At the beginning of the week on Oct 30th, our trip to parambikulum was still not finalized, worse still it was about to be dropped, due to the depression in bay of Bengal resulting in a heavy downpour in tamilnadu. It was make or break time and when I spoke to anand, we finally decided to go ahead and explore this lesser know wild life sanctuary, parambikulum on the kerala, tamilnadu border.
No sooner was the decision made the day to start came and we (teja, sandy and myself) were boarding a bus towards Coimbatore. We had planned to stay for two nights in the sanctuary and hence I had taken a leave on Friday, whereas teja and sandy, unable to get leave, had fallen sick, to make the trip. Anand, who was already in coimbatore, met us at the bus stand and we headed towards his house. After a bath and breakfast in his farmhouse we started towards our destination at around 11a.m. we drove through anamalai wild life sanctuary and entered parambikulum, kerala, after crossing anappadi check post. The roads in anamalai, which looked as if they were last tarred by the British before they left India, was contrastingly different to the well-maintained ones in kerala. We picked up a guide raja, and drove for another two kilometers to ‘anapadi information centre. Here we took permission to stay at tellikal IB and anappadi machan for the two nights that we planned to stay in parambikulum. We then picked up another guide cum cook and headed towards parambikulum village, another 10km further on. At parambikulum the cooks bought Groceries for the night and next morning breakfast. But for some reason they bought Groceries and bought and bought and bought for the next hour and a half. For a moment I was wondering if I was here to eat or watch some wild life. But probably looking at teja’s personality they must have thought that this guy will not survive with out tones of food.
Finally they got going and we were on our way to the starting point of the trek, 2 km from anapadi forest office. Anand and sukumaran (cook) had to drop us here, go back to the forest office, park the vehicle there and walk to the starting point of the trek. It was around 6p.m when we finally started towards our destination, thellikal IB, a five-kilometer trek. We were accompanied by ravikumar (guard), sukumaran (guide cum cook) and ravi (cook). It was fast getting dark as ravikumar (guard), led us into the path. With in half a kilometer of trekking we crossed the dam anappadi, as we crossed it, we saw that the sun had already gone down to our left, behind the hills and the sky looked painted in red. From then on we were walking with the help of torches. Our guide decided to take us through a shorter route, which was a footpath. A few minutes into this path we entered dense undergrowth of bamboo, and it was quite dark there, also it looked as if we were on the sets of sleepy hollow. Suddenly a loud flapping noise came from one of the bamboos above, and as we looked up we realized that it was just a bird. And so we carried on, a little further we again met up with the jeep track, which we followed towards the IB. As we neared the IB we saw reflection of the eyes from gaurs, sambars and cheetals. They promptly fled at the first sight of us. Very near to the IB, our guide showed us a leopard pugmark, ‘Fresh’, ‘just passed’, he said, looking at it. And so, we reached thellikal IB, after walking for an hour. The IB that was built during the British period looked aged which stood like a monument for many years, watching over the wildlife in the area.
We lit a few candles and sat in the verandah of the IB and looked out towards the grassland, that was the congregation ground for herbivores. Had we come a little earlier we stood a chance to spot them, but now it was dark. The highlight was that, the moon brightly lit the night. I went with Sukumaran to a water hole in the grassland and collected some water to wash dishes. On his second trip anand and teja joined sukumaran, this time to a river, thekaddy, which flowed behind the IB. It was an hour before sukumaran and Ravi, (cook), prepared the food, rice, sambar and one side dish. The taste was average but as it was quite hot we uploaded the lot in no time. After a hearty meal, ravikumar, led us for a night trek for about a kilometer on either sides of the jeep track which led from the IB. all we saw were a few eye shines of cheetal deer in the dark. During the trek, at one point of time, ravikumar had gone a little way further from us. We were keenly listening to the surroundings when all of a sudden I heard ravikumar’s voice…as if he was speaking to some one. I turned back towards teja and he looked equally puzzled. Our torchlight could not reach him and we did not know what to do. We quickened our pace and within a few minutes our torchlight fell on him and the confusion was cleared. He was talking on his cell phone. We later came to know that bsnl connectivity was available even in that remote part of the jungle.
We even entered the grassland, which turned out to be a very slushy place. During the walk we also startled a group of resting nilgiri languars, which fled from their resting place.
It was 10:30 when we hit the bed, or floor to be precise. There were two beds on which sandy and anand slept, where as teja and myself slept on the floor. I made myself comfortable in my sleeping bag, where as the others slept on blankets provided by the guards. I was too excited to sleep, as I wanted to hear the sounds of the jungle at night, probably a tiger roar or an alarm call by a herbivore. It was amazing to see that no sooner had sandy, anand, teja hit the bed they were fast asleep. And in it I realized that teja was a prolific snorer, supported effectively but on a lower decibel level by anand.
