[muralisk]

Great shots Fazal. This place has great memories attached to me. I have been there some 5 times now and it really feels great. I am planning for a trip during this winter season and hope to see some water in the dam and some through the gates as well.

[fazalaliadil]

Muralisk,
I can understand your cherished memories here, one can never get enough of this place, I have been in and out of it since 16 years, atleast once a month - 3 times a month. Only wish the forest dept. would not lord over the place like they do, it is also our right to visit the interiors, legally.

Shams, Ashwinsid, PjAy in, akroy, TheOne, Cvvikram, ravi64bhp, Nitin, Nickatnight,
Thankyou all for your appreciation of the pictures, when I was capturing whatever I could of this magnificient place, sharing it with guys on T-BHp forum was on my mind.

MC,
Opposite Reserve Bank of India, is the AP forest Dept. here you can contact the PCF for making reservations at Vana Mayuri, this forest bunglow, it has 4 suites and rent is 200-400 rupees per day, situated in Dommala Penta, a small village between Mannanur and Srisailam. Go there ASAP.

There are a few more that I will add to the present pics, but no panaroma can beat what we see through our eyes. It took about 6-7 frames to make one panaromic shot (posted here) what our eye see is wider, as a single frame.

Members not interested in wildlife conservation, ignore the below writeup.

Also what I wanted to emphasise here, is how we are plundering the last reserves which inhabits the Tiger and its food chain, Nallamalla or NSTR (Nagarjuna Sagar Tiger Reserve) also known as RGTS ( Rajiv Gandhi Tiger Sanctuary). In an area of 3,558 square kilometers there should have been atleast 300 male tigers (requirement for male tiger, 100 square kilometers as its exclusive territory) females are free to wander in and out and are welcome by males, so the females could be double that of males, which gives an approx. figure of atleast 900+ tigers, The lastest annual census conducted by the forest dept. in april-may 09 claims the 2008-09 figure as about 80 tigers. Which has been challenged by others and myself. The figure by all means does not exceed 20-25 tigers. Period.
What can one expect where 6-8 lakh cattle graze in this reserve area annually and consume what is meant for the antelope and other native herbivores ? The primary food source of the Tiger.
Leave the highway and go half a kilometer interior and you will see trees axed or burned, later to be collected as firewood for cooking. (in next pics.)
This rape-en-masse of nature, of this and other forests in India does not go un noticed by the concerned department....it is just that... THEY DONT CARE! and at times are benifacaries too.
Now you know why we are not allowed inside the forest?
The buffer area should be open for visits to NGO's and induvudials by permission, for transparency and monitoring the activities, the core area can be controlled but should be accessible to non gorvenment agencies for keeping a check on the department and its failures.

Since 1992 to today, I have seen so much lost in this region alone, which is near impossible to reverse and with the going trend of poaching, cattle grazing, deforestation and legal and illegal occupation of forest land and directionless, incompetent, impotent forest department, we may never see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Regards,

[pulsar56]

Originally Posted by fazalaliadil

Leave the highway and go half a kilometer interior and you will see trees axed or burned, later to be collected as firewood for cooking. (in next pics.)
This rape-en-masse of nature, of this and other forests in India does not go un noticed by the concerned department....it is just that... THEY DONT CARE! and at times are benifacaries too.
Now you know why we are not allowed inside the forest?
The buffer area should be open for visits to NGO's and induvudials by permission, for transparency and monitoring the activities, the core area can be controlled but should be accessible to non gorvenment agencies for keeping a check on the department and its failures.

That's some information most of us were not aware of. Had read your article in TOI few weeks back. Completely agree to the point but I don't see that happening in the near future!

P.S: Fazal saab, can you share some knowledge on how to take those great panorama shots? And the kind of lens required, etc?

[fazalaliadil]

Originally Posted by pulsar56

That's some information most of us were not aware of. Had read your article in TOI few weeks back. Completely agree to the point but I don't see that happening in the near future!

P.S: Fazal saab, can you share some knowledge on how to take those great panorama shots? And the kind of lens required, etc?

Nazim,

One can write books on how the forest department's (functions) dysfunctions. They are so numb and immune to it, it does not make a scratch leave alone a dent.

Indian forests, sanctuaries, reserves are our National heritage and as Indian citizens it is our right to protect them.

Yes the panaromas: All you need is a 24 mm wide angle lens, and a software by your camera manafacturer which has photostitch or panaroma maker utilities, it also can be a third party software with the same features.
The panaromic shot, showing the curve of high tension cables above will give you an idea how I panned the camera and took 7 shots from left to right and Voila the software merged them and made it into a single frame.
If I remember correctly, you have a Nikon. Check the drivers provided and refer to the manual.

A premeditated act of tree felling to be (to be later collected as dead wood). Devidas standing on it is for scale and size of the tree and also me in the next pic.

The burnt tree. Hollowed.

Cattle camp inside the forest half kilometer inside the gate (in the next pic.) notice on left families, temporary huts and land cleared (compare with background) for penning cattle from dusk to dawn, next day it is mass grazing again. Here, until the light allowed I took this pic. later as we were moving out ten times more in numbers, (cattle) were heading for this night shelter. Estimated in this shelter alone, approx. 2000+ heads.

"No Entry" for some! The cattle in thousands go in, beside the white pillars which are open endlessly.


Regards,

[MileCruncher]

Fazal Saab, Thanks for the info.

Having been to a few sanctuaries myself, the apathy of the Forest Officials is a common phenomena and so is nonchalance of the locals.

But the only exception is Ranthambore wherein the entire local and district economy is dependent on the tourist inflow during 6 months when the forest remains open. So locals make sure that deforestation and poaching doesn't happen.

[mobike008]

Fazal bhai, while we were enjoying a bbq meet, you went off to such a lovely destination and i was mentioning to the Hyd folks who met up at Arun's place that we need to find out the secret of Fazal and Devidas constant trips to Srisailam. Now we know

Absolutely beautiful capture of the nature and some of those panoramas are breathtaking.

Did you happen to do any macros? would love to see them if you have it.

Look forward to more pictures from this trip

[Rajesh Rawal]

Originally Posted by mobike008

Absolutely beautiful capture of the nature and some of those panoramas are breathtaking.

Did you happen to do any macros? would love to see them if you have it.

Look forward to more pictures from this trip

+ 1 to the above. fazal bhai its been a while you've joined us for our meets ,there is one drive planned on coming saturday to bidar (120km one way,details on the meet thread)

join us

[MrinalSinha]

Very beautiful pictures!

[phamilyman]

Fantastic pics. Can't say the same about the place though

[fazalaliadil]

Originally Posted by MileCruncher

Fazal Saab, Thanks for the info.

Having been to a few sanctuaries myself, the apathy of the Forest Officials is a common phenomena and so is nonchalance of the locals.

But the only exception is Ranthambore wherein the entire local and district economy is dependent on the tourist inflow during 6 months when the forest remains open. So locals make sure that deforestation and poaching doesn't happen.

Mc,
You are most welcome.
Ranthambore: We have been there and interacted with locals who have spoken very ill about the forest dept. and went to the (on Tape) extent of saying that forest officials will stripe paint a donkey and try to pass it off as a tiger. Where has more than half the population of tigers gone in the past decade in Ranthambore? Why is there a decrease instead of an increase?
They swear poaching is done there and the dept. guys are brokers.
This place is a small and tiger sighting here was certian in every trip, Ranthambore does not have the dense undergrowth as other forest except in very small pockets. Now they do baiting ( keeping raw meat for the tiger at the same time, same place every day) tourist are taken on this planned track, this way there are chances of sighting.
If you want to sight a tiger close to home the best chances are in Nagarhole, and the forest staff there are the best in India, who do everything in their means to ensure you sight a tiger. April- May is the time.
For how long do we tolerate the show of power and blatant apathy of the forest department, until there is is no wildlife left?

Originally Posted by mobike008

Fazal bhai, while we were enjoying a bbq meet, you went off to such a lovely destination and i was mentioning to the Hyd folks who met up at Arun's place that we need to find out the secret of Fazal and Devidas constant trips to Srisailam. Now we know


Absolutely beautiful capture of the nature and some of those panoramas are breathtaking.

Did you happen to do any macros? would love to see them if you have it.

Look forward to more pictures from this trip

Avi,
Missed out on your BBQ party. There are many rough patches Devidas and I go through in Srisailam, the forest guys are on high alert when we are there and monitor our movement, even follow us after half an hour.
Still we manage to photograph matter which should be a death knell for them, but since top to bottom in that dept. have a callous attitude it makes no difference until the press reports it.
Take your chances like we do and you will be shocked at whats going on out there.
No macro photography except a few plants and Devidas's Tissot displaying the altitude ( posted on official non- auto image thread) thanks to you for guiding me there.

