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Don’t
scream," said our driver who was a dignified man in his sixties.
"It distracts me." We all put our hands to our mouths to
stifle the scream that was threatening to come out. We were driving
along a narrow path which had steep precipice on either sides, in the
Nagarhole forest in Karnataka. To our left, in the valley beneath, we
had all seen a huge grey mass...an elephant! Naturally, as soon as we
spotted it, in our excitement, we let out a yell and our driver
objected. Next he was not willing to stop. "Single elephants are
dangerous. Only mad elephants roam around alone. It is better to get
away from here as fast as possible," he advised. But we felt we
could live on the edge. What is a visit to the forest if it is without
adventure? So we each trooped out of the the car cautiously and
noiselessly to get a better look. It took a second to find the grey
mass was just a huge rock.
Without looking at the smirk on our driver’s face, we piled in into the vehicle again and continued our drive deeper into the park, which is spread over 634 km. Lying between Bangalore and Coorg, about 93 km south-west of Mysore, Nagarhole and the adjoining forest area, Bandipur are famous not just for elephants and tigers but also for teak, sandalwood, silver oak and rosewood. The name Nagarhole translates as Naga meaning snakes and hole meaning streams. There are many streams and rivulets flowing through the forest. An enthralling forest, it is teeming with wildlife, be these reptiles, birds or the larger animals like elephants and tigers. Most people are not lucky to see tigers, but they have caught glimpses of elephant herds, even if from far away We were booked in Kabini lodge, located at the edge of the forest. It was the hunting lodge of the former Maharaja of Mysore. But a contractor who was engaged in some construction work in the forest told us of his temporary shelters deep within the forest. He told us we may get to see tigers there. Tempted with that idea, and much against the advice of our driver, we bought onion pakoras, and jackfruit (very sweet in this area) for dinner and opted for the contractor’s accommodation. The dense tree cover
brought darkness to the forest rather early and soon we were inside
our shack with the parting advice of our driver ringing in our ears.
"Do not play music too loud, animals get angry. And do not take
the foolish risk of walking out in the dark towards the river."
We smiled tolerantly at him and had decided to do just that. We could
not go back from a wildlife sanctuary with no story to tell, no
animals seen, except lizards and chameleons.
Our host made us a cup of tea and decided to cut the jackfruit first for that would take time. He sliced the huge fruit into half as were chatting and sipping our tea when we felt something like an earthquake. Maybe an elephant is walking around," my host joked. A silence fell as each one reflected on this possibility. A hyena called and sent a shiver down our spine. "I am too scared to stay here alone," he confessed. "The last time I was here..." His voice got lost as a din came along with the same kind of tremor. We were definitely hearing animals. Our hearts seeking adventure now shrivelled in fear. "What was that?" we kept asking the other. And we could feel the movement coming closer. It was frightening. Our shack was rocking and the sound was enough to blow it away. It was then that we heard a knock on the rear window. Peeping through it gingerly, though we knew no animal would be so polite as to knock, we found our driver pressed against the window. We let him in. "Elephants are stomping towards your hut because of the smell of jackfruit. Give the fruit to them," he shouted. By now fear had made us immobile. Imagine facing a hungry elephant with a tiny jackfruit! So we asked our driver to do the honours. He did not wait a minute longer. He opened the door and flung the jackfruit outside, as far as he could. In one or two minutes, the noise started receding and our herd of elephants were going back...so our driver said as he opened the door to check. We were too scared to move out of our chairs, but eventually on our driver’s assurance, we did get to see many elephant backsides stomping away. The next morning, as meeker tourists, we drove through the entire forest, so green and so cool. Insects and reptiles we saw in plenty. We saw spotted deer. We even caught sight of a cobra sliding away into the greens and its arch enemy, the mongoose. We found them fascinating and satisfying. You see we were still getting our breath back after the last night’s episode, a part of which the elephants have carried away with them forever.
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FACT FILE