{"id":11339,"date":"2015-08-06T10:21:57","date_gmt":"2015-08-06T04:51:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/travel.paintedstork.com\/blog\/?p=11339"},"modified":"2017-06-13T21:52:41","modified_gmt":"2017-06-13T16:22:41","slug":"witnessing-the-mysteries-of-madhya-pradeshs-jungles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.paintedstork.com\/blog\/2015\/08\/witnessing-the-mysteries-of-madhya-pradeshs-jungles.html","title":{"rendered":"Witnessing the mysteries of Madhya Pradesh’s jungles"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the second half of June, I travelled with Pugdundee Safaries<\/a> through the wilderness of Madhya Pradesh, seeing life in the jungles and witnessing some fairy-tale-like events\u00a0unfold in front of my eyes.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Satpura<\/a>It was dark when I arrived in Satpura.<\/strong> I couldn’t see much, but the absence of cellphone networks gave me hint\u00a0of what I should expect.\u00a0The next morning, we headed out when it was still dark, depriving me of the details of the place where I was staying. There were words spoken previous night–about a jamun<\/em> tree, the\u00a0river waters that surrounded us and the animals that roamed the region. They would have to wait for the afternoon until I\u00a0came back from our sortie into the protected areas of Satpura National Park.<\/p>\n

The onset of monsoons and the eruption of life<\/h3>\n

Light seeped in from the sky as we waited at the office of the forest-department for our permits. A\u00a0long ribbon of glint on earth revealed the backwaters of Tawa River that flowed\u00a0between us and the park. Beyond, the land rose quickly\u00a0to form the hills of Satpura Ranges, now\u00a0covered in tender greenery that had erupted\u00a0after the first rains of the season. The skies were decorated with patches of clouds and the ground was moist with the night’s precipitation. Monsoon\u00a0had imprinted its signature, assertively declaring the end of summer and rekindling\u00a0\u00a0the fecundity of the forest.<\/p>\n

A change in\u00a0season was even more evident as our jeep tread through the park. Fresh grass covered every inch of earth that was probably\u00a0brown only a week ago. Young\u00a0green leaves adorned the trees\u00a0as though they were just rejuvenated with an elixir of youth. Cicadas went about celebrating in every tree through\u00a0a symphony that they couldn’t stop playing. Spotted deer, the very alert and flighty creatures of the forest stayed close to human habitation, enjoying the abundance of\u00a0fresh grass. Birds flew about in search of a good breakfast, probably a\u00a0juicy grub of crawlers that have fed themselves fat on new\u00a0leaves. The woods were now fully awake!<\/p>\n

\"Satpura<\/a><\/p>\n

A\u00a0swarm of termites and opportunist birds<\/h3>\n

The new found activity with the coming of monsoons was nowhere as\u00a0frenzied as it was in the\u00a0ant-hills. Termites erupted from the ground in large numbers, taking wings in the hope of finding a mate and creating new colonies.<\/p>\n

First few days of the rainy season is a time for termites to expand their colonies. With the scent of first rain, reproducing adults with grown wings\u00a0come out of the colony to fly away, mate and build a new empire. They swarm out in large numbers, shed their wings soon after mating and land somewhere away to raise their\u00a0new generation.<\/p>\n

\"Indian<\/a>However, not\u00a0every termite that comes out of its earthen comforts makes it to a new ground. When nature gets alarmed at the possibility of a plague of termites guttling a forest, it sends birds to put things under control.\u00a0When we first\u00a0saw this\u00a0army of swarming termites, some of the winged destroyers had already arrived to feed on them\u00a0for breakfast. An orange-headed thrush gulped on\u00a0greedily,\u00a0eating hurriedly in a wish to consume as much\u00a0as it can while the buffet\u00a0lasted. A bunch of drongos took a more dignified approach, watching the commotion\u00a0from a distance and occasionally\u00a0intercepting a termite in the air.<\/p>\n

The drongos did this\u00a0effortlessly as they flew like fighter planes, making sudden turns and coming to a\u00a0sharp mid-air halt\u00a0to aim their beaks precisely at a flying insect.\u00a0Driving further, we saw a pied kingfisher–a master when it comes to\u00a0speed-diving and catching fish on the go–making a not-so-artistic attempt at doing the same. It was successful, nevertheless, thanks\u00a0to the abundance of prey in the\u00a0air. This kingfisher sat\u00a0on the tip of a dry branch and kept a lookout\u00a0for its victims. On finding a passing termite, it would fly out clumsily in a straight line, making no attempt to hide its inabilities to make drongo-like acrobatics but nevertheless lapping up some food in the\u00a0beak on its way back to the perch. I let out an involuntary ‘oooh’ the first time I saw the successful hunt.<\/p>\n

The kingfisher was an opportunist taking a break from fishing and resorting to some ‘insecting’. A little while later, we saw another opportunist – an Indian nightjar. As the name indicates, these birds are active in the night and hunt in darkness. But it so turned out that today’s feast in the forest was too good to resist and worth a\u00a0sleepless day! This nightjar we found, instead of sitting pretty in its camouflage on the barks as they are supposed to, was busy devouring the termites and enjoying a late morning dinner before it went to sleep!<\/p>\n

