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Birding at Cauvery Valley WLS - 18 Oct 2003
The Cauvery valley, 100kms from Bangalore is a nice place to spend a Saturday and I found it to be a cheap, easy way of spending a quiet day in these forests where permission is not required to walk inside, and where human intervention is minimal. This is my fourth such visit to the area, and have become pretty familiar with the place. I usually ride upto Sangam - where Arakavathi joins Cauvery - park the bike at a shop there, and then walk up the trail to Muthathi. Upto a few kilometers the path skirts around a coconut grove of Khoday's group and a World Peace Center ashram and then enters some tree and scrub jungle with the Cauvery to the left and forested hills towering on both sides. At various times, I've spotted wild buffalo, wild elephants, jackals, snakes and a huge variety of birds in this region, so I thought I'll test out my new camera in this valley.
I left Bangalore at 4AM on 18th, and after a slow ride and a tea before Kanakapura, reached Sangam at 6AM as day was breaking. I had to wake the shop owner and park the bike in that early hour. Packed up two packets of biscuits and started on the trail. My plan was not to walk up to Muthathi and back as I had done twice previously, but to leave the trail and explore the valley and the river side. A dog came along with me from Sangam and kept on accompanying me. I don't know why, but this is the second time I'm observing such behavior with the dogs at Sangam. Earlier once a black dog walked with me all along up to Muthathi for 20kms.
At the World Peace Center area, the local dogs objected to this dog's passing their region, and our dog had to put up a brave fight to defend himself against the ferocious ashram dogs. Passing the ashram and entering the forests, I left the trail to walk along the rocky river bank. Birds were aplenty, and it was a pleasure to observe each bird, and its characteristic features, then referring Salim Ali's book of Indian Birds, and thrilled when able to rightly identify a bird by its name. I'm an amateur in the field of birding, so it gave me great pleasure to identify birds that I never knew before.
At around 11AM, the day became hot, and myself and the dog found a shady spot under a rock in an elevated position very near to the waters. We would've remained there for around 30minutes, when there was a noisy gargling sound in the waters in front. I stood up to see what it is, suspecting a crocodile. But didn't see anything and the sound was not repeated. The dog seemed to be frightened, and it went away a little distance, and stood watching the waters intently. I was sufficiently convinced the sound was made by some crocodile.
After that, I didn't see the dog again. The sun became hotter, and the place under the rock was no more in shade. So I went to rest under a nearby tree also near the bank. For around two hours I sat, lied down and dozed to see the heat of the day through. The place was just a kilometer before the Galibore Cauvery Fishing Camp of JLR. At around 2.30pm, I opened my eyes to suddenly notice something on the surface of the water just in front of me. As I watched, I understood it was the head of a crocodile. While I was watching, the head turned to look at my direction. I immediately got up to see clearly, and then the head disappeared and went underwater. Now I was convinced that a crocodile is camping in the area. I didn't want to sleep near the water anymore, and climbed the tree and dozed for another hour.
Thereafter at around 3.30pm I started walking back, all along the river bank, watching and identifying more birds. Just before the ashram, I joined the trail and walked back to Sangam. It was 6pm and had started getting dark when I reached Sangam. Talking to the boys at the shop there about my sighting the crocodile, and they said that 16 crocodiles had been released into Cauvery from Bannerghatta National Park a week back, in the region around Galibore. I think I was fortunate not to have ventured into the waters for a bath or a wash, as I've done previously on a couple of occasions. Three months back I spent a lonely night on a rock in the middle of the river, and my sighting a crocodile in the river today sends a chill down my spine when I look back to that night.
I left Sangam at 7pm and reached my house in Bangalore at 9.30pm. At the end of the day I was glad I spent it quiet and peacefully.
Birds Seen & Identified:
Animals and Others: