A visit to the Post War destination:

I do not know. But I am a bit emotional in scripting this episode. Because it was the journey that taught me what sacrifice is.? A journey that taught me what patience is.? A journey that taught me what commitment is.? A journey which evoked the hibernating patriotic feelings in me. A journey that made my vision broad. A journey that brought change in me. A journey which can me scripted in my heart forever.

As I updated my status over my FB wall saying. “Anjaw a place much awaited by me to explore. Hope the place delights me with its lush green charm and with enigmatic wildlife. Of to the destination 2mrw. Jav jav china ka border anjaw”. The place really delighted me. As ever, I started my journey from Itanagar but it was with my friend anup this time. Anup’s short intro would be, “a man who is working on pine species in Anjaw district for his thesis”. We reached Tinsukia the town in Assam the next day morning. From there, we travelled to Tezu a town in lohit district of Arunachal Pradesh. As usually, the driver of the sumo in which we were travelling took the short-cut route to reach the place. We had to cross a river to reach the place and due to some local bundh around tezu, the ferries were not operating. So we had to cross through the river on small boats run on raft sticks I mean poles. Ha ha ha. We reached the other end of the river and hired a 7 seater. The driver told us that he was taking us on his own risk and hardly can drop us till landing ground in tezu which is 4-5kms from the main town. I was seated in the front and literally to tell the 7 seater looked as if a piece of iron just being in the shape of a 7 seater as it should be pushed to get started and at every push, the radiator peed the hot water over my feet and the skin got burnt. It was a scorching sunny day and we had to walk 4-5kms to reach the hotel carrying 30 kgs of luggage. Face dusted and hair over blown in cargoes being folded over the knees, we looked like labor. Ha ha ha. And looking at over faces that too in place where the bundh was in progress, we were inquired by a police about our belongings and ourselves. We reached the hotel and rested over there. We chilled that evening however. We came to know that the next day was even a bandh and the other next day, we travelled to walong. It was a lovely journey over the roads cutting through the mountains with lush green jungles, streams and snow caps. A scene from a chopper can be portrayed as a cobra cutting through a green and white carpet.

Walong.. An overview and an insight towards a tribute:

I did not knew walong being a place which had importance during the Sino-Indian war of 1962. It the place from where the Chinese troops tried invading our country after tawang. But there were not successful in crossing walong due to the strong fight back from the Indian Army. 

About the War:

A war memorial at Walong would tell us the whole story and will surely bring the images to one’s mind. The words engraved over the war memorable are that strongly written. A bloodshed occurred during the sino-indian war in 1962 where the water in the rivers around walong turned to red from blue indicating the impact of massacre. In 1962, there were no roads that connected walong and kibito from tezu (240kms). The Indian army carried their arms and other artillery using the mules from tezu crossing hills and fought the war is such a difficult terrain. The Chinese troops couldn’t move beyond walong because of the strong hold by the Indian army. The prestigious times magazine of US wrote stating, “Indian troops lacked everything. The only thing that they did not lacked was guts”. And thus the counterpart termed this place as the “TigersMouth”. And beyond this place (nearly 7kms from walong) are the Namti Plains. Namti plains actually remembered me of the Hobbiton (www.hobbitontours.com).  

The Awesomeness:

As usual, the place is blessed with amazing wildlife. Hundreds of golden eagles, blue waters, pines and the tits, warblers, thrushes etc made us delightful. The raptors soaring along the cliffs was an amazing sight. The cliffs made me remember of the highlands of Ethiopia where the mighty geledas are found. Due to heavy downpour and some army issues, I was not allowed to roam around and there are needs for heavy permissions. The Dawn Village (nearly 4-6 kms from Walong) was an another delight for me. It is the place in the country that receive the first sun rays. The Mayor community around has got some extremely skillful people.

