Periyar Tiger Reserve, Kerala

The Periyar Tiger Reserve forest is an enchanting blend of dense green vegetation, towering trees, wide canopies of branches, thick, long vines, glades and expanses of open grassland.  It is a land in which tropical evergreen forest, deciduous forest and grassland coexist.  Set in South India, Kerala's mountainous Idduki District, it contains a spectacular lake that spreads through the heart of the reserve over contiguous valley beds.  The mountain, forest, grassland and lake create a charming landscape. 

Periyar is one of India's 27 tiger reserves.  Situated along the eastern border of Kerala, flanking Tamil Nadu, it covers an area of over 925 square kilometers.  It is Kerala's largest reserve.  Its eastern and southern parts have been designated core and are closed to visitors. 

The north-western entrance, about Thekkady, is however, open to visitors and there exists a good road, about three kilometers long, that runs from the reserve's entrance to the nearest lake shore called the boat landing.  I checked with a few people if the road was safe to walk on and received all affirmative responses except one mention of a tiger sighting.  The forest guard at the park entrance also didn't seem to mind our plan of walking to the lake and so the first evening at five o'clock, we set out upon the rare privilege of walking on foot in tiger country.

The clean air, pleasant weather (20 to 30 degrees Celsius) and green surroundings made it a wonderful walk.  There were a few showers of rain too but the October rain was so fine that it did not really get one wet very quickly.  Accompanied by a feeling of exhilaration we walked through the tiger habitat. The road is dotted with the occasional forest office cottage and a fair number of vehicles passed us ferrying tourists to the lake shore. 

So everything seemed quite alright until mid way we came upon a sign that read "Tiger Habitat.  Don't Alight.  Survivors will be prosecuted."  It made us pause and reflect on the sense of embarking on such a walk.  However, we journeyed on and completed the walk, not once, but a few times thereafter and enjoyed it each time.  I'm not sure what the sign was doing there.  Since the road was fairly well traveled I assume it was a remnant of days when the road was less frequented. 

 

We spotted a pair of Indian giant squirrels, a flying squirrel, troops of Nilgiri langurs, the ubiquitous rhesus macaques, flocks of the Malabar gray hornbills, tree pies, racket tailed drongos and many other delightful birds, plants and trees along the way.  A sandalwood tree stands by the road ring-fenced to protect its prized wood.  It's the only tree to be so fenced.

 

The road ends at the picturesque Periyar lake.  Almost every time we arrived at the lake we found sambar deer browsing on the far banks.  On one occasion we saw a very large herd of wild boar also grazing besides them.
 

To travel any further from the lake shore one needs to engage the Kerala Forest Department officers or rangers.  One can sign up for a number of guided walks that are conducted daily on the payment of a specified sum of money.  The entrance ticket cost Rs 25 a person, a three hour walk starts at Rs 100 per person and a day's trip with bamboo rafting included, costs Rs 1,000 per person.  Among the many trails at Periyar, a full day's trek with some rafting is exceptional for the intimacy it provides with the wild. 

 

On the day trek we took, a forest officer who had served twelve years at Periyar was in-charge and with a group of five forest guards he was to lead about 15 of us, visitors, into the Reserve on foot. 

We were all given long leech socks to wear over our regular socks.  "Leeches are frequently found in forested terrain, though not in grassland." a guard informed us.  Some guards carry tobacco powder in little bottles as a leech deterrent.  If sprinkled on a leech, the leech gives up its hold and shrinks away, I had discovered from another guard.

The officer walked ahead at an energetic pace carrying .315" rifle on his shoulder and sharing insights on plants and animals with us.  'Have you ever had to use the rifle?" I inquired.  "Oh, about 10 of 15 times," he replied and then after a pause, added, "In the last six months.  It's fired into the air mostly to ward off wild elephants.  Tiger sightings are rare.  I've seen two in the last twelve years".  I hadn't imagined then, that later that evening we would hear the rifle being shot.

The officer continued, "A tiger census is now conducted annually.  At the last count there were 43."  This does not tie in with the 53 tigers listed on Wikipedia.  Most tigers keep to the secluded core forest area.  Later that evening we spotted a tree with clear tiger claw markings.  Tigers scratch tree trunks with their claws to mark out territory or clean them.  "These marks are about a week old." said the guard when I pointed the tree out to him after examining the reddened scars on the trunk.

 

 "The Periyar lake was created by erecting a dam." the officer told us at the outset of the trek.  Bittu Sehgal, has co-authored a book on Periyar, that was published a couple of years ago, in which he delves into the history of how the Mullaperiyar dam was built by a visionary British officer in 1895.  The lake spreads over 26 square kilometers today and is an enduring source of water for flora, fauna and by some accounts for townships as far as Maduari (about 140 kilometers away).

As the lake waters filled the valley a number of trees stood submerged.  Some of them still stand there as bare stumps projecting out of the water.  Such a stump can make an excellent mid-lake perch for a bird or a mooring for a bamboo raft.  We spotted blue backed-white breasted kingfishers, gray herons, egrets, brahmi kites, common swallows and cormorants all taking advantage of these perches.  On the banks we also saw white necked storks, pied kingfishers, large pied wagtails and a crow pheasant (greater coucal).

"The overflow level of the lake is 136 feet.  Its present level is quite low at 120 feet." the forest officer informed us.   Monsoon arrives in Periyar in June and stays until August-September.  The receding waters had left wide swathes of grassy banks exposed, and the cool weather and indulgent sunlight was an invitation to herbivores to come out into the open to graze and bask.  We spotted wild elephants, gaurs and wild boars a few times on the trek, along the banks.
 

