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After coming back, I sat on the sandy river bank for an hour - actually, on a sand bar jutting out into the river, with water on 3 sides. Had to keep a lookout for elephants and crocs (the staff had told me that it is not a good idea to sit there once it got dark). Saw a large fish owl come and sit on a nearby tree. The trees lining the river banks are big, and this owl was sitting on a huge tree 50-60feet above the ground. It waited patiently, and then suddenly it swooped, crossed the river and caught a fish. It was pretty dark by then, and the owl was on the other side of the river, but managed to click some shots (excuse the quality - I could barely see the owl with my naked eyes).







I sat on the bank till it was pitch dark (had made sure I carried a torch), and then came up to the campfire. It was very hot, but still a campfire has its own charm. Especially when one is hungry and the staff is serving free snacks. This is the first JLR I have bee to where they serve chicken as snacks in the evening. I ate so much that I didn't feel like having dinner.

Went back to my tented cottage and relaxed for while. I hadn't seen a single deer in the forests, but while sitting I could hear the mating call of a male cheetal coming from far away. Something made a lot of noise and came close. Couldn't see it because of the trees in front, but most likely it was a boar or a porcupine, given the amount of noise it was making.

The tent had a pedestal fan that wasn't very effective, so the night was spent tossing and turning in the heat. Couldn't open the door or the nets because of mosquitoes. So had to make the best of a stuffy night.

I left early next morning. On my way to Sangam saw this fella who crossed the road in front of me and then waited for a few seconds. That was enough time for me to take out my camera out of its case and shoot him, all the while praying that he doesn't slither away before I can take a shot.





Reached my residence in 2 hr 15 mins. After coming back realized that the spotlight covers were missing. Monkeys must have taken them when the vehicle was parked at Galibore (the staff had warned me about kleptomaniac monkeys). Unlike Dandeli, where the same thing had happened, this time the covers seem to have gone for good.

This is the common Kingfisher. Oriental dwarf is more colorful (pink head)

Your whole description of the evening you spent made me yearn for an evening like that immediately. Beautiful!!

Thanks for the id. You are based pretty close to the Nilgiris, Silent Valley etc. An evening like that is just a couple of hours away :-)

True. As a matter of fact, my favourite haunts, Kava forests behind Malampuzha reservoir and Walayar forests are just around 5-8km from my house (these would form the southern most end of Nilgiri Biosphere reserve). But one is never satisfied with what one has in hand :)

Awesomatic pictures. Especially the Tiger. Perfect shots. Can you list down the camera gears that you use.

Thanks. Nikon D90, 70-300mm Nikkor lens, and my mobile phone camera for many of the landscape shots e.g. the Fortuner pictures.

On an island


Sunbathing on top of a forest checkpost


River Tern


Sunset over Bhadra reservoir


Waiting Brahmani Kite


River Tern...looks so much like a swing wing Mig

Some weeks back: it was a cloudy Sunday afternoon, and I was getting the itch to head out. I am a great fan of jungle/shikar stories, and Kenneth Anderson (Kenneth Anderson (writer) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia) is one of my favourite authors. Find him very different from Corbett - the styles are different, timeline is different, the jungles are different, social standing was also different. While not as timeless and engaging as Corbett's stories (IMHO), Anderson's stories are also a great and funny read.

Anderson had many adventures around the Bangalore jungles- especially around Anchetty/Cauvery Sanctuary. Maneating leopards, killer elephants, man eatingt tigers. Nowadays tigers are niot there in these forests (that is what I have heard, not sure), but elephants and leopards are still roaming around. Always wanted to explore those areas, and since they are so close, they can be covered during an afternoon/evening drive.

So took my camera, a bottle of water, my mobile phone (for GPS/wide angle lens) and headed out. Wanted to avoid traffic and key roads. Luckily I stay on Sarjapur Road, so it is easy to hit NH7 and drive down South through state highways and single lane roads.

