I seem to have this strange laziness which lives deep inside me. We went to Bhittarkanika National Park on 7th and came back on 8th. During the entire trip, I kept thinking about all the things about the trip that I was going to write in my blog (one of those things that u get to start doing once u start writing on a blog I guess…). I came back 2 days back but this laziness has ensured that I did not put a word anywhere about this trip. Now that I am at it….so be it….
Bhittarkanika is one of the lesser known national parks in India. Situated in North Orissa (some people might call it dangerous because of the number of incidents of disappearances their), it is famous for the crocodiles that are present in huge numbers in the backwaters. Creeks and small lakes make for beautiful sightseeing as well and the number and varieties of birds that are present here will probably be matched only by Bharatpur Bird Sanctuary. The strange name of the place really struck me hard and I was unable to remember the name even after the program was finalized (took a real stress on my poor small brain for me to remember it). I actually asked a number of people why the park got this name but no one knew. It seems that the place (called Kanika I presume) was ruled by King Ali a long time back. He used to go for hunting in the jungle which is now the park. Since this was a pretty dense forest (it still is), it came to be known as Bhittarkanika….(bheetar means inside in hindi….I guess it means the same in Oriya).
We started in high spirits on 7th morning feeling really great and wanting a lot of adventure (not knowing that we were in for a LOT OF adventure). The 4 of us i.e. myself, Mayank (Ghattu…the guy who arranged the entire trip…thanks man), Sabyasachi (Saby….our interpreter for the trip since he is the only one among the 4 of us knowing Oriya…though we all doubted his mastery over the language) and Abhishek (Tyagi) had hired a taxi (happened to be a Tata Indica) for taking us to Raj Nagar and then on to Gupti. Raj Nagar has the main office of the forest department who were supposed to give us permission to go into the park and stay their for the night (our plan was to stay for 2 nights inside the park in a place called Dangmal where the forest department has a guesthouse. We reached Rajnagar in 4 hours (most of the time was spent listening to songs of Shhh… on the car player and sleeping…Tyagi slept the most as he did throughout the trip…this guy has the stamina for that). In Rajnagar, we asked for directions and a really great fellow told us that we need not go to the forest office their and could get the permission directly from Gupti (this was the place from where we could get the boat for the park). We were really happy and thanked him for the kindness and carried on to Gupti. I will never forget the next one hour of my life. Muddy ponds of land on both sides with a road snaking between them (no light poles which would actually make a night trip a very horrendous experience…we were going at 2 PM though). The road was just a mud track with large and small stones sharing space on the road. After every small distance, there was a catchment of huts made of mud and straw. Lots of people and almost all of them living in total poverty. We reached Gupti at 3 not knowing that we had a total drama waiting for us. There we got to know that the permission had to be got from Rajnagar. Since we had come all the way, the official there told us that he will try to get permission for us on the wireless when he talked at 4. We had to wait. So we decided to have something to eat. A small restaurant (if u could call it that) came to our rescue. Had great tasting fried fish and some vegetable mix (which also had fish pieces in it…they don’t make anything without fish there) with rice. I loved it, so did Saby (though he says that he liked it because of the hunger…though I don’t thnk the same), Ghattu did not have the dried fish and Tyagi did not have anything (just biscuits and some namkeen). At 4, the man (I actually want to use a lot of abuses for him but I guess I shld not do that here) took his own sweet time in calling up the central office and finally announced that we will have to go all the way. After a lot of shouting and cursing, we started back on the same beautiful track to Rajnagar. We reached there around 6 (just in time since the sun was setting and we had no intention of going on the mudtrack in darkness) and went straight to the office of the DFO. I have never seen a more efficient govt office before (not even the German visa office which was worse than most of the Indian govt offices anyways). The clerk was more than willing to prepare the order, the officer was more than willing to sign it and the peons were more than willing to help us with the details and even give us tips. Amazing!!! And none of them took any money!!! There was a catch though….we will have to stay at Gupti since the park is closed after 6 and no movement is allowed. I was the unlucky person who had to go outside and ask our driver to take that poor Indica back to Gupti in darkness on that same track…I was scared… but the second shock for us….he agreed without blinking and no extra costs…just the pre-determined kilometer reading….Amazing!!!
Back to Gupti was a completely different experience and I will love to share that with u but I guess I have already told a huge story without talking about the park (nothing much their though….just animals and trecking…we all know about that, don’t we?) We stayed in Gupti in 2 rooms. I went off to sleep almost immediately. Then at 12:30 Mr.Ghattu woke me up and asked me if I will accompany them. They were going with the guys on duty who were going on a night round in the park for looking out for poachers….interesting but no thnks…!!! Then Ghattu said that Saby and Tyagi were also coming…interesting…O.K. and we were off. Took a boat in the silence of the night which took us to some place inside. Then we were supposed to go into the water and on the land for a round. This was not what I was going to do and the same thing was there in both Saby and Tyagi’s minds as well. We all stayed put…Ghattu….went off after being careful to take off his shoes (he got a lot of rashes and bruises and was groaning even now!) The rest of the trip went in sleep and we came back to senses only after we reached back to Gupti at around 4:30. slept for 1 more hour in our rooms and then we got ready for pushing off for the park in the boat which was made ready for us.
The park is basically lots of small “islands” surrounded by lakes and swamps making for a lovely breeding ground for a large number of animals and birds as well as for fishes and snakes. A very beautiful park and I could really not find any good reason why it is not as famous as some of the others that I know of or have been to. Besides the crocs (which are actually in abundance), Bhitarkanika is also famous for a large varieties of Kingfishers, deers, monitors, snakes, turtles (including the now famous Olive Ridley Turtles)….this list could go on endlessly….flora consists of very beautiful mangroves which are actually more beautiful to look at in reality than they look in photographs with their prop roots and all the other plants with their breathing roots (pneumatophores for the more botany oriented minds). The creeks with dense vegetation on both sides ensured that we had that feeling of being watched throughout the trip which actually makes such visits even more exciting. We went to Baghaban (plz ignore the spelling mistake in the name in case it exists) where we saw the birds on top of the trees….awesome…..then went on to Dangmal where Ghattu prepared lunch for us using the ready-to-eat meals which was very yummy and we even played with a house-cat (he he he) which was more interested in the left-overs than in us. We came out of the park through Chandbali because the exit roads from here are a bit better (they were actually a lot better) and then took a bus and then taxi back to college.
In all a lovely trip which could not have gone better. We were able to fulfill our basic aim of having a great time and we did come back with a lot of nice memories and learnings. I will definitely recommend Bhitarkanika to anyone who wants to spend a couple of days specially in the winter season since the weather here is absolutely fabulous then and the birds as well as the turtles are in full breeding mode….a scene worth watching.
Njoy!!!
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