"Periyar has an elephant population of about one thousand.  Which is not very large for a reserve this size." a forest guard informed us while we were afloat on a bamboo raft that gently made its way through the placid lake.  Twice on the trek, we spotted herds of wild elephants and both times the herd had calves with it, a welcome sign of fresh growth in numbers.  It was a delight to watch elephants graze, drink by the lake, spray mud on their backs and have a good time.  On both occasions when they noticed us approach they huddled around the calves initially.

Our second sighting of elephants was from aboard a bamboo raft.  The elephants were gathered by the edge of the lake as we approached.  They stood by the shore for a while and then turned their backs towards the lake, one by one, and began a gradual and seemingly reluctant walk up the grassy banks. We moored the rafts to a tree stump mid lake to watch them.  They would stand still then walk a few steps and then pause again for the most part with backs to the lake.  When we decided to retreat to a dfferent shore, their heads turned almost immediatel in response to face the lake again!  Did they feel comforted not having to gaze directly into humans? The calf in this heard had tusks and so was a male.  Unlike their African counterparts where both males and females have tusks, in the case of the Indian elephant only the male has them.

 

The forest officer pointed out another interesting fact to us over lunch.  He said all the five guards accompanying us were once poachers.  The government has worked out an arrangement with such poachers that if they turn wild life protectors they will be given jobs in the forest department.  A number of poachers have converted to becoming guards.  "Poaching is on the decline and we benefit from their extensive knowledge of animal behaviour, tracking, traps and entities involved in the trade.  It's is called the Periyar Model in conservation circles."

Three times we spotted gaurs on the trail.  A gaur is the biggest bull or bovine in the world.  Standing 6 to 7 feet tall, at times, at its shoulder it is larger and heavier than a bison, African or water buffalo.  It is also a handsome creature with a coat of black fur and white stockings.  The sighting of a single animal or a pair prompted the forest guard to reckon that a herd would be in the vicinity, hidden by the undergrowth and foliage.
 

We spotted wild boar in large numbers on multiple occassions and sometimes with a sounder of young piglets.  Myna's hitched rides on adult boar backs, relieving them of ticks and insects.

 

On one occasion we came upon a bush that seemed to attract droves of butterflies to it.  Blue tigers and an occasional common crow butterfly had swarmed it.  The phenomenon I understand is called mud-puddling when butterflies swarm surfaces such as wet soil to obtain nutrients like salts and amino acids.  This one could perhaps be better described a bush-bash.

 

 On the trail we saw bones and antlers of a full grown adult sambar that had likely fallen prey to a tiger.  I picked up the antler and was surprised that it was quite heavy.  What a load to tote on one's head for life!  The guards alerted us to the need to leave the bones and antlers behind where we found them and we complied.

The Nilgiri langur is often spotted in Periyar.  It sports black fur and a long tail.  It has a golden brown mane around its head.  We found a troop regularly gathered by the car park and on one occasion a solitary langur came into the campus of the cottages we resided in. Though not as gregarious as the rhesus macaque, the langur is certainly not shy of humans. 

The end of the day saw an elephant adventure.  The officer and an advance party of guards led all of us in near single file on the jungle trail towards the journey's end.  Inadvertently, the advance party ventured into an area that a herd of four elephants and two calves were grazing in.  They found themselves in the middle of the herd with two elephants cut-off to the left from the rest of the herd on the right.  Elephants with calves can get nervous and charge humans. 

The forest official immediately retreated and signaled to all of us to halt and congregate in the distance, out of sight of the elephants. Then a few guards went ahead again to persuade the elephants to give us passage.  We heard a couple of deep, long and fairly loud rumbling responses from the elephants from behind the thickets.  Dusk was beginning to set in.  It was the first time I heard an elephant rumble its annoyance from close quarter.  It didn't help that we couldn't see the elephant but heard it quite clearly. The whole range seemed to resonate with it.  This was followed by a trumpet. 

The forest officer decided it was time to fire the rifle.  A very loud explosion rent the silence of the jungle as the officer fired a warning shot into the air.  Moments before it went off I had wondered if the shot would be loud enough to dissuade an intimidating elephant from closing in.  The shot certainly did it.

Eventually, the elephants yielded passage.  Though it was not before the officer found that his rifle had jammed after the first shot and he could not fire another one if needed.  It was all to heighten the sense of adventure, I imagine.  Having secured passage, the guards signaled for us to scurry on across the stretch to safety. 

One of my most memorable sightings in Periyar was that of the Indian giant squirrel, for it was a first.  A group of locals gathered by a forest cottage pointed out a pair of squirrels on a teak tree to us.  The giant squirrel is a colourful and active creature with a thick black coat and tail.  Its belly has white fur and the back sports a patch of beautiful rich brown or seal brown in the middle.  The pair pranced through and foraged the teak foliage for berries or seeds, quite oblivious to our watching on.  There were a couple of clumps of leaves in the teak tree that may have been nests.  Squirrels are known to gather dry leaves and twigs to create nests or places to rest in.
 

As conservation status goes, the Indian giant squirrel is a near threatened species whereas the gaur, sambar and Nilgiri langur are threatened and vulnerable.  The elephant and tiger are rarer still and classified as endangered. 

Being in such jungle is an experience can instill a sense of freedom from boundaries and peace.  It's like a walk into a different world.  The few days we spent at Peryiar certainly transported us to a beautiful, bountiful forested planet.  For that experience and memories that will last a lifetime I'm grateful to the Periyar Tiger Reserve and them who protect it. 
 

_{Author: Ruchir Bansal 
Photos:  Anil, Ami and Ruchir Bansal
Information Sources:  Wikipedia, Sanctuary, ProjectSundarbanTiger.Info and Gunaccessory.com
Updated:  October 31, 2010}