In Forests of Dooars, North Bengal

[Jimmy]

(01-18-2019, 03:53 PM)Rishi Wrote: Took me a few days to sort & edit the pictures,but i'm finally done. Once as popular a destination as Corbett, Kaziranga etc. Dooars had lost is shine due to decades of misgovernance & terrible "development" projects that still plague the regions wildlife & elephant corridor. The pristine forests were already fragmented, but now has railway lines & national highways passing right through them!

This is a the western part of the previous map of Dooars (Map Courtesy: bhuvan.nrsc.gov.in).

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Date: 02/01/2019
After crossing Siliguri the train stopped beside a tiny place called Gulma, on the edge of Mahananda Wildlife Sanctuary, from where the it enters the forest to cross it (Hills of Darjeeling in the background).

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We had to wait there for a good 30 minutes as the tracks merge to form a single line & the train coming to us from the opposite direction had to maintain a 30 km/hr speed limit within the "Elephant Zone".

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The other train finally appearing beyond the bridge on Mahanadi river that flows beside the jungle.

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Once it passes, our train starts moving through the dense forest.

Train halts before a turn.

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In the hillier areas, one side is raised to discourage animals from crossing there. In those regions the train simply enters several tunnels where they can avoid the tracks altogeether.

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Then the forest suddenly ends to give way to tea gardens. Not on hill slopes, but tea-shrubs planted plain fields instead of something like paddy.

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We got down at Malbazar & headed northwards towards the hill town of Lava by car. As you pass you can see the vegetation changing, within minutes,as the himalayan foothills start abruptly. One moment you arecrusing through flat land, maybe slightly undulated at places & suddenly you are climbing along winding roads at 20-30° angle!

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Looking down for one last peep at the plainland...

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...& the change in vegetation from tropical deciduous to the wet alpine trees of fir, pine, birch etc. above.

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...& upland bamboo.

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The forest floor became covered with ferns.

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No idea what these birds are.

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Reached Lava by midday. Right before the road enters the city a trekking route towards the Neora Valley National Park diverges out.
It was on roads around here somewhere that the tiger was photographed two years ago, following which camera-traps were laid there & two more individuals were clicked.

After spending some time at Lava & checking out the monastery, we moved on for our final destination, Lolegaon.

Lava town from the Monastery. Beyond that hill lies the ancient & pristine Lava Reserve Forest, through which the "road" to Lolegaon passes.

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Now, this forest was the most mindbogglingly majestic in all of the tour.

Inside the forest, it was almost completely dark & below the trees' shadows there were huge, prehistoric-looking ones too, alomost 7 feet tall! I in my awe... well, didn't remember to take photos. So, i'm outsourcing an image of it from this travel forum. (Not taken by me.)

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We travelled 26km through virtually nonexistent road, met only one car coming from the opposite side in the whole journey. Govt. has virtually abandoned this one as better roads to Lolegaon exists from the other side.

Finally, reached the Heritage forest of Lolegaon (our vehicle in the background).

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Canopy walk & path...

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Checked in at Lolegaon forest lodge for the day.

As much for it's historic importance for wildlife, I really don't know how it is holding up at present. I know migration route of elephants passes all the way to Eastern Nepal- Koshi reserve (reserve for Nepalese wild buffaloes)from this exact place but really don't know what other mega faunas are still present, looking at the map, it looks to be on quite a strategic and crucial point for wildlife exchange between Terai and Assam. Reading your post I felt this region has been altered quite drastically with road and tracks maybe for the link between main part of India and Assam, probably government already has development projects and other infrastructures program in place rather than demarking ecological areas here. Also contrary to being on supposedly such an impressive location for wildlife (one of the best biodiversity hotspots place in my view currently if it was to develop that way-what could be more impressive than a point of linkage between Terai -Assam and Himalaya) i haven't heard of any truly famous parks here, what could be the reason?
Edit: so there are some famous ones -Buxa, Jaldapara is the popular names I can recall but still thiese place could reintroduce animals from both Terai and Assam and Mahananda you mentioned looks like a huge chunk of forest in the map Reply