In Forests of Dooars, North Bengal

[Rishi]

Day 5. Date: 06/01/2019

Mostly spent travelling east from Jalpaiguri District to Alipurduar District (both named after respective dist. headquarter tariffs towns), our destination was Jaldapara NP & Buxa TR.

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Way to Jaldapara Forest Lodge entrance.

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The lodge...

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...& Jaldapara National Park's jungle behind it.

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I did visit the Khayerbari Rescue Center, located inside a forest nearby. Saw some leopards hiding in the shelters in the back, waiting to get some peace & tranquility at night. Not only is its maintenance or management much inferior to the one in Jharkhali of Sundarban, but the noisy crowd was absolutely unruly.
Atleast FD designated picnic-spot further away to stop them from littering all over the place. Future plan is to turn it into a zoo. Hope they would fence some of the forest & create proper enclosure. It's too small for wildlife anyway...

I strongly recommend everyone not to waste time going there.

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Near the lodge there's a small "Jaldapara Museum" that had taxidermy of a tigress, a huge leopard of almost her size & a black one. All of these were once shot at Jaldapara. Couldn't be very old, as it was not very well maintained. Even had dim lights that looked 1000-years-old.

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Day 6. Date: 07/01/2019

Jaldapara is almost half grassland and has reached its carrying capacity with more than 200 rhinos, 4 times that of densely wooded Gorumara-Chapramari, despite being not that much larger than them combined. Wild-buffalo was once abundant in North Bengal.

Morning car-safari at Jaldapara starts at 5:30am. There's nothing like wind of 2-3°C against your face in an open Gypsy in complete darkness.
There aren't many moments in an Indian's life when he misses the sun. This was one of mine.

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Sunrise over Jaldapara's grassland...

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...clearing away the thick fog. Bhutan in the backdrop.

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Didn't see anything other that this barking deers behind.

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Hollong Tourist Lodge inside Jaldapara is an old elite Bungalow, where you'd need to be lucky to get to stay. FD does a lottery from whoever applies, same for elephant safari, that starts from here. That also needs a lot of luck, as only 3-4 elephants are allocated for it & the rest are for patrolling duty. At this time one of them was soon to get off-duty due to pregnancy.

Beside Hollong lodge there's another salt-lick, less than 50m from the lodge. No barriers except a tiny stream... The lawn has a sign warning the rhino sometimes come upto there.

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Droppings. Can't tell whether elephant or rhino.

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Parakeet.

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This video looks like it was taken there, the gaur being jumpy because people are standing nearby.

(01-13-2019, 08:51 PM)Jimmy Wrote: One of the nice side view of a bull gaur walking I have seen, gaurs although large no doubt seem quite agile and alert, they appear more athletic than bulky, a bit twitchy perhaps it's a requirement in tiger territory. 

Rest of the day was free & we decided to move on to Buxa Tiger Reserve.
It's larger forest tract is almost 600sq.km in size & this is a place where the forest is densest in probably all of Dooars. 

Beautiful Buxa.

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There's the ruins of Buxa fort in the forest up close to Bhutan. A 4.5km trekking route going up there starts from a forest village where the hills begin. Beyond the fort the path goes ahead into Bhutan.

Buxa Tiger Reserve from up the hill.

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Orchid grown on a tree.

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Buxa is home to more than 200 avian species. When we were there a birdwatching fest was going on.

I however was fortunate enough to capture one (a pair actually) of the rare prizes. The Great Pied Hornbill... They have been sitting right overhead for hours.

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They were still sitting there when i was returning from Buxa fort.

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Down on the plains there another settlement called Jayanti on the other side of the forest, from where safari track to more watch towers start.

This is where the Jayanti river flows by (Places here are often named after a nearby river). Once a small stream, in 1993 there was a flash flood through the mountain & it washed away half of the fort, the nearby settlement up there. Down here it tripled in width taking away forest offices on its banks, a century old bridge etc.

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This used to be a road. Now it is stream. Still used as the way to the watch towers. Looks better IMO...

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Some villages existed in these parts, now most have been shifted out as preparation for tiger reintroduction.

At the watch tower. A tusker was here the previous afternoon.

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Buxa was hands down the most beautiful of them all.

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Day 7. Date: 08/01/2019

My last day in Dooars.
We got lucky to have an elephant safari in the morning. Got on the train back-home later that day.

Same schedule as last day. Had to be there at Hollong before sunrise & wait for the elephants.
Some people staying at Hollong (50% of elephant seats allotted for them) told stories about a leopard that came to drink at the stream the evening before & a pair of rhinos fought almost all night (Hollong guests are given flashlights... old British ways).

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Then 4 elephants started out with 4 people each, ripping away shrubbery as they strolled with two calves frolicking along. The path is more or less designated, so that we don't have tourists hanging from branches & vines. There is a trail through the forest that the elephants follow. They cross the stream, passing right by the salt-lick infront of Hollong lodge through a dense forest to a grassland up ahead that is frequented by rhinos. It can go on for maximum an hour & a half.

After some time the mahout pointed at a thicket saying, "bisons in there" (everybody calls gaurs as 'bison' here). But i didn't manage to see a single one them.

After almost half an hour, there was he was...
Not out there in the grasslands, but camouflaged in a dense thicket of tangled inside the jungle, my first rhino!

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And he was not alone. At that same place farther ahead was a young male sambar.

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With not much time left, they turned the elephants & headed back by another path.

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The elephants got out in the opening at the Hollong salt-lick. The bungalow could be seen to the left & we'd get off after another 100m, turning left between the trees, crossing the creek just after the field.

But blocking our way was a big old male rhino with the top of his horn cracked & worn away!

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When was evident that he had no intention of moving away, the lead elephant went forward & challenged him. Hearing her trumpet he slowing walked aside.

This was one of the two males that fought last night. The one that lost. He had horrible wounds on his rump, apparently inflicted by the chasing victor's horn.

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That's all folks!

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