A threat from lapwings in Denwa Backwaters<\/h3>\n

Later in the day, back at Denwa Backwater Escape where we were staying, I could set my eyes on things that I couldn’t see previous evening in the darkness. The lodge was in a green setting flanked by the backwaters of Tawa\u00a0Reservoir. My room, the balcony and the al-fresco dining area were all facing\u00a0a wide section of\u00a0the very inviting backwaters. The lake was\u00a0surrounded by gently undulating slopes covered with a thin layer of grass that painted the earth\u00a0green. It was reason enough for me abandon the afternoon safari in the park and go for a long walk at the edge of the water.<\/p>\n

I spent a good part of the time after lunch lazing in the room and gazing at the reservoir.\u00a0As the sunlight began loosing intensity\u00a0towards the evening, I headed out towards the water, walked for sometime in the open\u00a0until I reached a long peninsular projection that hosted a scattering of red-wattled lapwings.<\/p>\n

These birds did not seem to like me.<\/p>\n

Lapwings are ground-dwelling and nesting birds that breed and nest in late-summer and early-monsoon months. I was now walking in their territory\u00a0at a time when they might have had a few\u00a0eggs in a nest somewhere on the ground, ready to hatch. They probably saw a predator in me and did not want me anywhere nearby. One of the lapwings came flying towards me, hovered directly above and hollered from the depths of its throat. It did this persistently, moving away shortly and coming back again and again. While one of them tried to scare me away, another one walked noisily on the ground, walking not too far from me and trying to draw my attention.<\/p>\n

Trying not to upset the parents-to-be, I walked carefully, searching for nests that I might accidentally step on and eventually settled down at a place where the birds did not seem to mind.<\/p>\n

This time, I was very close to the water and was now threatened by a pair of river terns that were peacefully flying around\u00a0until now.\u00a0I gave in, shifted my place again until everyone was happy. This also turned out to be a great spot for me to watch the birds without interfering their lives–the lapwings, the terns and also a pair of very weary stone-curlews that always kept a watch on me.<\/p>\n

For rest of the evening, I idled at this spot, watching the lapwings\u00a0continuously scurry on the ground appearing busy, terns flying effortlessly above the\u00a0water and the\u00a0curlews standing still and\u00a0staring at me with one eye.<\/p>\n

Dance of the peacocks<\/h3>\n

\"Indian<\/a>Our next stop was Bandhavgarh National Park, where we could see signs of the arriving monsoons, but not completely there yet. The air had the\u00a0stillness of a hot summer, but was frequently refreshed by a breeze that brought the message\u00a0from\u00a0approaching clouds. The animals of the forest, just like us, were asking for rain. While most forest dwellers silently waited, peacocks were very candid about their craving.<\/p>\n

On our very first venture into the park, we spotted a bunch of them impatient with desire–for the rains and for a mate–dancing away rapidly moving their feet and spreading their dazzling tail\u00a0wide open. Good for us, the waiting females were unimpressed and the dance went on for some time! In the next two days, we would see many more peacocks that added colour to the park, but they were all much sober and none of them danced with the exuberance we witnessed the first time.<\/p>\n

An assembly in the forest – chitals, wild boar, jackals and a sambar deer<\/h3>\n

A half-an-hour’s drive from the peacocks, we were at a shallow lake bed that had completely gone dry.\u00a0The open space had turned into a small playground for the local wilderness club members. There was a good population of chitals (spotted deer) in one corner chewing on the tender grass. The group consisted several young ones that were running helter-skelter like the young ones always do. Their parents, of course, ran behind them like the parents always do!<\/p>\n

\"Spotted<\/a><\/p>\n

In another corner of the lake bed, a wild boar diligently\u00a0chewed on a mass of something that we could no identify from the distance we were at. A jackal–not a common sight in most parts of India anymore–settled down and relaxed, not very far from the boar. A sambar deer kept a dignified presence, minding its own business, not bothering others and not bothered by anyone around.<\/p>\n

After a while, the boar\u00a0got bored of whatever it was chewing and decided to make an exit. Suddenly, the jackal, which was probably waiting for its turn all along, sprung\u00a0up\u00a0and continued from where the boar had left. While the jackal chewed on, a king vulture, next in line, waited for its\u00a0chance!\u00a0While all this happened, the young chitals full of energy continued to play and annoy their parents.<\/p>\n

The butterfly effect<\/h3>\n

Of all the wonders that I witnessed in the forest, if there is one experience that I had to pick as the most memorable, it is seeing a tree\u00a0getting attacked by butterflies! During\u00a0one of the safari drives, we arrived at a road junction with a lone tree standing in the center. A couple of vehicles\u00a0had gathered at the junction and I couldn’t make out why. On getting closer I realized I was witnessing a phenomenon I had never seen before.<\/p>\n

This particular tree, whose name I wish I knew, had begun flowering and was now bearing thousands of tiny flowers. The flowers\u00a0had attracted an army of butterflies that had swarmed the tree in thousands! They were hopping from branch to branch, enjoying the sweet nectar and distributing some of their joy to us in the process! There were about five varieties of butterflies that included\u00a0striped\u00a0tigers, lemon emigrants and common mormons. They were\u00a0\u00a0everywhere on the tree, flying\u00a0from flower to flower and briefly stopping to suck fresh nectar. It looked as though the tiny leaves in the tree suddenly took wings and made\u00a0the most graceful form of flight ever possible!<\/p>\n

The bear and the termites<\/h3>\n

This one–a bear digging and slurping termites–I did not get to see. But I was described about it by my fellow travellers with great enthusiasm. And later, I got a chance to see the visuals of what they narrated…<\/p>\n