Pench Tiger Reserve, Maharashtra

Wild Click Season-IV was an opportunity to experience the virgin wilderness of Pench (MH). The jungle of Pench, also known as the Kipling County, was made famous by Rudyard Kipling through his immortal character - Mowgli. Tourism in Pench had been operational for years from the MP side. The Maharashtra side has been thrown open for tourism only 6 months back. Tourism is yet to pick up at Pench MH despite its proximity to the city of Nagpur. For wildlife lovers, it is an opportunity to experience a quiet and colourful forest rich in flora that is yet to witness exodus of tourist.

The 60km drive through partial tolled highway from Nagpur to Pench generally takes about 90min. You leave the Nagpur-Jabbalpur highway at Pawni and proceed to Sillari. After making an entry at the forest outpost, our journey continued for 6 km through sparse human habitation till we reached the Amaltas complex of forest department at Sillari village. A permit for park visit is to be obtained from Amaltas complex.

The wild click is a live photo competition where participants vie under similar conditions. All photographs were to be captured in 5 safaris and one nature walk. The season-IV of wild click had the patronage of Maharashtra Forest Deptt looking to promote the location as a potential wildlife tourism center. 32 participants from various parts of India congregated there for the event. It was too big a crowd there for the facilities in place. Gypsys were called in from Pench MP.

The event was kicked off with the nature walk along the Sillari Nature Trail emanating from backside of Amaltas. This area is the territory of a leopard with cubs. The leopard had made a kill during the event. The foul stench indicated that the carcass was in the near vicinity of the campus. We were advised to walk the trail only with trained guides. We never met the leopard, but nevertheless the walk around was thrilling because of expectations. Routes for safaris were charted out carefully to give us a complete experience of the park. We were covering different parts of the forest in each safari. The forest turned out to be one of the most colourful I have been. Many a times, it unfolded before us stunning landscapes. The forest being virgin had seen very little footprint. In most areas animals and birds are not used to human presence. They would generally run away on sight of gypsy, even the langurs,  that would generally block your path in other parks. The team in all could spot several species of birds including vultures, leopard, wild dogs, bisons, jackals, sambhar and spotted deer. Count of these species was healthy to sustain a good forest eco-system. We were appraised that the total tiger population of the reserve is around 26. There were 11 gypsys with 4 participants in each who had done 5 safaris each lasting about 4 hours. Yet none saw a tiger. This is an indication of how tough sighting is. We did saw fresh pugmarks on final morning which proved presence of tiger in the area. However the bottom-line is that tourist will come only if a park provides decent chance of sighting tiger. I mean, one can not expect a tourist spending 2500 rupees for a trip to come back again or give some good word of mouth publicity, if he fails to asses a decent chance of seeing the big cat. This is why Tadoba is such a hit last year. We also had a trip to the adjoining Mahadeo Singh WLS, which is a part of Pench. That was a damp squib as even deer were scarce to spot. One would be better off spending time in Sillari than Mahadeo Singh.

A game drive is best experienced in an open gypsy, not in an AC car. But the no of gypsy for park visit are too few and rickety. Therefore private vehicle had to be allowed which always is a nuisance. We could see a decent crowd on Sunday, mostly using their private car for visiting the park. But the flow of tourist on weekdays was too low for local employment to sustain. Tourism being nascent, the facilities at the park is limited. There are three places for one to spend a night. The first one is a private resort (Go-Flemmingo) located very close to the highway. This will not give you a feel of jungle. Very close to the core area are the Amaltas complex of forest department and a small MTDC resort. Amaltas is a facility with about 14 basic rooms spaced around a large green compound. Room capacity of this facility is being enhanced. The third facility is the Sillari Jungle Resort run by the MTDC located some 100 mtr further is also not luxury class, but decent place with a small swimming pool. We had stayed at both Amaltas and the MTDC.

