—Categories: bangalore, karnataka, nature, rivers, sahyadri, trek

Kempu-Hole and Yedakumeri

+ Also see: Earlier trip to Yedakumeri – trek on the rail tracks

My association with KempuHole is more than a decade old. She flows down from the green mountains in the Sahyadris, boosted by several streams that join her along the way, carrying their cool, pristine and perfectly transparent water. Swimming in Kemphole was an idea I was toying with for a few months now.

Come Friday evening, we boarded a bus to Dharmasthala. The friendly bus conductor was willing to give is an unscheduled stop wherever we wanted, and after much thinking and debate, we decided to take the bus till Gundya cross. We reached there as early as 5.30am and were lucky to find one of the many shacks selling food already open. We barged in, threw our bags down the floor and got busy with a cuppa hot coffee. One of us, it seems was real hungry – he jumped on the bunch of bananas hanging in front of the shop with an eagerness no less than a monkey and helped himself to them one after other. The shop-keeper looked at us, smiled and asked us –

“ivarige ellu oota sikkilva antha..!”

This guy had not had anything eat for sometime?

I settled for just a cup of coffee since it was too early to eat anything. It was soon 6am and light started spreading slowly. Energized by the coffee, I decided to take a short walk on the Subrahmanya road, where I knew I will find Kempu Hole after a short walk.

It took less than five minutes to hit the river. She was flowing wide and clear down the bridge, amidst thick evergreens. I walked down and settled myself comfortably on a stone, with my legs dipped into the mild flow – a pleasure I have always cherished. A few minutes passed with abundance of calmness captivating the surroundings. Fish swam past me and a kingfisher – the early bird – hunted them close by. Egrets occasionally flew past, with their white dazzle reflecting in the calm waters of the river. Many birds were still waking up and murmuring their morning prayers.

forest
Image of the region made three years ago during monsoons. Kempu Hole flows deep inside these jungles, somewhere in its valleys

When I came back, I saw my buddies had surrendered to slumber, tired after the night long bus journey. It did not take them much to find a place to sleep – one had slept off on a bench in the ‘hotel’ and the other had found a clean cement bench on the bus-stop nearby. Both were already fast asleep. I did not want to waste my time just like that; I found another good cement bench in the bus stand.

It was nearly 8am when we were up and ready to go. A quick breakfast later, we stood near the road, ready to flag every vehicle that came on the way. The first truck on the way stopped for us. Depressingly, it carried fat trees that donned the jungles somewhere deep in the Sahayadris. A 10 kilometer journey back towards Bangalore and we were near Kempu Hole, where we intended to spend rest of the day.

We got down from the truck, walked a little to find a nice isolated place in the river and settled down lazily on its bank. Lazing was the only thing in our mind. We found some comfortable place among the boulders on the bank. Listening to the soothing sound of the flow, we spent an hour or so quietly, and dozed of again on the rocks.

It must be a little more than 10am when I woke up. Now I was ready for a dip in the water. The place we had chosen had shallow water, which dropped down through a small waterfall of multiple steps and then formed a deeper and narrow section of the river. The current was not very strong but sufficient to drain the energy if I tried to swim against it. I was not well verse with swimming in the rivers and was worried and hesitant initially. Tense would be the right word. I was very unsure if I should take the plunge, as there was no one who could rescue if I were to be carried away by the flow or got injured by hitting a boulder. After a few minutes of contemplation I took the plunge!

Once I was in the water, it took no more than a few seconds to feel comfortable. I moved into the deeper section and swam freely as I pleased. Sometimes I tried swimming against the river and then would let my body flow down with the water. Occasionally I crossed to the other side, flirting with the current. I found a bounder in the middle of the river, with only its tip raising above the water, that was nearly in the shape of a bath tub. Perfect, I thought, as it served as a place to rest between swims. Lying down on it in the gentle current and listening the whispers of the flow is a pleasure that I don’t know how to describe.

I spent more than two hours in the deep water before I moved towards the waterfall. I lied below the waterfall that served as a jacuzzi, massaging my back and leaving me feeling good.

