I am back, fresh from a trip to Bhadra Reserve Forest, which is located in Chikmaglur district of Karnataka. I was part of the Elephant Census, conducted between May 15th and 17th. Let me first throw some light on the general methodology used for an animal census and then I will talk about some amazing experiences that I had during the census.

Bhadra is divided into 4 ranges – Muthodi, Thanigebylu, Hebbe and Lakkavalli. We were 4 in number – Prashanth, Ananth, Varun and myself. We reached Muthodi Forest Office on 14th morning for an orientation program. We were to be joined by Ajith, Prashanth and Rajni later that evening. We had a good session by Deputy Conservator of Forest, Vijay Mohanraj. He spoke well about what to do and more importantly what not to do in the forest, in the presence of wild animals. He explained how the census was to be carried out. The elephant census was to be divided into 3 parts:

• Counting by direct sight – we note down direct sightings of elephants, simple as that.
• Line transect dung count – there would be a previously identified elephant-activity-line. We note down the perpendicular distance of any elephant dung from this line. This would be used to calculate elephant dung decay using some crazy formula to arrive at a number for the elephant density in that area.
• Water hole count – we sit at a water hole from 6AM to 6PM and note down the number of elephant sightings.

We were assigned to the Lakkavalli range and we would be staying at an anti-poaching camp at Jenu-Halla (translates to honey-pit).  Jenu-Halla camp is deep within the reserve forest, at least 20 km from any regular human habitation, The anti-poaching camp was covered by dense deciduous forest on three sides and the backwaters of Bhadra river on one side. The view of Bhadra backwaters from the camp was spectacular. The travel to this camp from Lakkavalli in the jeep is worth mentioning here. Due to heavy winds and rains over the last week, thousands of trees had been uprooted in the forest. A good number of them were strewn across the jeep track at many places. But the forest guards sawed them off patiently and cleared the trail without complaining. Ajith asked one of them ‘We software engineers don’t work after 5PM, how is it that you are sawing off trees at 1AM in the night?’ to which the prompt reply was ‘You work for personal treasure, while we work for national treasure!’. Wow!

Day 1

I set out with 2 forest guards for the ‘counting by direct sighting’ method. It was a hard and an extremely tiring day with hardly any luck. The terrain was tough and the foliage was very dense. We had to hack through it and i was completely covered with scratches and bruises. Once we were walking around a small hill, we suddenly heard a lot of bamboo-breaking noise. We immediately climbed the hill and waited silently.  We saw the head and the tusks of what would have been a huge tusker. We were scared and thrilled at the same time. I think he sensed us too and stood completely still for a few minutes and then moved away from us. It is a totally new experience encountering an elephant on foot. It is the most feared animal in the forest by the forest guards. I developed new respect for this magnificent beast. We came back to the camp in the evening, tired and slightly disappointed. I jumped into the water and lay there lazily and the water seemed to soothe my aching muscles.

Day 2

We woke up to some heavy rain and thunder. We set out to do the ‘counting by line transect dung count’ method in very wet conditions. It was an extremely boring job and we did not have any animal sighting on this day, although we got news from a neighboring camp that they saw a king cobra attack and kill a monitor lizard! Wow, that must have been some sight. Also we heard that Rajni and Prashanth spotted a Russel’s Viper, a Python and a Sloth Bear and Varun, a Black Viper. We were transferred to the Sukhal-Hatti Inspection Bungalow. That night we had a ride in the jeep, hoping to spot some animals. We saw a herd of shy Gaurs, which had 2 huge bull males, a dozen females and a few calves.

Day 3

This was by far the most exciting day of our trip. We were driven in a jeep to Mavina-Halla Cove and from there we took a ferry. The forest guards in the ferry had powerful binoculars and we could see some amazing sights on the distant shores. One sight which stuck to my memory was, a herd of 100-odd deer running and a dancing peacock in the foreground with all his feathers spread, as though showing off to the deer. We also saw a herd of wild boars through the binoculars. Varun and myself, along with the forest guard Malleshi were dropped off at Hosalli Cove. This was a beautiful place with savanna-like grassland extending upto 1km from the water and dense forest from there on. We settled ourselves at the edge of the forest, facing the water, waiting expectantly for the elephants to arrive.

Soon, we heard a small noise from a distance and we were greeted by the sight of a fully grown male tusker! He happily shook his trunk and slowly walked from the forest cover towards the water. We drank in this sight for nearly an hour and clicked away with the cameras.It was an out of the world experience. He walked away after a while and then we spent the whole afternoon without any luck and soon i fell asleep. I woke up to find that both Varun and Malleshi were nowhere in sight. I decided to refill my water bottle and walked towards the water. In the far distance I spotted a herd of Gaur. Wanting to get closer to take a few good pictures, I started walking towards the herd. Then I saw Varun and Malleshi walking towards me gesticulating excitedly. All i could make out was ‘elephants’. So I dragged them back in the direction which they came from. I was met with the most wonderful sight – a full family of around 25-30 elephants! At a distance of less than 100 meters from us. We enjoyed this beautiful sight till the family moved away.
We started walking back, when we heard a rustle of bushes very close by. Malleshi guessed it might be some deer and we walked on. Suddenly, a huge elephant head with tusks and everything popped out. We turned and ran for our lives! The tusker, on seeing us, hurried back into the bushes. We had almost collided with him in our excitement of having seen a whole family of elephants! We then made our way towards the ferry, which had arrived by then to pick us up. We were dropped off at Lakkavalli Inspection Bungalow, where we had a nice get together of the volunteers from various camps followed by a sumptuous dinner.

It was an amazing trip, the highlights being, a forest which is absolutely untouched by commercialization, great forest staff whose dedication is touching and the magnificent animals we managed to see.