The Return back:

The return back journey was a real test of patience. After two days of waiting, we got a sumo that was about to leave to tezu so we bordered it. And before this, the sumo had some wiper issues. The wiper was repaired and thus the driver accepted us to drop in tezu. After crossing walong, the wiper got jammed again and we had to drive back to get it repaired. It was drizzling. We started our travel and tyre of the sumo got punctured which was repaired later after a massive struggle. We reached Hayuliang a place 100kms from tezu towards walong. We had our lunch and the journey started again. Some technical trouble was observed in the sumo which stopped our journey. So in the middle of night, we had to get another sumo to drop us back at Hayuliang where we halted in a booth bungalow like hotel that night and the next day, we reached tinsukia from Hayuliang. And I reached itanagar from there. The bus even broke down several times that night however.

Rain Pain n Gain at the Indo-Burman Border

Place of xperience: Namdapha National Park

            I’m writing ma blog after nearly one and a half year and hope the readers have not forgotten ma blog posts. Regret from ma side to ma readers. Will be updating ma blog now and then from now. Was busy all these days and just got some time to put up ma xperiences in the field as a blog post writing. Before beginning the write up, I jus remembered a dialogue from a Hindi Film “Oh my God” starred by Paresh roval (hope spelling is correct) and Akshay Kumar. In the film, Paresh says Akshay at an instance when Akshay kumar gives Srimath Bhagawatgeetha (Holy book for Hindus) to Parvesh, Parvesh tells that he has thrown the book out of his shop as the book looks uninteresting as there no photos etc. and it makes readers get bored. So here too, I donn wann make ma readers get bored by writing paras and paras. What I do is put up some small clips of the forests and animals. What say people? Ok right. Let me proceed.

            As usually, I have started ma travel with my field assistant Biron to reach the place and as described in the earlier posts, you people might understand how the journey will be usually. A long hectic and backbone disk relocating journey I would say. However, reached the place and got the permits to enter the National Park cum Tiger reserve. The research officer of the park being ma fren asked me to stay back for a day as the forest department is celebrating Raksha Bandan Divas by asking school children to prepare Rakhi’s to tie them to trees and the enclosures in the zoo having animals. Just as a sort of mass awareness program. It went on well and I was privileged as being invited as a guest for distributing the prizes and even biron got the chance to do so. Next day me and research officer left to camp site and made our stay. It was hot and humid as one can xpericence how the tropical rain forests would be. It was much irritating moment for me and staying in the tents have even made the situation worse as we sweat like pigs inside the tents and literally the tent floor got damped due to flowing sweat. Ok no more pulling. Coming to the next part.

Initial Walks: 

We set on a go for a night walk and on the first lucky day itself, we got something interesting. I was leading the team and was ahead of everyone. I saw some shine and the animal disappeared from the path at an instance. I asked ma assistants to flash the lights n nothing was there. I described the size etc. and ma assistant (Erebo the 2^nd assis) told that it might be a leopard (as there were lot of sightings of a leopard couple around the camp site). But ma subconscious mind was not accepting it. As I went ahead, I sighted the shine and took the flash light to identify the animal and it was still unclear. I asked ma assistants to flash the spot lights now (which I usually use less as they literally make the animal blind and deaf, I mean the animal will not even know whatz happening in its front. That’s it. It doesn’t hurt the animal).  It was the lovely leopard cat sitting over a liana downslope. It was on a search for its prey and stayed there for a minute and disappeared into the bushes. I know the questions flash in your minds, have I photographed it. And I would say no. None of us. I took a camera which was new and I din even move a muscle looking at the lovely animal and more over, I have to take out the camera from the pouch, put the lenses and adjust the settings which would take a whole lot of time and I din wanted to miss the lovely sighting by doing such non-sense. The walk went on and there was a Bengal slow loris sighting that night. Few null nights (zero sighting) went on after that and the research officer left the camp site to attend an official work. My work went on however as I have to collect ma data with regard to ma PhD.

