BNP - Kullanabetta - route 9

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I came and stood here a lil far from the lake for quite some time.
'Ominous' is the word, I would like to depict this place & time with. Or that's what I thought for some moments. It's surprising how my mind changes opinions (or rather gives second opinions) about the surroundings once I get an appropriate adobe over the comfortable branch of a huge tree of this Jungle. Nay, this is not written by any ape - coz, obviously you would say that an ape can't write English.

All Right! Let me clear out some of the confusion by describing the place and time in a lil more precise way. I will start with time; it is 1538 Hrs, 09-JUL-2005. The place is a National park (forest reserve) called Bandipur National Park (BNP), in Karnataka state, India. And I am near a pond (yeah it's not as big as a lake) situated near KulunBetta (of BNP). I am very much in the vicinity of Karnataka - tamilNadu border (I can actually see Ooty on the peak of a distant mountain - or that's what my forest guide said.)

The place looks (and sounds) ominous coz even though it is a deep forest, there isn't a single bird/animal/insects can be heard. The only audible sound is the gentle gust through the trees.

Any way, I am already at my adobe and already feeling better. My original intention was to write a travelogue here. And my sincere advice to you if you are writing travelogue then do not make a beginning the way I did here. It might turn out deucedly difficult to get back to the right track in this way.

Three stooges & me!{see the photo}


Well, it was BMC's biggest trek in terms of number of trekkers as freshers. We were around 55 people.

The enthu crowd on day-1{see the photo}

We started from symphony theater (MGRoad - Bangalore) at 2300 Hrs on Friday. We had our usual coffee-break at that 24Hrs CCD on Bng-Mys highway at around 0200Hrs on Saturday. And reached BNP at 0545Hrs. It was drizzling a lil bit and Neeraj (et. al.) went ahead to confirm the bookings for various routes and rest of the junta stayed back at a restaurant to finish up the morning-meals (breakfast) of dosa&tea. There was an amusing philanthropist personality - having fun in feeding the doggies & crows :-)

With lil difficulty than anticipated, we distributed the routes amongst ourselves. I chose to go for the easiest route (considering the fact that the sutures were removed from my leg just the day before). The leader of my group was Rajan - a fine fellow from Delhi, Name of the forest guide we hired was Murli (I am specifically noting down this name coz there are many guides at BNP base camp and if you want one of the fine fellows then Murli is the right choice). Rest of the gang was built by helpful nature of Archana, fine fabric of Mangala_Kavitha_Vidya, simplistic audacity of Angshuman D and peaceful nature (probably to avoid any noise pollution) of Lakshmi_Sawmya.

We started at around 0915Hrs with that ecstatic cheerfulness (characteristic typical of freshies). Only after first fifteen minutes of walk I found one sun-bleached skull of a deer (God bless its soul). Which was used afterwards in the photo-sessions as masquerade :-)


This is not a cockroach. {see the photo}

After continuously avoiding our guide's instructions to keep silence, we reached to the Dhanhatti AntiPoaching Camp (APC) at around 1130Hrs. APC was a good place for conducting a lunchean - with a handPump for water. And for those nature lovers who have specific inclination towards more natural sources of water there was a stream of water also. This stream might be a river in the coming months as the monsoon progresses but at that time (10th Jul,2005) it was just a petty stream.

We started at around 1330Hrs for our next APC (KullanBetta). We met with a couple of forest (anti poaching) watchers. They gave us info that there is already one group bound to Kullanbetta APC. That was a surprise for us. Generally all the ten routes are booked on daily schedule at the forest (BNP) base camp and each forest guide will lead the respective groups to their respective night hault camps. The procedure is pretty much well defined and there should not be any confusion. But here we are - facing already one group where we were supposed to halt for the night. Later we realized that it was a mistake of the guide of that group. At the same time we also found that the other group was no other than our own people who were bound to GopalSwammy Betta. After a lil confusion and lods of ego-clash between both the jungle-guides, the things were settled and we decided that both the parties will stay in the same camp for the night (there was enough space to accomodate 20+ people). So our trekking for the day was finished (officially) at 1630Hrs - when I went to that damn pond and seized by evil spirit! In the evening - after tea we did a small trek to the peak of KullanBetta (APC is not at the peak - it's built on a plateau). That was a fantastic experience - wind, rain, water-clouds, perfact scenic beauty of the GopalSwamy Betta (which was visible as a mountain peak on the north) and my solitude!