Nearly drained of all the energy, we eagerly consumed the lunch that we had packed in the morning. We then packed our bags and headed deeper into the forest. Walking upwards for an hour and a half next to a small stream, we arrived at Yedakumeri railway station around 4.30pm.

way to Yedakumeri
Image of the region made three years ago during monsoons. Train tracks leading to Yedakumeri

Yedakumeri station lies halfway up a hill, is surrounded by forest all around it and has no habitation or whatsoever except railway workers. We slept on the platform isolated by rest of the world, with stars twinkling high in sky and wind of the mountains soaking our body.

Next morning, we walked back through the forest into Kempu-Hole, crossed it and reached the road, and flagged a bus back to the city.

—Categories: assam, nature, north east, north-east india, wildlife

Assam’s degrading environment

Travelling in the North-East in the summer of 2006
Guwahati >> Eaglenest >> Tawang >> Nameri >> Kaziranga >> Shillong >> Cherrapunjee
+Previous: About travelling in the north east
+Next: First Day at Eaglenest
+Go to the beginning of the series

On our way to Eaglenest, we journeyed through the plains of Assam, leaving Guwahati for Tezpur and then through Sonitpur district to enter Arunachal via Missimari. We returned on a different route, on the Bomdila-Tezpur highway passing through Balipara and Bhalukpong. During both the journeys we were all shocked to see miles and miles of Assam’s plains, which were once thick jungles, cut down into an ocean of no more than a feet high tree trunks! Although I could not figure out the reason for deforestation in such large scale, someone told me that it was intended to resettle the people in this area. I do not know the reasons behind this, but was surely awed by the destruction of a degree I have seen never before.

Assam has it’s share of problems when it comes to protecting it’s environment. The state has a good forest density and has many National Parks to boast of. But the man and nature conflict that we see everywhere else applies to Assam too. Increase in population due to large scale immigration and natural population growth are probably forcing people to make claims on forest land. Conflict with elephants has become a serious problem in Sonitpur district and also in the regions around Kaziranga. Overgrazing and degrading forests had resulted in near extinction of an endemic mammal – pygmy hog. Manas National Park was virtually in the control of militancy group until a few years ago.

But even in Assam, there are people working for conservation and there are some good stories to share. Kaziranga is one of the best protected parks in India and Rhino population has grown considerably in the last few decades, after it was freed from rampant poaching a decade ago. Manas is now returning to normalcy and hopefully the Golden Langurs endemic to the park will flourish in the days to come. In the days when I was in Guwahati, I read several reports in newspapers protesting against inconsiderate destruction of Assam’s wilderness.

There are also many people working in replenishing the environment. I met a conservationist and vet doctor when I was Nameri National Park. He worked for an NGO – Pygmy Hog Conservation Program – and spent his time in Nameri trying to rear nearly extinct pygmy hogs in captivity and release them into the wilderness. He was also working on a project to amicably resolve the conflict of elephants with people in Sonitpur district. Assam has many such NGOs who are the hope for the future of its wilderness.

Arunachal Pradesh has a completely different story to tell. My host in Eaglenest told us a story about its past –

“When we first came here more than a decade ago, we saw trucks loaded with timber rolling down the Tezpur highway one after other. There was no end to their continuous flow. They used to carry huge logs that were sometimes as thick as the truck itself. I once saw a huge tree that was cut down.. They were not able to load it to the truck because it was too big and would not fit into the truck..!”

Fortunately, all that is past. After a supreme court ban on felling timber in the state, Arunachal’s forests have been left alone and have stayed undisturbed. The state has an enviable record of more than three quarters of its area as forest cover.

But all is not well about its future. Tribes in Arunachal Pradesh practice a cultivation technique called Jhum, where they burn a stretch of forest for cultivation. They use it for a few years and abandon it after the land looses fertility, only to burn down another stretch of forest for fresh cultivation. Growing population is putting pressure on the natural resources. A typical family in the state has more than 10 members, and its population growth rate is one of the highest in the country, which may make things go worse in the coming days.

To be continued..

—Categories: Uncategorized

Tejaswi – an inspiration, is no more..

Poornachandra Tejaswi was an inspiration for me in many areas. His works helped me develop an interest in many things, nurtured in me an awe towards the everyday world, built an outlook in me to take a second look on things, inspired me to look into nature, learn new things, created a fascination towards birds, rivers and our evergreen Sahyadris and a lot more things that I may not even know.


Image from Vijaya Karnataka

Although I have never met him or seen him person, his demise makes me feel as if I have lost something within me. May his soul rest in peace.