[abheekg]

NOTE FROM THE SUPPORT TEAM: Several pictures posted in this thread have been lifted from other sources and passed off by abheekg as his own. This is not acceptable, and suitable action has been taken as mentioned in this post



Many of you would know that I have taken time off from my routine to travel around India and decide the future course of my life and possible relocation from central India. After traveling through Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh in April and May (of which more will come later) , I landed up in the state of birth - West Bengal in June 2012.

My visit was 3 pronged - restoration of my 1967 cj3b jeep (code name TINTIN) gifted to me by the legendary UBS and formation of an offroading club in Kolkata formed the top of my agenda ; exploration of the uncharted locations in Kolkata city and a systematic exploration of the Sundarban delta in the monsoon ensured that my wildlife documentations continue ; and a visit to North Bengal including the Dooars to check out the feasibility of a probable relocation to the foothills of north bengal in the near future formed the most important part of my visit.

This travelogue will be a pictorial depiction of my journey to salvation over the last 2 months. The first part will cover my travels in and around Kolkata including the exploration of Sundarban Delta ; and the second part will be an account of incredible North Bengal including hills, wildlife and monsoons.

A 1967 cj3b , an extremely rare variant of the cj3b jeep was gifted to me about 2 years ago by the venerable UBS sir when I had first gone to meet him at his house in Liluah. This was the same jeep which he had once though of gifting to respected Behram Dabhar sir. The next 2 years saw the jeep being parked in the same spot as I could not find time to embark on its restoration and neither did I want to truck it down unrestored to Nagpur. All the while team bhp member and my good friend Aniket Sengupta aka "predatorwheelz" was prodding me to take time out and come down to kolkata to restore the jeep.

Hence task 1 was to restore the jeep.

This was how I had found TINTIN:


The following pics are of the restoration process - we tackled only the mechanical restoration in the first place:




The next step was testing out TINTIN in an OTR situation and this was accomplised in 3 OTR events which was organised under the ageis of "Kolkata Offroaders" - an offroading community of enthusiastic learners in the city of joy.









In the 2 months of its existence, KO has already had 3 events under its belt and a membership base of 100+ enthusiastic and enterprising new and experienced offroaders.

You can read all about the Kolkata offroading scene in this post http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/4x4-ex...er-2012-a.html and interested kolkata members can join the community on facebook https://www.facebook.com/groups/333368660072169/ and take part in the regular meets.

Some of the notable pics of the 3 meets so far :



















Jeeps getting stuck is a regular feature of OTRs and Tintin comics gives us one great reason why these seemingly unstoppable machines get stuck from time to time :



Thus successful in my first and second agenda - that of restoration of Tintin and formation of an offroading club in Kolkata, I embarked upon exploring the Kolkata city and the Sundarban delta. Here I was helped by a couple of good samaritans. UBS sir loaned me his WHO jeep for going around kolkata and in this jeep I travelled over 1000+ kms in 5 days checking out sights of the city of joy.

A couple of pics which stand out from my travels in the city :

The kolkata tram


Kumartuli - where human hands shape our Gods


Howrah bridge and gathering clouds


The great banyan tree at Kolkata botanical garden - note that the entire red circle is the banyan tree


Job Charnok memorial


For my travel to the Sundarban Delta I found a good partner in team-bhp member Indrajit Gupta who graciously accompanied me in his maruti 800 to Bakkhali. We evaluated a few boats apart from checking out Bakkhali beach and the adjoining parts of the Delta.

To give you a location of Bakkhali and its position inside Sundarban, this satellite image will be useful :



The small circle on the left is Bakkhali - a major tourism centre. People usually go there to enjoy the beach unaware that a boat ride from here can get your directly inside the bigger circle which is the Sundarban Tiger reserve. But getting in is not as simple as it looks from this map. You need strong departmental connections to access Sundarban tiger reserve via this route. Thankfully I had those connections and the my credentials were strong enough to get me the access permission on a later date.

Our sister NGO is working on a project on the impact of global warming on the crustaceans of the Sundarban Delta. I managed to get myself a voluntary post of their photographer. I also managed to persuade my long time friend and an owner of a boat in Sundarban to give me a free rein of his boat for a couple of days .

The following shots were a result of this arrangement :

A fishing boat on a misty winter morning at Diamond Harbour - river of life


cinamon bittern - surprised male in breeding plumage


colony of egrets searching for food on the delta


sunderbans in the eye of a cyclone


fish eagle sets off for a catch


red fiddler crabs on the delta


sunderbans at sunset



More of Sundarbans and much more of enchanting North Bengal coming up later tonight...........