The main park has another Achilles heel.  There exists a large colony of a hydel power plant at Totladoh inside core area of the forest. Though a large part of the colony is deserted, there still lives a decent population. Buses run through this park to cater to this population. Buses were seen running even after dark. The setting of the power plant deep inside the forest had definitely left a deep scar on wildlife. Many scared animals might have migrated to MP side of Pench. It will take some more time for the wound to heal. I hope that facilities will improve with time and teething problems will wither away. In the years to come, this beautiful park has potential to become a hotspot. Next time you plan a trip to Tadoba or Nagzira, you can plan to include Pench for a day.

(Pench - Maharastra official link)

Nagzira : a sleeping gem

It was around 1030 one night when I had received an invite to visit Nagzira WLS. Nagzira? Where? While I continued to speak to Rajneesh Naidu of India Reconnoiterd, my mind was Googling to find this place on the map of India. Rajneesh was hosting an event named ‘Rendezvous at Nagzira’ where he had invited 20 guests from different spheres of life. I had a busy travel schedule for May, but the idea of meeting many photographer friends was enticing. Talking to some of them did not solve the mystery as all of them were clueless about the agenda of the event.  

11^th May, 2012. The Indigo flight from Delhi to Nagpur departed on time and arrived before time. I like travelling by Indigo for this reason. Udai, Shovna and Suez Akram (of Serai Tiger Resort, Tadoba) was in the same flight. We shared the vehicle provided by the organizers for the 120km road trip from thereon. It was peak of summer in May, and Nagpur happens to be one of the hottest places of India. We had the AC on for 100km, but switched it off for the last 20km of the journey to acclimatize. In two hours we were expected to be out on a safari under a blazing sun. As we left the highway at Sakoli and started moving through a sparsely wooded area, the warm breeze wafted in made me feel that it would not be hot as was expected. Green cover always helps to keep temperature couple of degrees lower.

Jai displaying Flehman's Response

Some guests had already arrived at the camp. The campsite is just inside the first level entrance gate to the park. Visitors to the park have to obtain entry permits at this gate. We joined the lunch party which doubled up as a familiarization session. Motley of crowd from various walks of life – conservations, tour operators, media, photographers, tourists, resort owners, formed the group. I was happy with my tag of tourist. The campsite is a socio-economic development initiative of Forest Deptt and is run with the help of the Pitzeri Village Eco Development Committee, a body of local villagers.  Most of these villagers are rehabilitee from the core area of the park. As a conservation initiative, Rajneesh’s group has provided financial assistance to the project. The 5 acre campuses have about 10 basic tents of different capacities, each equipped with a cooler. The campus has a rustic feel about it. A few more trees will make it cooler. Tents layout also needs to be re-worked. There are a few small shops outside the entry gates which stayed open quite late for the remoteness of the place.

Veeru making a majestic entry to the scene

Post lunch we setout for first safari. The core area of park is about 5-6 km from the entrance gate. You have to cross a second gate, which was the earlier boundary of the park. I shared the gypsy with good friend Udai and Shovna. Local lad Bhavesh Nirwan was the 4^th companion in our gypsy. The park is like his backyard where he comes almost every weekend. Having him as our companion was an added bonus as he had excellent knowledge of the jungle. The park was in news those days for regular sighting of A-mark female tigress with her two sub-adult cubs Jai and Veeru. This peace of news has ensured a heavy stream of tiger tourists. 99% of the tourists are day visitors who have single point agenda – tiger sighting. Tiger was low on priority on the first trip. We wanted to have a feel of the forest. Roads are fairly well defined and were in good condition, though dusty. Terrain is mixed, but generally plain with occasional hillocks to climb. The forest has only one natural water source, a lake by which the forest rest house Neelay is located. Till the camps came up, this was the only option to stay. Due to scarcity of natural water sources, the Forest deptt has built many artificial waterholes across the parks which are the lifeline of the park. In summer time, waiting near these waterholes provides rich dividends as animals will invariably come to these to quench thirst. Safari generally moves checking one after another of these numbered waterholes. ‘Pehle 2 no check kar lete hein, then we will go to 7no’… this is how Bhavesh and the guides decided our course of safaris. During the four safaris, we had many sighting of A-mark and the two cubs. After having covered most corners of the jungle, we decided to wait for them at a waterhole on our third safari. After locating Jai and Veeru, we choose our spot carefully by the nearest waterhole anticipating tiger’s route to the waterhole. During the hour long wait, Jai and Veeru were resting inside bushes, around 100 mtr off the waterhole. The tiger tourists, many in private AC cars, were crowding around that place trying to get a peek of the sleeping tigers. To many of them we looked stupid to sit out in the sun, but we knew what we were expecting. Jai and Veeru did not disappoint us. They came out one by one, walking majestically to the waterhole, along our anticipated path and provided us with one of the best photographic sightings of my life. The light was great for photography. Eventually we left our spot after 10 min of relentless shooting to let others enjoy it. The other fantastic sighting was of a flock of about 20 wild dogs. We missed a leopard sighting by a whisker. Despite our effort, we missed Dendu, the dominant male which is known to be temperamental and charges at vehicles.

