Agra and Bharatpur

Many people do not find Taj so beautiful but for me every visit has produced the same feeling of awe. I feel really small in front of this masterpiece. And it is not only the architecture, the fact that it is a monument of love, and standing tall for centuries, may be responsible for this.

We went in the month of September. This was my third visit to Agra. We wanted to visit it early morning. That is the best time or the heat at this time of year will spoil the fun. But we could not make it in time. So we decided to come in the evening when the heat is more tolerable. We moved around in Agra visiting the places where leather goods were being sold. Had to do some urgent purchases like hand gloves, there were lot of interesting stuff but I personally do not like to purchase leather stuff unless there is no way out. There was lot of crowd to see Taj Mahal. Many children had come from a school. That meant lot of waiting at the gate for security check. Once inside, the sight of the beautiful Taj makes you forget the tiredness. It was standing tall in all its magnificence. We spent some time basking in its beautiful architecture, trying to capture it in our eyes and also in the camera. It became dark so soon that we did not realize it is time to say goodbye to Taj. I had forgotten that we have to travel in the night and we did not have much information about the bus stand etc.

We told auto person to take us to bus stand from where we can catch the bus to Bharatpur. There are two different bus stands here. He took us from where the private buses would leave for Jaipur via Bharatpur. But that travel company was not ready to takes passengers who are not going to Jaipur, then we realized for taking the state transport bus, we have to go to another bus stand, Idgah bus stand which was some 3-4 kms away from this place. The same auto dropped us there and we were lucky to get the bus which was leaving in another 15 minutes. We took some fruits etc and the bus started promptly. The breeze was very cool and bus was not that uncomfortable. Having got used to sitting in the volvo buses, the thought of sitting in the state transport bus always brings in some uneasy thoughts. But it was quite comfortable for 2 hour journey. In Bharatpur, we wanted to stay in hotel Sunbird as it is very near to the sanctuary. The hotel has a website with all the information and even the pictures of birds that are found in the sanctuary. One can book in advance on the website itself. Since it was off season, it was not required. The bus crossed the hotel on the way to bus stand. Bus stand is another 5 kms from the hotel. We did not have this information and had to come back to the hotel in an autorickshaw. It was 9.30 pm and we were really hungry. We freshened up and had nice dinner there. There are lot of mosquitoes and insects as it is on the ground floor. But the room was very spacious and well planned. Next day, we had to be ready by 6 in the morning to go the sanctuary. The hotel person had told us about a guide who will meet us at the gate. His name was Jagdeesh. At the entrance, he was there. We took the bicycles on rent and went with the guide inside. This is the time when every year, water birds come here and breed. But this place is known for water scarcity. This time, there was just no water, usually the water is diverted to this place so that the birds can breed, but this time the birds came and went. So no heronries to watch. There were plenty of acacia trees where these water birds breed. Our guide was a native of this place and knew every corner of the sanctuary. His father was in forest department and involved in the census of birds in the sanctuary. Some tourists had presented them with a telescope which he would bring along to help his customers get a good view of the birds. We were so lucky without really knowing we are in for such a good treat. Our binocular would have proved very inadequate in seeing the birds with such clarity. For many birds, he would know where they would be, on which tree and branch. For others, he could get the idea immediately, and stop and show us in his telescope. We spent five hours there and got to see some fifty species of birds and some wild animals also. The list of birds in the order that we saw :

