Memorable trip to Navegaon-Nagzira Tiger Reserve (NNTR)

13 November 2016

I woke up in the morning around 6:30 am. The chaiwala  (tea-seller)  was trying his best to sell tea. Mom and I had a cup of tea from him. Slowly my boredom started to increase but I had no choice. Since the rest of the group members were in another compartment. The railway journey was quite boring, but I could not do anything.  I reached the buzzing city of Nagpur at 9:30 am.  The railway announcement greeted us. I soon met Priyanka Tai, a Nature Walk volunteer with whom I visited Pench in December 2012 and her family.  I also met my new friends Ketan, Omkar and Harshada. Mohanish Dada and Omkar Dada was waiting for us at parking. In their SUV, we went to the karyalay (dining place) to have breakfast. Soon, Shrinivas Kaka, Madhuri Kaku, Shilpa Kaku and Abhiram Kaka joined us there from the airport. A delicious breakfast of Medu Wada and Sambhar was waiting for us on the table. After breakfast, we had introduction round and Anuj Dada gave a brief overview of the place we were going to-Navegaon Nagzira Tiger Reserve (NNTR)

After everyone was done with breakfast, we started for Nagzira. Mamma, Harshada, Shrinivas Kaka, Omkar Dada, Anuj Dada and I were in one vehicle.  Listening to music and cracking jokes, we started our journey started. It was a 2 hr drive.

We took the exit from the highway (Nagpur – Kolkata Highway) to Sakoli, a town near Pitezari (which is the entrance of NNTR).  Soon we reached Pitezari the entrance from where the buffer area of NNTR starts.

Pitezari Gate
(Picture was taken from the internet)

We had lunch at Rajesh Dada’s house, a native of Pitezari and gypsy driver of NNTR. Lunch was delicious chicken, Patodyachi Aamti, Steaming Rice and Rotis.

Anuj Dada talked about Ecotourism. My understanding of ecotourism is

Ecotourism is about uniting conservation, communities, and sustainable travel. This means that those who implement, participate in and market ecotourism activities should adopt the following ecotourism principles:

• Minimize physical, social, behavioural, and psychological impacts.
• Build environmental and cultural awareness and respect.
• Provide positive experiences for both visitors and hosts.
• Generate financial benefits for both local people and industry.
• Deliver memorable interpretative experiences to visitors that help raise sensitivity to host countries’ political, environmental, and social climates.
• Design, construct and operate low-impact facilities.
• Recognize the rights and spiritual beliefs of the Indigenous People in your community and work in partnership with them to create empowerment.

After lunch, we started for the core area of NNTR. It was a typical forest journey, which I experienced in my earlier wildlife expeditions. We reached the forest guesthouse.  Wow, What a place!

The Forest Dept Guesthouse in the core region of NNTR.

A very warm greeting by langurs and spotted deers

A group of Hanuman langurs (Semnopithecus entellus) was there to welcome us near the canteen. It was 2:30 pm and we immediately left for our first safari with binoculars and cameras.

There were three gypsies for safari. We had Omkar Dada with us in our Gypsy who is experienced wildlifer along with Radhesham, a local guide at Nagzira. Due to winter, it was early sunset.  We saw the spotted deer and sambar in a huge number. Also, we spotted the Indian Gaur (Bos gaurus), the large bovine of India in a huge number. Some people call Indian Gaur as Bison, which is wrong. We also heard a few Sambar calls but didn’t get the chance to spot any predator. 

Spotted Deer (Axis axis)

But although I didn’t spot any predator, I experienced one thing which I never experienced in any other wildlife expedition. It was the most silent forest I ever visited. Anuj Dada rightly said that “If you want to experience the forest come to Nagzira”. I then realised and experienced what he said. I had not experienced that silence in any jungle before in my life.

The dense forest cover at Nagzira

We came back from safari around 6:30 pm. We all discussed what we saw in the safari.  No one had spotted any leopard or a tiger during the safari. Anuj Dada told us that the area in which we were living was a core leopard habitat. He also warned us not to roam around alone as we lived in the core area of NNTR. Anuj Dada allocated our rooms. My room partner was Ketan, happy to have a roommate of my age and we are great friends. We relaxed in our room for an hour and then just before dinner; we had a technical discussion about the animals and birds we spotted. We had dinner and then we went to sleep. *Continued*

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