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ROAD LESS TRAVELLED

Under a green canopy

KARIAN SHOLA For a simple trek, declares W. Sreelalitha

Photos: K. Ananthan

INTO THE ECO ZONE A waterhole formed because of a check dam in Karian Shola

The hordes of cheery cicadas stop chattering snappily the minute we set foot on the shola. Flogged by the silence and remorse, we continue to stomp dry leaves, without a word. Convinced we are no threat, they soon begin their noisy ways, much to our relief. Thus begins our trek in Karian Shola.

The shola resonates with bird call, buzz of bees and rants of the Nilgiri langur. In fact, we spot a couple of primate comrades engaged in a hot chase on treetop, watched by an unruffled drongo.

Talk less and you’ll spot more, is our good guide Baby’s advice, which photographer Ananthan and I follow dutifully.

Baby says the drongo has 60 different calls. He could be right, for the calls seem different each time. A few minutes later, he shows us uniform scratches on a tree bark: the nail marks of a bear.

One of the colourful residents

Walking deeper into the forest, sunlight gets scarce. As if under a green canopy which needs immediate darning, sunrays pierce into the shola in patches. Baby picks a few lemon-sized mangoes from the ground. Interesting, for we have never seen such small fruits from an especially huge tree (Mangifera indica).

Suddenly, a pungent smell. Perhaps a bear has just left the zone after a mango hunt, says the guide. And, my quiver is not entirely because of the cold breeze. We continue to trek, watching spiders, ants and insects run swiftly. Baby whistles to a bulbul, who shoots back an instant response, and they natter in this fashion for over two minutes.

But, the guide refuses to divulge the gossip to us.

Inspired, I whistle to a distant jungle fowl, and to my utter disbelief, get a response. Though I have no clue what I am telling the bird, the experience is flattering.

We walk further, and as if darned magically, all of those tears in the canopy seemingly disappear – the sky is overcast! I hear a weird sound of elasticity, and Baby says it is the cicada. Sore throat, I suggest helpfully, and he laughs.

We spot a Malabar parakeet, tree pies, an orange-headed thrush, and several drongos, to say nothing of abundant butterflies.

We also stop occasionally to read tree names from green boards (kanneeraa maram – Elaeodendron glaucum; kalladambai – Homalium travancoricum; nellarai – Acrocarpus fraxinifolius, to name a few).

End of the two-km trek, we spot a waterhole, and a watch tower close by. Will a thirsty sambar or panther stop by for a mouthful? It turns out we are blessed with no such luck, and head to the watch tower.

On the way, we spot a sambar bone (from the limb). The watch tower has precarious wooden stairs but offers a beautiful view of the shola.

On our way back, we pick up more mangoes, spot more birds, an empty hornbill nest, and an uncanny crevice that Baby says can well be home to a bear. You don’t relate hackneyed superlatives to Karian Shola. But, it renders delight in a most simple manner.

How to go: Karian Shola is in Indira Gandhi Wildlife Sanctuary and National Park at Top Slip, 35 km from Pollachi. Pay Rs. 150 to the guide for the first three hours, and Rs. 50 more for every additional hour. For permission and details, call the Wildlife Warden at 04259-225356.

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