Party Time:

         After few days came the SriKrishna Janmasthami (Lord Sri Krishna’s B’day) and my name even being so, I asked the cook to prepare some sweet dish so that everyone in the came might n’joy it. And the cook did so even. Around 10.30 in the night, the cook calls me and asks me attend the small group of people who were uttering some bhajans keerthans and more over it was a very polite call. I thought of nt denying it and attended it. They gave me some instrument to play which produces small sound when I hit it to ma palm during the bhajans and they all were happy that I have joined them. They severed me the red tea and dishes and after 12:00, we had our dinner all together. The cook and the local staff were happy as they all had only such moments where they can n’joy as they live for months inside the jungle where even mobile connectivity in this 21^st century doesn’t even reach.

Rain Forest Experience:

            I being from a dry area I mean hot area have no idea what rain forests are till ma graduation. But I experienced the true rain forest this time as the name signifies or tells what all “Rain” forest is. Yes it is named aptly. It rained and rained all day for nearly 10 days and even rained on the day I left from the camp (more over it was a forceful retrieval from the camp as it started flooding and I would have got jammed inside the jungle if I would have not did so). It rained from the time I wake till I sleep. So there was little work that happened during this spell. But I never miss a opportunity. I had night walks during the short dry spells in the nights. So now you might understand what excites you is the what more sighting might I have made right?? Ok let me go on.

Leopards, Flying Squirrels, Snakes, Lorises, Civets & Leopard cat retreat:

            

              Frankly to tell, animals in Northeast India are elusive and very shy. So more sightings would be during the calm hours i.e., nights. Yes. Also, hunting at rampant in these areas has made the animals to be elusive I would say. And more overnight hours are ma favorite to make moves in the jungle. Literally I have habituated myself like Owls which sleep in the day and active in the nights with their powerful nocturnal vision. Ok now heading back to the narration path, during the nights, my walks continued. One night we walked for nearly 4kms and there were no sightings and I thought that this was even a null night even and continued walking. I tucked something with ma heavy boots (usually I won’t see the forest floor as ma search always remain in the canopy with a headlamp mounted over ma cap for detecting the shine) ma assistant pushed me and I literally tumbled. I asked him what happened. He showed me a Pit viper (mostly a mountain pit viper) what I tucked was its head. It was in an aggressive mood and was mocking as if to fang. I was happy to see it and tried photographing it. As you know in animal dilagoues “these stupid boy photographs everything which appears in the path. Sorry buddy I have to leave… Let me search ma food” and it disappeared rapidly into the bushes. Ma walk continued and there were two pretty slow lorises and they were utterly cute. Ma walk continued and a rodent was on the path and I really donn know why it din even move when we flashed light at it (might be terrified). I photographed and slowly it too disappeared into the bushes. Ma walk continued and I stopped at another eye shine and ran to the place. It was another slow loris. This loris posed for some lovely clips. We took out our GPS, took the reading and I was noting few things in my pocket dairy. Suddenly, I saw a something heading towards us. It looked like a devil and the eyeshine was very strong. The gap between the eyes was even less. On better observation, it was a leopard. It ran immediately when I flashed ma head lamp at it. I took ma assistants to follow it but we were so unlucky that it disappeared into the bushes downhill. I was excited. Ma walk continued and I again tucked at something as usually ma assistant pushed me and I saw a Green colored Pitviper (in the process of identification, probably might be a new addition to the snakes of India. Pic sent to herp expert for identification). It looked so aggressive and the same after photographing, it disappeared into the bushes. The other nights were even delightful with the sightings of Masked Palm civet and Leopard cat. Ok I have not mentioned flying squirrels right they being ma part of research, were sighted on all ma search nights as ma main focus was on them. 

Return back:

             

                    After all these xperiences, as it was raining like hell and it started flooding, on the advice of the forest staff, I left the camp and returned back to ma university as even the ration that I carried was about to get emptied. The same disk relocation journey back way. Long sleep after ma return to university continued. Ha ha. Bye for now. See you all on ma next blog post. Tata.