• Pied Robin

• Huppoo

• Green Barbet

• Paradise Flycatcher

• Blue Jay

• Collared Pigeon

• Green Pigeon

• Knight Jar

• Tree Pie

• Brahmny Maina

• Common Hawk Cuckoo

• Green Bea Eater

• Yellow Throated Sparrow

• Jungle Babbler

• Long Tail Babbler

• Golden Crested Woodpecker

• White Breasted Kingfisher

• Spotted Owl

• Cormorant

• Honey Buzzard

• Shrike

• Indian Roller

• White Breasted Water-hen

• Sandpiper

• Saras Crane

• Snake Bird

• Grey Heron

• Red Wattled Lapwing

• Pond Heron

• Woolly necked Stork

• Black necked Stork

• Cattle Egret

• Grey Horn-bill

• Black Drongo

• Tailor Bird

• Parakeets

We could have seen Fatehpur Sikri also that day but this was so eventful that we were not in mood for anything else. We checked out, had a hearty lunch (the curd was very tasty in the hotel). There is a train in the afternoon 3.30 for Delhi from Bharatpur. Though we had to wait for two hours at the station, we went to the station. The cycle rickshaw was too happy to find a customer in off season. He was complaining that because of the internet, people come to know the state of the sanctuary before hand. Usually, they expect few foreigners at least at this time, but no one turned up this time. Economy of a tourist place completely depends on that activity and some small changes somewhere can affect a large section of people in that city.

The Amritsar bound train came in time and we were in Delhi by 8 pm. Had a good dinner at Dasprakash. We still do not know Delhi in terms of where to get good food. Till now, our impression is that it is not easy to find good eateries in Delhi as compared to Pune. Sometimes, we had to move around for 10 minutes in auto to locate one. Even the autowallahs do not know, so there must be crisis of restaurants here. Found a good one suggested by a friend, Karnataka Bhavan in R.K. Puram area. Authentic udupi hotel, we ended up going there couple of times. Though I also wanted to taste authentic punjabi food, we did not know which restaurants are there in that area.

Visit to South India Part II

There is so much really to discover in India. It is big country, so much of variety of cultures, traditions, people that you are always learning something new.

After our pilgrimage(?) to temples in south India near Kumbakonam, we went to Pondicherry for a day. Pondicherry is some 30 kms from Cuddalore. We reached Cuddalore in the night and decided to stay there and go to Pondicherry next day. There are plenty of buses plying every 15 minutes or so between these two places. In Pondicherry, we went to Botanical garden first. It is a huge garden but on our own, we could not really figure out the variety of flora there. I also felt the garden could have been better maintained. We hired an auto till evening. We went to Auroville village which is on the outskirts of the city. It took almost half an hour from the city center to go there. Auroville is spread over a huge area. They run  electric vehicles from the entrance to the center. It is a very quiet place. Lot of people had come to visit the place. The most noticable thing about Auroville is its architecture. Everything, from main building, meditation hall, the gardens, the restrooms, everything speaks of simplicity and beauty. There are so few such examples of such marvellous architecture that I have come across. Especially, all the new buildings are glass houses and so similar to one another that it is quite boring to watch the cities growing like this.  All the construction was merging with the surroundings just perfectly. Simple and yet perfect. Everything had a very earthy touch. The boutique also had some of the finest design stuff. The meditation hall which is a little away is another masterpiece. At this time, it was under renovation. There is a huge banyan tree near the meditation hall. It reminded me of the banyan tree in the JK foundation in Chennai. Banyan tree in Indian Mythology has always been associated with spiritualism. Gautama Buddha had also attained moksha under a Banyan tree. It looks and it is so protective, it can take everyone under its shadow and birds prefer it most for making the nests. It pains when I remember how many banyan trees were sacrificed in Pune for the road widening projects. Walking is not that pleasant now on those roads !! Auroville is the place one should spend lot of time at. It is full of positive energy and one should take advantage of this aspect by spending sufficient time in its lap. The beach near the Auroville is not that clean but definitely welcome.

We left for Chennai at around 8 pm. We took the bus from Cuddalore as we had to vacate the hotel. One can also take from Pondicherry as it is on the route and there are plenty of options from Pondicherry as well. The bus goes on the ECR route. The road is superb. Two by two road, not much traffic and the ride was really smooth. Only negative point was that we reached pretty late in the night and it was a little inconvenient for our friends. We sat talking for quite some time into the night and did not realize that we will spending the whole of next day relaxing at home only. Our friends’ kid Madhu and her cousin were wondering why are we sleeping so much. They were so eager to meet us as they were sleeping when we came in and it was difficult for them to realize why we did not get up in time . Maybe we were the first guests they had come across sleeping shamelessly through the day.

We planned to go to Mahabalipuram and nearby places next day. June is not the right time to be in Madras. The heat makes you very uncomfortable. We left very early in the morning to avoid traveling in the heat. Got to see the first sun rise at the beach. Till now, we had witnessed only sunset at the beaches. Then we proceeded towards Mahabalipuram. It is some 50 kms only on the ECR route. By the time the sun was in its full glory. We visited the temple, the beach and had a hearty breakfast in the hotel there. Mahabalipuram is famous for its rock carvings. Huge monolithic stones are converted into beautiful carvings. The carvings show the stories from Indian mythology. Though some of them are damaged, most of them are intact and simply superb. A huge elephant in the center of the place carved out of stone gets one’ attention first. We had real good time with Madhu posing for some beautiful photographs and also sometimes refusing to let us photograph her.

We left Mahabalipuram towards Chennai. On the way we planned to go to Croc park and Dakshin Yatra, a beautiful place for getting an indepth idea of culture of southern India. Croc park is place for crocodiles. Croc park is one of its kind in India and is spread over a large area. Got to see a large variety of crocodiles in the park. There was also a huge aquarium, which had some different types of tortoises.

When we reached Dakshin Yatra, it was late in the afternoon. There is a facility for lunch inside, it was buffet lunch. There was so much variety of food, we all ate a hearty meal. The place is set in a very big area. India’ southern states Karnataka, Kerala, Tamilnadu and Andhra Pradesh are depicted in a very great detail. The cultures of these places, the traditional houses, granaries, the art, the food and many other details. It was first time we got to see these details. Every state in turn has lot of cultures specific to places there like Chettinad in TamilNadu. All these were very beautifully depicted at this place. This activity takes one full day, we did not do full justice by spending only few hours. One can take part in sessions organised throughout the day at specific timings. We got to see only the puppet show.

Chennai has lot to offer for the tourists. Next day we went to Mylapore temple which is a very ancient temple. Our friend insisted that we see this place. This temple reminded us of Kumbakonam as there was a huge water tank near the temple. The tank had lot of fishes and fishing was not allowed here. People would feed the fishes and it was a beautiful sight of a huge group of fishes coming together to get the share of the feed. Mylapore has its own charm. We went to a book shop specializing in Indology, and we found a great wealth of books there. It was a one stop shop for books on philosophy, religion and similar stuff. In the afternoon, after a hearty meal at home, we left back for Pune. Chennai was a good break, with a lot still to discover in the city. Here are some pictures of the visit to Pondicherry and Madras.

Visit to Katraj Animal Rescue Centre, Pune

As part of the Ornithology course , on Sunday, 12th Feb we were taken to the Katraj Rescue Center in Pune to see how they rescue the wild animals and birds and what efforts are taken to rehabilitate them. It was a very humble experience. The people there are taking so much efforts to take care of the rescued animals and giving them care like they are their own. For me personally, it was a first visit to any such center and I was really moved.

The day’ agenda started with a talk by Mr. Kiran Purandhare, who is a specialist in bird calls and birds as such. He gave a very delightful and enlightening lecture on bird calls. He is an expert in making bird calls. Very difficult ones at that. I liked when he said that a particular bird in particular season at a particular place on a particular tree is there if you want to observe its song. The man of details, I should say. He used simple tools to demonstrate how the voice that is produced is different in different birds and how he is able to reproduce that same sound. He has written lot of interesting books on birds like “Kapshichi Diary” meaning Diary of the Black Shouldered Kite. There are some more , which I have to find about and read.

