We had planned to visit Ooty (a hill station in Tamilnadu, India). I was all alone but my brother Sreenivasan was coming along with his wife Sitalakshmi. After we had our breakfast, we readied ourselves and occupied our seats in the car which was to be driven by my brother. After positioning himself, my brother announced that we shall be returning late at night and will have dinner en route. I was puzzled as we can not do justice to our visit unless we are at Ooty for a minimum of a night and two days. Since there was an urgent meeting the next day, my brother was in a dilemma. He then suggested to visit “Anaimalai Tiger Reserve” which was relatively nearer. I was happy for the alternative placed before me and readily agreed. This was going to be my first ever visit to that place.
Anaimalai (Elephant Hills) is at a
distance of around 60 kilometres south of Coimbatore. At 40 kilometres distance
there is a town known as Pollachi and from there we were to take a right turn
for Anaimalai. Incidentally Pollachi boasts of a whole sale Jaggery Market
which is supposed to the largest in Asia. Similarly the Cattle Market over there
is the largest in South India.
As a matter of fact Anaimalai is a
part of the Western Ghat Mountain Ranges and if one goes further down, “Anamudi”
is the highest peak in India (South of Himalayas) with a height of 8842 feet.
Anaimalai itself is only 8oo feet high but is surrounded by ever green forests.
Although, it is a reserve for Tigers, they are very limited. On
the other hand hundreds of Elephants roam around. Anaimalai hills are known for
their abundant wildlife. Eravikulam National
Park, Chinnar Wildlife
Sanctuary, Parambikulam
Wildlife Sanctuary, and the adjacent The Indira
Gandhi Wildlife Sanctuary and National Park in these hills are well known
for elephants.
Numerous wildlife species can be seen including elephants, gaur, water
buffaloes, tigers,
panthers, sloth bears, pangolins, Black-headed
Orioles, crocodiles, Green Pigeons, civet cats, Dhole, Sambar and 31 groups of
endangered lion-tailed
macaques., Birds seen include Pied hornbill, Red Whiskered Bulbul and
Drongo. The hills are also a trekker’s paradise.
On reaching Pollachi, we took a right
turn towards Anamalai which was around 16 kilometres away. The entire route was
dotted with dense Coconut Groves spaced with paddy fields and the mountain
ranges smiling at you from a far distance. After driving a stretch of 7/8
kilometres, we came at a check post with a welcome gate. The sanctuary/reserve
starts from here. There was also a hoarding of the “Parambikulam Wild Life
Sanctuary” which was on the same way but a little farther from the place we were
heading to. Near the check post, a lady was selling some locally produced
fruits. We bought some Sapodillas/Cheeku (Manilkara zapota) which were
very sweet and tasty. Further journey saw us through some plains followed by
winding ghats (Mountainous region) having thick bamboo forests.
Around 12 Noon, we were at “Top
Slip”. This place is called so, for the large sloppy ground which was being used
for storing Teak Wood logs and then rolling them down to reach the bottom of
the hill. All private vehicles are supposed to remain parked at this place and
for travelling beyond that point, one needs to hire vehicles from the Forest
Department. They have a small information centre with a tiny museum for the
benefit of tourists. The forest staff have their living quarters built there.
They also run a Canteen which serves food and beverages to tourists.
There are two distinct categories of
visitors here. The first category consists of people coming here for picnicking
and fun. The second category belongs to those who are of serious kind and come
here to understand the forests, its flora and fauna and the wild life. Their
visits are always pre-planned. They get cottages/vehicles booked in advance for
their period of stay. Since we fell under the former category, we started
exploring the possibilities of moving around the jungles. We were told at the
information centre that a van takes people around but since on that particular
day, the number of visitors was too small, the van facility was kept in
abeyance. There was, however, an option of taking the Elephant ride. Perforce,
we had to settle for it. The Elephants were not immediately available as they
were already on their rounds. Nevertheless, we got our tickets booked paying a
sum of Rs.400/- and proceeded to fill our bellies at their Canteen.
After replenishing ourselves, we just
roamed around. There my brother came across some boars in the backyard of the
canteen. When we reached the information centre for the second time, my brother
questioned the Ranger over there “Are those
pigs, the wild ones”. The Ranger, with all seriousness, replied “Yes, they are
wild boars but come down because of easy availability of left over food”. So we
were happy to learn that we could at least see some wild life. Thereafter, I
wanted to enlarge my own knowledge base and inquired about the kind of wild life
found there. We were told that there are around 368 (that’s what I remember)
Elephants and 18 Tigers apart from Panthers, Gaurs, Blue Bulls, Lion Tailed
Monkeys, Large Mountain Squirrels etc. Further, they have some 100 Elephants in
their own farm. They are let loose in the morning to roam about in the jungles
and they come back in the evening. If one wants to see them together, one has to
be there before 8.00 A.M.
Soon the Elephants were ready to take
us for a ride. For all of us, it was going to be our first experience in life.
After climbing a platform, we were on the cradle like thing on the Elephant’s
back. We proceeded deeper inside. Nothing worthwhile came across except for few
Macaque (Lion Tailed) Monkeys and large Squirrels. They vanished from our sight
within minutes without affording any opportunity of capturing them in our
cameras. The jungle view all around was very pleasing though. After half an
hour, the Elephant was turned back and in fact we very much wished to come back
not being in a position to withstand the painful jerks. Soon we were at the
platform which saw us boarding the Elephant but only to get down with a sense of
relief.
While returning home, it dawned upon
me that the month of April was not quite productive for visiting a place like
this.