Here is a simple question. You are an animal and nature lover and love to travel. You are presented with an opportunity to trek inside core forest areas, experience its sights and sounds, and witness wildlife from up close. What will you do?
Well, I am sure you will jump at the chance! That is what I did. I participated as a volunteer in the 2017 Synchronised Asian Elephant Population Estimation exercise conducted by the Forest Department in May 2017. This is done in a synchronised manner at a pan-India level so that the elephants in connected forests spanning across States, can be counted in a single go, thus avoiding duplication.
I first attended a training session conducted by the Forest Department team. The day-long workshop explained the logic and methodology to be followed for elephant estimation. A record number of 550 volunteers and around 150 resource people offered their services – students, IT professionals, doctors, lawyers, home makers; all belonging to different walks of life but united for the common cause of forest conservation and protection of wildlife. All the volunteers were assigned to different forest divisions in Karnataka (like Bannerghatta, Kabini, Nagarhole, Bhadra Sanctuary, Dandeli). I, along with four others, was asked to report to the Koppa Division near Chikmagalur.
Day 1
Planning and selecting forest beats
Our team of five landed in Koppa on the morning of May 16. The place was beautiful, filled with plenty of greenery and lush vegetation. As we drove down from Bengaluru, the rain-washed roads welcomed us. A gentle mist enveloped the trees and bushes which gave a surreal beauty to the place. After breakfast, we met the Deputy Conservator of Forests, Koppa Division, and his officials to plan the exercise. The entire forest range in the division was first clearly mapped out into an Elephant Distribution map and volunteers assigned to different forest ranges. Each range, for easy manageability, was further divided into beats. We spent some time selecting the beats; those that had elephant presence and were about 5 sq.km in size. After the planning exercise, Prashanth and I were assigned to Balehonnur Range. I took up the Antavalli Beat while Prashanth picked up Devadana Beat.
We stayed in a forest bungalow in a picturesque, quaint little village called Magundi. Our guest house situated within a sprawling Nursery, had the River Bhadra flowing next to it. We spotted several birds - the pied wagtail, the noisy warblers, sunbirds, robins, flycatchers, the drongo, and the beautiful “Bharadwaj’, cousin of the common crow. Peacocks flew from one side of the river bank to the other, while loudly letting out their plaintive cries.
Day -2
Direct Block Count
Early next morning, I set out with forest officials. A local tribesman who lived in the fringes of the forest and who knew every inch of it – Yellanna, accompanied us. We ascended the slopes, zigzagged our way through the hilly terrain, cut through thorny bushes, weeds and lantana. We passed through patches of blackened areas – where the forest fire had eaten into the trees and bushes and charred the region. We found several piles of elephant dung, in different stages of decomposition indicating that the pachyderms were indeed criss-crossing their way through the forest. We found several incidences of their activity – broken branches, trees in a semi-uprooted condition, their huge foot prints on fresh mud and of course dung piles with mushrooms sprouted on few of them.
The plan for the day was to walk the entire beat area and spot elephants. We covered more than 10 kms but despite seeing so much activity, we did not spot an elephant. Forest officer Arif explained that our beat formed the elephant corridor area – quite a few elephants passed by en route their final destination. Hence, we could witness their presence and movement but would not actually see them.
In the forest, we found tiger pug marks, saw tiger scat (tiger’s droppings), some wild hens, found a beautiful quill of a porcupine, and of course got bitten by the leeches. We got back to the guest house, tired and bloodied but exhilarated by the day’s action.
Day – 3
Line Transect Method
The next morning, with forest staff, I headed back to the Antavalli Forest Beat. The plan for the day was to do a line transect to assess the density of elephant dung piles over a selected two km range. We had to do this across a straight path and inspect the surrounding area to spot dung piles. The perpendicular distance of the dung pile from the straight line on which we were moving had to be measured and recorded. We took 50 metre measurements, capturing the GPS locations and used a compass to ensure that we were indeed going in a straight line. The task was quite arduous; we had to cut through thorny bushes; make our way around fallen branches. Several times, we tripped on wild creepers as we covered an entire 2-km uphill stretch. A forest guard got bitten by wasps leading to swelling of his lips and cheeks. But despite the hardships, the sights and sounds of the forest made it interesting.
Day - 4
Spotting elephants
We visited spaces where the elephant was most likely to be present - like water-holes, salt-licks and river banks. We were directed to take pictures, profile the pachyderms and classify them based on their sex, their relative size – adult, sub-adult, juvenile and calf. This exercise would help the forest department estimate the ratio of male and female elephants in the herd and help determine if the elephant population would grow healthily in the coming years. I joined Prashanth to visit the Devadana Beat. We walked alongside the Bhadra River but the elephants were not there. We got news that the locals had seen an elephant in the wee hours of the morning. We followed Manjunath through the estate where the elephant had cut down jackfruits; it had also broken a few areca-nut trees to eat the pulp. We followed its footprints into the thick jungle. It was quite an adventure; we were adrenaline-charged, hoping to see the elephant but also a little apprehensive about following it. After all, we were in the wild and a lone elephant can be quite dangerous. We slowly made our way, following all the signs that the elephant had left of its progress into the forest. But sadly, even after several hours, we were unable to spot the elephant. Later in the evening, some forest guards saw not just one but two elephants (an adult and a sub-adult). Thus, our four-day highly eventful trek in the forests came to an end. While it was disappointing that we did not spot a single wild elephant, just being in the forest and enjoying nature more than made up for it.