Wanted to try the Attibele - Anekal - Anchetti route, and also visit small towns and villages that I have read about. The route taken was:

* Sajapur Road - Dommasandra circle - village roads to Attibele
* Attibele
* Anekal
* Gumlapur (check out Leopard of Gummalapur - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)
* Thally
* Jawalagiri
* Hunasanahalli
* Anchetty (have visited a few times; epicenter for many of Kenneth's stories)
* Denkanikottai
* Attibele

Who knew that some of the places were significant during Tippoo's war with the Brits? I didn't know till I came across this webpage (Jawalagiri , ?????
) while Googling about Jawalagiri (trying to figure out whether it was the same as Jowalagiri of man eater fame : Tigress of Jowlagiri - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

After Anekal, the road becomes a two laner. I was driving slowly, and trying to imagine how things would have been so many years back. Passed Gumlapur...saw some scrub jungles around the places. Was imagining a leopard coming in the night and preying on people. While times have changed, things look very different during daytime. Come night, it is a different ballgame - those who have spent any days and nights in the jungles, will know.

Sometimes the road became a single lane road, and meandered around some huts. In places the road was being repaired or constructed. Before reaching Thally, I was forced to go down into a field and take a diret track since the road was blocked with bulldozers.

I enjoy driving through countryside, and with a 4WD, bad roads or no roads are not an issue. I keep getting surprised at the sheer number of cows, goats and chicken that I see around the villages. In this part of the country, 99% of the goats are black (why?). And there are some big, tagra (strong) country chicken around. Now I can't look at these without imagining a good tandoori or chicken with mustard oil dish (with all due respect to vegies).

The jungle started after Thally - if you look at Google maps, you can see the Green areas. Somehow I never see any animal in these jungles - only birds. Not even any alarm calls in the evenings. Seems prey base is pretty bad (compared to Bandipur, Nagarhole etc.), so predators are also less.

The Thally - Hunasanahally - Anchetty stretch was picturesque. I drove slowly and kept stopping for pictures and the view.

Saw a lovely sunset after passing Anchetty.

After crossing the forest checkpost, increased my speed on the Denkanikottai road. Took a short cut from there (after looking at Google maps) to reach Attibele without going through the horrible Hosur traffic.

Overall, a nice relaxing slow cruise. Pity about the lack of wildlife though, compared to Kenneth's times.

Even I wanted to try this sector once and I managed to do it partly. I had been to Hogenakkal and took the Anchetty-Hunasanahall-Kanakpura-Bangalore route back. I wanted to take the Thally-Anekal route back, but then, I did not want to put my swift through even more bad roads and then called it a day.

The Denkanikottai-Anchetty region is quite forested, but also has a large human population. This probably one reason for very little wildlife. This region is contiguous and will continue all the way to BRT, Bandipur along the Karnataka-Tamil Nadu border. Given this advantage, we should really see some wildlife. I have spotted some deer in the ghat section between Anchetty and Hunasanahalli.

Jawalagiri and Jowlagiri should be one and the same. I think Jowlagiri is an anglicised version of Jawalagiri.

No photos ?? It would be very interesting to see. Did you see navadarshanam at gumplapur ?? This commune has done a great job in bring vegetation back to completely barren land that was once jungle.

Deepak

Thally Anekal is not to bad, except some gravel stretches and some offroading through a field.

I was thinking that a maneating tigress once roamed here while passing through Jawalagiri. These forests seem to have been hit very hard by human expansion.

I didn't know about navadarshanam.

I am unable to upload photos since yesterday. Could be a browser issue (I installed Firefox 12 recently) or something else. I can upload to Gmail, so am wondering whether it is a TBHP issue.

Edit: photo upload not working even with IE 8

OK, so if I try one by one I am able to upload. Not sure why batch upload is not working for me.

There is a Kenneth Anderson story about Jowlagiri as well as Gumlapuram. If you read the description of Gumplapuram you will feel depressed comparing it with what it is now. I dont remember which books they are from but you can easily google it if interested

Nilanjan,

You need to do this sector after the rains. I was aware of these roads, and also wanted to go around this area, but am waiting for rains to start so
that these places transform to green.

Nice snaps!

I have read those stories...that is why wanted to check out the places.

Thanks. I did Anchetty - Hoggenakakkal during the rains last year (and also one week back during another Sunday afternoon). Green all around, but the roads were slushy and broken. Not that it mattered.

Somehow the typical smell of the jungles is missing in forests around Cauvery. Maybe this region is too dry. Or maybe I am missing the fragrance of the Nilgiris :)