kerala – Pseudo Ecotourism

Shreeram introduces me to herpetofauna photography. Trained in science of environment I quickly understood the vital role played by herpetofauna in forest regeneration, without whom even tigers wouldn’t survive. As I meander through the tea and coffee estates of Western Ghats, I discovered an alternative ecotourism to counter the tiger centric ecotourism.

I continued my exploration of herpetofauna in other areas of Western Ghats such as Munnar, Valparai and Parambikulam.

Munnar is a town in the Western Ghats Mountain range in India’s Kerala state. A hill station and former resort for the British Raj elite, it’s surrounded by rolling hills dotted with tea plantations established in the late 19th century. Eravikulam National Park, a habitat for the endangered mountain goat Nilgiri tahr, is home to the Lakkam Waterfalls, hiking trails and 2,695m-tall Anamudi Peak.

Valparai is a hill station in the south Indian state of Tamil Nadu. Nallamudi Viewpoint has vistas of the Anamalai Hills in the Western Ghats, and surrounding tea estates. To the northwest, in Kerala, Parambikulam Tiger Reserve is a forested area, with teak plantations and trails, sheltering tigers and Indian elephants. Northeast of town, the Anamalai Tiger Reserve is home to tigers, panthers, elephants and macaques.

Parambikulam Tiger Reserve, which also includes the erstwhile Parambikulam Wildlife Sanctuary, is a 643.66 square kilometres (248.5 sq mi) protected area lying in Palakkad district and Thrissur district of Kerala state, South India. The Wildlife Sanctuary, which had an area of 285 square kilometres (110 sq mi) was established in part in 1973 and 1984. It is in the Sungam range of hills between the Anaimalai Hills and Nelliampathy Hills.

Agroforestry can be an object of ecotourism itself. This means that agroforestry farms (or complexes) can be converted into ecotourism destinations themselves. Yes, agroforestry can itself be a strong tourist attraction depending on what nature-based recreation features it can offer to tourists.

To know this new aspect of inclusive ecotourism read Pseudo Ecotourism.

Stricken by the desire for being the most interesting person in the room, after a successful first trip in Gir, we decide to further strengthen this new hobby of wildlife photography, by creating opportunities to live in proximity to nature. Hardships in the tropical rainforest of Periyar tiger reserve made us realize our limitations in living close to nature. However, driven by a hunger for fame and glory, all we desire is to take pictures of the Bengal Tiger in the wild to distinguish ourselves as unique.

We named this exploration as “Hiking in Highlands” as Western Ghats can very well be considered as highlands of Indian subcontinent, because of floral and faunal diversity, rain clad mountains, and evergreen forests. The exploration had five segments – Rangnathettu bird sanctuary, Nagarhole National Parks, Bandipur National Park, Eravikulam National Park and Periyar National Park.

Ranganathittu Bird Sanctuary (also known as Pakshi Kashi of Karnataka), is a bird sanctuary in the Mandya District of Karnataka in India. It is the largest bird sanctuary in the state, 40 acres (16 ha) in area, and comprises six islets on the banks of the Kaveri river. The sanctuary has been designated on 15 February 2022 as a protected Ramsar site since 2022. Ranganathittu is located 3 km (1.9 mi) from the historic town of Srirangapattana and 16 km (9.9 mi) north of Mysore. The sanctuary attracted about 3 lakh visitors during 2016–17.

Nagarahole National Park is a national park located in Kodagu district and Mysore district in Karnataka, India. This park was declared the 37th Tiger Reserve of India in 1999. It is part of the Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve. The Western Ghats Nilgiri Sub-Cluster of 6,000 km² (2,300 sq mi), including all of Nagarhole National Park, is under consideration by the UNESCO World Heritage Committee for selection as a World Heritage Site. The park has rich forest cover, small streams, hills, valleys and waterfalls, and populations of Bengal tiger, gaur, Indian elephant, Indian leopard, chital and Sambar deer.

Bandipur National Park is a national park covering 868.63 km² (335.38 sq mi) in Chamarajnagar district in the Indian state of Karnataka. It was established as a tiger reserve under Project Tiger in 1973. It is part of the Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve since 1986. The Maharaja of the Kingdom of Mysore created a sanctuary of 90 km² (35 sq mi) in 1931 and named it the Venugopala Wildlife Park. The Bandipur Tiger Reserve was established under Project Tiger in 1973 by adding nearly 800 km² (310 sq mi) to the Venugopala Wildlife park.

Eravikulam National Park is a 97 km² national park located along the Western Ghats in the Idukki and Ernakulam districts of Kerala in India. The park is situated between 10º05’N and 10º20′ north, and 77º0′ and 77º10′ east and is the first national park in Kerala. It was established in 1978. Eravikulam National Park is administered by the Kerala Department of Forests and Wildlife, Munnar Wildlife Division, which also runs the nearby Mathikettan Shola National Park, Anamudi Shola National Park, Pambadum Shola National Park, Chinnar Wildlife Sanctuary and the Kurinjimala Sanctuary.

Periyar National Park and Wildlife Sanctuary (PNP) is a protected area located in the districts of Idukki and Pathanamthitta in Kerala, India. It is an elephant and a tiger reserve. The protected area encompasses 925 km² (357 sq mi), of which 305 km² (118 sq mi) of the main zone was declared as the Periyar National Park in 1982. The park is a repository of rare, endemic, and endangered flora and fauna and forms the major watershed of two important rivers of Kerala: the Periyar and the Pamba. The park is located high in the Cardamom Hills and Pandalam Hills of the south Western Ghats along the border with Tamil Nadu. It is 4 km (2.5 mi) from Kumily, approximately 100 km (62 mi) east of Kottayam, 110 km (68 mi) west of Madurai and 120 km (75 mi) southeast of Kochi.

Source of Information: Wikipedia

Hiking in Highlands – through dense forest of Periyar

In real sense the quest for Bengal Tiger was started by my friend and me, at 6:30 in the morning of 2^nd December 2015 from the Bandipur National Park. Although Bandipur National Park was our first dedicated venture in the shadow of Bengal Tiger, but technically the exploration in tiger habitat started from another national park of Western Ghats – the Nagarhole National Park. The Kabini side of the park is famous for sighting of melanistic leopard – commonly known as Black Panther. However, we did not go to Kabini. In the morning of 30^th November 2015, both of us with our driver cum “Man Friday” Purushottam, reached at the Veeranahosahalli range of Nagrahole National Park from our base camp at Jungle Inn resort. Before coming to Nagarhole, en route, we visited Ranganathettu, the largest bird sanctuary of Karnataka, situated on the bank of Cauvery River.

After finishing our exploration in Bandipur, on same day afternoon, we came back to Bangalore and took an overnight bus to reach Munnar on next day morning. After spending next whole day, exploring Eravikulam National Park, we reached forest rest house at Thekkady in the evening of 4^th December. On 5^th December at 9:00 am we reached at the check post of Periyar Tiger Reserve to start one of the most adventurous and challenging forest hiking of this country, the Periyar Tiger Trail, with a hope that our bad luck for sighting tiger would end there.

To know what happened in that exploration, in the Highlands of Indian subcontinent, and how my life started changing after that trip, read my recently published book.