Some questions to ponder till then ??

• Where should Dr. Abheek Ghosh relocate to from central India ? (place should have jungles and/or hills nearby and general lack of medical facilities)
• How can we possibly improve the status of healthcare in the Sundarban delta ?
• The shrinking sundarbans - How can we arrest the disappearance and degradation of the Delta ?
• Man-Tiger conflict in Sundarbans - what are the possible reasons and how to mitigate this serious issue.
• Tourism in Sundarban - how to control rowdy tourists on boats ?
• What is the actual tiger count in Sundarban - What can be an effective way of estimating the Tiger population on the delta.
• How to enhance surveillance and monitoring of this prime Tiger habitat - how can a citizen initiative help in this regard ?

[samarjitdhar]

Awesome Doc. Don't think any of us have ever been able to capture the beauty of West Bengal so vividly that too in a single post. My vote for your relocation would be North Bengal only. The Dooars are just so beautiful in all its aspects. In fact there are wildlife reserves all around and they will be blessed to have somebody like you. Medical facilities in all rural areas all over India are really very poor so I am sure you will keep busy even there. The hills all over India have wonderful people, an open mind and always a welcoming smile. So you can make it out now that how much I envy you . Just so my job is such that I cannot make the choices you can make relatively easily. Though I have been toying with the idea of starting something up high in the hills. All I really need is a solid Internet connection. Wish you all the very best in your quest.

And just so that all TBHPians know, in my first OTR outing I was lucky enough to test and be tested by Tintin. Its one hell of a beast.

[joshuakeys]

Man you are going Places. Awesome captures, Off roading, amazing machines. Doc any tiger captures? if yes, then waiting for it. Was following your Captures in FB also.

[4x4 loaded]

Originally Posted by abheekg

Some questions to ponder till then ??

• Where should Dr. Abheek Ghosh relocate to from central India ? (place should have jungles and/or hills nearby and general lack of medical facilities)
• How can we possibly improve the status of healthcare in the Sundarban delta ?
• The shrinking sundarbans - How can we arrest the disappearance and degradation of the Delta ?
• Man-Tiger conflict in Sundarbans - what are the possible reasons and how to mitigate this serious issue.
• Tourism in Sundarban - how to control rowdy tourists on boats ?
• What is the actual tiger count in Sundarban - What can be an effective way of estimating the Tiger population on the delta.
• How to enhance surveillance and monitoring of this prime Tiger habitat - how can a citizen initiative help in this regard ?

Hi Abheek,

No suggestions. But I should say that your move is going to be something great! Very few people would think and dedicate like that. Best wishes. And you have captured the coastal South Bengal and Calcutta real nice. Best wishes.

[neel385]

Very nice pics...specially the Tram pic....long exposure I suppose? Very soothing result.

[1eighty]

Wow, Doc, wow! Yes, I have traveled throughout the northern West Bengal on various vehicles (including but not limited to elephants, bullock karts, roofs of local bus, knackered old jeeps driven by drunk and dangerous drivers, on foot) over time, but unfortunately I have never been to Darjeeling, and therefore your amazing pictures of the same have rekindled the desire to go visit the the impossibly crowded yet magical hill station situated near the top of the map of our state.

Apart from that, I know what you have been through to get Tintin in shape, and I sincerely request that instead of a red one driven by T & T, you should go for the blue color scheme from Destination Moon, and as your Jeep was delivered to the Government in that color, I guess he would appreciate this gesture on your part.

Here's hoping for your return to West Bengal soon enough so we can have a Riverbed Run in Santiniketan, me and another one from here (don't remember his ID) will be happy to host that.

Best of luck and journey on.

P.S. Tintin jeeps for reference:

[hvkumar]

One of the best opening lines for any TL!
Please do keep us also in good humour in subsequent posts by detailing routes, schedules, etc, about all the places you went, especially North Bengal!

[abheekg]

Originally Posted by samarjitdhar

Awesome Doc. Don't think any of us have ever been able to capture the beauty of West Bengal so vividly that too in a single post. My vote for your relocation would be North Bengal only......

In fact there are wildlife reserves all around and they will be blessed to have somebody like you.........

So you can make it out now that how much I envy you . Just so my job is such that I cannot make the choices you can make relatively easily. Though I have been toying with the idea of starting something up high in the hills. All I really need is a solid Internet connection. Wish you all the very best in your quest.

