It was 27th of October which was supposedly to be a normal day but became a special one for me. It was an unusual night for me to set up a hide in the evening using the sticks, leaves and to make a camouflaged camp site so that we could spend the night without sleep!! Ahhh , so this was our motive to encounter a wild leopard that could possibly attack you instead of eating the smelly fish or to see a sambar deer as close as a leech climbing your feet .
It was a pleasant weather at Agumbe Rainforest and we were pretty much aware that night gets unfriendly especially deep inside forests with lot of wildlife activity, blood sucking leeches and the common cold that comes automatically due the dew. We were all set to start at 6 pm in the evening to sit out in the hide. Dhiraj and myself , were well equipped with great hopes to encounter the wild . A flask of tea, 4 eggs, a bottle of water, a DSLR with tripod and sleeping bags (Of course we should not sleep, that’s the point!) were the accessories needed for this so called intrepid attempt. Running through my mind was the highly camouflaged tents and extremely powerful cameras used by wildlife researchers to capture exceptionally stunning activity by the animal, whereas here it was a simple tent with bushes and sticks all over.
It was 9:00 pm and the whole forest was deep-rooted with profound silence and pitch darkness. We were happy that the tent could accommodate four of us, deep inside , our minds were envisaging about our wild encounters with leopard or barking deer. We could hear lot of frogs calling, cicadas bustling and sambar deer calling. We were highly excited and the SLR was mounted on the tripod to view the whole scene. We all knew that we will encounter something only after midnight. So we waited, waited and waited!! Till 00:00 I was resting in the sleeping mat, Dhiraj was sitting and eagerly looking through the gap outside. It was 00:00 pm and I had a cup of tea so that I could spend the remaining 8 hrs without sleep. Dhiraj (jungle boy) who spent more than a year with the King tracking and studying , was sitting like a statue even thinking to wink his eyes . What a man !! :p . It will take another blog post to talk about my close friend, so let’s stick to the subject.
For half an hour, we could hear a sambar deer calling and out of excitement I was murmuring to Dhiraj , it would be better than previous hide attempts where we could only happenstance a wild boar. We could feel something moving around the forest cover and we were pretty clever this time in spreading the bait and the variety in it. Last time the wild boar was lucky with the goat’s liver but this time we had vegetables, smelly fishes and intestine which was supposedly to be a feast for the animal. It was 2:00 am in the morning and the skies were getting cleared and lucid. The morning was about to come. Silenceeeeeeeeee! Flo was relaxing hoping for us to direct any sign of wildlife. It was freezing cold and everyone was inside sleeping bag enjoying the warmth even in quivering coldness.
My eyes were closing automatically, Dhiraj was still.No sign of wildlife . We waited ! It was 5:00 am in the morning and we were pretty sure atleast a wild boar would come in the early morning to have its sumptuous banquet. We could hear some brilliant compositions from the whistling thrush and finally ………
That was not our day!!!
So we decided to explore deep jungles of agumbe rainforest as planned earlier. I had asked dhiraj to show me the places he tracked the King if we did not encounter anything. Everyone was equipped with gum boots and leech socks and I was pretty uncomfortable with the boots . So I switched to my shoes. We were about to enter the land that was the territory of the one and only King Cobra . Dhiraj told me it is going to be long walk and will take 5-6 hours . At that point I acted deaf, because all I wanted is to know how much effort Dhiraj had put in tracking and studying the king deep inside the mysterious jungle for more than a year. Everywhere we could see the blood sucking explorers – Hirudo medicinalis climbing. There was a huge patch of dead trees – Land of Dead(said by Dhiraj) and behind that was a beautiful stretch of dense jungle . As soon as we entered we spotted a Vine snake glowing with bright green and next to that was a Polypedates sitting on the bush with a crystal clear hourglass pattern.
We could hear the calls of Hornbills and whistling trushes throughout our walk. If it were a city , early morning I could hear the trucks honking , mechanistic alarm clocks jumping and the mundane machines –homo sapiens getting ready for the job . Here it was heavenly. Lush green leaves, swampy trails, welcome whistles and the scramble for light that made Agumbe distinctive. Soon we saw back to back pangolin trenches. This was my first time seeing such a deep tunnel crafted by the intelligent insectivorous. After that we saw huge trees which had highly medicinal value and some of them being critically endangered. These trees and their huge buttress always fascinate me, such an intellectual design by nature.
Just before we were about to take diversion towards Doddahalla (Dodda- big Halla- stream) , we saw a stunning Trimeresurus Malabaricus sitting on the ground camouflaged . It was 8 am in the morning and we have been walking for like 3 hours nonstop after 12 hours of sleepless night. Soon we caught up with a side stream where we encountered a huge pit and we could see 5 dry streams connecting there and Dhiraj said , during monsoon this will be flooded with water that you could easily be dragged in and come out somewhere else cataleptic ! We took a leech break and removed the bloody suckers! No offence leech J I thought it was a leech break but it was Dhiraj who wanted to show us something memorable to him during his tracking. He showed us a spot where few trees were fallen and from directly above the sunlight started spreading over that spot . Until now we were inside deep forest and with minimal sunlight. The light was directly striking on the trees . And dhiraj said the King will spread itself over the trees and bask. I could literally visualize the scene of King lying over the fallen trees that is at an elevation of 1.5 m above ground and a gleam of light tumbling over it.
Nature at its best! Soon we picked up speed and started walking in the jeep track which would directly lead to the big stream .
The big stream would eventually lead to agumbe’s beautiful spot , Wankabe ; a huge drop from which water falls
We kept on walking and we could see a group of parakeets fly . Soon we saw a place which was like Edinburgh literally. The colors and shades of the trees were whimsical. It was 10 am in the morning and we could see a Micraxalus sitting near the stream , a Cormorant swimming in the pond and Blue eared Kingfished swiftly flying around the stream . We are here , the big stream . In monsoon we could have never taken the stream route . Truly a splendid morning , we had . The cormorant was courteously swimming in the pond . We saw a rat snake’s shredded skin lying around . It was 5 hour nonstop walk and was simply awesome with Dhiraj sharing his memorable moments , refreshing pure water in the morning and lot of things that we could experience during this 5 hour walk . We reached the base at 12 pm and dumped our bags , just then we realized that we forgot to eat the eggs !!!!!!!!!! The 12 hours of sleepless night plus the 5 hours of happenstances was indeed my memorable moment ! Even though we were unlucky with the hide , I was lucky to see the world other than the normal one , that only few would get a chance to !
These prolific wombs of life hold the largest biomass of any terrestrial habitat. The rainforests are our planet’s most astounding expression of life, the very womb of creation
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