Nagzira is yet to be declared as a tiger reserved. It is a Wild Life Sanctuary (WLS), an IUCN Category IV habitat. It was declared a WLS in 1970 and has an area of 152sq km. Both the core and the buffer area are being extended to expand the habitat. All the villages have been rehabilitated out of the core area. It has about 15 tigers, besides leopard and bears. The prey base appears to be small which is a cause of concern. Lack of natural water bodies will continue to hound the park. The lone lake is big enough and was having enough water. Tankers use to pump water from this lake and ferry it to the artificial water holes.

Tourist facilities at the park as of now are limited. Because of lack of infrastructure tourism is at nascent stage. The gypsies are too few and most of them are rickety. These are apparently 3^rd /4^th hand brought from other parks. Rajneesh apprised us of an initiative to finance new gypsy which are likely to come by October 2012. Once new vehicles arrive, entry of private vehicles, at least the diesel ones, will be banned. Authorities are forced to allow private vehicles which were a nuisance. The moment the tigers appeared in the scene, it was a melee. The guards had hard time controlling vehicles. This has come to be a common issue almost all tiger reserves. Nagzira is no different.  Accommodation as now is also limited. Besides the tents, there is a forest rest house. A luxury resort was seen coming up in the periphery of the park. Make sure to book your accommodation and safari before you reach. In my opinion, one should combine this visit with Tadoba.

On the final evening the group sat down to share their experiences and suggestions. The agenda of this event was to expose this motley crowd to this place called Nagzira and discuss on the dos and don’ts to make it a quality destination in future. Sustainable development with concern for conservation was the focus of discussion. Need of the hour is to find a sustainable alternative livelihood for the locals to keep them falling prey to lucrative poaching. Development is a two edged sword. Developing tourist infrastructure will bring in more tourists and hence more means of livelihood for locals. More tourists also mean more funds for forest to spend on conservation. On the other hand, development will destroy some its wilderness and pristine charm. Nobody wants Nagzira to be a la Tadoba or Ranthambhore. It will attract quality tourist only if it can stay untouched of mass commercialization like many other tiger reserves. The big positive for the park is that it has Tigers and they are regularly seen.

Veeru in a royal stance

A lively deliberation that evening enlightened us about initiatives being taken at different corners of India. It was heartening to know that trusts are being set up for each park where all gate fees collected will get parked and will be used only for conservation and socio-economic activities undertaken by the park management. Till now all gate fees collected used to go to the common state treasury, which is used by cash strapped state governments for all purposes – from paying salaries of government employees to build roads elsewhere. We all believe that fund generated from tourism of a wildlife park should be used only for conservation and maintaining the park.