Samarjit it was good to meet you last sunday, and thanks for the kind words and enjoying the photographs. Well, to tell you frankly, all ofthese had been my dream shots whenever i used to think about kolkata, sundarbans, dooars, north bengal and the likes and this extended trip gave me just the right amount of time that I needed to capture and frame those dream shots.

Of late I have been interacting with a lot of peers my age who are increasingly becoming disillusioned with city lives and want to move to rural areas / hills / slow towns / and the likes.... but unable to do so because of materialistic obligations in their present life.

I believe anybody can break free. Provided one has the daring to take the initial plunge and just go in with the flow. I am sure you will find your dream destination in the hills with a fast internet connection soon.

Originally Posted by samarjitdhar

And just so that all TBHPians know, in my first OTR outing I was lucky enough to test and be tested by Tintin. Its one hell of a beast.

I am glad that both you and Tintin could test one another and I can assure you that you will have many chances to get back to the beast and tame it.

Originally Posted by joshuakeys

Man you are going Places. Awesome captures, Off roading, amazing machines. Doc any tiger captures? if yes, then waiting for it. Was following your Captures in FB also.

Thanks Joshua, its long time and good to hear from you after so many moons. Its been a roller coaster life for me for the past couple of months and the sudden deluge of pics that you are seeing a present is a result of non stop travel over the past few months. The only Tiger I got in this trip was this :


But stay tuned and this bolg will show you a lot of unique animals (although shot in controlled conditions) which are even rarer than a Tiger.

Originally Posted by 4x4 loaded

Hi Abheek,

No suggestions. But I should say that your move is going to be something great! Very few people would think and dedicate like that. Best wishes. And you have captured the coastal South Bengal and Calcutta real nice. Best wishes.

Saikat
Again it was a great meeting you and taking ride on one of the smoothest 550's that I have ever driven. You surely have a wonderfully tuned beast under your hands.

Enjoy more of bengal in these subsequent posts and really thank you from the bottom of my heart for your kind wishes.

Originally Posted by neel385

Very nice pics...specially the Tram pic....long exposure I suppose? Very soothing result.

The tram was shot on foot using a wide angle lens in manual mode using the zoom blur technique. It was a risky shot considering the buses which were zooming all around me. But I am glad that the final result has turned out so well.

Originally Posted by 1eighty

Wow, Doc, wow! Yes, I have traveled throughout the northern West Bengal on various vehicles (including but not limited to elephants, bullock karts, roofs of local bus, knackered old jeeps driven by drunk and dangerous drivers, on foot) over time, but unfortunately I have never been to Darjeeling, and therefore your amazing pictures of the same have rekindled the desire to go visit the the impossibly crowded yet magical hill station situated near the top of the map of our state.

You should make that first trip in these rains if possible and get me a shot which has eluded me despite trying for days for it. I want you to shoot me the toy train engine driving out of a dense mist. It had been one of my dream shots which I have been unable to achieve in this trip.

Originally Posted by 1eighty

Apart from that, I know what you have been through to get Tintin in shape, and I sincerely request that instead of a red one driven by T & T, you should go for the blue color scheme from Destination Moon, and as your Jeep was delivered to the Government in that color, I guess he would appreciate this gesture on your part.

Thank you Sayantan, Tintin will stay blue. Infact will stay absolutely stock as what you see at present, will only undergo complete body work.

Originally Posted by 1eighty

Here's hoping for your return to West Bengal soon enough so we can have a Riverbed Run in Santiniketan, me and another one from here (don't remember his ID) will be happy to host that.

Best of luck and journey on.

If all goes well, I will be back again for 4 days next month for the romp on the riverbed.

Originally Posted by hvkumar

One of the best opening lines for any TL!
Please do keep us also in good humour in subsequent posts by detailing routes, schedules, etc, about all the places you went, especially North Bengal!

Thank you sir for being my guiding force in these travels of mine and being a constant supporter. I am in process of compilation of every single route and road taken by me in this trip which I will post here and mail you separately.

Now lets have more of enchanting Sundarbans :

The lifeline of Bengal - the river Delta


Dawn at Sundarbans


Footsteps - Fisherman with his net and early morning mist in the river of life.


Fish eagle sets off for a catch


Journey to a utopian island


Fishing boats


Misty morning


Lightening on Bakkhali beach


Dawn on the Ganges


Insect art on the beach


Unsustainable tourism on the delta


Moored - boats ready to go fishing in sundarban


Elaborate preparations for fishing in the lagoon - photographed from a train


Lush green bumper paddy crop on the delta


Coming up tomorrow are the final set of pics from my north Bengal sojourn.
Here's a trailer of things yet to come........

Human watching - photographed on foot using a rappelling kit, one end of which was anchored to my jeep up the bend and the other tethered to my body.


Tea Garden of Dooars with the loft Himalayas in the backdrop


Tomorrow's going to be North bengal wildlife and beautiful misty landscapes.
Goodnight everybody and stay tuned.

Dr. A Ghosh
www.facebook.com/abheekg
+918805788633

[samarjitdhar]

Originally Posted by abheekg

Lush green bumper paddy crop on the delta
Attachment 965776

Wonderful pictures again. Sad to see the Bangladeshi flag now also taking over paddy fields . Reflects the total sorry state of our own nation. Maybe West Bengal will be the next place where they conduct the experiment what is being done in Assam now. Sorry for going OT. That elephant picture looks too daring. How close were you to that family? Generally with a kid around they don't like any pesky human sneaking up to them.

[mitrajdeep]

Lovely pictures Aveek and equally good narration.

Absolutely love the lightning picture and the Elephant picture. Asking permission to share them.

Awaiting more pictures.

[thumpingheart]

Beautiful photos sir!!! Simple breathtaking!

Sunderbans should be a trip planned someday! Added to list

[rjstyles69]

Fantastic pictures, especially the 3rd set. Compositions are beyond words man, the ones after misty morning. So has the jeep been finally restored ?

[sach.sri]

wah wah.... dr. saheb, beautifully captured images. Looking at these images, i was transported into the hinterlands away from the hustle and bustle of the cities.

Beautiful! pls keep them coming.

On the internal struggle and the big move - wishing you all the best. May your deamons (whatever they are) from the past be laid to rest and you have a great new beginning.

Voting 5* for the beautiful pics.

[abheekg]

Originally Posted by samarjitdhar

Wonderful pictures again. That elephant picture looks too daring. How close were you to that family? Generally with a kid around they don't like any pesky human sneaking up to them.

It was actually very foolish of me to approach the family on foot like that. I hadn't realised that junior was around when i had started making the descent. junior was hidden among the foliage. Getting this shot required a lot of pyrotechniques, i had to first position my jeep above them on a bend on the road, attach my mountaineering equipment to the jeep and then rapple down towards the family slowly. The opportunity was so good and the kind of angle which seemed possible made me take a rash decision to go down towards them. In the excitement, I even forgot to put my video camera on recording mode to capture my descent.

Originally Posted by mitrajdeep

Lovely pictures Aveek and equally good narration.

Absolutely love the lightning picture and the Elephant picture. Asking permission to share them.

Awaiting more pictures.

Go ahead buddy, the intention of these posts is to create awareness. Share them far and wide.

Originally Posted by thumpingheart

Beautiful photos sir!!! Simple breathtaking!

Sunderbans should be a trip planned someday! Added to list

I am glad that I could open your eye to the beauty of this place. A citizen initiative is indeeed needed to save the delta from being pilfered. I need suggestions on what can be done by us to help save the ecology of this region. as you know, this place is unlike any other forest anywhere in the country, so saving this complex ecosystem needs a totally and completely out of the box new idea. I will be glad that if you can brain storm on this issue.

Originally Posted by rjstyles69

Fantastic pictures, especially the 3rd set. Compositions are beyond words man, the ones after misty morning. So has the jeep been finally restored ?

I have not yet posted the real spine chilling and thrilling pics buddy. Stay tuned for more. Glad you like them.

Originally Posted by sach.sri

wah wah.... dr. saheb, beautifully captured images. Looking at these images, i was transported into the hinterlands away from the hustle and bustle of the cities.

Beautiful! pls keep them coming.

On the internal struggle and the big move - wishing you all the best. May your deamons (whatever they are) from the past be laid to rest and you have a great new beginning.

Voting 5* for the beautiful pics.

Sachin babu, thank you very much for the rating and also for your kind wishes. And aha.. you should definitely keep north bengal wilds as one of your destination in your wildlife travel itinerary.

--------------------------------------------------------------

Now, before moving onto the north bengal posts, here are some residual pics from the plains.

Howrah bridge for an angle usually unseen


Rains in the city


Street Life


Coffee house - shei adda


An unusual view of Victoria memorial



With these bunch of pics, its time for me to move away from kolata and the plains towards the hills and the tea gardens and forests of Dooars and north bengal.

