Photo Feature: Bhadra Wild Life Sanctuary

by R.R. Sriram
photos by Beta Mahatvaraj
From the archives of  indianaquariumhobbyist.com
Aquarticles

Date: November 2004
Location: Bhadra Wild Life Sanctuary
Team from Chennai: Ravi, Beta, Venket, Karthik, Ravindran and RRSriram
Team from Bangalore: Adipa and Shankar

A long weekend… an enthusiastic and fun loving crowd… and a very long and tiring trip to the Western Ghats. That exactly fits the description of the fun trip we had to Bhadra Wild Life Sanctuary.

Diwali weekend was an occasion where everyone got 4 days off from their hectic schedule at work. The Chennai IAHians were thinking for a very long time to drive down to the Western Ghats to study the eco systems available. This long weekend gave us a good opportunity to drive down and have a great time together. All of us came up with ideas for places to visit and after a few days decided to go to a place called Kadur. Kadur is the place were Tunga and Bhadra meet to become the Tungabhadra River (a tributary of River Krishna). We did some research on the net and found out that Kadur has plenty of water bodies and is one of the most likely places in India to get some barbs, especially Narayani Barb, which most of us wanted to have in our tanks. Adip and Shankar from Bangalore also agreed to join us for the trip, since we had to drive through Bangalore.

All of us met at Ravi’s house on the 12th of November at around 1:00 PM. There was consistent heavy rains on the 11th and 12th and we started on the trip during one of the heaviest spells of rain to lash Chennai this season. The drive to the outskirts of Chennai took nearly 1 hour because of the bad roads and heavy rain. By the time we hit the National Highway it was nearly 2:30 in the afternoon and the entire drive to Bangalore was mostly uneventful. Though the trip was uneventful, Venket had his leg pulled literally the entire trip to Bangalore. We took the Chitoor road instead of the Hosur road to go to Bangalore. The road was pretty decent and we could have reached Bangalore earlier but for the numerous Tea, CO2 and Bio breaks all along with way.

We reached Bangalore around 9:00pm and picked up Shankar from his house and went to Adip’s house. We should all thank Adip’s mother for preparing a nourishing and tasteful dinner for all the tired and hungry Chennai folks. Here at Adip’s house Trevor joined us for dinner and called Nag also to join us. Nag then threw a bombshell that there is no water in Kadur and it would be better if we go to a place called Bhadra which is a Tiger Sanctuary. Kadur and Bhadra are in the same region of Karnataka, i.e. Chikmagalur. Chikmagalur is around 370 Kms from Bangalore and the road passes through some historical and archeological sites. We got the driving directions from Nag and then decided to change the venue to Bhadra. Beta, Ravi and Venket stayed at Adip’s house. Trevor meanwhile booked a room in the Koramangla Club for the remaining people (Ravi, Karthik and me) where we went after the sumptuous dinner. We all agreed to meet at Adip’s house at 6:30am to drive down to Bhadra. The two doctors of breeding (Beta and Adip) stayed awake for a long time discussing breeding techniques and exchanged notes on their fish breeding patterns. This is not my version but Venket’s version (which needs to be confirmed).

After a nice rest and a much needed sleep, we got up by 5:30 and Shankar also came down to the club by 6.00am. Ravi, Karthik, Shankar and myself went to Adip’s house by 6:30 and then found out that none of them were ready and were in the process of getting ready which took more than an hour (our first delay). By the time we started from Adip’s house it was nearly 8:00 in the morning.

The route which we took was the Tumkur road which passed through Halebed, Belur, Hassan and then to Chikmagalur. By 9:30am Venket started cribbing about hunger, which he gets every couple of hours, and we stopped at a roadside motel where we had a quick breakfast. The road was pretty good and we were covering the distance to Chikmagalur at a good pace. Around 40 Kms from Hassan we came across a huge lake which we wanted to check out for fishes and plants. The lake was slightly off the road but since we had a 4x4 we drove down right to the lake bed. The lake had nothing in it and we went round the lake walking and wading through the water.

On the outer edge of the lake we found quite a few aquatic plants.

Potomogeton spp.

Duck Weed (Lemna minor) and Salvinia sp.

Potomogeton spp. emersed and submersed growth.

We came across some snails and crabs too in the rain fed pools.

Myriophyllum spp.?

Interesting looking plant that we couldn’t identify. Would have made a great foreground plant.

Chara spp.algae

These were some of the first few pools we checked out

Another aquatic stem plant that we couldn’t identify

Lush growth of aquatic plants in one of the pools

Flowers of an aquatic Lily and Ottelia alismoides

Some of the Ottelia leaves were red in colour and differed in the extent of whorls.

In another pool the Ottelia leaves were green in colour and differently shaped.

Water Clover (Marsilea quadrifolia) was growing in abundance on the wet soil around these pools.

Aponogeton natans and Vallisneria spiralis

Very surprisingly there was very little fish life here. There were lots of tadpoles though. This barb was the lone fish we caught in one of the pools.