Next, we were shown around the rescue center by Mr. Shende who is very good with words. His profession demands it too, he is a reporter in a local English daily The Maharashtra Herald and he writes a weekly column on wildlife. He is closely associated with the center. In the rescue center, there were leopards, monkeys, vultures, lion tail monkey, peacocks, Hyena, ducks, Interesting thing is that with most of these rescued animals, there was an interesting story. Let me start with the Toucan. This is a very beautiful bird. It has a long colourful beak and a black body. This bird was brought along with its mate to one ashram near Panvel by an American tourist who would visit that ashram. The birds got very friendly with the ashram people and were living happily there till one day one of them died. The other bird became very depressed and stopped interacting with anybody and also would not eat anything. The people there called the rescue center and asked for help. The rescue center team got the bird to Pune. They also tried for a day to feed it, but it would not work. Then Mr Neelimkumar Khaire, the director of the centre, got a brilliant idea. He realized that this bird is missing the mate and he put a mirror in its enclosure. It was so happy that the first thing it did was to pick the food morsel and went towards the mirror to offer it to its mirror mate. A good insight into bird’ behaviour.

Then there were peacocks. The story of one rescue is very interesting. They were being used as a display item outside a restaurant in Pune to attract people. This was a disturbing site for some people who approached the proprietor of the restaurant. The proprietor not only agreed to release them but offered an enclosure for them which was being displayed in that year’ Constro Exhibition in Pune itself, an annual exhibition of the construction and mechanical industry. And that enclosure is adjudged as the best design for an enclosure for the wild animals as it is very flexible in design.

Then there were vultures. These vultures are normally found in wild as young chicks having fallen from the nest. To rehabilitate them so that they are able to catch their food when they are released into the wild, it is important to teach them the skills. The rescue center deployed a very intelligent idea. They use the remote control car having the parrots mounted on them. The food is kept in the stomach of the parrots. When the car moves, these vultures, thinking them to be real prey, attack them and get the soft meat from their stomach. . The leopards in the centre have become very fat. The males have been sterilised and that has made them to gain more weight. They have been getting their food in their plate and there is no real exercise for them. They were rescued when they
were cubs and treat humans as their parents . They cannot be released in the wild as they do not possess the skills to survive in the wild. Now, the rescue center people are thinking of making some arrangement so that to get the food, they have to do some exercise. Here also, they are planning to implement a very simple idea. Its food is going to be hung at a good height and some mechanics will move the food so that it will have to jump to catch its food. Cool again.

The rescue center has been able to successfully breed peacocks as well as the ducks. All these new additions are released into the wild successfully. Another very interesting story is about a monkey who was separated from its mother in the wild. The baby monkey definitely needed milk to survive but it simply refused to drink milk from the bottle. The rescue team then made a contraption of a monkey which is little difficult to describe with the bottles serving as monkey mother’ nipples. And it would happily take milk from both the nipples in turn . Quite moving. In the afternoon session, Mr. Madhav Gogate gave a talk on laws related to wildlife conservation. It was little technical put he made it very interesting by introducing different situations. Then ,Mr. Neelim Kumar Khaire addressed us. He is very down to earth person. He told us how we can get involved in the efforts starting as volunteers. What should we do if we find an injured bird or animal and such useful information. Mr Neelimkumar Khaire has a Guinness Book of world record for spending maximum amount of time(72 hours) in the company of venomous snakes at the age of only 25 years. He has been very instrumental in saving snakes. He has also setup a snake park in Pune.

Anyone interested in seeing and getting the experience of working with animals can work as volunteers at the rescue centre. I want to do it one of these days.

Recently, I have come to know of one more animal rescue centre, it is in Wagholi, some 45kms from Pune. It is aptly called “Animal Farm”. Their website has the details.  Got this information in a mail from another related mailing list.

Animal Farm runs a 24 hour ambulance service for injured, distressed, abused and seriously ill animals.
For Ambulance Contact:
+ 91 (0) 9822477276
+ 91 (0) 9850031090
+ 91 (0) 9822251742
+ 91 (0) 9822486110
Animal Farm is a Non-Government, Non-profit, animal welfare trust. You can use these numbers
if you find an injured bird/animal in distress.