After crossing the river we all wore our jeans whereas Ajay continued the trek grumbling and mumbling in his underpants carrying his wet jeans on his shoulder. It was a comic scene to watch.
 The track had just begun and already it had become interesting and exciting. We were going towards the core area, a place where no one apart from the forest staff is allowed to go and the picturesque beauty of the area is hard to describe.
We went into a sot and above in the mountains at the first corner we came across a fishing owl and what more with a fish in its claws. We proceeded slowly since Mr. Karmiyal had cautioned us that it was a bear territory and there might be a bear lying at any spot. We reached the top of the mountain and rested for a while when we heard a Sambhar call made by a human coming from somewhere down below to which Mr. Karmiyal answered Then we realized it was Thakurji, our cook of the day with provisions of tea and lunch.
We descended on the other side of the mountain and came to a valley with large boulders. There was a big stream in which water flows during rainy season. The scenic beauty was captivating and unique and it looked straight from the great novels of Jim Corbett. I was already absorbed in my fantasy imagining I was going through the same tracks and experiences of Jim Corbett and Kenneth Anderson. In the heart of tiger territory and was experiencing the beauty untouched by humans. This was a dream come true. Never in my wildest dreams could I imagine to go through what I was going at that time.
We proceeded further up the valley and came across many small waterholes with clear water and fish swimming in it. We came to rest near a small waterfall under the shade of rock where Thakurji collected firewood and prepared soothing tea in no time. The tastiest of tea we drank which was prepared from natural water of the hills.
We went further up the valley and at an intersection our leader disappeared for a while. He came back later with some maldan (mallu) some leaves to which would serve at plates during our lunch break. We continued further up and came across the pug mark of a male tiger which this group recorded the previous day. Mr. Karmiyal took the plaster of paris impression and after that we proceeded further up the valley and then at 12:30 halted to rest in the jungles.
Thakurji worked in his efficient way and in a short time he prepared/served tea and after that lunch. The water source was the small pools of water nearby. Lunch never tasted so good before the rice and tomato stew was incredibly tasty. It was fun eating with your hands from the plates made of leaves.
During our breaks we conversed about forests and wild life. The deteriorating conditions and the impact of tourism , the buffer areas. The gap in my perception about what I used to imagine and the real facts started to diminish. The people of forest are also in deep love with the forests and animals. They cannot be a cause to harm the forests. Mr. Karmiyal is a very dedicated, sensible, and responsible person and the whole party liked him for what he was. He gained the respect of all of us.
After the break we started the toughest part of our journey. That was climbing uphill at 80 degrees with the footpaths covered by dry leaves making the path very slippery. In a span of 1.5 hours we had covered nearly 2.5-3 km. uphill and as soon as we reached the top the breeze took away the tiredness. The view from the top overlooking the valley was just magnificent and we could hardly see Dhikala from there.
It was interesting to note that even at such heights and the toughest of climbs there were elephant droppings. The elephants do come to such areas for bamboo that grows. We even came across Ghoral (wild goat) droppings at the top (we have never sighted Ghoral in the forests till date).
We rested for while and then descended on the other side of the peak towards Hathipani. Mr. Karmiyal in the lead was going downhill like a mountain goat, Thakurji keeping pace with him in his slippers. We followed Thakurji and asked him to guide the way. The downhill journey took us nearly an hour when we reached the main road of Hathi Pani to Dhikala.
We reached the river bed and saw that a group of elephants were about to cross the way. A lone Makhna (male without tuskers) was to cross our path. We quickened our pace and reached the Ramganga where we again had to take off our pants. We crossed the first stream without any casualty. The water was very dirty and the flow was very fast since it had rained the previous night and it takes a day for the water of the mountains to reach the base.
On crossing the second stream we all managed to cross easily where again Ajay did the action replay of the morning event. It was a funny sight he kept on abusing the rock on which he had slipped and was exclaiming that it took him all day to dry and again he was all wet. |
