FOREST TREKKING IN INDIA

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Call of the wild

If you're going forest trekking, be a little patient and the thrills will

come, says **

 

Very few city dwellers have walked on foot in the Sunderbans and lived to

tell the tale. Kushal Mukherjee, a wildlife consultant based in south

Calcutta, is one of them. Having tramped across the country, he has many a

tale of adventure up his sleeve but the Sunderbans experience is perhaps a

special one. " We were a group of four people, walking along the Mechhua

beach looking for a rare species of turtle, " narrates Mukherjee. Their team

had made their way into the nearby forest. However, they had ignored the low

tide and by the time they came back the launch had disappeared. " It was

terrifying since we found fresh tiger pug marks around our footprints, " he

recalls. Fortunately they had two armed guards accompanying them and their

search for the launch eventually proved successful.

 

Forest trekking is an activity that is fast gaining popularity among city

dwellers. And in a country like India which has vegetation ranging from

mangroves to deciduous forests, there is a lot on offer for exploration.

 

Jim Corbett had once commented that the book of nature has no beginning and

no end. For many allured by the call of the wild, fascination with nature

begins at an early age. Take Apu Bandopadhyay, a young advertising agent. As

a child, he was inspired by the works of Bibhuti Bhushan Bandopadhyay and

William Wordsworth. He recalls a trip to Bethuadahari Wildlife Sanctuary

near Nadia in West Bengal when he saw a wild python for the first time.

" Apart from the beauty of the forest you always get a kick out of seeing an

animal in its natural habitat, whether it is a rabbit or a tiger, " notes

Bandopadhyay.

 

Forest adventurers are not the usual tourists, milling in hordes and keen on

a party even in the midst of a forest. Instead they tend to be more

disciplined. For individuals who are keen to move around in a forest,

enjoyment only comes if one knows what one is going after.

 

" We conduct many tours and they are always underpinned with a sense of

responsibility that we want to inculcate in the members, " explains Colonel

Shakti Banerjee, state director of World Wide Fund for Nature (India) and a

member of the state wildlife advisory board. Banerjee is of the opinion that

forest exploration can be an extremely enriching and educational activity

provided trekkers do not disturb the ecological balance of the natural

surroundings.

 

For those who are willing to be patient, the thrills come in unexpectedly

since very little is predictable in the jungle. For Prabhangshu Saha,

manager of a travel agency, a trek across Har Ki Du in Uttar Pradesh was a

memorable experience. " I walked from Pakui to a village named Paluka and

only after the trek, I was told by my guide that the place was infested with

Himalayan black bears, " he recalls. He also mentions the sublime thrill he

got out of seeing rhododendrons in a forest in Sikkim that brought home the

fragility of nature.

 

Kishor Chaudhuri, inveterate forest trekker and a Fellow of the Royal

Geographical Society in London, was in Gir National Park when he found

himself on a road with a lioness on one side and her cubs on the other.

 

One of the ground rules of forest trekking is that enthusiasts have to be

prepared to rough it out under inimical circumstances in many areas. During

a trip to the Keibul Lamjao National Park in Manipur, Chaudhuri had to

squelch through ankle deep mud for six hours. " It was doubly painful since

the grass we were wading through was extremely sharp, " he says. Chaudhuri

has a special fascination for elephants and keeps an eye out for them

wherever they are found.

 

Getting within two feet of a lactating leopard is perhaps more than what

Mukherjee expected when he ventured inside a cave during a trip to look for

wolves in Palamau National Park in Jharkhand. " I took a peek inside a den

and came within two feet of a leopard. It is a trifle difficult to recall

who got more startled, " recalls Mukherjee. He cautions adventurers against

taking undue risks in an effort to get too close to any animal.

 

With more than 571 parks and sanctuaries across the country, there is a lot

on offer. So the next time you feel suffocated in the labyrinth of brick and

concrete, why not pack your bags and respond to the call of the wild?

 

*WORDS OF ADVICE *

 

• Do not light bonfires • Do not break branches • Pay heed to the advice of

local people • Do not wear bright clothes • Wear covered shoes • Carry first

aid • Do not make unnecessary noise • Take only photographs and leave only

footprints