Rajneesh played a perfect host. From cabs to safaris to food to meeting with forest officials – they took care of everything during those two days. Their hospitality had blown us over. They took care of even small details like, ensuring bottle of mineral water in the cabs. I made several new friends during those two days, some of whom I may not meet again. But Rajneesh is the one whom I will certainly be meeting again and again in future. Looking forward to my first trip to Tadoba.

Delhi to Bharatpur : a road guide

I was travelling from Delhi to Dibrugarh when an article caught my attention. The article informed that migratory birds have returned to Bharatpur this year. Thanks to a real good monsoon, the canals in Bharatpur had received good amount of water this year. That was a fantastic piece of news. When I visited the park last year, it was all dry. Park authorities tried to keep the park alive by pumping up water using two bore wells. That was really pathetic. We saw a few birds in that small marshland kept alive by pumping water. The birds we saw could be counted on finger tips. We saw more sambhar deers and nilgais than birds. But a walk through the park could make anyone feel how wonderful this place could have been with water and birds.

I feel lucky that my wish had been fulfilled so fast. So on my return to Delhi, we headed for Bharatpur on the next available weekend for a second trip. Being just 180 km from Delhi, it can be easily covered in a weekend trip. We decided to drive down rather than taking the train (2060 Kota Janashatabdi) as this would involve reaching station by hiring a cab, then wait there and get transported to hotel at Bharatpur. The only enticing part by train is that at 80 rupees tickets are really cheap. However this will be the best option for a couple or small family. On reaching the hotel we were informed that there is enough water in the park this time that even the boat ride is also operational. That was real good news. The park had benefited not only from the huge rainfall this year, but the extra water from the dams nearby was also released to the park.

We headed for the park soon after lunch. As I am familiar with the park, we preferred the cycle as mode of conveyance. We were really delighted to find lot of birds from close range. Hordes of Painted Stork and Black Ibis had nested very close to the road. There were various varieties of heron and ducks. We were lucky to see a pair of famed saras crane in the morning trip next day. We got to see one pair last time as well in an evening trip. But that time the birds were at some distance. This time the pair was close enough to be within the range of my 300mm lens. This was the icing on the cake.

Other than those mentioned above, this is what we saw: a rabbit, couple of jackals bold enough to roam in broad daylight, three different species of owls, cormorants, snake bird, grey heron, purple heron, mud turtles, two different species of kingfisher, moorhen, sambhar deer, spotted deer and nilgais. I left out few common birds which we often see in our backyards like robbin, bulbul, Indian mayna and babler.

We had two trips this time. One on the afternoon of the day of arrival and another early next morning. Both the trips were on cycle. Approx cost incurred was rupees 3000. Summing up the trip: it was really worth the time and money spent.

Driving directions from Delhi to Bharatpur:
I downloaded a driving direction from indiacar.com. It was useful. But need some modification as follows:
1) No comments on the distances till Vrindavan or rather the point at which you need to turn left for Vrindavan. This is because the distances between Delhi-Vrindavan will vary a few kilometers depending on where in Delhi you start. In any case you need to reach Badarpur border, whether you make it by the Mathura road via Ashram / New Friends Colony or by the Mehrauli-Badarpur road.
2) We stopped at Sagar Ratna resort after crossing Hodal for breakfast. This is the costliest place for food on the entire route. Breakfast for 4 people cost nearly 500 rupees. It can be avoided. But it also probably provides the cleanest toilets en-route.
3) Keep moving straight till you reach the overhead sign on the NH-2, indicating left turn for Vrindavan.
4) Vrindavan to Mathura road junction is 8 km. You will get many turns between these two. But the one mentioned in the detail is the one with a right turn for Govardhan.
5) Keep moving straight. The flyover on which the cut for Bharatpur exists is almost 5 KM from this junction. The distance mentioned in the indiacar.com road guide is about 4 km which is a little less. En-route you will cross the Jai Gurudev temple, a big white structure, on right hand side of the road.
6) Cross the flyover. Halfway through you will see the road sign for Bharatpur on the right hand side of the flyover. The U-turn is not far from the end of the flyover. Take U-turn here.
7) Bharatpur is 34 km from here. The outskirt of the park is another 2 km. This is a single way state highway. 50% of the road is in pretty good condition. But other 50% is bumpy and bad. Always drive with reasonable speed as real bad sections crops up suddenly. These are bad enough to break your axle. You need to avoid situations when there is a speeding vehicle from opposite on the good section of the road and you have no option but to land your vehicle at the bad spot.
8) I used the Wikimapia map to have an idea of directions within Bharatpur. Once you have reached the railway overbridge at Bharatpur station, keep moving straight.
9) Use this link to get the map I had created for driving direction from the station to the Park.
10) Most hotels are on the road to the park which is the Agra-Jaipur highway. Few around Saras chowk. I stayed at the Hotel Pratap Palace which is good place to stay. I stayed at this hotel in my last visit and the experience was good. I paid 650 this time for double deluxe room. But food here is costly. However we have decided to explore other accommodation around. The Sunbird Inn turns out to be the costliest in that area. They offered room @900. Few other accommodations we checked were cheap but you will not like spend the night there. There are two more costly options – the ITDC run Hotel Bharatpur Ashok, which is located right inside the park and the RTDC run Hotel Saras.