Journey to some of the less known destinations -An episode of Survival man...

Journey to some of the less known destinations

                                      -An episode of Survival man...

This time the journey was to some of the least known but nature’s blessed places. People who boost exotic places like Switzerland, Canada etc should visit these places. India has got some of the beautiful places which are less explored and thanks to god that these are least explored. Otherwise even these areas get commercialized. I might be biased. But I’m true and stick to it. The places are Anini, the district head quarters of Upper Dibang Valley district and Mehao Lake of Lower Dibang Valley District of Arunachal Pradesh, India. This time I would like to narrate you people about the beauty of the places as well as my experiences. Plz try to read some info on Anini in Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anini)... It’s Interesting... Let me split the narration into two parts. Part one will be about Anini and Part two will be about Mehao Lake.

Part 1: Travel to Anini:

Our journey started from Roing town to Anini in a Tata sumo as it is the only means of transport to reach the place. Total distance is approx 210kms. It was a packed sumo and we got 4 seats in the back row. The road passes through Mehao WS... Beauty of Mehao WS is that it has got so much of variation in its forest type from being to tropical in lower ranges and to temperate in its higher ranges. One can see the variation within few kilometers and I think it is the only sanctuary with such variation that one can get within few kilometers of travel. One can feel the sharp variation by looking at the vegetation and weather while travelling uphill. The excitement came to me when I experienced the 1^st snowfall of my life at a place called Mayodia. Snow capped mountains stole my heart. It’s a beautiful place. After crossing Mayodia, the sumo travels downhill. In the middle of the journey, the sumo met with a puncture at one point. Luckily it was carrying a spare tyre, but was in a very bad condition. However the driver promised us that he’ll drive safe and will make us reach the destination. It was about 2.00 P.M. in the afternoon and everyone was so hungry. The only place at which sumo stopped was at a place called Italin. What a lovely name right. The food over there was still good. Such a nice food we had. I still remember it. Finally at around 7.00P.M., we reached Anini and were accommodated in VIP rooms at a circuit house as we were on an official work.

The morning welcomed us with the warm rays of sun. The town is surrounded by rows of hills with pine and bamboo. Few hills at distance were covered by snow. One can see the town name ANINI carved on a hill where the army bunkers are placed. The place looked like heaven. Let me put some pics.

Ok let me not extend more about this journey as the next part may take a little longer time to read. Let me shorten because more paragraphs may exhaust the readers.

Part 2: One of the Epic Journey’s of my life... Trek to Mehao Lake... An episode of Survival man

Mehao was one of my dream places to trek as I used to hear a lot about it from the tribals where I used to work. Their words are true. There are no words to express the beauty of the place. I completely fell in love with the place.

Our journey started on 1^st of Jan 2012 to a place called Abango near Roing town from where we had to start the trek to reach the lake. Our trek started on plains initially and was ok. But after 4-5kms of travel, the collar bones, calf muscles were asking for rest as we were carrying more than 25kgs of luggage and also didn’t had the morning breakfast even. So we rested at a place to have the plum cake that we bought the previous night and drank water. Ooops I forgot to tell you people one more thing. As we were in hurry that morning we forgot to carry bottles of water. At last all we had is a bottle of water borrowed from locals at Abango. So we drank the water without wasting even a drop of it. Trek continued... After few minutes, we had to trek uphill literally at an angle of 70 degrees forcing our knees to do the job. Initially the body co-operated moving forward in 2^nd gear but later we had to shift it to 1^st. Lactic acid was building up. Body started losing water and salts. We rested now and then. The luggage was pulling us down due to gravity. At last we reached a small plain area where a small water source was available. It was almost afternoon and the guard who came with us told that we covered only 20% of the distance and had to move still faster. As everyone was hungry, we took out Maggie and cooked and had it.

