, yellows and greens. Driving through the serpentine tracks lined by teak wood, it feels like I am rallying down a dirt track. The journey however abruptly ends near a small murky pool, surrounded by dense undergrowth. I wait in the open jeep, with a bunch of motley tourists, lost in the forests of Kabini waiting with bated breath for our first wildlife sighting of the day.
Indian Roller
The sun turns golden, creating patterns on the waters. We stop, wait and hope that a wild beast will soon cross our path. Our naturalist whispers, “This is the tiger’s pool, usually they come here at this hour to drink some water.” Leopards he adds avoids a clash with the tigers by arriving a few minutes early. But neither of the wild cats are probably thirsty enough to appear.
The silence is all pervading, except for the sounds of the forest. The hill mynahs shriek, as the streak throated woodpecker knocks on the wood. A serpent crested eagle is chased by a drongo and an Indian roller, while the peacock spreads his wings and does a jig for us. Meanwhile the langurs are busy exercising their limbs.
And then the drama unfolds. A female elephant gracefully steps into the pool, and starts quenching her thirst and showering mud liberally on her. She pretends to ignore us, carrying on with her evening ablutions, and slowly turns away. Soon a calf joins in and they enjoy a private moment in the pool. We watch them in complete silence, with a little bit of awe and then continue with our journey, hoping for more encounters.
A Wild Elephant
As we meander through the woods, the path takes us down to the backwaters of the River Kabini. This is the moment that we are all waiting for. The blue green waters with forests on both banks, the sun lit bamboo trees, the golden streaked sky blind you for a moment. Elephants are the real showstopper. Hundreds parade down the banks of Kabini, basking in the sun, dancing, swimming, tearing and feeding on the bamboos. The forests belong to them. The tuskers loom large as a couple of them are locked in a conflict. A trio dance their way into the forest. Awed by their sheer size, we stop by to record the phenomenon.
As cameras come out, our naturalist says that large families with calves migrate to these backwaters every summer looking for food. “This is Asia’s largest congregation of elephants,” he announces, explaining that the forest was once the hunting ground of the Mysore Maharaja. A dam was built on the river, creating these backwaters which separated the forests – Nagarhole and Bandipur. To the elephants however, it is one seamless home with a perennial supply of food. We see more wildlife – a herd of gaurs cross our paths and a pack of dholes or wild dogs watch us from the jungles. However the elephants stop us dead in our tracks as we drive through the jungles.
Centuries ago, when India was ruled by the royalty, the wild elephants used to be captured here in a style known as ‘khedda’ and then trained for war. Drummers would drive an entire herd into a wooded enclosure where domestic elephants called ‘Kumkis’ were used as decoys to calm them. Today, however the elephants roam free across this wooded territory.
Crestedserpenteagle
Soon it is dusk and we board a small ferry to go on a river safari. It is a birder’s paradise. I see my first peregrine falcon here, when it shows me what speed is all about. It is perched for a moment on one of the dry branches sticking out of the waters and the next moment, it shoots right across the river. All this happens in just a matter of seconds – blink and you will miss kind of an experience. During the boat ride, I am lucky enough to see four different species of the kingfisher, starting from the uncommon common kingfisher, the regular white breasted kingfisher, the stork billed variety and the black and white pied kingfisher looking for their next meal in the waters.
I see more Malabar pied hornbills than cormorants as they created a racket while flying into the forest. Keeping the cormorants company is a lone darter, posing for me with his wings spread out. The painted storks create a pretty picture, looking at their reflections in the water, surrounded by the Asian open bill storks, Eurasian spoonbills and the woolly necked stork among several water birds.
The sun comes down as we watch herds of elephants strolling on the banks of the river with gaurs and spotted deer for company. We may have missed the elusive tiger and leopard, but the forests keep us captivated.
We return to the resort which was once the erstwhile hunting lodge of the Mysore Maharaja and is now managed by the Jungle Lodges and Resorts. Snuggling into our cottages, we listen to more stories of wildlife encounters as the jungles come alive.