( Read about my first trip to Bharatpur on this link)

Bharatpur : Keoladeo Ghana National Park

Once inside the Keoladeo Ghana National Park for birds at Bharatpur, I had realized how beautiful this place had been 3 / 4 years back. But no more. The place is crying for water. Migratory birds have gone away. They may come again next year because they have been coming here for centuries. If situation do not improves then probably they will never come to this place again.

Bharatpur has been India’s only national park for birds. I remember reading about Bharatpur in my school books. The lake, surrounding wetlands and water bodies have been attracting large number of migratory birds for centuries. A wide enough metallic / black tar carpeted road runs across the park’s length. Several other well constructed peripheral roads lure you to explore other areas of the forest. The main road runs right through the main water body. Thus this probably gave visitors excellent opportunity to watch the birds from very close vicinity. The deserted nests atop the acacia tress are barely few feet away from the road. Further one could even enjoy boat rides through the canals to get still better views. Compare this to Sultanpur Bird Sanctuary near Gurgaon, where I went last month. The lake was very far away from the trek. Thus you do not get a chance to see the birds from close. The park authorities at Sultanpur have constructed 2 approach roads to let you get close to the water. But birds decide to stay away from these points. So all that you can see at Sultanpur, is large groups of birds several meters away. You need a good binocular. But it certainly was different at Bharatpur.

Unfortunately, the water in Bharatpur had dried up. Jungles of bushes and thorns have come up in areas which once used to wetlands. The ricksaw puller– cum guide told us that it had rained very little for last two years. But you can understand that it probably had not rained for many years, because the jungles and bushes are well growned. Up somewhere there is a dam which used to feed the lake. But water is not coming from that because of some political issues and agitation. In an effort to provide some succor, the park authorities have set up two deep tube-wells operated by DG sets, which keeps pumping water day and night into the canals. How can you fill a lake with water from tube well. Yet, most of the animals and birds that we got to see in the park, was seen around these two spots where water has sustained the wetlands. We saw several birds, herds of Sambhar deers and Nilgais feeding in water some 30 – 40 feet away. I must admit that this is the best view of Sambar deers I had ever had in wild. They were so relaxed, almost like domesticated. I had few fantastic photos of 3 Sambhars waiting to cross the road.

The ricksaw puller- cum - guide introduced to us many varieties of land birds seen on trees along the road. We have grown up seeing most of these birds in backyards at home (in Assam, not Delhi). Thus they had very little appeal to us. But we had enjoyed the atmosphere and feel of the jungle. It was unique in its own way. Apart from those common birds known to us, this is list of what else we saw : A fair of Saras crane which was really special. A Black Ibis, a pair of Rhodesian ducks, 3 midsize cranes, several Indian Mud Turtle, 2 different species of owls.

