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.