I soon realized that I just could not sleep. I felt so irritated that I wanted to stuff some thing in teja’s mouth. But very soon my frustration gave way and I became interested in his snoring. There was a pattern in his snoring; it started from base note, on to the next level and then on to next all the while the decibel levels increasing. It reached a level when he reached the highest note and I became so interested that I was waiting as to what would happen next, as I thought any higher his vocal cords would rupture and probably I could sleep peacefully. But nothing like that happened; the next note came back to the very first note he started with in the beginning. I lost interest and his snoring again became irritating to me. Somehow I was able to catch up with some sleep.
When I woke up at some time I noticed that teja was not sleeping next to me. He had joined anand, and sandy on the cot, probably to avoid the chill. But their snoring continued, whenever teja’s snore fell below a certain level, anand, as if to make up for the falling decibel levels, would in turn raise his snore decibel levels. They complimented each other well. Anyways I somehow managed to find some sleep.
It was 5:30 a.m when we all woke up and got ready for the morning trek.  Anand and myself started with ravikumar in one direction whereas sandy and teja left with sukumaran in another route. No sooner had we left the IB, we saw a few guars, which hurried past the jeep track. As we carried on the jeep track for another kilometer we realized that the jeep track was a hot spot for bisons and deers. They had moved along the path regularly. A few more kilometers into the trail the teak trees gave way to bamboo and ravikumar said that it was a hot spot for elephants. We also saw a lot of leopard pugmarks, again fresh, which adds to the excitement and frustration. At this point we decided to take a narrow footpath inside the jungle. We saw a lot of species of birds, one of them being ‘ratchet tailed drongo’, which was difficult for anand to remember. So we gave it a nickname – ‘rocket trained Rambo’ which was more easy to remember. One interesting fact about this bird was that, whenever ravikumar used that whistle of his, which made a shrill sound, the birds were attracted to the noise and would come closer to the source of the sound. But they stayed higher up on the trees that prevented us from taking their snaps.
We visited the river thekkady that ran through dense jungle. We also visited a salt pit, which was regularly used, by elephants and bisons. Except for the fact that they were not there at that time. On our return we noticed that that the path that we were following was regularly used by leopards. So it must have been 8:30a.m when we reached the IB. at the same time we saw teja and sandy come back as well. Their story was the same, not much sightings.  Anand and I went to the river and had a bath, or rather a dip in the freezing cold water. When we got back, breakfast was ready, and one new item, puttu, was part of the menu. Teja and sandy, had already eaten them, and were eagerly waiting for me to taste the item. I did so and my first reaction was that, how the hell-on earth did these guys eat it??? They started laughing at me and then let the secret out. The method of eating that puttu was to squash it with banana, mix sugar and then it tasted edible.
By 10a.m, we packed our items and started our return journey, back to the starting point of our trek, 5km away. Enroute we saw a few hornbills fly above our heads. Their flapping wings infact made a very deep hollow sound as they flew. We saw a river otter that hurried back into the bushes.  The highlight of the return journey was spotting tiger………………..tracks. Lots of them, till now we had seen only leopard tracks whose pugmarks consisted of four round fingers and a oval ball beneath. The tiger pugmarks were bigger, and the four fingers in the mark were candle flame shaped with a bigger ball behind. We followed the tiger tracks for around one and a half kilometer. It was infact a tigress and she had walked with her cubs on the jeep track the night before. A little further on we saw a huge monitor lizard, which must have been around 5feet, which retreated to its hideout under a rock.
We made it across the dam and back to our starting point of the trek.  Sukumaran, being a multi talented guy, knew car driving, and he returned to the place where our car was parked and drove it back to us. We were grateful that he could drive. We then carried on towards anappadi information centre and booked for that night stay at annapadi watchtower, 300mts from information centre. We then headed back towards parambikulum village where we had lunch and got chapattis prepared for the night stay, as no cooking was allowed near the watch tower. This again took more than an hour. We hurried towards annapadi, where we parked our car and trekked the little distance to the watchtower. As we left the road and were about to enter the footpath that took us to the watchtower, we saw a wild dog, a little further on the road, staring at us.It started drizzling and the time was already 5:30p.m.
We walked the little distance to the watchtower in no time.  The watchtower was around 20feet above the ground and surrounded by a large rock face on two of its side. The visibility was poor from the watchtower as trees grew all around it obstructing the view around. As we approached the watchtower, a large group of nilgiri languars, which were feeding on the trees next to the watchtower, quickly disappeared from sight. We kept our luggage’s inside and were reconnoitering the possibility of sitting idle and waiting for the animals to show up. But sukumaran had other plans, he said we should take a walk around and climb the rock face from where we would get a better view of the surroundings. We followed sukumaran even though I was a little unsure of his plans working. However silent that we would be, we were bound to make some noise that could scare away the animals.