We spent around 1 hour looking for and identifying some of the aquatic plants. Ravi and Shankar got a brilliant idea to test the 4x4 on the lake bed and they were going round in circles checking all the options available. During one of the runs they went into a small ditch at high speed and then found out that there was a very funny noise coming from the vehicle and also the handling of the vehicle was not proper. Since Hassan was only around 40 kms, we decided to get the vehicle checked over there and also have our lunch. From the lake to Hassan we were driving at a reasonably slow speed so that no untoward incident occured. Once we reached Hassan we immediately went to a mechanic who identified the problem. The silencer had come out of the clamp and the nut that held on to the silencer was broken. It took more than 3 hours to get that repaired and we had lunch at Hassan around 3:30pm.

From Hassan the drive was very beautiful and after about 30 kms we came to Halebid, which is a ancient temple and now an archeological site. We stood at the roadside for 10 minutes and took some pictures of the site and also marveled at its construction and preservation.

Halebid Temple

Another 30 kms later we reached Belur which is another ancient temple but this time we did not stop to look at the temple since it was already getting late. On the way to Chikmagalur we came across a flower garden which had velvet flowers and another which had dark red flowers. It was wonderful to see the garden with vivid colours, and it was breathtaking. We stood for around 10 minutes marvelling at nature at its sublime best.

The garden

We reached Chikmagalur at 6:30 in the evening and from there we started climbing the hills towards Bhadra Wildlife Sanctuary. The drive would have been beautiful and amazing if we had come there in the afternoon but since darkness had already set, we could see very little apart from the road. Bhadra Wildlife Sanctuary is around 50 kms from Chikmagalur but the drive takes around 1½ hours due to single lane and twisting and curving roads. We reached the guest house at around 8 in the evening and found out that there was only one room available. Eight of us staying at this place we thought would be tough. The caretaker then told that there was another booking but the people had not arrived. If they did not come by 10:00 we were told that the additional room would be given to us. We had no option but to wait. The entire area of the sanctuary does not have electricity and travelling in the night is done by lanterns and torch lights.

At 9:00 pm we had no other option but to wait. We ordered dinner from the cook at the guesthouse. We just sat and talked in the waiting area in pitch darkness. Suddenly there were fireflies all around us and Ravindran managed to catch one. We even took a picture of the firefly which has come out very well except that you can see the fly and not in darkness where you could have seen the firefly in action. Here we waited for another 30 minutes or so till the dinner came. We are very hungry and tired after driving for nearly 14 hours and all we wanted to do then was to rest and sleep. The cook informed us that elephants walked through the pathway in between the guest houses during the night and sometimes leopards, wild cats and snakes also used the pathway. He advised us to close all windows and doors before sleeping. The dinner was delicious but very simple. Chapatti, dal, rice, one curry and fish curry. There was no curd or buttermilk available.

We finished dinner by 10:00pm and then were informed that the person who had booked one cottage had arrived and the eight of us had to share one room. There was no option left to us so we took it without much fussing around. We went to our cottage and Ravi and me took the cot while the others (additional beds were provided) arranged the beds between the two cots and crashed immediately. Shankar was warning anyone who snored, would be thrown out of the room but I guess everyone was so tired that no one bothered to notice me snoring quiet loudly. In the morning however, Shankar pulled my leg saying that he could not sleep the entire night.

In the morning everyone except Ravi and me went for a small trek on the mountain and came back with leeches stuck on their feet.

Ravindran, Beta and Adip had multiple leeches stuck while Karthik came out clean. All of us took a bath in the icy cold waters and by 9:00am started driving down to Chikmagalur. This time it was broad daylight and we could enjoy the scenery that was displayed by Mother Nature. It was mind boggling and all we could talk was how we missed it the day before at night.

There was a small rivulet flowing between the mountains and it was awesome. Any number of words cannot describe the beauty of the flora and fauna present in the mountain side.

We found some colorful and interesting looking spiders too!

We reached the foothills at around 10:30 and had breakfast over there. We started driving back to Chikmagalur from there and reached Bangalore by 4:30 in the evening. The drive was quite uneventful except again for the fact that hunger pains seemed to catch Venket every 2 hours or so. We went to Shankar’s house and dropped him and then went to Adip’s house and dropped him. I wanted to see his fish collection and his tanks and we spent some time taking pictures of his absolutely adorable and wonderful fishes.

We started driving back to Chennai at 6:00 in the evening and thought we could reach Chennai in 5 hours if we took the Hosur road which was re-laid and looked like we could have made it. After travelling for around 100 kms the road became very bad and it took more time driving slowly. We should have taken the Chittoor road which would have made travel a little more easy and we could have reached Chennai earlier. We reached Chennai by 1:00am and Ravi dropped me first (probably I was becoming a pest to him, driving him mad), then he dropped Karthik and from there he went to his house dropping Beta and Venket on the way. Ravindran had parked his bike in Ravi’s house which he picked up and went to his house.

That ends the long story of our Bhadra Wildlife sanctuary trip. Most of this trip we were driving and could not stop at a few places because of the time factor. We decided that henceforth if we plan for such a long trip, either we should start early and stick to the time or we should go to places which are closer and we can spend more time documenting the aquatic plants and fishes.