How to visit the Park :
You can visit the park either by riding a ricksaw or hire a bi-cycle. If you hire a bi-cycle, then you should also hire a guide. You will not see anything without a guide. The ricksaw pullers are trained as guides. Rickswas are available at the gates of the hotels or also at the gate of the park.

We had hired a ricksaw right from the gate of our hotel. Ricksaws can be hired @Rs.50/- per hour. Be assured that a trip will last about 5 hours. They will take you around 10 -12 km inside the park at a very slow pace. They certainly want to extend it as much as possible. But the slow traveling also helps you in spotting many varieties of land birds. We started the trip at 7:30 am, which was just after sunrise. The entry fee is Rs.25/- per head per trip. Children upto 15 years is free. The best thing is that there is no charge for still camera. For God sake, do not carry handycams.

We came back to the hotel for lunch. After lunch, we went to the park again at around 3 pm. This time we had hired bi-cycles which are available at the park gate @Rs.25/- per trip. I rode a bi-cycle after several years. It took few minutes for me to get adjusted to the cycle. I took Swathi with me while Mono rode a lady’s cycle. We knew the jungle well by now. So we rode at our pace and went straight to the spot where there is water. This cycle ride was one of the best parts of the trip. We rode into one of the by-lanes and had met some Nilgais returning home at sunset. I shoot a couple of not-so –spectacular sunsets. By the time we were back at the gate, it was almost dark.

Accommodation at Bharatpur :
There are several hotels located within 200 meters from the gate of the national park. This landmark is called Saras chowk, because of the RTDC hotel by the same name. This point is on the Agra – Jaipur highway and is located some 4 -5 km from the railway station. The railway station and the main town is on the other side of Bharatpur. Do not stay in the main town. You should come to this Saras chowk. To my estimate, there are around 10 hotels here. You can easily find accommodation here and it is not very costly either. We had traveled from Agra by a cab. The driver took us to Hotel Pratap Palace. We got very good room @Rs.500/- nett inclusive of taxes. Such rooms were quoted 1200 & above in Agra. Do not book online as rate quoted on the net are very high and also you lose the option of on the spot selection. The location is away from the town and crowd. We had stayed there for 2 nights.

There also is an Ashoka group hotel, probably by the name Bharatpur Ashok, located inside the park. This is an ITDC Hotel and is costly, in fact very costly.

Bharatpur town :
It had very little worth seeing other than the national park, which also is fast losing its charm. But located just 170 odd km from Delhi, it is a good drive out weekend gateway. There is fort named Lohagarh Fort, which appeared to me very ordinary. We had tour of the town on a ricksaw by paying Rs.50/-. Pritam Singh, the ricksaw puller took us to the market, to the Lohagarh Fort and to the Ganga Temple. The town reminded me the narrow laned market at Paltan bazaar in Dehradun. All the shops are in the market only. There is no shop around the hotel area, not even a pan shop to buy cigarettes.

The most notable thing you will observe in Bharatpur, is that most of the ricksaw pullers are Sradars or Sikhs. The image of a Sikh conjures up in mind the image of big 8 – 10 – 16 wheeler trucks riding majestically on the highways, not ricksaws. But here they are pulling ricksaws for livelihood. I could not stop asking Pritam Singh about it. In his middle age, Pritam Singh told me that his parents have migrated to Bhatartpur during partition. They could afford other livelihood earlier. But now they had no other option. And they are in real danger of losing that too as number of tourists are dwindling every year.

(Read more about Bharatpur on my second trip artcile on this link)

Sultanpur Bird Sanctuary

Sulatnpur is 65 km from Delhi and 15 km from Gurgaon. But we did not know its exact location. We had tried to find road directions from friends who had been there. The common answer was that they had reached there after asking here and there. Nobody could tell us exactly where we should leave NH8. All we could find was that it is on Gurgaon – Jhajjar road.