It took us little time in climbing the highest point on the rock face, from where the view was truly beautiful and we also had a better view of the surroundings than we would have had from the watchtower.  As we were enjoying the view, we heard a noise that sounded like a bamboo being broken, a little below us in the bushes. We could not locate the source of the sound but it continued to emanate from the same location some where in the bamboos beneath us. ‘Elephant’ was the most likely animal that was making the sound. We decided to wait it out and sat on the rock, hoping for the animal to show itself. But after 10mins, the sound stopped, the elephant must have moved on, without making any further noise. Sukumaran came to us and asked if we would like to join him in trying to find the source of the sound.
I felt that we would make a lot of noise in trying to follow and hence we asked sukumaran and go alone and get back to us if he finds anything. Thus sukumaran left and we waited on the rocks. Within a few minutes we heard a lot of bison hoof sound landing on the rocks, somewhere to the left of us, and hidden from view from the bushes and trees that grew there. We waited in excitement hoping they would emerge out of the bush, but nothing like that happened. We constantly heard the noise made by their hoofs but they did not show up. They must have smelt us and hence kept away.
About 20mins later sukumaran returned excited and said the animal that had made that noise in the bamboo was not an elephant and was infact a bear. He had taken the bear by surprise and luckily the bear had run away, leaving him alone. He had even taken a photograph of the bear in anand’s, digital camera, but the photo only showed a black mass near a bush.Now sukumaran wanted us to join him to find the bear again. So we followed him, got down the rock and saw a clump of thorny bushes. However there was a small entrance through this clump of bush, we went inside and noticed that there was a well-made home from the branches that resembled a bear den. As sandy, teja and myself were inspecting it; sukumaran asked us to hurry in front. I got out of the bush closely following sukumaran and anand, when I suddenly herd a loud noise in the bush to my left. I turned and noticed that a mid sized bear, which probably was searching for some roots in the bush, had watched us come out of the bush, lost his nerve and scrampled behind the bush and disappeared from sight.
We had stood transfixed watching the bear, when sukumaran said in a lighter note pointing at teja, that he had run some distance after watching the bear. Teja tried to defend himself that he had infact run towards sukumaran and not away from the bear. This debate continued into the night as anand, kept asking teja for an explanation for his actions. But I was hoping Shiva would bring pepper spray on his return from U.S, as I felt its better not to depend on others. Anyway bear sighting at such close range was the highlight of the evening.
We stumbled back to our watchtower at 7p.m in almost complete darkness.  We rested till around 8:30p.m, when we decided to have dinner. Just then a sambar started giving an alarm call from around 200mts from the watchtower, probably closer to the road. It called for almost 15mins, as we heard the call travel through the forest warning its inhabitants of the closeness of danger, which may be in the form of any predator. As the call subsided it started to rain, and we had our dinner of chapattis and curry. We then slept at 10p.m as the rain continued. It was sharp 5a.m when we woke up, and by 6 we had trekked back to information centre. By 6:30a.m we hopped into our car and drove towards kannimara tree, hoping to spot some wild life enroute. The distance of around 8km, where the road was just a jeep track and the chances of animal spotting looked promising. But it was just a mirage as the whole stretch was completely devoid of wild life, the forest looked completely silent, not a thing moved. Probably the animals decided not to oblige. It was a strange experience and when we reached the kannimara tree, it was nothing much sight, apart from the fact that was written on a board that she was the biggest teak tree in Asia. We saw a few partridges near the tree.
We then drove back to parambikulum village, had break fast and then drove towards parambikulum dam. After spending some time at the dam we headed towards a place called parambikulum tunnel entry. From this place excess water from parambikulum dam was channeled through a series of tunnels to anappadi dam. We also visited a waterfall near the site.
It was by then 12 in the noon, so we decided to head back towards information centre, dropped Ravi, and bid good-bye to parambikulum, we dropped sukumaran at top slip in anamalai wls. We had lunch at anamalai, after which we thought of taking a safari. This was not possible as the safari bus needed a minimum of 25members and we were only 4. Thus we headed back towards Coimbatore, wondering a to how quickly 3days had passed by in the sanctuary.
We reached coimbatore by 7:30p.had a nice dinner at anand’s house and headed back towards Bangalore, ending a wonderful experience in the forests of parambikulum………and with a promise to return………
Check out a few more snaps at -
http://www.kodakgallery.com/Slideshow.jsp?Uc=abvzeh64.5wrz163o&Uy=rqhqus&Upost_signin=Slideshow.jsp%3Fmode%3Dfromshare&Ux=0&mode=fromshare&conn_speed=1 |