North bengal incidentally has been the place where I have been initiated to the wonders of wildlife. I remember, as a child I used to spend many summer vacations in my dadu's house in Kalchini. The location of this place in my opinion is very strategic. Here looking at this map you will be able to get an idea of where this place is situated.

Map of North bengal with location of Kalchini


The black circle on the top right corner of this map is Kalchini. I remember times when there were Tigers roaming outside our wooden cottage house and my mom turning down the wick of the hurricain lamp and asking all of us to remain quite. The Hashimara air base was also close by and I spent many summer nights lying on the charpai looking at the trails of the MIG fighter jets which touched down and took off. Sometimes the trees around our house used to come alive with lights of jonaki (firefiles) and the whole spectacle would resemble a lighted up Christmas tree. I have been living with these memories for so long.....

The following map will now give you an idea of all the possibilities around this place.

North east India and adjoining areas


Geographically it is bang in centre of the corridor between Buxa and Jaldapara Tiger reserves. To the north are the loft Himalayas including picturesque getaways like Bhutan and Sikkim. To the east are the boundless hills and forests of north-east India. Tibet, Nepal and Burma are also not very far away. Down south is the Sundarbans.

As I grew up and my visits became more and more infrequent, I started longing for the place and eventually in 2010 winter I revisited Kalchini with my mom (who was born there) and we celebrated her birthday in one of our acquaintance's old family estate house. Dadu's wooden house was long sold off but to this date there remains a small part of dadu's property which still stands intact (and which I plan to buy back someday). Amen.....

Anyway, coming to this present visit, I had first visualized this trip to be a complete road trip from Kolkata. Frantic discussion on the HVK forum ensured that I had a great plan A and a plan B and a plan C in place. Samarjit Dhar at one point also graciously offered to drive with me to North bengal exploring a new route that he wanted to check out.

Plan was to make this into a family trip and drive with all my cousins located in Kolkata and visit all the places of which we had fond memories from childhood. But as D-day neared, one by one all my cousins dropped out of my plan and only my mama and her daughter remained. Train tickets were booked and we were on our way.

Now , there are 2 train routes to North bengal from Kolkata.



One line bifurcates at New Jalpaiguri and travels via Siliguri - New Mal - Chalsa - and other stations travelling a more northernly course while the other line follows a more southernly course as is evident on this map



If one wants to experience the beauty of north bengal by train then it is the norther bifurcation of the trainline one must explore. This northern line travels through dense forests of Gouramara, Jaldapara and Buxa and drops you off at New Alipurdaur or Hashimara or Kalchini. This entire stretch of train line travels through what is known as the elephant corridor. In fact the entire elephant corridor stretches from Naxalbari along the Mechi river near the Indo-Nepal border to Sankosh on the Bengal-Assam border. The stretch covers several reserve forests, national parks and sanctuaries.

There have been a lot of accidents on this route involving the pachyderms which has prompted the Govt to restrict speed of trains to a maximum of 50 kmph, with constant whistling in the section.

Check out these 2 videos to understand the topography of this train line.

The Corridor of DEATH 2min..mov - YouTube

chilapata, elephant corridor, dooars, north bengal, west bengal, india - YouTube

So the point that I am trying to highlight is that if you can keep your eyes open on this route, you have chances of encountering a lot of wildlife right from your train window.


Here's a sample of what North Bengal can offer........


Views from daily train journeys - A small shanty captured from the train window with the lofty Himalayas in the background


Big cats - the rare and elusive Black Panther - this gentleman captured from Buxa Tiger reserve now resides at Darjeeling zoo



Daily scenes from Tea gardens like this - Collecting fresh tea leaves for that perfect morning cuppa which we all enjoy in bed.......


Mist covered tea gardens right from the balcony of your British era Dak bunglow - there are numerous british era dak bunglows many of them in superb condition like the one below


Raymatang Dak bunglow


To book this particular dak bunglow you have to get in touch with the following authority :

Dy. Field Director, Buxa Tiger Reserve, Alipurduar Court. Alipurduar, Jalpaiguri. Pin: 736122. Ph: 0356455129

More of Wild and idyllic Dooars including another thrilling encounter with wild elephants coming up in my next post tonight.

A trailer of whats more to come....

And so it rained on........

regards,
Dr. A Ghosh
+918805788633
www.facebook.com/abheekg

[neel385]

Note from the Team-BHP Support : Please avoid typing with excessive dots.........like................this. Thanks

Great pics again...loved the HRD on the Dooars and the Victoria pic is an amazing idea...great work!!