Trek continued. Guard with the other two of his friends told us that they’ll move ahead to the lake fast and make arrangements for us so that we’ll be comfortable when we reach the place... He told us that he’ll leave signs for us in the trek path in which we had to travel at the bifurcations. We agreed for it and they took and went the ration that we brought with us to make the arrangements for us. I, Kuldip, Parimal along with Biron continued the trek. Our body got exhausted and the energy levels went low. The Water which we carried also emptied. We continued our trek and the inclination kept on increasing though few plain paths were there here and there. It was about 5.30 in the evening and was completely dark. We switched on our focus lamps and trekked further. Finally we decided that we should camp at some place as we might lose the path. We rested at one place and gathered firewood and had a camp fire as it was too cold even. Two of us got busy in putting up the camp fire and other two in arranging the tent. We had a doubt if we were lost in the jungle. Thanks to BSNL here. One of my frens had network in his mobile. So we thought of calling a senior at my institute to know if we were on right path are not. I took out my GPS and took the reading of the location. Then we called the senior and asked if we were on right path to the lake r nt. Bad luck the mobile got switched off due to low battery. Luckily parimal had an extra battery and we were happy. We called the senior again and he told us that we were on right path and had to cross one more hill to reach the place using Google earth. We were happy. But the mouth was getting dried up; lips were getting cracked due to lack of water. Stomach started growling. So we took out potato, burnt them in flames and ate. We also had a bit of glucose powder and chera (Atukulu in Telugu made out of rice (Rice flakes)) though we knew that it dries out the mouth. Upay nahi hai. Bhook lag raha tha. After which we slept in the tent. I was a bit scared because it’s a Sun bear prone area. Bears and elephants are the two things that I’m a bit scared off. So I had a very little sleep. I kept an eye on the camp fire throughout the night.

Next day morning, we packed everything and continued the trek. Our body was not at all co-operating. If one can remember the heavenly rays falling on tom in cartoon Tom & Gerry, such was the situation. We felt the heavenly rays were welcoming us. Mouth got totally dried up. After few minutes of uphill trek, parimal got a bottle of water which slightly had a smell of kerosene (Hunter’s usually keep bottles of water hidden at places in jungle). We had no other option to keep ourselves alive. So we had to cut a bamboo, pour water into it and boiled it after which we had few sips of hot water. Then we collected some leaves which are edible and that supplemented a dose of water to our body. The area looked very dried up. After further trek, we reached a place called Gahori (Gahori meaning Wild boar in Assamese) camp and we were tracking the route using GPS this time. We heard the calls of the guard and the other two in response to our calls. We felt very happy and rejoiced thinking that we almost reached the camp... But the tragedy was that the guard in search of us was returning back. We were upset hearing it as he wanted to leave the place. After a talk, he understood the situation and took us to the place. There we had to stay in an old wooden hut constructed by forest department and was in a very bad condition. It just had single room where we had to cook and sleep. The next day morning the guard and the other 2 frens of him left. We four stayed and enjoyed the place.

The lake is at an altitude of 1700mts approx situated in a valley. It is surrounded by lush green hills and snow capped mountains in the backdrop of them. The mercury stayed low and never raised. It was around 2-3 degrees C. There were frequent hailstones whenever it rained. Much info about the area and wildlife will be discussed in the article which will be coming soon. And you can go through it. All we had for food was fern, Banana ka phool, rice, some leaves etc. One thing is that whatever you cook and eat in the jungle it’ll be tasty. The final day came and we started our return trek to Abango. This time it was still more difficult trek as the gravity pulled us down while walking downhill.  And often we slipped and fell as the soil was loosen due to rain. Finally after 9 hrs of trek in the evening we reached Abango and rested there in a local’s home, where I had some more experiences. Let me tell about them later. Bye for now. What I realized from the trek is hard work pays off and also the importance of food and water. Tata…


"Experiences Have To Be Experienced..."


                                                                          - Murali Krishna.