Thus our journey continued beyond Gurgaon and we had even crossed Manesar. Asking locals on the way was of not much help either. We found that locals call it Sultanpur Jheel. So you need to add Jheel to Sultanpur to ask for road direction. If you tell Sultanpur National park or Sanctuary, most will draw blank faces. Finally we got one old man who could tell us to leave NH8 at the crossing about 3km ahead and take the turn to Panchgawan and then reach Sulatnpur Jheel via Farukhnagar. This point on NH-8 had a road sign indicating 7 km to Bilaspur and 14 km to Dharuhera.

The old man was wise and correct. Yet we asked a family on the way and that man gave us exact direction. One should be careful while asking for roads direction in Haryana. One should avoid asking youths in groups. So we picked mostly old man or families. We had traveled through huge farmlands and villages for about 14 km and had even encountered a cavalcade going to the launch of a new party that day by Bhajan Lal. Finally we had reached Sultanpur. The tachometer clocked 87 km. To be honest, this unintentional detour was not that bad a road.

The exact location of Sultanpur is 15 km from Gurgaon on NH-15A. The road is also known as Gurgaon – Jhajjar road. I knew Sultanpur as a bird sanctuary. But it has been upgraded to a National Park, not sure when. Thus it probably is the second National Park for Birds in India. The other being Keoladeo Ghana National Park at Bharatpur (Rajasthan). The place has a resort of Haryana Tourism , which is located in a different campus right next to the park.

We had breakfast at the restaurant, which is the only eating facility around. So you have to drink tea @Rs.15/- a cup. This place is not accessible by public transport. So people who come here will come in their private vehicles and are so expected to be rich enough pay that much. After the breakfast we headed for the park.

Entrance fee is Rs.5/- per head and an additional Rs.25/- for still camera. I hate paying for camera. Video camera charges is Rs.250/-. These exorbitant charge for handycams is outdated and should be scrapped. Govt. of India should certainly do something about it. I had stopped carrying handycams as there is no point paying such hefty fees.

The park is developed around a natural lake where many species of migratory birds nests. An elevated track of mud and bricks built around the lake, which is not very close, the lake. The track is about 3 ½ km. One is required to take this trip on foot. The biggest disappointment one will face is that all the birds are in the lake and one cannot go very close to the lake. The lake is surrounded by swamps. There are two or three approaches built to let tourist go close to the lake. But birds prefer to stay from those places.

Despite all these you will be able to see some birds. And if you are lucky, you will see some of them from close. As we did. Three large cranes came hurtling above form the distance making loud noises while flying. I was in perfect position to capture those moments in my camera. Those few shots made my day.

We decided to complete the lap. It was a good nature walk where we could see many Nilgais in the wild. At one point of the track, I got off it to find whether there was any access to get close the lake. Suddenly I could hear something making its way out of the bush in front of me. I also ran to get around the bush to find what it was. A large bull Nilgai was standing just few meters from me. I was sure that it would not charge at me. I stood there calmly and took some shots. Shots were not that good, but those were real wild life shots. After looking at me for me moments, the bull went further into the swamps. That completed the adventure.

We got out of the park by late noon. The kids were also complaining after being made to walk the 3+ km track. We had a late lunch at the restaurant of the resort. There were playing facilities for kids in the campus. By afternoon many people had gathered in the campus. They appeared to be picnic goers from Gurgoan. This may be a happy outing ground for people living around Gurgaon. Even though picnics were supposedly not allowed in the campus, there was nobody to enforce it. The other option is to stay at the resort for a night and enjoy a round of the park early next morning. The location is far away from the maddening crowd and hustle–bustle of NCR. In case you want to book accommodation at the resort then here are their phone nos. : 0124-2375242, 2015670

While returning, we took the NH-15A. We had reached the center of Gurgaon town from where we took the road to Rajiv Chowk on NH-8. So it became clear that we should have left NH-8 at Rajiv Chowk. Thus the return was exactly 65 km for us.