The blissful Slumber at the pick.{see the photo}

The dinner (prepared by Archana & company) was made up of VegMaggieNoodles, ChanaMasala (MTR) and chapati (three types - simple, sweet & methi).

Our foodStock!{see the photo}

It was follwed by a campfire. Since we could not find much dry wood, the fire was damn smoky. And by the time it picked up proper fire (without much smoke), most people were already snoring in their sleeping bags. We did Jinga-la-la hu hurr hurr & chappa chappa charkha chale for some time. Rajan sang a beautiful song "log kehte hain main sharabi hoon"* (from movie sharabi) and there we were done for the day.

At around 0300Hrs I woke up coz of some noise. I thought for some time that they might have spotted a tiger. And then was disappointed to realize that it was a persiflage played by some freak. Next time I woke up at 0545Hrs. It was not very inviting morning. Sun was hidden behind the dense clouds. Any way we started again for the KullanBetta peak at 0615. By the time we returned, the other group was already on their way to GopalSwamyBetta (lil aware of the misfortune waiting for them). Then we had tea (with jaggery in place of sugar) and veg_cheese_Sandwiches.


I entered kitchen with shoes (against the cooks’ will ;-))
We left for BNP base camp at 1030. Again had the lunch at Dhanhatti APC. Started again at 1230Hrs. And were very disappointed not to see any wild animals in the entire trek (though I believe that it can only be said a chamatkar if we find animals amongst the amount of noise we were producing).

To our surprise our guide spotted an elephant when we were less than half Km away from the BNP base camp.

Tusker (that made the forest guide on the heels){see the photo}

It had only one tusk. And the guide said that these kind of elephants are very easily irritated. So it was in our interest to keep a safe distance. We took a diversion and to our greater surprise we found some 20-30 deers grazing in that plain land. And the story does not end here. A lil ahead we spotted a herd of elephants (with one calf present in the group). Shortly after that it started raining and we reached the base camp. It was a culmination point in fact!

At GopalPura (waiting for the other group to come down) we took some admirable snaps of the field.

From a hill.


Elephantine tree infront of the sunflower field.{see the photo}


The sunflower field at GopalPura.{see the photo}



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*log kehte hain main sharabi hoon
tumne bhi shayad yahi soch liya...

kisi pe husn ka, guroor, jawani ka nasha
kisi ke dil pe mohabbat ki rawani ka nasha

kisi ko dekh ke saanso se ubharta hai nasha
bina piye bhi kahi hadh se guzarta hai nasha

nashe mein kaun nahi hai mujhe batao zara
kise hai hosh mere saamne to lao zara
nasha hai sab pe magar rang nashe ka hai juda

khili khili hui subah pe hai shabnam ka nasha
hawa pe khushboo ka, hai badal pe rimjhim ka nasha
kahin suroor hai khushiyon ka, kahin gham ka nasha

nasha sharab mein hota to naachti botal
maikade jhoomte, paimanon mein hoti halchal
nasha sharab mein hota to naachti botal
nashe mein kaun nahi hai mujhe batao zara

log kehte hain main sharabi hoon....

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Technical details:

*The time we visited: 9-10 July, 2005. (Best time to visit is ???)
*Distance of Bandipur base camp from Bangalore: 220 Km.
*Distance of Bandipur base camp from Mysore: 80 Km.
*The route we travelled (figures in round brackates shows distance in Km):
*Bandipur - Bolgudda (2.75) - Dhanahatti (5.75) - Mastimuki Circle (7) - Kullanabetta Antipoaching Camp (8.5) (Night Halt) - (next day) Dhanahatti - Bolgudda - Bandipur - Exit
*Bandipur NP Forest office contact numbers: 08229-236043/236021


Author: Prashant Jani (prashantjanisgmail.com)
www.geocities.com/prashantjanisite

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