Originally Posted by Rajesh Rawal

+ 1 to the above. fazal bhai its been a while you've joined us for our meets ,there is one drive planned on coming saturday to bidar (120km one way,details on the meet thread)
join us

Rajesh,
Thanks a million for the invite, I wish we could. A bit tied up myself and Devidas is in Munnar.

Originally Posted by MrinalSinha

Very beautiful pictures!

Mrinalsinha,
Thanks for your appreciation.

Originally Posted by phamilyman

Fantastic pics. Can't say the same about the place though

Phamilyman,
Cann you please eloborate what you mean by " Cant say the same about the place though" ?

Thank you all for appreciating the pics.
Regards,

[Lalvaz]

Amazing pics Mr.Fazal, and its an eye opener to see the way these forest officials are letting the last few forested areas go to the dogs. The sheer number of cattle in the core area of the forests is a matter of serious concern.

[vnabhi]

Fazal, I share your adventurist spirit and envy you! Great pics, man!

I never knew that there was a guest house in the forsest. All that I know is that the cops don't allow vehicles to ply beyond Mananur after 8 pm or so.

Look forward to meeting you in one of the Hyd meets.

[pypkmsrikanth]

Faizal am sure you are aware of the cattle grazing in the Bandipur WLS, Mudumalai etc. But this takes the cake, especially the ones where grazing cattle are at water holes. Heights of mismanagement. Indravathi, Srisailam/Nagarjuna Sagar should have been the torch bearers of Indian tiger because of the size of the forests without fragmentation for conservation, its a pity that no one knows what's the scene with Indravathi because of supposedly Naxalite influence and Srisailam/Nagarjuna Sagar has gone to dogs because of mis-management.

Am no expert though I have made enough visits to Bandipur, Mudumalai, Wayanad & Nagarhole to have some understanding of the state of the forests, for a seasoned conservationist like you, if you have managed to see only a Deer during all your dawn/dusk drives then the park is in serious trouble.

When was the last time did you see a Big cat Faizal? What worries me is if there is a cattle kill by a tiger, they would ask for a compensation and get the tiger killed after claiming it to be a "Man eater", thats the state of affairs with Wildlife conservation in India. Am sure you would have read about the elephants capture from Maldare forests near Coorg because they were attacking people, conveniently forgetting that we had encroached into their space in the first instance, now they have become rouge elephants.

Sorry for the rant, but your last set of pictures really pains me.

[muralisk]

I completely understand the level of destruction people are causing to the beautiful nature. My first visit to Srisailam was back in 1989. I have physical photos of that and what we see now is quite different.

It is sad, but also true that in the name of tribal welfare, the corrupt government and forest officials are allowing every one to chop trees and cultivate. Its the same thing that is destroying Araku Valley as well.

[deky]

Hi Sir,

Loved the pics, infact I am a fan of your pics already since you started posting them in the non-auto image thread so was expecting similar quality from you and I am glad you have lived up to the standards you have set.

I also appreciate your love for nature and am sure that if atleast 50% of us start loving the beasts we would be able to save the tiger.

BUT...

Originally Posted by fazalaliadil

Ranthambore: We have been there and interacted with locals who have spoken very ill about the forest dept. and went to the (on Tape) extent of saying that forest officials will stripe paint a donkey and try to pass it off as a tiger. Where has more than half the population of tigers gone in the past decade in Ranthambore? Why is there a decrease instead of an increase?
They swear poaching is done there and the dept. guys are brokers.
This place is a small and tiger sighting here was certian in every trip, Ranthambore does not have the dense undergrowth as other forest except in very small pockets. Now they do baiting ( keeping raw meat for the tiger at the same time, same place every day) tourist are taken on this planned track, this way there are chances of sighting.

Regards,

I dont agree with you here totally. the things have changed in Ranthambore drastically and over the past few years the tiger population has been on an increase. After the Sariska debacle the state govt simply can not let the tigers dissappear from Ranthambore and incur international wrath upon themselves.

Poaching maybe still present but its very less, baiting could be done in one off incidents but not always, tigers are easy to spot in Ranthambore as:-
1. the under growth is very less in the jungle.
2. water holes are limited
3. very dry area
4. few tigers have been radio-coloured so easy to locate them.

Check this video taken by my friend who was a part of the tiger census operation carried out last month and you will know what i mean

YouTube - King of The Jungle 2009 0001

Also you are most welcome to visit Ranthambore again now, I would love at accompany you there and hopefully you will change your mind about the tiger reserve

Regards